My "ID" Made Me Do It! No Kidding !

Correia locks in Santos, Edwards with contracts.
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By Michael Holtzman
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Dec 23, 2009 @ 09:06 PM
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FALL RIVER — " Mayor Robert Correia, two weeks before leaving office, rewarded his two longest-serving staffers with three-year binding contracts and five weeks of vacation at their recently appointed Community Development Agency jobs.
Similar contracts for Jeffrey Santos and Kathleen Edwards read: “If for any reason, the city wishes to terminate this agreement for convenience, then employer shall pay out to employee the outstanding cash value of the remainder of the agreement plus any accrued vacation time, sick leave and/or personal days.”
Mayor-elect Will Flanagan vowed Wednesday to “take corrective action,” saying, “My hope is that these contracts will be null and void. … I cannot think of any time in recent history where such an action was taken.”
Correia is leaving elected office Jan. 4 after one mayoral term and 30 years as a state representative."

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"According to Freud, we are born with our Id. The id is an important part of our personality because as newborns, it allows us to get our basic needs met. Freud believed that the id is based on our pleasure principle. In other words, the id wants whatever feels good at the time, with no consideration for the reality of the situation. When a child is hungry, the id wants food, and therefore the child cries. When the child needs to be changed, the id cries. When the child is uncomfortable, in pain, too hot, too cold, or just wants attention, the id speaks up until his or her needs are met."

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“It is a tale … full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.” (Macbeth)

Well, he's finally done it. I had no doubt he would. But you have to wonder about this man who claims to love this City so much but seems to be working overtime to destroy as much of it as he can in the short time from his laughable loss in the mayoral primary election until now, a mere two weeks before the new mayor takes the oath of office.

 This man Correia is nothing but an "ID" with a pair of shoes, a man who cares only for his agenda, his personal wants and desires, and gives less than short shrift to the needs or concerns of others, particularly to those of the City he claims to love. And this quite feral being has made the two people awarded these unjustifiable contracts, Mr Santos and Ms. Edwards - who forever will now be known as "the other one" - the two most despised people in Fall River, aside from  Correia himself, of course. Are you surprised by this? Really? Has anything he has done during the last two years NOT made it clear he was quite capable of this kind of folly? The original feral man , this guy Correia is, indeed.

This person cannot accept his rejection by the voters of Fall River. We are witnessing a meltdown of monumental proportions. Correia is not acting like a spoiled brat, but like a combination of animal that must mark it's territory and a petulant, hurt teenager, planning revenge for revenge itself , like he's NOT a fully conscious being, somewhat deranged and oblivious, possessed by an unstoppable drive or need. Right now, Correia is dangerous to the public and financial safety of the City of Fall River because of these blind impulses. Like I said, an "ID" with shoes! Prove to me I'm wrong! I don't think you can. I wish I was. Desperate men are always the most dangerous.

Sure, there are legal considerations. Mayor Flanagan and his team will look at the law and find out if there are any grounds with which to reverse these contracts. Then there is the lack of qualifications of Mr. Santos. He may be a nice guy (I hear otherwise), but it appears his sole qualification might be the fact he's had to endure Mr. "ID" for 30 years and fetch his coffee. That doesn't get you a $90K yearly salary - it gets you a job as a nurse's assitant cleaning bedpans! Sorry, but that's the truth. From what I hear, it's Ms. Edwards that might more closely warrant the extraordinary combining of two positions to make one salary, something I'm sure the Mayor's legal people will research in conjunction with federal officials. Trust me, the benefit of the doubt always goes to the guy in office, not the guy who just left office and made a Tammany Hall type Hack Hire (is that redundant?) on his petulant way out the door.

There are ways the new Mayor could try to aliviate this problem of late minute hires of unqualified people to open and/or created  jobs. First, they could challange any appointments made without the benefit of proper internal job postings and advertiseing. If these jobs are in the regular City Budget for FY10, he could simply create a new job, write specific qualifications for that job the folks appointed by Correia do not possess, get that approved by the City Council, fund it, and red line the jobs in question out of existence. That would mean unemployment expense, but at least you are providing the system with a necessary enema of sorts. In any event, Correia placing these people in jobs WILL cost this City money it does not have, especially the contract backed jobs. If they were contracts based on the general fund City budget, all contracts are subject to funding, so Flanagan could legally remove the funding for those contracts by zero-ing out the line items in which the money exists. So there is some leeway, but like I said, it's going to cost the City money. Then you have to look at the upset fighting these appointments will cause your new administration. This is simply something the Mayor Flanagan does not need to face. And everyone knows Correia is doing this on purpose.

 Only the most devoted, droid-like followers of Correia have the shame to speak in favor of these contracts. They are an abomination to the City, and a clear example of precisely what caused his drubbing in the primary. I feel sorry for the two people involved in these jobs. I imagine they will be pariahs in City Hall, always under watchful eye and persecution. But this is part of the devil's pact for which they so willingly bargained.

I also understand, having worked in government for many, many years, the outgoing chief elected official likes to make these kind of appointments of unqulaified people to make the incoming offical in charge look bad by comparison. These unjustified appointments by "ID" man Correia take this to a new, costly and pernicious level.

As THE GREAT DESTROYER CORREIA goes to the Court Administrative Chief Justice to beg for a large salary job for one year and no heavy lifting, which they will probably grant him for past considerations, he seems to refuse to leave the scene, especially with these last two contract appointments.  See kids, don't be like this guy once you are the object of rejection. Learn to loose gracefully, and not act like some zombie cretin obsessed with getting even at all costs, including what little of your reputation you still have left. Maybe we should start calling him "THE THING THAT WOULDN'T LEAVE", like the John Belushi character from that memorable Saturday Night Live episode. Everytime he does something else, we can all shriek in terror like Jane Curtin.

In the end, he will finally be gone,  quite sooner than you and I can imagine right now. So will  every trace of his decrepit and festering adminsitration. All who helped him run his despotic regime, despotic in the way only such an "ID" driven man could possibly create, full of bold faced agression and reactionary paranoia, must be also be held accountable for what has transpired. If you helped Correia in any fashion, if you created and carried out his directives, you are guilty and should no longer work for this City or it's citizens. But, again, over time what he has done will fade away like so many winter shadows. Sometime this spring it will be as if he never existed. The bully's voice will cease to echo. And Correia's tale will be..." full of sound and fury - signifying NOTHING!"