The Salem city council tonight declined to override the mayor's veto of the city council jobs bill. Councilor Pinto seemed very unhappy as councilors Lovely, Ryan, and Pelletier all joined O'Keefe and Furey who have always opposed this ordinance change in voting not to override the veto. Pinto spoke, stating that we shouldn't have the rule that prevents councilors from jumping directly into city employment. His reason? Peabody, LYNN, and Beverly don't have one. Well, then of course they must be right. Councilor O'Keefe gave an impassioned speech about how we SHOULD lead the way on ethics, and shouldn't weaken our ethics legislation. I'm disappointed in the councilors who voted for the veto. They are councilors Pinto, Sargent, McCarthy, Ronan, Sosnowski and Prevey.
The best moment of the meeting happened before it started. Around 7:07 the cameras and mics were on, though the meeting hadn't started. None of the councilors knew they were live. O'Keefe leaned over to Prevey, and said something along the lines of "Look at all the media tonight. The Globe is here, there's Patch, oh, and the snooze. There really isn't anything in that paper." Somehow, I'm betting that doesn't make the rebroadcasts.
Late in the meeting Councilor Sosnowski also accused the commission that came up with the downtown parking plan of having meetings where "literally" (yes he said literally) "half of the members fell asleep." Wow.
This was one of the longest, most annoying meetings I've ever seen. Read
my tweets from last night for more info.
I should add, I think the mayor's counterproposal makes perfect sense, and would support passage of that amendment.
ReplyDeleteMaking disparaging remarks on an open mic ... man, no such thing as privacy anymore! ;)
ReplyDeleteNo shock that McCarthy was hoping for the veto!
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I have no use for our ward councilor.
ReplyDeleteDid he ever get you parking permits?