Councilor: Mayor’s Speech Delayed Important City Business

Mayor James J. Fiorentini during an earlier talk.

Click image for Haverhill City Council agenda.

Click image for Haverhill City Council agenda.

When the Haverhill City Council meets tonight, it will hear two items postponed from two weeks ago—a delay caused by a crowded agenda and, what one councilor says, the length of Mayor James J. Fiorentini’s State of the City address.

Items by Councilor Joseph J. Bevilacqua, relating to creating an economic development identity for the city, and Councilor Mary Ellen Daly O’Brien, about a Lowell Avenue catch basin, were put aside until this week. O’Brien said future addresses by mayors shouldn’t be part of the council meeting.

“Truthfully, I think the mayor should do his own thing and not be part of the city council evening,” she told WHAV.

She explained the City Council already had a full agenda March 21, complicated by a meeting cancellation because of a snow storm the week before.

“The serious business we had at hand was the plowing we had in Haverhill from that last storm, and we also had a big water issue at hand that there was a breach that had happened for so many minutes back in December and it was really not well thought out how they broke that to the public.”

Councilors didn’t have time to address other issues, O’Brien explained. “So, instead of that, we had to listen to an hour of the mayor and then we were delayed for another 20-plus—almost 30 minutes—before we could do the City Council,” she added.

Councilors are expected to discuss asking the mayor to give his speeches on another night in the future.

“It doesn’t belong with the City Council. We have to stand up and say, ‘I’m sorry. Jim, you’re doing a great job. You’re an asset to the city, but get off our time. You have your own time.’”

3 thoughts on “Councilor: Mayor’s Speech Delayed Important City Business

  1. She is right. The Mayor should know this since he was a councilor . But so is Jack above about it’s contents and the lack of concern about them.

  2. Mary Ellen, AGAIN, you never disappoint when you make public statements!

    Your concern was the length of the mayor’s State of the City address, and not the lies within it, or the numerous important issues which weren’t even mentioned?

    What’s the rush…you wanted to get home for Chicago Fire?