The agenda is out for the final meeting of the 2022-2023 Lowell City Council, and as almost always seemed to be the case in this Council’s term, it’s one that bears watching;
First, the meeting marks the farewell of two-term Councilor John Drinkwater, who early in the year decided he wouldn’t seek re-election to his At-Large seat. As is the custom for outgoing Councilors, expect Drinkwater to address his colleagues and the residents.
You’ll also note the final three motions come from Councilor Corey Robinson. Expect the same “tabling” song and dance that played out with his motions the last two meetings to repeat, thought it is worth nothing that unlike last Tuesday when Councilor Erik Gitschier filed a motion Robinson had filed at the December 5th meeting, none of the three tabled motions from December 12th found their way back on the agenda through a different sponsor.
The motion to watch, from my perspective, is Gitschier’s (5.2) requesting the City Manager re-evaluate plans to spend $9-million in ARPA funding for neighborhood improvement and instead put that money toward school HVAC systems.
On paper, the idea makes some sense, given the ongoing school building issues.
The question, however, is whether the district representatives from long underserved neighborhoods are willing to give up this once-in-a-lifetime revenue they fought very hard for early in this term. Plus, the city has been successful in recent years scoring MSBA Accelerated Repair Funding, and it was just days ago the state awarded over $10-million for HVAC repairs at four schools and roof repairs at a fifth.
The betting here is there are at least six votes out of the eight District Councilors to nix that motion.
There are other interesting motions as well for the political bubble to chew on, but reports on those will have to wait until 2025, when the next council is sworn in, since there is no meeting the day after Christmas.
3 responses to “A Swan Song, a Replay and a Re-Evaluation”
Can’t wait to another round of Councilor’s playing “shut down the Black man” followed by “disenfranchise the minorities from Centralville.”
Next up: ‘Replace the elected Black guy with the unelected White guy!’
There’s a lot to like about Voting Rights Lawsuits
Is this the tactic Mr. Robinsons supporters want to move forward with? Suggesting that the councilors actions are solely due to racism not only trivializes genuine cases of discrimination but also undermines the gravity of the situation at hand. Falsely attributing motives to racism can distract from addressing the real accountability and necessary actions to address the concerns raised by not only the community, but survivors, witnesses, and court system. This approach risks muddying the waters of justice and detracting from the core issues that need resolution.
Funny how now you want to blame it on color of skin but where was the outcry when people were attacking Stacey Thompson?