TOM DUGGAN’S NOTEBOOK (Aug. 2020)

CITY COUNCIL GRANDSTANDS PRETENDING TO BE FISCALLY
CONSERVATIVE

Last month the Methuen City Council finally approved Mayor Perry’s first budget as the CEO of the city. Councilors discussed and debated the budget Perry submitted, spending hours on items like a $1.00 line item, cutting pennies from some city departments and then patting themselves on the back for “holding Perry accountable”. But, a quick look at the actual numbers in the budget shows that Mayor Perry cut the city budget by a full 8%. The city council for all their blustering and self-aggrandizements, only cut the city budget by .03%.

COUNCIL CUTS POLICE TRAINING

During the city council circus over the budget, Police Chief Joe Solomon wared the council that his officers were supposed to receive state mandated training two years in a row but was unable to send his officers for training because the council keeps cutting the budget for officer training. “We are in violation right now,” Solomon told them. If you cut money from the budget for training this will be the third year we are in violation with the state.” As we all know, when an officer is accused of excessive force the first thing investigators look at is the accused officer’s training. If an officer is not up to date on all use of force training the city is automatically on the hook for a major lawsuit. So, what did the Methuen City Council do in the wake of this training crisis? That’s right, they cut the training budget for the police department… again. Given how some councilors get on their soap boxes to lecture us all about how financially responsible they are, their actions certainly speak volumes about how financially reckless they are.

LUSSIER LAID OFF

During the Methuen City Council budget debacle, Councilors Saba and McCarty made a major push to get rid of Mayor Perry’s Aide Tom Lussier by cutting $75,000 from the mayor’s office budget. They made the move because they have an irrational hatred for former Methuen Mayor Sharon Pollard and Lussier is Pollard’s husband. Now, I’m not the “I told you so” kind of guy but I did try to warn Mayor Perry when he hired Lussier that because he is married to Pollard, city councilors would engage in political retaliation. If Mayor Perry had hired …. well, anyone else for that position, the council would not have targeted his office for a $75,000 cut and Perry would have the three aides in his office working right now. I have always liked Tom Lussier, and I think he could have made a great contribution to the city. But, I also knew that the petty, irrational behavior among some councilors was never going to result in Lussier being successful.

BEAUREGARD PAY CUT

If you watch the Methuen City Council you will often hear councilors say “we need to lead by example”. So, with city workers taking a pay cut, and Mayor Perry cutting his own pay by 15%, I asked several councilors why they are not “leading by example by taking a cut themselves. Councilor DJ Beauregard said he would take a 15% cut like the mayor. “I will set an example by taking a 15% cut to my annual salary of $5,400,” Beauregard told The Valley Patriot. “It will save the city a whopping $810 but I will do it.” Beauregard said he hopes someone who makes more than that a week will follow his lead (taking a cheap shot at the police chief who did not take a furlough.
Also taking a pay cut is Councilor Nick DiZoglio
“If I’m going to take cut in pay and that’s what the city needs to survive, I will take the cut. But, for me to take a $800 cut that won’t save the city a whole lot. I will do it, though because we do need to lead by example. I hope other councilors will do so as well.”

FAUCI SAYS TRUMP SAVED LIVES
If you listen to the main stream media these days you get the impression that President Trump is personally responsible for all the Coronavirus deaths in the U.S. But media anointed hero Dr. Anthony Fauci told congress last month that President Trump saved millions of lives with his administration’s reaction to the virus. There was nothing ambiguous about his statement. You won’t see that on CNN or MSNBC any time soon.

MORE MEDIA LIES ABOUT TRUMP
The former cable news channel CNN tells so many lies about President Donald Trump it’s hard to keep track of them all. When trump asked a doctor out loud at a press conference about using bleach to treat the corona-virus, the ‘medical experts’ at the press conference said they were actually testing that. But, CNN reported that Trump told the public to “drink bleach”. They repeated that lie over and over on every show since then, as they are more interested in smearing the president than reporting actual news.