Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Pinto and Corchado withdraw after 301st ballot fails to pick a winner.
The 10-members of the City Council, who failed last Thursday to pick a successor to former Councilor at Large Joan Lovely, took only two ballots Tuesday night to elect William Legault as the 11th councilor. Legault, who writes our weekly A Voice in Salem column and is a lifelong resident of Salem, was sworn into office to fill the remaining year of Lovely's term. She resigned to take a seat in the state Senate. After being sworn in, Legault said his late father "would be going nuts right now. He would be out of his mind." He pledged to bring a new voice to the council and pledged his colleagues to offer common sense and sincerity. Prior to being elected to the council, Legault has served on several city commissions and task forces, …
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Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Calling it a 'rocky start', mayor calls for cooperation among councilors. Council members will meet again Tuesday to try to choose a replacement for Joan Lovely.
In less than two minutes, the City Council voted unanimously Monday night to elect Ward 4 Councilor Jerry Ryan as the President of the Council for 2013. Ryan, who has said he plans to run for councilor at large in the fall, was the choice of both factions that emerged Thursday night within the council when members deadlocked after almost 300 votes and seven hours in trying to appoint the 11th of the council. The vacancy was caused by the resignation of former Council President Joan Lovely, who was elected to the state Senate. Ryan was a compromise choice, agreed on well before the meeting began at 6 p.m. He was chosen president because he said he is a "more neutral" councilor. Other councilors said Ryan was a more acceptable president to…
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Friday, January 4, 2013
Former Councilors Pinto and Corchado vie for appointment for one-year term as council splits over candidates supported and opposed by Mayor Driscoll.
Freshman Councilor at Large Kevin Carr predicted that he and his colleagues would be known after Thursday night as "the gang that couldn't shoot straight." The 10-member council met until 2:30 a.m. and voted 300 times trying to appoint a successor to now state Sen. Joan Lovely, who until recently was president of the council. She resigned to move to the Senate, leaving a fractured council seemingly incapable of choosing her replacement. The council was deadlocked, five to five, between two candidates Steven Pinto and Lucy Corchado throughout the night. At 2:30 a.m., they voted seven to three to recess until Tuesday at 7 p.m. to try again to select the 11th member of the council. In an unusual move, which disturbed some councilors, the …
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Thursday, January 3, 2013
Pinto and Corchado appear to have most votes, but a surprise could be in the making.
Ward 1 Councilor Robert McCarthy remembers the first time he submitted his name to be a city councilor. It was to fill a vacancy on the council, much like the one that exists now. "They had us line up here (in the back of the council chambers) and gave us each two minutes, I think, to say why we should be appointed to the council," he said. McCarthy, who was not successful that night, expects that the council will follow the same approach Thursday night as it selects one of six candidates who have applied to fill out the remaining year of recently resigned Councilor at Large Joan Lovely's term. Also the council president, Lovely resigned to become a state Senator. Two candidates have experience on the council. Steven Pinto, a former two-…
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Friday, December 7, 2012
The city stays $3 million under state tax limit.
The City Council voted Thursday night nine to one to raise the average single-family residential property tax for next year by $71 and condo owners by $100. It voted to keep the business tax rates at the same 1.65 percent split. The average commercial tax bill will be $15,481. The average two and three-family residential buildings will increase about $115. The average single family home was valued at $284,800. The average condo was valued at $217,300. Seventy five percent of all residences in Salem are in these two categories. The average two-family residential building was valued at $273,300, while the average three-family building was $295,200. The total city property tax levy will be $74,879,216. That amount is about $3 million less …
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Friday, November 16, 2012
City Council members nixed a plan to reduce the board to five members in order to help the Board of Health get a quorum.
The City Council voted seven to three Thursday to reject a request from the five remaining Board of Health members to reduce the size of the board from seven members to five. The board currently has five members. One member was asked to resign. Another resigned voluntarily. And of the five remaining members, the terms of four members, including chairman Dr. Barbara Poremba, has expired. The council also failed on a five to five vote to approve the request of the health board to change the title of health agent Larry Ramdin to health director. Ward 6 Councilor Paul Prevey was absent. The Board of Health appears to have the authority to call its senior staff person by either title and may vote, despite the council's action, to change the …
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Friday, October 12, 2012
Council agrees to cut parking time allowed on Lafayette Street from four to two hours, will review comprehensive parking plan in coming weeks.
Conceding that the city's comprehensive parking plan is working, City Councilors voted Thursday to cut the hours in half for a block on Lafayette Street in front of the Ace Hardware store and several other businesses. Ward 2 Councilor Michael Sosnowski, no fan of the comprehensive parking plan the council approved last year, said it appears that in general the plan is working. He noted that the garages and city-owned lots, which are cheaper than parking on the street, are full and most blocks have at least one open parking space, which was a goal of the plan. But Sosnowski credited the price of parking on the streets for the change in parking behavior. He argued that the number of hours allowed was less of a contributing factor. Most …
Monday, September 10, 2012
Round three is here and promises to be a brouhaha.
Let's start this week by saying two things. Despite the vote by the City Council I have no problem with placing the fate of the Community Preservation Act (CPA) on the ballot for a second time. It is my intention to vote against it. This issue has created some passionate debate. Local message board warriors have jumped right into it. Some of these posters are kind enough to identify themselves while others choose to remain hidden behind their keyboards. Some of the points being made against having the CPA on the ballot are certainly legitimate. * How many bites at the apple are enough? The same question was defeated at the polls by a narrow margin in 2007 and the City Council chose to reject it themselves this year. * The claim the …
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Friday, July 20, 2012
Mayor Driscoll, calling the city's water and sewer pipes 'aging,' agrees to drop request for three-year increases to give time for new meters to work.
The City Council voted seven to four Thursday night to raise water rates for next year by 9 percent and sewer rates by 4 percent, but it balked at approving Mayor Kimberley Driscoll's request for increases in both rates for the next three years. The cost increase next year for the average household was projected at an additional $26 in water fees and $25 in sewer fees for a total increase of $51. The mayor had asked the council to approve an additional 4 percent increase in both rates for each of the following two years. "I am not comfortable voting for increases for more than one year," Council President Joan Lovely said. Lovely, Ward 1 Councilor Bob McCarthy and Ward 5 Councilor Josh Turiel said they understood the need for an increase …
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Mayor attends meeting to persuade the council to support the shortened study.
Mayor Kim Driscoll did not expect to have to work so hard to persuade the City Council to support a shorter environmental review for the popular new MBTA station, but that's just what happened at Thursday's City Council meeting. Although most organizations, city commissions and businesses and the city's legislators are backing the shorter review, the council appeared Thursday night to be balking at approving a resolution in support of the shorter environmental review. "I don't want the commuters to be out in the weather another winter," Driscoll told the councilors. She said without strong support from the city, the state would not agree to grant the MBTA a more abbreviated review of the environmental issues around the new station. "The …
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SalemResident
5:56 pm on Saturday, January 12, 2013
Shame on you!!! How quickly you forget what Bob has done as a counselor and community member. more ›