Konnie Lukes

By Rosalie Tirella

We know Elizabeth Warren is in the midst of a Native American heritage poop-storm, but she IS the better candidate! Konnie, please reconsider! Support Liz and not US Senate incumbent Scott “Pretty-Boy” Brown!

Worcester City Councilor Konstantina Lukes has come out and endorsed Scott Brown for US Senate. We love Konnie for her independence and no-bull attitude, but she has got to know that Brown is nothing more than a (hot) empty vessel. Elizabeth Warren is the problem solver and she is so much brighter than Pretty-Boy Brown! MA needs Warren! So does America! The Dems in DC need that Democratic vote to pass legislation.

I mean … look at our senator. Sexually abused (came out with that bit of news when his book came out; of course, he broke his story on 60 Minutes), standing for nothing, voting against extending unemployment benefits over and over again. This guy will say and do anything to stay in the limelight.

Konnie, Konnie, Konnie …

(And yes! Konnie was in our SWIMSUIT ISSUE, but she wasn’t naked, naked, naked!! Is there some weird connection?)

By Rosalie Tirella

Last Worcester City Council meeting, “official” Worcester showed its true colors: an emotionally constipated city that cannot – and will not – tolerate the new and different. More over, it shows how autocratic we have allowed our city manager, Mike O’Brien, to become.

Maybe it’s time for a Strong Mayor for Worcester – someone who can actually lead the city in confusing times, someone who can actually lead. Period. Maybe speak to the angels within our souls.

But hey, this is Worcester. Konnie Lukes and the grinches will prevail!

By voting this past Tuesday night to back up City Manager Mike O’Brien’s decision to not deal with Occupy Worcester – shut them out – the Worcester City Council showed itself to be a few degress short of fascist and (their real goal) gave a kind of carte blanche to the Worcester Police Department when it comes to booting Occupy Worcester out of Wormtown. Violence may be used by the WPD. Who knows. The City Manager and the WPD have it all under control – we the people – through our short-sighted city council/elected officials – gave them the right.

We Worcesterites and anyone with a heart, an interest in free speech or an intertest in righting the social/economic ills in this country can just take a powder. Occupy Worcester will not be speaking for anyone here in this town. The second largest city of New England will be silent in the OW movement. So different from Boston (national heroes!), Providence and small cities in Vermont, etc.

We will, thanks to City Councilor Konnie Lukes and the other city councilors who last week signed onto her screwy order to back up CM Mike O’Brien’s decision to freeze out OW, have stifled OW. Except for Ric Rushton and Mayor Joe O’Brien – who voted to support Occupy Worcester’s very American right to protest, to speak against social ills, to gather on our city and town commons to protest injustice or just to meet. The City Council put a billy club over the questioning, unweildy and idealistic head of Occupy Worcester.

Not exaclty a very scary bunch of folks. Many of OW’s trrops are young. Many are older. There are even a few retired Worc. professors thrown into the mix. For Lukes and company to treat the OW brigade members as if they were a few steps away from being Worcester’s premier drug lords and hoodlums. People who will wreak havoc on Worceseter! People who will bring guns, drugs, etc to the fine streets of Wormtown is nutty.

For the most part this movement is beyond peaceful – it’s almost too egalitarian. So egalitarian that it has yet to come up with specific goals and issues it wants to get behind. (See below posts for some ideas from Michael Moore). But they are great polticial street theater. They are calling attention to America’s BIG ISSUES/BIG PROBLEMS. And they are inspiring other AMERICANS to say enough is enough! More and more people are catching the OW vibe -which is things don’t have to be this crumby. Big banks don’t have to have the regulatory freedom to bend all the rules, go under and then expect the American taxpayer to bail them out.

Talk about socialism!

So three cheers for Worcester Mayor Joe O’Brien and Worcester City Councilor Ric Rushton for remembering that America was founded on some of the things that OW is trying to do in 2011. Three cheers for their respect for free spech and the right to gather peacefully.

A kick in the nuts to Konnie Lukes for getting all paranoid and treating OW as if they are … Abbie Hoffman! And shame on all the city coucilors who voted to support her order to support Miker O’Brien’s lousy snubbing of OW.

They will not go away, Mike O’Brien. And if one of your cops gets too free and easy with the billy club or pepper spray, Worcester will make national headlines.

Abbie Hoffman would be proud of OW! I wish he were here to help lead the way today!

Do Worcester (and yourself) proud! Please go out and vote!

Thank you!

- R.Tirella

INCITY TIMES ENDORSES THE FOLLOWING CANDIDATES/Please vote for:

Mayor: Konstantina Lukes

City Council District 4: Barbara Haller

City Council District 1: Virginia Ryan

City Council-at-Large:

Konstantina Lukes
Bill (William) Coleman
Mike (Michael) Germain
Joseph O’Brien

Worcester School Committee:

Hilda Ramirez
John Monfredo
Jack Foley

Ballot Question
Vote YES for School District Representation! YES!

By Rosalie Tirella

Tough, smart, classy, fearless. Konstantina Lukes, former mayor of Worcester, and one of 2011′s mayoral candidates, goes toe to toe with the boys in this boys town. She is not afraid to stake out her own territory – yet she will listen and evolve. (Lukes gave City Manager Mike O’Brien a perfect score during his job evaluation this year, after being a friend of former Worcester City Manager Tom Hoover and hating the way he was pushed out of his job.)

She is anti-chicken but pro-homeowner, voting for lowest residential tax rate for years and years (unlike opponent Joe Petty, who will most likely vote to raise it).

Konnie is fun – even though many people think she isn’t.

Konnie is progressive. If it weren’t for Konnie Lukes (acting as head of the Worcester School Committee, when she was Worcester mayor), the Worcester Public Schools would not have Melinda Boone, PHd, leading our schools. The first female, African American school superintendent for Worcester, Boone is the epitome of professional. She is also caring and committed to all the students in the WPSchools -white, brown, black. Click to continue »

A) Why are you being so kind with Joe Petty?

Thanks goodness that you, Miss Tirella, are firmly putting the words down that describe that flaccid, impotent, puppet aka Joe Petty.

Mr. Petty says he wants to “continue the work of Jim McGovern and Tim Murray” all the time. First, this: it tells me that Petty lacks original ideas. Second, it tells me he is a lapdog for the “machine.” Third, it says he approves of all the work of Murray and McGovern.

So I guess balding Joe is OK with the secret, sleazy emails that Jim McGovern did behind closed doors for the St. Vincent Cancer center.

(BTW didja notice that Rushton was the other lapdog who called into Jordan Levy to smooth over the email fiasco on that deal the day after it hit the press? Thanks, Ricky. You’re another one)

b) Paul Giorgio — what else needs to be said about … (except we aren’t too sure Petty has a pulse)

c) The anti-Konnie conspirators

There is a large gang of anti-Konnie folks, starting with Tim Murray and Jordan Levy who hate this great lady.

They don’t even like to mention her name! They are seething. But she stands up to the sleazy deal makers and questions the facts that need to be questioned.

Here it is: Petty was the machine’s choice after Joe O’Brien backed out. And Rushton will be the next fall guy should Petty fail in this election.

By Rosalie Tirella

Why did just 9% of registered voters in Worcester go to the polls in the recent city preliminary election? Moves like this one: After Mayor Joe O’Brien announced he would not seek re-election, Worcester At Large City Councilor Joe Petty, one of the boys in the Murray/Rushton boys club – the boys club that has been running this town for years, decided – just hours later – to run for Mayor of Worcester.

Petty made his announcement in less than 24 hours!

Just like that! Amazing! Spectacular!

I bet Petty wasn’t planning on running for mayor of New England’s second largest city, had no pressing issues he wanted to champion, had no special vision of the Worcester that he wanted to realize. He simply got a phone call from the boys club and they said: Run, Joe, run! Run for mayor! KILL KONNIE LUKES! RUN AGAINST HER SO SHE WON’T BE WORCESTER MAYOR AGAIN! (Lukes was mayor prior to O’Brien) And Petty, the good soldier, said OK. No biggie.

What a cynical move – on Petty’s part and the Boys’ Club. What a cynical way to run your politics. What a crumby way to run a city or present yourself to the voters.

This is why no one votes in Worcester! What’s the point? voters ask themselves. It’s all pre-planned, pre-ordained.

Hell, Petty is a good egg, but he has zero charisma and has never displayed any kind of leadership on any city issue – and I have been watching our city council for years. Yes, he wants Verizon’s tax loopholes closed; yes, he wants our cable contract with Charter looked at very carefully. But that is all I remember Petty getting passionate – well, not exactly passionate about – but at least leading a discussion about at city council meetings. Click to continue »

Worcester’s Joe O’Brien has decided not to run for mayor again. On Tuesday, September 20, city voters will still be able to vote for him – as City Counilor at Large.

Here is the letter (citing the reasons for his decision) O’Brien emailed to his supporters.

- R. Tirella

***************

Dear Friends,

I am writing to inform you of my decision to not seek the office of Mayor. Instead I will only run for City Council At-Large.

This has not been an easy decision. I recognize that it will come as a surprise because I have already launched my Mayoral re-election campaign. But over the course of the last month I have come to realize that the pressures of running another campaign and then serving as Mayor for another two years would be too much for myself and my family at this time.

When I ran for Mayor two years ago I promised that I would be a full-time Mayor and I have kept this promise. In doing so, I created significant challenges for my family.

While I have been honored to the Mayor of this great city, I have struggled to balance the life of politician, husband, and new parent. My wife Lisa and I, in our mid forties, became parents for the first time of four year old twins from Ethiopia a couple of months after I took office. As everyone knows, while being a parent is joyful it is also a challenge. Our children need to have two parents who can commit themselves to their development and integration, particularly our son who has had some special challenges adapting. To do the job of Mayor right, the commitment required me to be out for many nights, weekends, and holidays. I don’t believe it is in the best interest of my family to do this for another two years. In addition, earning a part-time salary while serving as a full-time Mayor, in our form of government, has also created financial pressures that are not sustainable for our family at this time.

It has been a honor to serve the people of this great city as Mayor and it has been great to work with so many people to make s difference. Working with the City Manager, the City Council and our School Committee and administration we have accomplished a lot of great things, and undertaken some important initiatives. Today, two years after taking office, long planned construction projects are underway, our economy is growing, our city schools are improving and our neighborhoods are more stable. With extended office hours, neighborhood walks, the new Civic Academy, and almost daily visits to local community groups we have worked hard to engage the people of Worcester and bring a new sense of accountability to local government. The Mayor’s Task Force on Economic Development produced a host of recommendations, most of which have already been implemented. We launched a Mayors Small Business Roundtable, and my office has helped lead a community initiative to improve the academic experience of our Latino students. I am especially proud of the work we have done together with our Immigrant and Refugee Roundtable to help our new Americans become fully engaged in our community. And we spent many hours working to insure that our working people have a voice at the table and that as we have grown our economy we have insured that good jobs were created for the residents of Worcester.  

I am proud of this record and I hope that with your help I can continue to support these efforts as a City Councilor at Large. I plan on working with the new Mayor to insure that many of these efforts continue and I will still be on the front-lines when needed to help advance our shared agenda.

I want everyone to know, as I exit the Mayor’s office, that our city is blessed with outstanding leaders in our City Manager Mike O’Brien and our School Superintendent Dr. Melinda Boone. I have truly enjoyed working with them and I hope I will be able to continue to do so in the City Council.

Most of all I want to thank all of you for your friendship and support. I am truly blessed to have so many wonderful people who have helped with my campaigns and cared for me and my family. I could not have done it without countless people who have stepped forward to lend a hand and I will always be grateful that you helped me have the honor of serving the great people of this city.

I hope that we can continue to find ways to work together to make life better for the people of our city, state and nation. Some among us dislike politics, as if we could have good government without it. We disagree. For us politics is the way we turn citizenship into a verb. I hope we can continue to do our public work together.

Yours in friendship,

Joe

By Rosalie Tirella

We will see if this bullshit continues at tonight’s Worcester City Council meeting: the not-so-latent attempt to pull the rug out from under the sturdy feet of Dr. Melinda Boone, Worcester’s new school superintendent.

We know that City Counilor Frederick Rushton was a big fan of “connected” school superintendent candidate Steve Mills (now working in some Boston suburb), and that he wanted his boy to get the superintendent job big time. Infact, last year Rushton was the city council member who was most vocal in his opposition to Boone. And he pushed for Mills, who thought he was a shoe in because he worked on Tim Murray’s first political campaign and all that crap.

But, hey, Rushton was powerless and then Worcester Mayor konnie Lukes wasn’t. As then-chair of the Worcester School Committee (as is for all of Wormtown’s mayors), Konnie created a professional search committee comprised of community intelligent non-biased community folks who would look at all super candidates. The search committee recommended the best candidate – Dr. Melinda Boone, a female, Black educator from Norfolk, Virginia. Our school committee OK’d the recommendation and – voila! Worcester actually looked smart, cool and progressive. … Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

Last night I sat before a little TV set mesmerized – absolutely mesmerized! – by all the whackiness that was flying around the august City Council chambers. You should have been their, folks! OR: You should have at least watched last night’s Worcester City Council meeting on your TV set! You could have sliced the rancor and the nuttiness with a meat cleaver! It was “Reno 911″ Worcester style! What a gas, gas, gas!!!!

Here we go: Nutty Scene #1: Sam Rosario. Rosario, a duplicitous blowhard whom everyone in Worcester thinks is a duplicitous blowhard, is representing the liveries in their quest to become taxis. Sammy is a guy who once told political opponent Joe Cassella to step out of a three-way city council primary race because he (Cassella) had no chance of winning – it was really a race between him (Rosario) and the incumbent (dope Joff Smith). That was before Cassella trounced him and then went on to run against Smith in November and do fairly well – and seemingly (thank God!) put an end to Rosario’s political aspirations. Well, last night Sammy went bonkers. Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

Watching the Worcester City Council meeting Tuesday nights is like watching the battle of the mini-me’s. (Mostly) third-rate characters, with not a whole lot to contribute, jostling for #1 spot – mayor of Worcester. (not such a big deal, in most folks’ opinion)

So Kate Toomey ran for mayor last election cycle – and lost – big time. She came behind Konnie Lukes, former mayor of Worcester and, of course, Joe O’Brien, current mayor of Wormtown. Both these candidates – at least in voters’ eyes – seemed more mayoral than Toomey. Toomey, while getting lots of votes for City Council, doesn’t seem like she’s ever gonna be endorsed as mayor by Worcesterites. They just don’t see her as mayor.

That is her problem to fix. Click to continue »