The Mayor's Salary

Posted on September 5, 2011 by billmanzi

Today’s Tribune has a story about a proposal to lift the Mayor’s salary in Methuen to make it competitive with salaries paid to CEO’s in cities with similar populations and budgets. I filed this proposal on behalf of a group of Methuen business people who sent me a letter advocating for a higher salary in order to attract quality candidates to future Mayor’s races. Any proposed change would occur only after I left office, and would apply to the next, or future Mayors. That letter is below.

I do agree strongly with the sentiments expressed in the letter, and I do believe that with the salary structure in place it will be harder to attract top flight talent to the job in the future. Many, in an election cycle, will try to turn this into a political football. And they may well succeed. But the people sending the letter have vast experience in the private sector, as well as the public sector. They recognize that without strong leadership at the top the City of Methuen will not be well served. Private sector folks get it. And I can speak out on it now, since I am leaving office in January. Former Mayor DiZoglio is a member of this group, and his understanding of municipal government, and the things needed to be successful in administration, are second to none. I hope their letter spurs more debate, and provides the necessary impetus to get away from the demagoguery already taking place.

Dear Mayor Manzi:
For some of us Methuen is where we call home, for some of us it is where we make our living, for some of us it is where we bring up our children and for all of us it is where we pay our taxes. We care about Methuen and have donated time and money to make Methuen a great place to live and work. That is why we are advocating that we need to raise the salary of the Mayor.

You may ask why we as taxpayer would be willing to pay more compensation to the leader of our Community. The answer is simple; “Methuen needs to fairly compensate the Mayor and recognize that it is worth paying more to get good, professional and effective government”.

Is it fair that the Mayor get paid less than other CEOs in communities with similar populations and demographics in Massachusetts? Is it fair the Mayor of Methuen is paid less than a significant number of other municipal employees? Common sense tells you NO.

Some will say it is not the time considering the budget demands. But we say that the response to that is “penny wise and pound foolish”. It is now time to make an investment in Methuen. We all make investments in our homes and in our business and in our families and it is now time to make an investment for us and the future of citizens of Methuen.

We are prepared to come forth during Council deliberation and express our support for an increase in the Mayor’s salary.
Sincerely,

Mr. Bill Fitzgerald Mr. Rick Dewhurst Dr. Tom and Sandy Perrault

Mr. Ken Bourassa Mr. Dennis DiZoglio Mr. Richard Bonanno

Andy and Nancy Caracci Ms. Linda Soucy Mr. Bob Sheehan

Mr. Charles Perrault Mr. Arthur Broadhurst Ms. Pam Healy

Mr. Joe Cosgrove Mr. Arthur Hutton Ms. Barbara DeLuca

Ms. Nancy Curley Ms. Madelyn Varitimos

Posted in Methuen, Methuen City Council, Methuen Mayor's Race, Municipal Finance | Tagged | 3 Comments

Perry Leads Romney in Nevada????

Posted on September 3, 2011 by billmanzi

Certainly it is way too early for Mitt Romney to enter panic mode, but a new Magellan survey shows Rick Perry leading Romney in Nevada, which has been considered a Romney firewall. The survey has Perry ahead among likely voters by a 29% to 24% margin over Romney. Nobody else is even close, with Herman Cain at 7%, Michelle Bachmann and Ron Paul at 6%, Newt at 5%, and once again Jon Huntsman making a big move at 1%. (Has there been a state where Huntsman has cracked the vaunted 4% mark?)

Romney’s strategy of setting up an early firewall of New Hampshire and Nevada, and then outlasting his opponents, has developed some major cracks. I anticipate that Perry will come back down a bit after a fuller media vetting of some of the policy ideas in his book, but those ideas likely will be more harmful in the general election than they will be in Republican primaries.

The numbers, as always, have some highly interesting items in the cross-tabs. Perry leads Romney by 12 points among men, and leads Romney by a whopping 20 points with those who identify themselves as Tea Party. Romney has a slight lead with female voters. So I guess Romney is the liberal in this race, and that is just not a good place to be in a Republican primary field. The warning sign is up on Romney. How will he respond?

Posted in National News | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

What a Bunch of Dopes

Posted on August 31, 2011 by billmanzi

So now the President of the United States and the Speaker of the House cannot manage to avoid a public spat over the scheduling of a Presidential address to Congress? Almost irrelevant who is to blame, although I am hard pressed not to look at the President’s staff and wonder what the hell is going on there! No advance discussion with the Speaker’s office, and scheduling a major speech on the night of a Republican debate? Sorry, but the President’s staff gets a failing grade there. James Downie over at the Post gets it right. Wondering why confidence is not high about Washington’s ability to produce workable ideas for the American economy? Look no further than this buffoonery.

Posted in National News | Tagged | 1 Comment

Pay-Go Redux

Posted on August 30, 2011 by billmanzi

With Congress looking at a hefty bill for Hurricane Irene relief the budgetary fighting has begun, with Minority Leader Cantor talking about imposing “pay-go” rules on such spending. From Politico:

But on Fox News earlier Monday, Cantor said, “There’s a federal role, yes we’re going to find the money, we’re just going to need to make sure that there are savings elsewhere to continue to do so.”

These spending principles are certain to run into political reality, as Irene could test the political viability of Republican orthodoxy as lawmakers try to weigh the emotional reaction to American communities in need while trying to stay true to their conservative fiscal ideals.

Under Republican notions of “pay-go” any such “disaster spending” would need to be offset by spending reductions elsewhere in the budget. And Cantor seems to be indicating that will be the case here. Under the original “pay-go” rules that were actually followed for a time in the 90’s any such spending would need to be offset by spending reductions or tax increases. That last part of the equation always made Republicans squirm, and the first part always made Democrats squirm. So in the interests of bipartisanship “pay-go” was eviscerated by declaring this type of spending an “emergency” and exempting it from pay-go. But once Congress got the flavor for emergency declarations they started declaring routine spending “emergencies”, including defense appropriations, and presto chango pay-go was gone in fact.

As a Mayor I believe that the federal government has an obligation to help municipalities and states deal with emergencies, and I hope that Irene will not be an exception. I do believe, however, that Congress should go back to pay-go, and strictly enforce its provisions. It would impose badly needed discipline on Congress, and force them to make tough choices. And the Republicans are going to have to make some tough choices here. They run the House. Lets see how they deal with all the damage done in the districts of Republicans in Congress.

Posted in National News | Tagged | 2 Comments

Thanks to Methuen's EM Team

Posted on August 29, 2011 by billmanzi

I am very grateful to all those people who worked so hard this weekend to get us through Hurricane Irene. Emergency Management Director John Santoro, the Cert Volunteers, DPW Director Difiore and his team, and our Police and Fire Departments all worked around the clock to manage our storm response and keep our citizens safe. Thanks to a great team.

Posted in Methuen | Tagged | 1 Comment

Methuen Emergency Declaration

Posted on August 27, 2011 by billmanzi

MAYOR MANZI DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY
Hurricane Irene Will Bring Flooding and Wind Damage Threats

Mayor William M. Manzi announced today that he has declared a State of Emergency for the City of Methuen in response to the approach of Hurricane Irene.

Mayor Manzi’s declaration follows that of Governor Deval Patrick, who has declared a State of Emergency for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Mayor Manzi has activated Methuen’s Emergency Management System, and has begun preparations to open Methuen’s Emergency Operations Center, which will be located at the Searles Building. Mayor Manzi has announced the activation of a citizen information line at 978-983-8885 which will contain a recorded outgoing message containing storm and emergency information for the citizens of Methuen. This line is operational now.

Methuen, in the event of need, will open a regional Red Cross shelter at its Timony School, 45 Pleasant View Street. In the event of medical emergency residents can call for help by calling 911 on their telephone. The Fire Department non-emergency number is 978-983-8940. The Methuen Police Department non-emergency line is 978-983-8698. Additional information will be available on the City website at http://www.cityofmethuen.net.

# # #

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Bobbleheads on Parade

Posted on August 24, 2011 by billmanzi

The Scott Brown hit parade has started, with Bobblehead (Scott) Brown being unveiled by a consortium of Democratic groups. Caused quite a fracas in the blogosphere, with David Bernstein and Rob Eno over at Red Mass Group getting into a bit of a dust-up over the forces behind MassUniting, the cover group who launched the attack. Bernstein’s original piece is here, as well as the Rob Eno response. You can follow from there.

Much ado about nothing, with Scott Brown honcho Eric Fehrnstrom tonight outed as the author/owner of the “CrazyKhazei” twitter feed, and the Massachusetts Democratic Party releasing an earthquake video showing Bobble Head Brown toppling over from the quake. I laughed at some of the tweets from Fehrnstrom, and I did get a chuckle out of the quake video. And out of all that back and forth I only took out one nugget, which was by Bernstein. His point about Scott Brown, the prohibitive underdog in the last election, being able to run his own campaign without some of the heavier attacks that national Republicans might have foisted upon him, is dead on. Brown ran and won the last election with a healthy dose of retail, a promise to be against Obama Care, and a real guy persona. Might not be a bad way for him to run again. Everything else, for now, is static to the public’s ears. But some of it is pretty funny.

Posted in State News | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Criticism for Democrats

Posted on August 23, 2011 by billmanzi

With all of the sniping over the “debt/deficit wars” I have pointed out what I see as the problems inherent in the positions of both parties, and I have been tough on the Republicans, whose numbers never seem to add up. But the Democrats have not covered themselves in glory either, and the NLRB action against Boeing is an example of regulatory overreach that finds the federal government taking action against a company that is creating American jobs, and exporting much of the finished product. The NLRB action is stupid and counter-productive, and quite honestly gives some credence to Republican charges of regulatory overreach costing jobs.

Boeing, with business booming, has decided to open a production facility in non-union South Carolina. They are expanding production, not retrenching jobs from their main facilities in union Washington state. The union has filed a complaint, and the NLRB has ruled against Boeing, mandating that the S.C. production be moved to Washington state. Joe Nocera has written a column on it in today’s New York Times, and he hit it right on the mark.

But the Democrats have blind spots, too. No, the Environmental Protection Agency shouldn’t be rolling back its rules, as the Republican presidential candidates seem to want. But a fair-minded person would have to acknowledge that the N.L.R.B.’s action is exactly the kind of overreach that should embarrass Democrats who claim to care about job creation. It’s paralyzing, is what it is.

With the sheer magnitude of American jobs being moved overseas we should be grateful that Boeing is staying in the United States. And yes they are moving jobs to a right to work state, and no doubt that making sure production continues in the eventuality of a union job action in Washington is on their minds, but the NLRB action is still stupid, counter-productive, and bad public policy for this country. Nocera has it right:

That is what is so jarring about this case — and not just for Boeing. Without any warning, the rules have changed. Uncertainty has replaced certainty. Other companies have to start wondering what other rules could soon change. It becomes a reason to hold back on hiring.

Despite the President indicating that the NLRB is an independent agency Democratic appointees are making these decisions. He needs to get this straightened out, and start worrying about jobs, jobs, and more jobs. Decisions like this give unneeded credibility to Republican charges on regulation. And Nocera is no conservative. The NLRB action should be vacated, and the Boeing investment in South Carolina should be allowed to move forward.

Posted in National News | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Willette Calls For Receivership

Posted on August 22, 2011 by billmanzi

The latest public safety disruptions in Lawrence have now become political fodder in Methuen, with Mayoral candidate Ken Willette calling for a state takeover of the Administrative functions of the City of Lawrence. Will Willette’s call now inject the Lawrence situation into the Methuen mayoral race? Will the other candidates take the bait, or will they leave the issue to Willette? An interesting political move by Willette. Will the Governor respond, or simply ignore the call? Willette used Facebook to make his call. The statement is below.

Governor Patrick must declare state of emergency and have the Commonwealth take over the administrative functions of Lawrence immediately.
After last night’s widespread and heinous criminal actions, I call upon the Governor to issue an immediate state of emergency in the City of Lawrence and use all of his authority, in conjunction with the Massachusetts Legislature, to commence the process of having the state government take over the daily administrative municipal functions of that community before the lives of public safety personnel are once again endangered by an unruly and dangerous mob, and potentially a deadly outcome occurs. A clear and present danger currently exists in the City of Lawrence that absolutely necessitates an immediate and long-term takeover of the administrative operations by the state government.
The City of Lawrence must be placed into direct receivership before more blood is spilled, before another full-blown and uncontrollable riot occurs and so that state police personnel can add overwhelming force to quell any future mass mob activities. The ABCC must launch immediate investigations of each night club that may have been directly involved in fueling alcohol to this lawless mob. Swift closures, revocations of licenses and stiff fines must be issued.
Neighboring communities are directly contributing their law enforcement personnel to disperse the hostile crowds, make arrests and render mutual aid; therefore, the neighboring communities have a direct stake in ensuring that their law enforcement and firefighting personnel are protected at all costs. The void of leadership in the corner office at Lawrence City Hall must be replaced by the full authority and resources of the state government, including state police, and all state resources must be brought to bear. The lax mentality of the local licensing board must be replaced by the full investigative authority of the ABCC. The continued absence of local oversight and moral leadership will undoubtedly cause a greater escalation of violence, mayhem and alcohol-fueled rage. This is an unmistakable warning shot that the state government must intervene now to protect civilians, properly equip and bolster law enforcement personnel and oversee all administrative functions for the foreseeable future.
Ken Willette
Candidate for Methuen Mayor

Posted in Methuen, Methuen Mayor's Race | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Here Comes Sarah

Posted on August 20, 2011 by billmanzi

Sarah Palin just released a video highlighting her recent trip to Iowa, and Karl Rove is telling folks that he thinks she is getting in this race. Some of the Rove comments are reflective of the reality in Sarah Palin’s political world, i.e. standard political methods of operation do not apply to her. She can run for President without setting up formal campaign structures, including finance, that everyone else seems to need. There can be no doubt that Sarah Palin generates crowds, excitement, and free media coverage wherever she goes. And she has proven very adept at earning large sums of money from Sarah Inc. The same has been true of Newt Gingrich, who has taken much the same approach to “traditional” campaigning as Sarah Palin. (Newt is currently campaigning in Hawaii). In the end the result will be the same. Celebrity candidates who do not wish to do the “line work” of campaigning will come to an ignominious end, rejected by voters who see through the laziness masquerading as “new campaign methods”. But a Palin candidacy must spell some real trouble for Michelle Bachmann, and could, if it lasts, hurt Rick Perry as well. I for one hope she comes in.

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