The mission of MAYOR D as a politician is to get reelected and in order to do that he spends his time at every SC meeting painting a picture of the idyllic version of Melrose Public Schools notwithstanding the facts. His being on the school committee is an absolute conflict of interest and a fiasco. As CC on the School Committee has said, their focus is getting re-elected. Doesn't matter whether they do a good job in reality or not. It is the perception only that matters. In order to do this, MAYOR D and most of the School Committee (minus one CK) all gloss over problems and try to sell, sell, sell an image of Melrose and in particular Melrose Public Schools as absolutely wonderful. The more people they can dupe into believing all is great with MPS, the more votes they will get.
This is the reason MAYOR D got himself placed on the SC.
The travesty is the harm MAYOR D is inflicting on the children of this city by acting like everything is great. He is also harming everyone else in the middle: the educators, the parents and all of the citizens of Melrose whose taxes pay for this fiasco.
SC member newly elected JD had it right: Mayor D and his cabal are "IRRESPONSIBLE." She said it repeatedly and it is true. They are not public servants, they are self-serving only.
Step One at fixing the Melrose Public Schools is to get the Mayor off the School Committee.
Agreed on all counts.
But for any initiative to make this happen, it takes understanding the underlying bigger problem(s) and tackling those. The city charter will have to be rewritten and reapproved by state legislature before any structural change that removes the mayor from the SC can occur. A committee of concerned citizens needs to form (as in yesterday) in order to begin the lengthy process of achieving this structural change.
Beyond that it will require a continuous consciousness-raising effort to help citizens understand the cultural issues that need to change, and at a pace of change that reflects the urgency that the current level of toxicity warrants. This is a more challenging problem, particularly with the many good-hearted but staunchly (and in many cases purposely) unaware citizens who need to defend their community right or wrong somehow.
What a bunch of Bull Pucky. You idiots don't have the brains to realize that your issue is with the person who is Mayor, not the Mayoral postion. You get rid of the person you don't like by voting him out of office. You do not get rid of him by trying to change the City Charter.
The realities here are as follows:
1) The public, though a vote, changed the charter to put the Mayor on the School Committee. The public bought the viewpoint that the Mayor should have a say on where over half of the City's budget and taxpayer dollars are being spent.
2) If given the opportunity to vote again, the result would be the same.
I am sure Mayor Dolan, as all Mayors who sit on the school committees by public charter, liked his job a lot better before he head to sit on the SC. However, it is part of his job and that is not going to change.
This topic is typical of the unintelligent garbage put on this website. There are many opinions by a host of different people on how the school department in Melrose is doing and what direction its going. As much as it kills the regulars on MM, a large part of the Public School parent community is happy with the direction the school system is going.
We have an election coming up, just like we did a few years ago.
Prediction: No charter change will be made. Dolan will win by a landslide. Any SC member supported by the regular public comment crowd or whiners on this site like MFD will lose. The only thing not predictable at this time is will there be an override on the ballot and how will it go. I hope there is. The City needs an override and I'd like to see a showdown. It will make things fun, and the results will shut some people up one way or another.
The Charter Commission included it after reviewing best practices, the board of Alderman voted on it, the public voted on it and the voters approved it. It's called democracy. Try to be an educated antagonist...and don't forget, or perhaps you never knew...Dolan appointed Sue Kelleher, who not only was not a political ally but went toe to toe with him on many occasions...to chair the charter committee. Her committee made the proposal because many people in Melrose wanted the Mayor to have a say on where 1/2 the City's budget was spent.
No comments on the rest?
Reality just "owned" this string. Well done.
Another personal insult from the spin doctors. Kind of your MO, isn't it? Anybody that disagrees with you is either somehow lacking in intelligence or a Melrose hater.
The Charter Commission reviewed best practices? That's laughable. The Charter Commission did exactly what they were told to do because the Mayor wanted to have a say in where half the budget was spent. That's the point the prior poster was trying to make about reducing checks and balances and separation of powers. The school department is supposed to be totally separate from the city side, with no Mayoral influence at all.
You are partially correct about one thing - the average Melrose voter is either too confused or too disengaged to recognize a blatant personal power grab when they see one. Look how well the schools have functioned since he inserted himself.
If you think for a second that I don't recognize where you're coming from, you're very much mistaken.
Reality you have been declared the winner by knockout. Once the "Miserables" start accusing you of working at city hall they are all done, game over you win. Rob keep up the great work, the Miserables can't even sack up and produce a candidate to run against you.
Thanks Melrose, now I understand better why we have Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi stay in Congress so long! Voted in by the uninterested and uninformed!
Viva la Democratic party!!!!!
Myron, it's to early to be drinking
Quite the contrary - I believe that the Dem are drinking too much of their kool aid to the point it impacts negatively their brain cells!
And who says that Dems are always stupid?
Myron you have to start going to meetings again. We miss you[:))]
Why? So that Ms. Thorp can cut me off after 5 minutes? She gets to "pontificate" endlessly for 3 plus hours and I can only get 5 minutes? To Ms. Thorp, free speech comes with a time limit! Change the Chairperson and I'll be there!
I'm quite sure he meant AA meetings.
Myron you are either stupid or off the wagon again[:))]
Thanks for your very intelligent response, "Friends of Bill W"...this message board couldn't do without your defamation of people and ideas!
Nah... This looks more like a post where "Friends of Bill" has a sense of humor and presented it in that manner.
Unfortunately, Myron has no sense of humor and is in fact, an idiot.
Not too bright of the Mayor - getting himself onto the school committee in his mind was a way to "consolidate his power base". Now he can't stand on the sidelines and say "Hey, the SC is an autonomous entity - there's nothing I can do about it.". So, rather than expose the problems and try to get them fixed, in his mind, since he's incapable of accepting blame for anything, we have this "everything is good" nonsense, and attacks on anyone who dares to say otherwise. In case you're wondering, that "Melrose hater" horse$hit came first right from his mouth. So, rather than consolidate his so-called "power base", all he's done is insure that this disaster of a school system will ultimately be his downfall, since his enormous ego demanded he insert himself into the process. Unfortunately the damage done in the meantime will take years to repair.
They have no one with even a hint of what it would take to oust Dolan.
Thats why they just stand on the side lines, pointing and complaining but never suggesting a solution to the "Sky is Falling" problem of the day.
Who said anything about "ousting" Dolan, or finding someone to run against him? It's about watching the disaster that is Melrose Public Schools cause him to implode. That's going to be very entertaining.[HissyFit]
I would suggest that injecting himself into the school committee is the worst political move he ever made and he probably regrets it. Now he can't distance himself from the school system's free fall in just about every area.
this dumb public (with the full backing of almost all of the aldermen) just accepts the bull with blind faith or gross full-throated sycophance (mortimermargoliswrightinfurna)
sota voce rb and jt just as useless but at least polite
dc pretends to have back bone but only does when it's expedient
newbies on the board so far no better and even jlb has gone full-on to the dark side
mm is the only one with actual back bone and values (if you can get past the linkage with outrageous teaparty craziness)
[quote/Word on the street: Don Conn might run. Hope so! He'd clean up.[/quote]
I often see DC jogging all over Melrose on the weekends. Heard at a local coffee shop that he might run for Mayor. Please, please run, Donald Conn. You could win !
Conn is too smart to run. First off he is a successful lawyer and couldn't afford the pay cut and secondly, despite the yapping on this board he has seen the overwhelming support that Dolan has in this city and knows he would not fare well in a head to head election.
Good point about the rumor machine. However, if you witnessed the packed chamber in early 2013 during the discussions about the salary for the position of mayor was discussed, I think it is pretty clear that the support for RD is far greater than posts on this board would suggest. It ain't all smoke & mirrors like Cantor, there is real support there and Conn has seen it first hand.
You sound like a paranoid fool. Anyone who spent time this weekend in Melrose knows that this is a fantastic place to live and raise a family. Dolan didn't fast track the issue, it was talked about for months, even on this board. I was there and don't fit into any of those categories. This guy is a great Mayor. His job isn't to make friends with every whiner in this city, it is to lead our local government. Under the difficult financial conditions across this state, I'd say that he is doing an awesome job. Keep it up Dolan!
Linking the 26% raise to the lieutenant governor is absurd and paranoid. I don’t work for the Mayor, but generally only check this site M-Fri. The process for the 26% lasted over a month, discussed in a series of BOA meetings and was covered in the papers. To suggest this was rushed it to try to reinvent history just because you don’t like the result. The fact that the chamber was packed with supporters only proves that this site has a handful of whiners who won’t show up for issues they claim to believe in…and the support for Dolan in this city is far greater than anyone ever thought.
Also, the competing issue was not the lieutenant governor, rather it was the fact that other local towns with a town manager format were looking to hire Dolan away from Melrose for a substantially higher amount of money.
1) The salary for the position of Mayor in Melrose was a joke.
2) Dolan asked the Board in two different fiscal years to address the salary for the position of Mayor.
3) The Board failed to address the issue.
4) Dolan was being recruited by a local town to be their manager at a significantly higher salary.
5) The people who run the organizations, businesses, charitable/volunteer activities, boards and commissions showed up at a meeting and shoved the pay raise down the alderman's throats and forced them to do what they should have done two years earlier.
6) The nobody's on Melrose Messages hid behind their keyboards.
7) Jane Lavenders daughter humiliated all woman in politics with her rant about being bullied.
8) Dolan got his raise
Dolan & Melrose Win. Whiners and nobody's of MM lose.
I think that pretty much covers it.
1, 2, and 8 are correct. 3 through 7 are total bull$hit.
The board did address the issue by declining to give him a raise. That's when the sycophants began their campaign, and at RD's order.
There was "apparently" some interest in hiring him in Reading, until they began to take a closer look. He wasn't even called in for an interview, was he? And who put that out there in the first place? That's right, it was RD himself - a not so veiled threat to leave if he didn't get his way. It was right after that when the gaggle of bootlickers shifted into high gear.
And Lavender humiliated all women in politics? So women are supposed to sit quietly by and let let some no-class loudmouth go off on them? Regardless of the backlash she suffered from RD's camp, I have a lot of respect for her for making an issue of it.
Except for the stupendous damage being done to the students, which is inexcusable, I'm almost glad the schools are in such a mess - it means RD's career dissipation light is now flashing bright red. The Mayor's only option now is to remain Mayor - that's why the nastiness will only escalate.
Spot-on. Numbers 1 through 8 are entirely accurate. Just to add on to #3, the significantly higher salary was even higher than what the new salary is after the 26%; however, Dolan’s preference was to remain here and he did. He did not go in for an interview because their process did not begin until well after the vote was taken.
If Lavender does not like being lobbied on an issue that the vast majority of Melrosians support, she is in the wrong line of business.
Only a political novice completely ignorant to the political process would believe Bird's behavior was appropriate. That is even assuming her rant was an accurate reflection of the conversation that took place. Do you think Theresa Murray, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Ann Richards and other strong women in politics got to where they ended up without having a high octane political argument with a guy. Give me a break. Women fought for the right to participate in military combat ,fighting to be president, they are senators, congressman and governors...and Bird gets her feeling hurt and whines about a private conversation in an open public meeting...so yes, she humiliated all of the strong women in politics who have fought tooth and nail to gain their position...in a world once dominated by men...by claiming she was bullied. Boo hoo, poor Jackie.
The reality is she didn't get her way, was shocked she lost a vote she thought was in the bag, and had a hissy fit. A completely classless act.
High octane political argument my a$$. It was a vicious personal attack launched by a spoiled brat who flies off the handle all the time when he doesn't get his way or when someone disagrees with him. Too many people have had personal experience with it for it to be deniable anymore, and it is completely and totally unacceptable behavior in any context.
Agree, put down the crack pipe. The "sycophants" as you refer to them are referred by the entire "clear thinking" community as the civic, business and volunteer leaders of Melrose...who went on public record with their opinion that Dolan needs to stay in Melrose and the Board of Aldermen needs to pay him fairly. The people that actually contribute to the City, in many ways, put the hammer down on an irresponsible Board of Alderman.
Ask a woman politician what they thought of Bird's breakdown. She looked like a sore loser, played a card that woman proudly cast to the side years ago, and embarrassed herself. Her political career is DOA, and she lost the respect of the people whose support she needed to have kind of political career in Melrose. It was a horribly calculated political move that blew up in her face.
Woman shouldn't sit back when they are in an argument, and the good ones don't. If in fact they had a heated argument the professional thing would have been to argue her case and then lobby the rest of the board to vote with her, and if she has a good argument she will win. She didn't do that. She lost the vote and couldn't handle it, and proceeded to lose the respect of anyone with half a brain that watched it.
You're full of poo-poo-doo-doo. You think you can reinvent history and that it'll fly. Nope. The sudden need to attack JLB with this vehemence points directly to a certain block of individuals who are entirely predictable in their filthy smears, all geared for an obvious political agenda by this group that occupies the 2nd floor on Main Street, and their ilk (that word again). JLB has long ago moved on from the courageous and dignified stand she took. If you need to sink into this filth to try and smear her, you only prove the opposite. RD is a bullying creep out of control and increasingly desperate because his options are more limited by the day. Now even Martha has dried up as a meal ticket. Yup we'll see more of the gladhanding of the Gross Man at the Fair, just like last year. Keep it up with the silly attacks on JLB. You are only helping your opposition.