CITY MANAGER Eileen Donoghue’s selection last week of a former Senate aide to lead the Division of Planning and Development rather than the deputy director ruffled some feathers.
The key city position, a heartbeat from the manager’s operation, has been filled on a temporary basis by Assistant City Manager Kara Keefe Mullin since the February resignation of DPD veteran Diane Tradd. Keefe Mullin was not a candidate for the permanent position.
There were at least three in-house candidates: Craig Thomas, deputy director; Christine McCall, economic development director and a member of Donoghue’s staff when she was in the state Senate; and Eric Slagle, director of the city’s Development Services Department. Donoghue chose McCall.
“It was a very difficult decision, with a good number of more-than-qualified candidates,” Donoghue told The Column Friday.
What pushed McCall over the top, she said, is that during the pandemic McCall made “housecalls” to local business to help them through the tough time. Development didn’t slow down either, as the city completed a new parking garage and signed a master developer for the Hamilton Canal Innovation District.
“In a time of crisis she really stepped up,” added Donoghue.
City Councilor Rodney Elliott, chairman of the council Economic Development Subcommittee, thought it was a good choice.
“Ms. McCall is smart, she knows the city and brings lots energy and enthusiasm to the job,” Elliott said. “As the chair of Economic Development, I found she has a strong work ethic, well prepared, professional, and is responsive to the business community.”
Working on Donoghue’s Senate staff wasn’t a factor, the CM said. It’s interesting to note that it was former City Manager Kevin Murphy who hired McCall away from Donoghue Senate ops.
It was also during the Murphy years that Thomas left the DPD, temporarily, to work for the Coalition For a Better Acre. That was in apparent protest to Murphy hiring buddy Kevin Coughlin to the DPD, of course, following a nationwide search.
When Donoghue took over from Murphy in 2018 only one Murphy staffer didn’t make the cut: Coughlin.
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“WE ALL vowed that we weren’t going to make the mistakes of the past.”
So said Middlesex Community College board of trustees Chairman James Campbell a few weeks ago. The board met Tuesday and selected Provost Phil Sisson to be MCC’s next president.
The process that resulted in outgoing President James Mabry’s appointment didn’t sit well for many in the MCC community, and the board clearly wanted to avoid that. This time around, the process was more inclusive and the internal candidate got the shot that former Vice Chancellor Jay Linnehan didn’t get last time.
Well-liked and extremely qualified, Sisson was able to stave off the external candidates he was up against. It’s anyone’s guess as to how the vote would have gone if the candidate pool had remained at five instead of three, but it was clear from the trustees’ discussion that Sisson’s interest in being the president of MCC and not just any college weighed heavily in their decision.
“He doesn’t want to be any college president, Provost Sisson wants to be MCC’s president, and views himself as a servant leader,” Trustee Linda Banks-Santilli said. “He describes himself as coming from a low-income, first-generation background. He’s a known and trusted member of the community, with the knowledge, experience and ability to lead MCC into the future.”
The vote very well may have gone the same if two of the finalists hadn’t dropped out. The two who did — San Diego Community College District Vice Chancellor for Instructional Services and Planning Stephanie Bulger, and Maricopa County Community College District Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Felicia Ganther — were known to be job-shopping around the country, having been named finalists at several different community colleges.
Bulger hasn’t landed anywhere just yet, leading to speculation she may have been scared away from the MCC job due to a vote of no-confidence faculty and staff unions took against her at her previous job in Michigan, paired with the knowledge that MCC’s unions took a similar vote against Mabry.
Ganther, on the other hand, was named the next president of Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Penn., a week and a half before the MCC vote.
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OF THE three finalists the MCC trustees considered in their decision, the one that gave Sisson the best run for his money was Julie Leidig.
The Northern Virginia Community College Loudoun Campus provost received votes from Trustees James Campanini, Cheryl Howard and Annie O’Connor before the board made the vote to hire Sisson unanimous at O’Connor’s request.
Campanini called Leidig “a rare find” with extraordinary qualifications across education and business and glowing recommendations from places like the Aspen Institute, where she was a recent presidential fellow. Howard pointed to the broad responsibilities she’s undertaken throughout he career and community feedback that saw Leidig as bringing a fresh perspective to MCC while Sisson would be “more of the same.”
“For me, I think she’s the one who could take us to the next level and really make us a leader and not a follower in the community college system, and so I think Dr. Julie Leidig is my No. 1 choice,” O’Connor said.
The three trustees weren’t concerned that Leidig wasn’t familiar with local and state leaders and politics, and felt she could hit the ground running just as easily as Sisson. They’ll never know now if she could have.
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THE COLUMN was sorry to see Campanini bedridden during the board’s special meeting for the presidential vote Tuesday.
Campanini apologized for his appearance and said he was in bed due to pain from a herniated disc, but said he felt the vote was too important to miss.
“This is probably one of the most important votes I’ll ever take as a trustee, and I want to be thorough in my deliberations,” he said before shutting his video off and continuing just with audio.
The Column wishes the former Sun editor a quick return to health.
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LOWELL SCHOOL Committee member Mike Dillon seems to be developing his own persona of going against what appears to be the general consensus on school policy issues.
Lately, his efforts seem to be centered around opposing initiatives aimed at increasing equity in the school district.
Following Chief Equity & Engagement Officer Latifah Phillips’ presentation on culturally and linguistically sustaining practices (CLSP) at the committee’s Wednesday meeting, Dillon blasted the basis of the plans as “Marxist” and said people would be “furious that we are pushing curriculum in that is this radically, politically motivated.”
“This is blatant Marxist ideology that we’re trying to put into our curriculum,” Dillon said.
The “era of color-blindness” is over, having only exacerbated racial gaps, Superintendent Joel Boyd said, noting the schools can’t shy away from these conversations.
“Shy away from? It’s all we talk about,” Dillon said.
He said the district is trying to push “dangerous” political ideology onto students and “focusing too much on the color of our skin and not enough on diversity of thought.”
“It just seems to me that we are really pushing the fact that our minority kids are somehow being oppressed in the city, and pushing all these ideas of oppression and oppressed groups,” Dillon said. “Nobody on this team is even from this city and knows the dynamics of this city.”
Apparently he doesn’t consider fellow committee member Hilary Clark, who is part of the CLSP planning team, a resident of Lowell.
“Mr. Dillon, I did not grow up here as you know, but it is one of the reasons that I am in the city now, is because of what this city offers the community members who are here, to live here and go to school here, and I see this work as something that lifts all of us up,” Clark said.
It wasn’t the first time Dillon has harped on a focus on “skin color.” At a recent meeting he had an issue with the district’s desegregation plan that’s been followed since the late 1980s and questioned how much longer it needs to be in place.
Mayor John Leahy, chairman of the School Committee, said he thinks it’s a good thing that the district is having conversations about race and equity.
“There is some systemic bias going on, and people need to understand what’s happening before we can have a good open, honest dialogue about it,” Leahy said.
He said his only advice for Boyd and the school administration is to maybe slow it down a bit and change the approach, because sometimes the conversation on equity and diversity “comes on a little too strong and turns people away or makes them put their guard up.”
“I think a lot of times people don’t understand the whole situation. I feel that I don’t have any bias towards people but sometimes I don’t understand the privileges that I have, either,” Leahy said. “So it all kind of correlates together. When people don’t understand the privileges they’ve been allowed, and you feel, ‘Well, everybody’s equal, they should have an equal shot,’ but they don’t, and that’s hard to understand.”
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DEB BELANGER made it official this past week: she’s running for one of the three at-large seats on the Lowell City Council this fall.
A lifelong Lowellian, she grew up in the Lower Highlands and now lives in Pawtucketville.
“Lowell is my home; it is where I grew up and where I raised my own family,” Belanger said in a statement. “Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a fierce advocate for those that I love; I want to lend my advocacy now to the city that I love.
Belanger began her career as a marketing and event manager at Wang Laboratories and then director of sales at a local family-run travel agency before serving as executive director of the Greater Merrimack Convention and Visitors Bureau for 17 years.
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NANCYE TUTTLE‘s recent appreciation of Oscar-winning actress and Lowell native Olympia Dukakis struck a chord with many readers, who emailed Tuttle — a former Sun lifestyle reporter — saying its high-time the city officially recognizes Dukakis’ Lowell roots.
Dukakis, who died last Saturday at age 89 in Manhattan, loved Lowell, where she was born on June 20, 1931, the child of Greek immigrant parents Constantine and Alexandra Dukakis, and where she spent her first nine years in her family’s home at 57 Clare St.
The proud actress returned in triumph in triumph in 1990, after the Oscar win made her a household name and much-sought-after character actress in Hollywood.
Tuttle wrote during her 1990 visit to Lowell, Dukakis was enthralled with the Lowell National Historical Park trolley.
” … she was funny, energetic, smart, down-to-earth and charming. An engaging conversationalist, Dukakis loved people, life and acting. Her acclaimed stage, screen and television career earned her praise and numerous awards, including an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, playing Cher’s gutsy mama Rose in the 1987 romantic comedy ‘Moonstruck.'” Tuttle wrote.
One reader noted Lowell artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler and author Jack Kerouac have parks named after them, actress Bette Davis has a plaque on her Chester Street birthplace, and Johnny Carson’s sidekick Ed McMahon got a bench at Middlesex Community College courtesy of the late Sun columnist Paul Sullivan.
City political and cultural leaders reach for the “moon” and get going on this one.
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TRAM NGUYEN is once again garnering praise and recognition for her work in the 18th Essex District.
The state representative was among 19 elected leaders from across the U.S. to be selected Thursday to join the NewDEAL (Developing Exceptional American Leaders) network, which brings together “pro-growth progressive leaders” to help them develop and spread ideas to spur economic growth.
Nguyen, who represents Andover, Boxford, North Andover and Tewksbury, was chosen because of her dedication to combating economic and racial injustice, as well as her recent focus on COVID-19 recovery, environmental protection and creating opportunities for working families, NewDEAL officials said.
They highlighted her recently submitted bills to increase unemployment insurance benefits for low-wage workers, to increase the economic well-being for people in debt, to promote safety for survivors of domestic violence, and to crack down on hate crimes across the state.
“I am thrilled to welcome Rep. Nguyen to the NewDEAL and provide her with a network of elected officials and other thought leaders to support her work,” NewDEAL CEO Debbie Cox Bultan said in a statement. “Her innovative and thoughtful approach to governing will help us build on the work of long-time NewDEALers like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, and Jason Kander as we develop and spread policy solutions that respond to the pandemic and expand opportunity equitably across the country.”
After immigrating to the United States with her family at 5 years old Nguyen earned a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University and graduated from Northeastern University School of Law before she became the first Vietnamese American woman to serve in the Massachusetts State Legislature.
Just last month, she was nominated for the prestigious Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award from EMILY’s List, which honors a woman serving in state or local office who demonstrates a commitment to community, women and families, and determination and civility.
Over the past two years, Nguyen has also been awarded the Women’s Empowerment award, the Asian American Women Political initiative Legislator of the Year award, the YDMA Young Democratic Elected of the Year Award and the Council of State Government 20 under 40 award.
“I am excited to be part of NewDEAL’s efforts to expand opportunities for Americans in communities nationwide,” Nguyen said in a statement. “I look forward to sharing lessons with and learning from other leaders who are setting the standard for effective governance.”
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KICKING OFF Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the Massachusetts House Asian Caucus, including members from Greater Lowell, is putting forward a social media challenge encouraging people to shop at Asian American and Pacific Islander-owned businesses.
“Not only have these businesses been impacted by the rise in discrimination against Asian Americans, this investment in our local economy is integral in recovering from the pandemic,” Rep. Donald Wong, a Saugus Republican who this session chairs the caucus, said in a statement. Challenge participants are asked to visit an AAPI-owned business in their community and post on social media, tagging @asiancaucusma and using the hashtag #ShopAAPIMonth. They can also tag friends, inviting them to join in.
“This AAPI Heritage Month feels different from past ones, due to the devastating impact that anti-Asian rhetoric and misinformation related to COVID-19 has had on AAPI businesses and workers, which is why we encourage people across our Commonwealth and country to show their solidarity by shopping at the many wonderful AAPI businesses that contribute greatly to the American fabric,” said Nguyen.
The caucus was established in 2011 after the first three Asian-American representatives were elected to the House — Wong and Democrats Rep. Tackey Chan of Quincy and Paul Schmid of Westport.
This session, its membership grew to eight, with first-term Reps. Vanna Howard of Lowell and Erika Uyterhoeven of Somerville joining Nguyen, Wong, Chan, Schmid and Reps. Rady Mom of Lowell and Maria Robinson of Framingham.
A 2018 state law officially established May as Asian American Pacific Islander Month in Massachusetts, and Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month is also recognized nationally.
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ON THE same day voters in Shirley approved a $5.2 million debt exclusion to improve high school athletic fields, the Ayer Shirley Regional School District Committee voted to censure the one member who opposed the project and did not attend the meeting — Jim Quinty.
Quinty has spoken out against the plan in its current form and against previous proposals as well, forwarding alternative renovation plans that he said would work better and cost less. This time, his objection focused on synthetic turf, a key component of the latest proposal.
Quinty, who has served on the regional board for several years, has said the proposed artificial surface, made of ground-up rubber, is environmentally suspect and unsafe. He favors natural grass instead.
The motion to censure Quinty, made by Chairman Joyce Reischutz, passed without discussion. It was in response to his activities leading up to the vote and specifically, on election day.
Citing the state’s “code of ethics” for elected officials, Reischutz said that every member of the board is expected to adhere to those laws, in this case related to “community responsibility” in particular.
In terms of the fields project, Quinty not only voted against the majority at the School Committee table, he also mounted a public campaign to counter its stated intent.
On election day – May 4 – he was outside the polling place on the Shirley municipal green, dressed in a rustic farmer’s get-up and with hay bales, a tractor and “vote no” signs as props.
Asked to respond to the School Committee’s censure vote, Quinty said this was the first he’d heard of it. But he wonders how the committee interprets the term “censure” and what the other members of his board think should happen now, if anything. “I haven’t discussed it” with them, he said. “I wasn’t there.”
This week’s Column was prepared by Reporters Alana Melanson in Lowell, Amy Sokolow in Littleton, M.E. Jones in Shirley, Stefan Geller in Tewksbury, State House News Service and Enterprise Editor Christopher Scott.