Moonlighting

In February of this year, Attorney Steven A. Torres, sat before the Fall River City Council and defended his recently signed contract, for his position as the city's corporate counsel. The city councilors questioned the fact that Torres was making more money than any previous corporate counsel for Fall River. Torres and Mayor Flanagan justified the $115,000 salary by asserting that the pay reflected the fact Torres would be eliminating his private practice to focus on Fall River full time. (note: At that time, I couldn't find any information supporting the claim that Atty Torres even had a private practice and the MA board of bar overseers website indicated Torres did not carry any attorney malpractice insurance because he was a government employee.)

Consider the fact that Torres justified his increased salary with the notion that he was losing money by giving up his private practice. Then imagine my surprise when I read an article out of Wareham recently which evidenced the fact that, 10 months into his contract with Fall River, Torres was still working side jobs:

"A report on the forensic audit of town computers, which has been in progress for nearly a year and a half, is once again delayed. Town Administrator Mark Andrews and the Board of Selectmen had been told that special counsel, the Law Offices of Steven A. Torres, would be prepared to present the results of the audit on Sept. 28 or October 5."

Pretty sneaky of Torres and Flanagan considering the fact that the City Council approved Torres' increased salary based on the premise that Torres was eliminating his private practice to, presumably, focus all of his efforts on the matters of Fall River. This is clearly not the case.

I think Torres is already overextended in his capacities as co-mayor of Fall River. I kid, I kid........... However, there have been many occasions where I have read in the Herald News, or heard at city council meetings that Corporation Counsel hadn't completed some task requested of them. Also, Torres went before the city council to get approval for another $45,000 budgeted so he could hire another attorney for the office - I certainly hope the addition of a new attorney wasn't to free up time for Torres to moonlight

Recalling Brian Bigelow

I think Brian Bigelow should resign from his elected position on the Fall River City Council. I was hoping he would come to this decision on his own, but that is alot to expect from someone whose decision making skills are so lacking that soliciting a hooker, for a $20 blow job, seemed like a good idea.

I have heard several people supporting Bigelow, and even defending his crime by saying it is a minor crime, a victimless crime, there are worse crimes to worry about, this crime should be decriminalized, etc. I cannot agree with those arguments. Bigelow committed a crime. He attempted to fund a criminal activity that operates in the shadows of our neighborhoods.... A criminal activity that funds the purchase of illegal drugs and makes drug dealers rich in our community. It is particularly inexcusable for an elected official who is charged with bettering our city.

In my opinion, Brian Bigelow was never an effective councilor to begin with; starting at that low point, he has only gotten worse. In the past week Bigelow missed the Arts United meeting, which he is supposed to attend in his role as City Council arts liason. He then missed last night's finance committee meeting. In the meetings he has attended since his arrest and subsequent plea to the crime, he only gave input one time.

As a reminder, Bigelow voted against allowing strip clubs in Fall River because of the harm he alleged they would do to our neighborhoods. What kind of hypocrite liar votes against allowing partially nude people in completely private facilities yet contributes to public nakedness, and publicly visible oral sex for money?

In light of everything I just said, and as a disgruntled voter in Fall River, I am demanding Brian Bigelow's resignation from the city council. I have a strong group of voters supporting me on this demand. If Bigelow does not resign by this time next week, we will begin the recall process whereby he can be ousted from office.

Who's with us?!

A few words from Candidate Rodrigues, protector of pigeons

Thank you to a wonderful blog reader for this very funny submission.

RA Meeting Video and Analysis

WATCH TODAY'S RA MEETING HERE
Thanks Skoorey for filming it!


Excellent analysis by Puck which I ripped from the comment section -

OMG. What a joke. First, the Chair hadn't even read the contract(s), then asks for 30 seconds to do so. 30 seconds??? But, he decides after that thorough review that Jobs for FR, i.e. FROED,--for no given reason--deserves the contract. FROED wants more money per month than CRES-RI, while CRES-RI asks for a lower monthly fee, but includes a 2.5% commission for real estate transactions. The RDA members' vote to award the contract to FROED and then negotiate the monthly fee with FROED. But they never considered awarding it to CRES-RI and then negotiating the real estate commission with them. Why solicit proposals in the first place if you can change the terms of them after the fact? Doing so means that neither proposal was set in stone and that either one could be revised after it was selected for award. That makes no sense at all.

Worse still, the Chair said the RDA doesn't even know if it has enough money to pay for the services they want FROED to provide.

And since when is one of the bidders--in the person of Ken Fiola--allowed to walk in on the award conference? Why wasn't the other bidder there as well? Were they invited?

Nothing about this theater of the absurd should surprise me, but I foolishly hoped these vaunted leaders would at least be better actors and present the illusion that this was a fair, well-considered award. Duh. My bad.

Stephanie, thank you for recording this. It's people like you, Shamrock, Lefty and a few others that keep my long-strained hope alive that someday this city's potential will stop being squandered by selfish, feeble-minded fools.

FROED Wins Another 3 Years...............

Ridiculous.................

FROED's Fate

The Fall River Redevelopment Authority contract with their staffing agency, the Fall River Office of Economic Development, aka "FROED," aka "Jobs for Fall River," aka Ken Fiola, expired in May. At that time the RA opted to extend FROED's service by 90 days. That 90 days expired last week. This prompted me to search for whether the city/RA made a public request for proposals to fill the staffing position upon the termination of FROED's contract.

Consider this quote from RDA attorney, Peter Bogle, regarding FROED's past bids for the RA staffing contract "FROED was the only qualified respondent on proposals to staff the RA for past contracts. Its staff management includes accounting, clerical support, marketing and negotiating on behalf of the Redevelopment Authority." So where does the RA/city advertise this opening? I did not see an advertisement on the city website, the Central register, the Herald News....google...... A friend of mine was able to find an ad in a publication I had never heard of and that now escapes me.

If the RA truly wanted to replace FROED, they would have advertised the opening with more than a trivial amount of effort. Somehow, despite the clear lack of publicity for the opening, a competing bid was submitted against FROED. I have little detail on the submission but I do know the RA is voting on it Wednesday at 9:15am.

FROED is just plain terrible and I don't think any competing organization could do a worse job. However, realistically, is the RA ever going to replace FROED? The Mayor sits on FROED along with some highfalutin Fall River residents and business people who, while some may not live in Fall River, probably enjoy the perks of a FROED board of directors position (*read: loans): This is not easily let go.

Anyhooo, I urge anyone who can make it to the RA meeting on Wednesday at 9:15am (presumably at government center) to attend. Express your concern the FROED has 32 (founded in 1978) years to improve Fall River and has not. We can't afford to continue paying Ken Fiola $170,000 a year to loan our tax money to his board members, let buildings sit and rot, and give TIF agreements to chain doughnut stores and gas stations.

Brian Bigelow Explains