By Rosalie Tirella

…. demand (not ask, like he did last city council meeting) from Worcester City Manager Mike O’Brien:

* a list of all subcontractors who will be working near/on/around City Square. Then he should make sure they are Worcester-based (not New Hampshire-based companies) – even if it means paying the local guys/gals/small companies more money.

* call Worcester DPW and Parks head Bob Moylan and ask him HOW he (Moylan) is hiring all the subcontractors the DPW uses. Then, if Mayor O’Brien finds the DPW hiring (by Moylan or his underlings Chris or the now gone Don Abraham, etc) all happens in a hermetically sealed Worcester piss pot, with these good jobs not being advertised in local newspapers, TV, black churches, whatever BUT going to his pals or pals of pals or a city councilor’s brother (a la Joff Smith), then Mayor Joe O’Brien needs to do the right thing and point out this is illegal. (Definitely unethical/unfair!) And then he must ask City Manager Mike O’Brien to publicly advertise all these Worcester jobs – JUST LIKE THEY DO IN THE CITY OF BOSTON!

* Mayor O’Brien must also meet with Worcester Public Schools Superintendent Melinda Boone and then go to the Worcester School Committee and DEMAND that the $15,000 a year/part-time minority-teacher recruitment officer that Worcester had for, oh, about a half year and then did away with, O’Brien must ask that that position be reinstated so our city can have some diversity in our schools. So things can be fair – and open.

We are sick of people like former City Councilor Mike Perotto’s wife getting into the school system – first as a substitute teacher and then just because her hubby was then on the Worcester City Council – get a teaching job … and you know the rest. And of course, who can forget when Luster moved a WPS secretary to a special needs teaching position (she had her own class!) just so the woman would still have a City of Worcester job! The woman was totally unqualified – uncertified – but hey, she was “connected.”

This bull shit must stop.

Mayor O’Brien, there are more than 170,000 folks in Worcester. If the same plum jobs/opportunities keep going to the same 200 – 300 Worcester families (the “connected ones”), Worcester will never become a world class city. Most of our citizens will opt out. Most of them (like they do now) will not vote – or even bother to give a shit about our parks, etc.

Bob Moylan and WPS Schools Human Resource Director Stacey Duboise Luster cannot continue to disenfranchise 95% of the population.

Mayor O’Brien, you talk about local jobs for local companies and local workers and supporting local families. You seem like you have a conscience and want to play fair.

Let’s see you walk the walk.