Your Views: More letters to the editor about Mayoral race

It is amazing how Mayor Phelan continues to berate those who don’t agree with him or confront him in any way. He continues to bring people who have had difficulties in their lives to the forefront.

Is there anyone reading this that hasn’t made a mistake in their lives?

I would like to read about the real issues in the city. For instance, please have someone look into why teachers have no copy paper and the city cannot buy parts for their equipment.

Mayor Phelan is not paying the city’s bills!

He is portraying a city in good standing, but in realty, it is not. The perception that the city is in good shape financially is based on fabrication.

Isn’t it interesting that if a taxpayer defaults on their taxes, he is quick to put their names in the paper and you are quick to print them.

Take a look at who he hasn’t paid and how the employees of the city cannot perform their duties because they have no supplies to work with.

Take a look at some of the equipment the employees are using. Some of it cannot be used on public streets because they cannot get inspection stickers.

Look at all the lawsuits that have been filed against the city for the city breaching its contracts with contractors that have performed work and not been paid.

And let’s not forget the drug problem in this city that the mayor does not think is a problem.

What about the mayor’s wife contacting the police and her own father, Arthur Tobin, squashing everything down to the recording at the police station so that there would be no record of it?

As far as the Derbes Bros. and the city are concerned, it is interesting that your paper constantly places them in false light. Why don’t you look at the facts and print them?

Derbes Bros. had a contract with the city, and the city, under Phelan’s directive, blackballed the company because they did not contribute to his campaign when he ran against former Mayor Sheets. The company wanted to stay neutral, and as soon as he got into office, he tried to cancel the contract and held the company back from completing the contract on time so that he did not have to pay them.

A jury in Norfolk Superior Court awarded Derbes Bros. every penny that was owed to them under the contract. The reason Derbes did not get additional punitive damages is due to the fact that the contract only provided for punitive damages if the contractor breached, and there was no provision allowing the contractor damages for the city’s breach.

Derbes did the job they were contracted to perform, and Phelan did not pay them because they did not openly support him. In the end, Mayor Phelan had to pay the entire balance that was due plus interest - more than what the taxpayers should have had to pay.

I did not openly support him for mayor, and when I became counsel to the Derbes’ on the lawsuit against the city, he filed a complaint against me with the Massachusetts Ethics Commission, which was found to be unsubstantiated.

If Phelan wants a smear campaign, then print the truth. He has a great deal to explain to the citizens of Quincy on how he is handling our money.

CHRISTINE CEDRONE LOGAN, Esq.

Quincy

I am a voter and a taxpayer in the City of Quincy. I have attended two debates and read all of the literature distributed by each candidate. Here are my reactions:

Mayoral challenger Tom Koch has issued some specific charges of gross mismanagement on the part of Mayor Bill Phelan. The mismanagement includes loss of $46 million on the high school project and loss of funding on the middle school. Phelan has not addressed these charges at any time in any way. I am left to believe that the charges are correct. If so, they are grave mistakes and warrant an explanation.

On the other hand Phelan has charged Koch with numerous mistakes made during the former Mayor Sheets’ administration. I was aware of those mistakes and worked hard to replace Sheets after his last term.

The most egregious mistakes took place during the last term of his administration. During that time, Koch was not on Sheets’ administrative staff. He was the director of parks, a position he continued to hold under Mayor Phelan. I don’t know how he can be held responsible for mistakes made in which he had no involvement.

Finally, I question some of the appointments made by Phelan.

- He replaced Koch at the parks department with a chiropractor with no background in administration, management, or landscaping. I am certain there were much better candidates.

- He appointed an attorney as head of the Housing Authority with no background in property management. I see the results of that appointment daily and am distraught that such a large budget, which has such a direct affect upon so many people, is administered by a friend of the mayor’s with little or no regard for demands of the position.

I entered the election season feeling that Phelan had done a reasonable job during his tenure as mayor. I now believe that he is a poor mayor and a replacement is clearly needed.

I hope that Koch is the right man. He has a background in administration and management, and I truly believe him to be a decent and good man.

TOM LYNN Quincy

I would like to ask the taxpayers in the City of Quincy to look at their tax bills and ask themselves if their taxes have gone up in the past six years.

The current mayor claims he has not raised taxes, but I have seen my taxes go up drastically.

I do not care what you call it - raising taxes or re-evaluating - if you are paying more to live in your home, the city has raised your taxes, and the mayor is the person raising them.

I finally went on the city’s Web site and looked at how my home was evaluated. What I found on this site was very disturbing. I found that when my home was re-evaluated, the city took a picture of my home and the appraiser never came to my front door. They saw a window in my attic and assumed that my attic was finished, and we were living on this floor of my home.

I complained to the city, and the appraiser came to my home and looked up my attic stairs and found that I do not have a finished upstairs.

This was over five months ago, and I am still being taxed on this appraisal. I was also told that I could not file for an abatement until January. Now, the city caused this error and have told me that I can only claim the abatement for 2007. I can’t recoup my overpayment of taxes for the years since the re-evaluation occurred.

Ask yourselves if we, the taxpayers, owed the city - wouldn’t they expect every dime we owed them? Of course they would. Now the taxpayer gets screwed because the city made a mistake and it wasn’t caught right away.

I urge the taxpayers of this city to review your tax bills and find out if you, too, are being overtaxed by the failing administration in city hall, and ask yourselves also is it right to have all your home’s information posted on the Internet.

I do not feel the city has the right to post this information on the Internet with all the identity theft in our society.

RICK WILSON Quincy

I have read several letters in your paper recently dealing with the educational requirements to be mayor of Quincy. In my experience, I have found that the best education you can possibly receive is to obtain a Master’s Degree, or better yet, a Doctorate from the School of Hard Knocks.

All else being even, I would select the man most qualified, who by knowledge and proven experience has shown himself to be most worthy to hold such an important post.

That being true, it seems easy to say that I would have to select the incumbent, whom I feel has done a remarkable job in a relatively short period of time.

He may not have made the right decision, in many people’s view, in all cases, but I would like to paraphrase a remarkable person in our history who once said, “You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you will never please all of the people all of the time.”

Yet, Mayor William Phelan has tried to do that and with a notable degree of success in many, many cases.

Although now living south of Quincy, I still have a deep concern in the city, since I once had an interest in a business there.

My wife also loves that city, although one of her favorite attractions, the Bargain Center, is no longer there, and she truly misses that the bargains she purchased there, but still raves at the renaissance of Quincy Square, as do I, when we have occasion to visit the area.

So hands down, it’s a no-brainer. The incumbent has earned his Masters, and before he leaves will have his Doctorate, I am sure - and the people of Quincy will be that much better off because of it.

PAUL J. RUSSELL, Sr. Marshfield

While other towns and cities are facing Proposition 2-1/2 overrides, laying-off teachers, police officers and closing libraries and fire houses, we here in Quincy are arguing over where to build the new senior center and track.

What a great position to be in!

This is all possible because our fiscal house is in order. And it is in order because of the work Mayor Bill Phelan has done to get us there.

In the 5-1/2 years that he has been mayor, he has taken this city from a deficit left by the previous administration of almost $6 million to a surplus of $18 million today.

He has been a creative manager with a clear picture of what he wants the city to be.

He has had the courage to not take the easy path, but to stand up for what he believes will make Quincy a better place to live and work.

We have many challenges ahead of us: Downtown redevelopment, continued improvements in constituent services and schools and controlling development in our neighborhoods are a few that come to mind.

We need continuing leadership to achieve all we can.

I believe that Phelan is the person who can take us there. He has the education, experience and vision needed to make Quincy even better.

TOM BURKE Quincy

I believe Mayor William Phelan owes former chief information officer for the city, Charles “Chuck” Phelan, a public apology. Using smear tactics against a decent, well respected, honorable man for his political gain is a disgrace.

It speaks for a man who employs desperate measures.

It is a classless move.

If the mayor believes Chuck honestly did anything inappropriate, why won’t he say his name publicly?

Why just the innuendo?

Because he knows these attacks are meant to fool the public, not provide any actual information about Chuck or whatever candidate he is supporting.

I’ve known Chuck for many years, and I hope the many, many other people in Quincy who know Chuck, his great family and his reputation will join me in taking a stand with him.

Chuck has done nothing but give his time and effort to the city; he’s a credit to our community.

The angry words of a politician cannot erase those facts.

I believe in starting every election with an open mind, trying not to believe everything you hear; but the more I listen, the more I believe the mayor truly is a grown-up version of a schoolyard bully.

We all know the only way to stop a bully - you stand up to him.

So, good job, Chuck!

JAMES McLAUGHLIN Quincy

After having seen the recent mayoral debate on Cable TV. I was surprised that your newspaper coverage failed to even mention the most dramatic, and perhaps the most telling, moment of the exchange.

When the moderator stopped the debate to ask the candidates if either of them was breaking the rules and reading from notes, both candidates remained silent.

Only after mayoral challenger Tom Koch was specifically asked a second time if he had notes did he gave up the forbidden papers like some schoolboy caught using a cheat-sheet.

As in the blatant violation of mooring laws with his little blue boat, it is clear that Koch does not believe the rules apply to him.

ANNA YEE Quincy

In your profile of Mayor William Phelan, The Ledger states, "When the city’s teachers went on strike in June - the first teachers’ walkout in the state in more than a decade - Phelan didn’t budge. The strike ended after four days.”

Let the readers judge using the facts.

Examining the “last best offer” and comparing it to the post-strike settlement, we learn that the teachers got an extra contract year with what they consider an extra percent attached.

In other words, we finally got something in return for the health insurance change.

In other words, Phelan bargained, finally, as we had been chanting for months.

The health insurance demand we were told was unchangeable was spread over three years instead of two.

And we got language defending preparation time for our elementary members.

Finally, after intense bargaining, we got a “no reprisals” clause. This took over six hours of bargaining, because the mayor wanted to punish rather than move on.

That delay cost us many thousands of dollars in fines; but we didn’t budge.

If the result outlined above is “not budging,” then I guess Phelan didn’t budge.

What the educators learned was that if you stand up to a bully, you get your respect back. We sincerely hope Quincy learns that lesson, too.

PAUL J. PHILLIPS President

Quincy Education Association

I received a letter from my union, Local 2222, Committee on Political Education (COPE) endorsing Mayor William Phelan for re-election.

The letter notes that the mayor is also endorsed by Mass AFL-CIO and other labor organizations.

These endorsements are valid and proper criteria to use in formulating a determination as to a candidate’s worthiness for endorsement by our union. All well and good.

The problem I have with the letter is with the signer, COPE Chairman P.J. Foley, who is also on the planning board for the City of Quincy, appointed by Phelan, and acts in conjunction with the city on several budgeted environmental issues.

Now, it is my understanding that Foley takes on these endeavors on a voluntary basis, and in and by themselves they would indicate a noble civic-mindedness. My personal contact with Foley would lead me to think that this is so.

Nevertheless, the appearance of bias is evident.

I believe it would have been prudent for Foley to have abstained from an endorsement in this case, one where his connection to the candidate is far from remote.

I have been a contributor, albeit a meager one, to our union COPE since its conception and believe strongly in labor’s right to act in its own behalf politically.

I hope my letter points out that the appearance of propriety is vital.

THOMAS O’CONNELL Quincy

I am disgusted by the campaign tactics used by Mayor Bill Phelan to smear his opponent, Tom Koch, that you reported in a recent story.

It’s a disgrace, plain and simple.

Not only is the mayor still trying to win an election from seven years ago, he doesn’t even have any real mud to sling at his opponent.

Instead, he has to attack people who may or may not be “supporting” Koch.

What does that mean, anyway?

Is the mayor actually going to attack Koch, or does he think the public will not see through his attack-by-association campaign?

Does he think he’s fooling anybody by trying to portray himself as some sort of an outsider?

As Dan Raymondi said in your story- “he is what he is, and that’s not what he is.”

I thought we had seen the end of pure smear politics after the trouncing Kerry Healey received in the governor’s race last year. I guess not, and that’s too bad.

Phelan should stick to the issues.

FRANK ALIBRANDI North Quincy

I read with amusement that Mayor Phelan is continuing to represent himself as an outsider.

First, Phelan has been mayor for six years, during which time he has replaced the vast majority of citywide department managers, boards and commissions.

Presumably, these people are conducting city business according to the plans as set down by the mayor.

Second, numerous articles have appeared in our newspapers about how much the Tobin family is involved in local and state politics.

Finally, the mayor’s thinly veiled innuendos to connect mayoral challenger Tom Koch to illegal happenings are nothing more than a full-blown smear campaign.

None of these are examples of a political “outsider,” and Quincy residents should take note of these contradictions.

WILL SMITH Quincy

How is it that Mayor William Phelan can point an accusing finger at his opponent, then run and hide when asked to provide names and facts?

I enjoy a good political donnybrook like the next voter, but when it comes to sucker punches and rope-a-dope tactics it shows me this mayor is desperate, or hiding from something himself.

Stand up and be a man and go toe-to-toe - don’t hit and run. The voters of Quincy and the media, (The Patriot Ledger) deserve the facts.

ED SPRING Quincy