The Ordinance Committee finally had two meetings in a row, so the May 1st meeting of the full council contained over 20 of their reports. It was the first council meeting since March 6th that had any of that committee’s reports on its agenda. The Open Meeting Law (OML) requires posting agendas 48 hours before […]
I’ve been gone for a few months and there’s so much news you may not have heard about it’ll take two months to catch up. Council Business: The Ordinance Committee didn’t have a quorum of regular members at any of its meetings during March and April. Each of the four members of the committee missed […]
By: Kathy Runge – Feb. 2017 If you want to see forgotten people, come to Lawrence. They’re easy to spot. Just hunt for the person who seems out of place and looks like they can’t understand the conversations around them. They are the English only speakers. In this city, bilingual means fluent in Spanish, hardly […]
By: Kathy Runge – January, 2017 In December ex-District A Councilor and potential mayoral candidate Sandy Almonte verbally abused a Lawrence police officer at the scene of an accident involving her son. Elsewhere in this month’s edition she is quoted as saying: “He acted like he didn’t know me, and told me I couldn’t pick […]
By: Kathy Runge – July, 2016 The soap operas have nothing on the Lawrence City Council. The meetings are filled with fabricated drama. The Budget Drama: During the first meeting to consider the budget, Councilor Maldonado said that because 95% of the residents of the city are low income, catering to middle class wishes, such […]
By: Kathy Runge – June, 2015 Let me start with a shout out to State Rep. Marcos Devers, who had the courage to vote against the “bathroom bill,” which I’m sure wasn’t easy for a Democrat. Thank you Rep. Devers! I was at Lawrence’s Memorial Day commemoration and only three councilors attended. None of the […]
By: Kathy Runge – November, 2015 The election has come and gone and the good news is, I should have no scarcity of material for the foreseeable future. The bad news is that Brian DePena was top vote getter in the Councilor at-Large race. Mr. DePena, I will be thrilled if you prove me wrong. […]
By: Tom Duggan Sept, 1, 2015 Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has ruled that Lawrence City Council President Modesto Maldonado has violated the open meeting law by holding secret meetings and not notifying the public of what was to be discussed or what was discussed during their secret session. Ruling The state’s open meeting law […]
Valley Patriot columnists John MacDonald of Lowell and Kathy Runge from Lawrence were honored with The Valley Patriot’s Editor’s Choice Award. John MacDonald was presented his award by Lowell Mayor Rodney Elliott for his columns on police, public safety and using his column to rally our readers to a pro-police rally in Lowell last January. […]
By: Kathy Runge – December, 2014 The election has come and gone, the employee residency requirement has been discussed ad nauseam by the council with more to come, and we’ve had more senseless deaths of young people in Lawrence. The residents of Lawrence can breathe a sigh of relief that William Lantigua isn’t on the […]
By: Kathy Runge – November, 2014 I’ve been writing programs to look for duplicate registrations on the voter registration list in Lawrence for a few years. This list can be searched using many criteria; in this article I have used three of my algorithms. These programs can’t really tell if two registrations correspond to the […]
Kathy Runge – June, 2014 Hi guys! The Valley Patriot decided to suspend the rules and I’m writing the column this month. Yes folks, it’s as easy as that; suspend the rules and anything goes. More on suspending the rules later. First up is important news affecting all renters and landlords in Lawrence. Renters and […]
By: Kathy Runge – August, 2013 Anyone familiar with the city of Lawrence is aware of the lax record keeping and controls in various city departments, i.e. city garages and Inspectional Services to name two. Does anyone believe it’s any better in the Elections Department? Let me share my findings. I’ve been writing programs to […]