It was years in the making.
Getting everyone on the same page to build Lowell High School downtown was a contentious, complicated drawn-out debate, that just a week ago seemed like it might finally be in the rear view mirror.
“It has taken us a longtime to get to this spot, but I do think it was a process we had to go through,” City Councilor Edward Kennedy said on May 7, the day the project’s loan order was unanimously approved.
Cue the record-scratch.
This week’s City Council meeting saw tempers flare, over how —instead of where — the $343.3 million project will be built.
Unions asked for the city to enter into a Project Labor Agreement, which they said would support local workers and ensure a safe, on-time, on-budget project. City Manager Eileen Donoghue said consultants estimate this approach would cost the city an additional $27 million to $40.5 million and could mean delays.
City Councilors, including Karen Cirillo and David Conway who said they were initially in favor, wavered, shying away from an immediate go-ahead.
The body ultimately voted 7-2 to asked Donoghue to return with more information about a potential feasibility study on entering into a Project Labor Agreement, or PLA.
The two in opposition? City councilors Rodney Elliott and Rita Mercier, the same two councilors who opposed the downtown high school location, but ultimately voted in favor the project’s loan order last week.
“We’re getting $214 million from the state, but the city of Lowell tax payers are footing the bill as well in millions,” Elliott said. “So again, we got to make sure it’s done right with quality workmanship. The building has to last decades.”
Workers carrying “LOCAL JOBS LOCAL PEOPLE” posters packed the hall. For about a half-hour the PLA seemed it might have traction, with comments of support from both people in the audience and several city councilors.
Then City Councilor James Milinazzo brought up the figures Donoghue later expounded upon. Councilor Vesna Nuon’s second to Milinazzo’s motion requesting more information on the PLA got an audience response
“Wow, really?” someone said.
“That’s not a re-election.”
The mood of the audience didn’t lighten once the City Council finally took its vote.
“That was disgusting.”
“So my vote doesn’t count?”
“So my work is going to keep going to Boston? All my money is going to keep going to Boston?”
“We pay for your paychecks.”
Following the vote, the conversation and back and forth continued for a few minutes before it was finally shut-down.
“Can I just ask ya –” a man in the audience said.
“I’m sorry, it’s over, it’s over,” Mayor William Samaras said.
Then it was on to the rest of council business, kind of. Samaras asked Mercier if she had any comment on a report regarding a crosswalk.
“No,” she said. “I can’t even think straight.”
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Audience Comments aside, perhaps the sharpest exchange of the night was between Mercier and Donoghue.
Donoghue, citing the city’s consultants, listed a number of issues with entering into this type of agreement, as well as its rarity. She said a PLA has not been used to build a school through the Massachusetts School Building Authority for over a decade.
Mercier pushed back on some of the reasoning and said Donoghue should have brought the consultants to City Council. Each point was met with a round of applause from the union members in the audience.
“I’m not in favor of passing this off for you to probably put in a drawer somewhere, because if we vote on (getting more information on the PLA), I’m voting no,” Mercier said. “Because I think I looked up your record and it seems to me you weren’t favorable of a union, so I don’t know if you’re bringing your personal feelings or —”
Donoghue interrupted, asking the mayor if she could respond.
“Councilor,” Donoghue said. “I don’t know what your talking about, but let me be clear, when it comes to PLAs — I was asked about a PLA back when I was running for office and I said it would depend on if there were added costs. That’s what I said then. That’s what I’m saying now. And the costs are there.”
She said the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, the state organization working on the courthouse construction project, does not use PLAs because it adds costs to projects.
Samaras asked Mercier to focus on the issues instead of making it personal.
“I would ask that as a city councilor, that you work for me, that you would have a consultant that would tell this council directly,” Mercier responded.
Mercier then called up Chris Brennan, president of Merrimack Valley Building Trades, who further questioned the information presented by Donoghue.
“Again, you want to shoot the messenger,” Donoghue said. “I’m just telling you and the council what the consultants have said.”
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Tuesday’s Theatrics must have been deja vu for the consulting firm advisingthe city.
Skanska USA Building, Inc., faced the same question in Worcester.
In January, Skanska produced a five-page analysis for Worcester officials that advised against a project labor agreement on the new city-owned minor league ballpark.
PLAs require the use of only union labor in exchange for a guarantee the union will not strike. Skanska’s advice:
• Follow state construction laws: “The Massachusetts public procurement laws were established to provide, in a pre-qualified environment, fair and open competition across all trades. This has proved to provide the lowest responsible cost for public projects, and any firm, whether union or not, merely needs to be prequalified by (the state) to submit a proposal.”
• State courts have repeatedly blocked the use of PLAs. Skanska cited a 1999 Supreme Judicial Court ruling that said, “In most circumstances, the building of a single school will not, in and of itself, justify the use of a PLA.”
• PLAs increase costs: “PLAs cost more, historically, and this has been cited in the 2003 and 2017 studies by the Beacon Hill Institute.”
• Union work rules add to the cost: “One of the factors that increase construction costs on these projects are requirements from the unions to have some number of support workers on site at all times, whether needed or not. These workers merely drive up the cost without a resultant benefit to the project, but the unions require them.”
No doubt Skanska is offering similar advice to Lowell officials, but it remains to be seen if they will follow Worcester’s lead, resist the pressure of labor unions, and refuse the PLA.
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He’s Baaaack.
Former City Manager Kevin Murphy was hired in early May as the new $250-an-hour Lowell Housing Authority general counsel.
Prior to becoming city manager in 2014, Murphy represented the housing authority on labor matters.
The housing authority sought proposals for the job, and only two were received: Murphy’s and one from KP Law, the Boston law firm that represents communities and other public entities across the state.
A committee of housing authority administrators backed Murphy, and Executive Director Gary Wallace sealed the deal. Murphy replaces Phil Nyman, who recently bid adieu to the LHA following years of meritorious service.
“Both proposals were great, but Kevin is local with an office around the corner,” Wallace said.
Murphy, who resigned as city manager last April, described the position as part-time. Mondays, however, will be busy as he’ll be in Housing Court on LHA eviction cases.
The LHA recognized Murphy, and his wife, Ann in 2017, as part of its Lowell Youth Activities Scholarship Program, which awards college scholarships to LHA residents moving on to college.
The program is named after former state senator Phil Shea, who as a youngster lived in LHA housing and is close with Murphy. The 2018 honoree was former LHA employee Dennis Connors.
Earlier this spring, the City Council unanimously approved Shea’s appointment to the LHA Board of Commissioners, replacing Patty Talty who stepped down.
It was Murphy, while he was manager, who appointed Talty, a lawyer and former city planner, to the LHA board.
This year’s scholarship reception is scheduled for June 13 at the Whistler House Museum of Art. The honoreers are Talty and her husband Frank, recently retired from UMass Lowell’s Center for Public Opinion, where he was co-director.
Tickets are $100 and available through the LHA.
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Middlesex Clerk of Courts Michael Sullivan’s purse is a little lighter after an agreement reached with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
The former Cambridge mayor and Middlesex district attorney candidate is paying $4,500 after a routine audit found his campaign included his son on the insurance policy for its leased vehicle from 2016 to 2018, according to an agreement reached earlier this month
Sullivan was running for his current position in this campaign.
In addition to the payment to the state, Sullivan agreed to meet with OCPF quarterly to review all campaign committee documents related to automobile expenses through July 2021.
When contacted by phone, Sullivan declined to comment beyond a statement contained in the agreement.
“I would like to extend my thanks to the OCPF staff, who did their job in a professional and courteous manner,” the statement read. “With their guidance and education we were able to address the issue and to make an organizational change that will assist in compliance in the future by retaining the services of a professional treasurer.”
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Armand Mercier, the late city councilor who also presided for two years from the mayor’s podium, has been recommended for a key honor seven years after his passing in January 2012.
Close friend and well-known Lowellian Trudy Vail Michel has nominated Mercier for the 2019 Franco American of the Year honor.
In her nomination letter, Michel notes:
• Mercier was a long-time communicant of the former Ste. Jeanne d’Arc Church and a lifelong dedicated resident of Pawtucketville.
• Mercier served the city “with dedication and integrity” for over 50 years, and was known by many as the “voice of reason” on the City Council.
• Years before Mercier’s service on the City Council, Michel notes his years of service to the Lowell Housing Authority (there’s an LHA building named after him) and the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission.
“A man of discretion and compassion, Armand would try to help anyone regardless of their status in life,” Michel wrote.
Established in 1975, the award celebrates “contributions by a Catholic individual of high moral standards and integrity to preserving and promoting the language, culture and heritage handed down by our French Canadian forebears.”
Nominations are due May 24.
Last year, the Franco American Committee bestowed the honor on Roger and Roberta Levasseur, the longtime former owners of Cote’s Market.
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Last Tuesday Billerica joined the plastic bag ban debate. At the last night of Annual Town Meeting representatives debated whether to impose the ban.
Plastic bags do not biodegrade easily, petitioner Lisa O’Connor told town meeting members Tuesday night.
She explained how when the bags degrade they break into microplastics that spread into environment – and even food.
“If you eat fish you’re eating microplastics too most likely,” O’Connor said. “There’s plenty of microplastics in your sushi.”
Yum.
Throughout the debate Town Moderator John McKenna had to remind town meeting members to hold applause.
Town Meeting Representative George Simolaris caused quite a murmur in the crowd after he suggested that the town should instead be voting to bring in electric vehicles. His argument was that Town Meeting should be considering a more comprehensive plan to reduce packaging in general and urged Town Meeting to vote against the ban.
The murmuring broke out as Simolaris headed back to his seat and prompted McKenna to address the assembly.
“Calm down everybody calm down,” McKenna said.
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Jesse Forcier will continue in his role as Dracut Selectmen chair, as decided during a reorganization of the Board of Selectmen last Tuesday.
Selectman Joseph DiRocco nominated Forcier for chair and Selectman Tami Dristiliaris nominated Selectman Tony Archinski for vice chair. Both motions passed unanimously with 4-0.
Selectman Alison Hughes, who was absent, was named the new clerk. That also passed unanimously.
