COMPLAINT FILED
The Valley Patriot has filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission after Methuen West End Councilor Mike Simard violated the Massachusetts Conflict of Interest laws at the May 22nd city council meeting.
Simard, whose wife works at the Greater Lawrence Tech School (GLTS) and who admitted at the meeting that his son attends the school, failed to remove himself from the table during a discussion on the GLTS budget and even voted on the budget that pays his wife.
Simard bragged when he first ran for council that he “had no conflicts” while publicly attacking other elected officials, candidates, and city workers, saying that when he was elected, he would “root out the corruption and the conflicts.” Ironically, Simard now finds himself in the position of not only voting on his wife’s salary but influencing the vote and thought process of other councilors.
THE CONFLICT OF INTEREST LAW
The Massachusetts Conflict of Interest Laws (MGL Chapter 268A, Sections 16 and 23) prohibit an elected official from voting on any measure where an immediate family member may be paid, affected, or receive a benefit. The law specifically prohibits officials from even speaking on proposals or budgets so as not to influence their colleagues’ deliberations.
Simard’s activity was exactly what the conflict-of-interest laws try to avoid, as Simard was the very first to speak on the GLTS budget, leading several other councilors to jump on the bandwagon, echoing the tone of disrespect and personal attacks aimed at the superintendent and the school.
PERSONAL ATTACKS
Simard started his verbal assaults and comments by battering Lavoie on how much he makes, even though his salary is set by the GLTS board and the Methuen City Council has no say.
“Mr. Lavoie — who has 22 administrators — him and his assistant make $550,000 (combined). I think the better question would be: what can they do to make our job easier since we’re just a rubber stamp.”
The GLTS has no legal authority to make the City Council’s job easier.
APPLES AND ORANGES
Simard went on to say that the Methuen Public Schools are “struggling to have a band, to have reading specialists, program assistants, and we can’t even get a budget until the night of the second read.”
Simard made no mention of the fact that the Methuen schools are currently in a deficit because of the financial mismanagement of the School Committee, which the council took a vote of no confidence in just a few short months ago.
In contrast, the GLTS has not mismanaged its finances and has much higher test scores, higher literacy rates, and +greater proficiency in math and science than the Methuen Public Schools.
But Simard and other councilors blamed the GLTS for hiring more teachers and administrators, saying it wasn’t fair that they were hiring more staff while Methuen faced layoffs.
LATE BUDGET SUBMISSION
Councilors also condemned the superintendent for not providing the proposed budget at the last meeting.
“I don’t know if it’s forgetfulness or if you just don’t care,” Simard stated, questioning Lavoie’s integrity.
“I don’t know which one is worse.”
STUNNING ADMISSION!
Simard pointed out that he had missed the last council meeting, when the first budget vote failed with a tie vote of 4 – 4.
“It would have failed 5-4 if I was there,” Simard concluded.
He then excoriated the superintendent again over his salary, revealing that his exact salary was “$363,000 a year. “The only one that makes more money than that is the superintendent of Boston.”
He then admitted that his wife works at the GLTS and that his son is a student there, but continued with the discussion, proving that he knew he had a conflict of interest and, despite the fact that he was voting “no,” was violating state law by even sitting at the table and participating in the discussion.
“I don’t get it. I don’t know. It’s frustrating. It seems like it’s the same old story. I’m going to be a ‘no vote’ and I’m hoping that… I think Lawrence is next. I hope they’re a ‘no vote.’ There’s something wrong here. We have to petition the state delegation to [ask], why are we paying more for less?”
ATTACKING LAWRENCE
Simard repeated several times that the GLTS has 22 administrators, (his wife being one of them), and even attacked Lawrence for being given too many slots for students to attend the school. He added that if other communities do not use their allotted number of student slots, the additional seats at the school would go to Lawrence children. Ironically, Simard recently retired as a Lawrence police officer.
COLLEAGUES FOLLOW SIMARD’S LEAD
Taking Simard’s lead, fellow councilors also lashed out at Lavoie and the GLTS, complaining that they get too much money while the finances of the Methuen School Committee continued to flounder.
When the dust settled on the public attacks by some councilors were over, the final vote on the GLTS budget failed by a vote of 7-2, with only East End Councilors Neily Soto and Ron Marsan supporting it. This despite the fact that without Simard at the table two weeks earlier the vote was 4-4!
NOT SO FAST
After the vote was over, it was then revealed that the rejection of the GLTS budget was meaningless as long as the other communities that fund the GLTS approve the budget. If that happens, Methuen is still on the hook for those expenditures, making the entire grandstanding performance a complete waste of time.
Some councilors, however, pledged to appear at the Lawrence Council meeting to try to influence them to reject the GLTS budget. But Lawrence councilors who were monitoring the meeting called the Valley Patriot, saying that Methuen councilors would be better off minding their own business and not come to Lawrence.
One Lawrence councilor, who asked not to be named, said she planned to make a public statement at the meeting if Methuen officials dared to show up.
“We don’t go to Methuen and tell them what to do and honestly, Tom, they need to clean their own house before coming here telling us how to run ours. If they are arrogant enough to show up here to influence our decision, they’re going to get a big surprise from me and my colleagues. Some Methuen officials have been trashing us and trashing our city lately, and there is no appetite here to be lectured by people who cannot even control their own budgets.” ◊