News Talk for the week of October 18

The Ward 6 Alderman Rebekah is certainly on top of things‚Ķat the last Board of Alderman meeting she asked for representatives of Middlesex Federal Savings Bank to appear before the License and Permits Committee to discuss the new sign they wanted installed at their bank in Davis Square.  That‚Äôd normally be a great, but the Board of Aldermen had already voted for the approval and Rebekah even voted yes and had forgotten about it.  Right on TV you could see she was surprised, so she asked for a recess when it was revelved that she had already voted yes for the sign.  If that‚Äôs not enough, the Board was voting on a resolution supporting Somerville Cares About Prevention (the vote against wine sales in stores and markets) ballot question #1 in November.  It seems like the entire Board signed on to the resolution but not Rebekah, and after the vote was taken with everyone voting yes, she asked to be added to the resolution – which then the Board had to vote for reconsideration in order to add her name.  Maybe she‚Äôs too busy getting that new coffee shop opened to pay attention to all the details‚Ķwe can‚Äôt blame her, maybe she‚Äôs just in over her head.  Honestly we can‚Äôt make this stuff up.   

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There is one less Republican now that Popular Alderman At Large Bill White moved over to the Democrats – Bill made the move on Tuesday.  He joins other well-known former Republicans Tony Lafuente and Mayor Joe Curtatone – does this mean he is going to make the big leap and run for Mayor?  This could prove to be an interesting year coming up.  Now that he is a Democrat again, the question to ask is if this life-long resident is going to join those so-called ‚ÄúProgressives‚Äù over at the PDS?   
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Ward 2 Alderman Maryann Houston will be having a fundraiser on October 24th hosted by his Honor the Mayor…she’s constantly out there making sure Ward 2 is justly served and judging by the price of the tickets, she’s making sure she has a nice war chest for the future.
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The gloves are off and flying high now that the Somerville Police and Somerville Fire unions are uniting ‚Äì for the first time in a long time there is going to be a series of protests/pickets everywhere the Mayor goes to protest against their contracts and the way the Mayor treats them.  One reason we hear is the firing of Officer Scott Trant and the Mayors new rules that are allowing State Police to cover certain Somerville work details and allegedly causing the snubbing of the Police Union from receiving them.  We heard that an additional factor for doing this was that the Chief was supposedly telling officers that he secured additional details for them at Dilboy.  Needless to say, both unions are very upset with the Mayor, mainly because of their respective contracts.  So if you are inviting the Mayor over, be prepared to see lots of Police and Fire Union members there as well.             
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Rumor has it that the agreement between the City and the Mystic ‚ÄúMy View‚Äù Task Force was agreed to and scheduled last week for this Tuesday morning so the Boston Globe would print it and have it first – at least that‚Äôs what we hear.  Funny, when George called on Monday and asked straight up if there was a 10AM conference for Tuesday, the Mayors spokesman denied it and said he knew nothing about it – then around midnight the very same person emailed over to The News an announcement that there would be a 10AM news conference‚Ķdo you think maybe they decided this late that night?  No, that‚Äôs not it – maybe they‚Äôre trying to please the Globe so Joe and the Administration look good.
            
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Short update‚ĶJoan Batzek called to let us know there is another meeting for the ‚ÄúWomen‚Äôs Mural‚Äù on October 25th, but she doesn‚Äôt know where, since her favorite Alderman Rebekah won‚Äôt announce where‚Ķand oh yeah Rebekah when speaking about Joan please refer to her as Joan Batzek‚Ķshe hates it when you say ‚Äúthat former meter maid woman‚Äù like you did to the Globe.  When we find out we‚Äôll let you know where the meeting is.  The last artist cost $16K for her services, but its estimated that about $40K to $60K would be probably be spent this time‚Ķso someone suggested to Joan that she call Home Depot for some free paint and she got right on it.  Now we hope Rebekah will contact Joan for the meeting and maybe us here at The News to.   
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Seems like the group in Union Square, ‚ÄúSTEP‚Äù, can‚Äôt take no for an answer – they keep insisting on having the Green Line go right up under Union Square and the T has been saying now for two years that it‚Äôs not going to happen‚Ķthat would mean many millions of additional dollars to tunnel under Prospect Hill and we all know the success rate on tunnels lately here in the Boston area in both safety and cost factor.   
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