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 […]
Former Lawrence School Committeeman Jim Blatchford has withdrawn from the 2017 city council race. Blatchford was fired last Friday, as an aide to Rep. Carmine Gentile, a Democrat from Sudbury. Blatchford issued a statement Tuesday saying he is dropping out of the At-Large City Council race because he needs to concentrate on finding another job. […]
By: Tom Duggan Embattled Lawrence City Councilor Sandy Almonte, who represents the District “A” Prospect Hill neighborhood, has resigned from her position just one month after being arrested for assault and resisting arrest in Nashua, NH. Almonte will be arraigned in Nashua, district court on September 9th. The City Council has scheduled a special meeting […]
By: Tom Duggan – 5-15-16 LAWRENCE – The gymnasium of the old high school on Haverhill St. was filled to capacity Sunday afternoon as Dominican citizens who live in the City of Lawrence, Massachusetts turned out in large numbers to vote for the next Dominican President. Dominican citizens who have dual citizenship with the […]
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 […]
Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera said Wednesday that even though he opposes making Lawrence a sanctuary city, he will not veto the city council’s vote Tuesday to stop criminal illegal aliens from being deported when arrested by Lawrence Police. Rivera said in a long statement (below) that vetoing the council’s decision will only drag out the process of an […]
WHO’S IN AND WHO’S OUT IN CITY COUNCIL AND SCHOOL COMMITTEE RACES Candidates wishing to have their names appear on the September ballot for municipal elections had until close of business on Tuesday to turn in the required number of signatures. The Lawrence City Council is made up of nine members. Six members of the […]
By: Kathy Runge, July, 2015 The City Council, led by Council President Maldonado, a.k.a. Lawrence’s Ambassador to the UN, has been busy in the last month. The FY16 budget got approved with Maldonado providing the only dissenting vote. He proposed a series of potential cuts and argued for them while acting as president of the […]
July, 2015 Now that his pal Willie Lantigua is out of office, you will hardly find another politician in Lawrence as slick and sleazy as City Council President Modesto Maldonado. Maldonado was a part of the Lantigua machine. His job in that span of four years on the council was to advance Lantigua’s agenda and […]
By: Kathy Runge – May, 2015 Although, in my opinion, violating the Open Meeting Laws is not unusual for our city council, the newest show of disrespect for city residents has to be the placing of this month’s Semana Hispana fundraising carnival at the South Common with no prior notice given to the neighborhood residents. […]
Lawrence City Councilor Marc Laplante (District F) has filed an Opening Meeting Law complaint to the City Clerk claiming that the city council approved the use of the South Lawrence Common (O’Connell Park) for a carnival without giving proper notice to city residents. The Lawrence City Council has held several illegal meetings without notifying the […]
By: Katy Runge – January, 2015 Happy New Year to all of The Valley Patriot readers! If you missed the City Council meeting of December 16 you should watch it on YouTube (Channel: LawrenceCityCouncil), because it was a gem. Public safety loans were denied, a vote of no confidence in the mayor was attempted and confusion […]
With all of the problems facing the City of Lawrence, the city council is focusing their efforts on protecting political hacks in city hall and attacking Mayor Dan Rivera. Last month, the council considered a vote of “no confidence” in Mayor Rivera claiming he is playing politics with his firing of Lantigua appointees. The narrative […]
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 […]