SOUNDS OF EVERETT

It all has a familiar ring to it: the city council suddenly feigning fits over the mayor’s longevity pay, term limits and utilizing his right to outside legal representation – all legal – unless it’s pitifully orchestrated by a former pizza delivery boy masquerading as a City Clerk Sergio Cornelio and his boss, Councillor Michael “Escobar” Marchese. It’s a shame Cornelio doesn’t realize he works for the citizens of Everett – and not the Marchese family – but he owes Marchese for his recent fortunes as real estate mogul. Pathetic to say the least. It’s no secret that the Marchese cartel’s sad attempt at sandbagging the mayor during an election year by using the politically motivated Inspector General’s report is just another embarrassment to the city following the outcome of the mayor’s defamation lawsuit, which led to the demise of the Everett Leader Herald and the Philbin family name. The Inspector General never allowed the mayor a fair hearing – no due process – which is typical of a political agenda.

Funny how certain city councillors forget – especially the ones, like Marchese, for example, who wasn’t on the council when the longevity pay was debated and passed. Back in September 2016, the City Council discussed the mayor’s salary and openly discussed his longevity pay as they compared the mayor’s salary to Malden, Medford, Revere, Quincy, Somerville and Boston. Mayor Carlo DeMaria’s salary in 2016 was $108,021. By 2018, the mayor’s salary was raised to $125,187 in comparison to the salaries of Revere and Malden mayors: $120,892 and $105,000, respectively. Somerville and Boston’s mayors’ salaries in 2018 were $180,693 and $175,481, respectively.

During the September 26, 2016, meeting, the City Council voted to approve an increase in salaries “to reflect and equal other surrounding communities,” not just the individual serving as mayor. In retrospect, the mayor’s longevity bonus per year would have brought the mayor’s average salary in FY2016-2018 up to $116,603. If the purpose was solely to raise the mayor’s salary to that of other surrounding communities, the raise would have been higher than the supposed $2,500 per year. The Chelsea City Manager’s salary increased from 2010 $145,000 per year to $189,945 in 2019 (the final year of a five-year contract). When all was said and done, the City Council voted 10-1 in favor of longevity pay. The ordinance read: “Any individual serving in the office of Mayor shall receive a longevity payment of $10,000 for each completed full-term as mayor as defined in Article III, Section I, Subsection B of the City Charter. Any individual serving as Mayor at the time of passage of this ordinance shall receive a one-time payment of $10,000 for each previously-completed term as Mayor as defined in Section 25 of the previous Charter. This Ordinance shall take effect upon passage.”

Again, the motion passed 10-1, with only Councillor Fred Capone voting against. It failed in reconsideration by a 8-1 vote. Do you think Capone, Marchese or even Martins would have voted down longevity pay if they were mayor? I highly doubt it.

But let’s not forget where this longevity pay BS began. Prior to the outcome of the 2021 election and the fallout that went with it as former mayoral candidate Capone, along with his handlers – corrupt reporter Joshua Resnek, Leader Herald owners Matthew and Andrew Philbin, and Marchese – went down in defeat in both the primary and general election. And so did The Boston Globe – the same newspaper that was, once again, discredited and embarrassed by the mayor’s defamation lawsuit when their top investigative reporter, Andrea Estes, was quietly shown the door after being duped into following the shuttered Everett Leader Herald’s false narrative that the mayor was involved in a corrupt real estate deal with Cornelio. This is the same city clerk who brought a lawyer to the City Council meeting in order to threaten any councillor who would question Cornelio’s integrity, or lack thereof, in order to keep his job. Cornelio was so upset over the mayor giving him a career by appointing him asst. city clerk and then, city clerk – Cornelio showed his gratitude by lying under oath at his deposition by claiming he didn’t speak to Resnek over a legitimate real estate deal. And that’s just for starters.

But the question still remains: How is this man still city clerk?! Cornelio attempted to pass a Home Rule Petition that stated the City Council approved his “lifetime appointment” as city clerk, which he sent to State Senator Sal DiDomenico’s office because the City Council wouldn’t approve it. He was found out by DiDomenico when the senator discovered the City Council NEVER voted for it – which is totally unethical.

Cornelio also attempted to get paternity leave, which was not allowed by the city unless he received special permission from the City Council president, but was once again denied after an attempt to have then-City Council President Wayne Matewsky, still healing from his near-death health scare in Florida, sign the paper he slipped in with other documents. Matewsky read the paper and dismissed it.

Back in 2021, Cornelio and Marchese, the councillor who knowingly permitted the sale of cocaine out of his shuttered gin mill on Ferry Street thanks to the 2003 raid by the DEA and State Police Drug Unit, received an email from Cornelio – the guy he sold his property to (that’s two homes, folks) – a letter that would be emailed to Marchese and sent under Marchese’s City Council stationery to then-Atty. General Maura Healey on December 23, 2021, and to the Inspector General on February 7, 2022, whining that he and his council cronies attempted to delete longevity from an ordinance for the mayor at a Dec. 13, 2022, council meeting – but it failed to pass. Poor babies. Around that time, all bets were off with Philbin and Resnek and no lie would go unwritten as Cornelio, now raking in cash on dog licenses, civil marriages and reimbursements, would be having dinners with Estes and the Philbins over how the mayor “cheated him” out of a sale of their legal real estate deal – for which he and the mayor partnered. Despite Resnek falsely claiming that the mayor went in on the sale without informing the State Ethics Commission (untrue); unlike, say, Cornelio and City Council President Stephanie Martins listing and selling Cornelio’s 81 Elsie St. property while only filing an ethics record with his own office – and not the state. Nothing to see here, folks.

And yet, there’s Councillor Martins screaming to the high heavens that the mayor must resign after the Inspector General’s report was published in the press. Sadly, for the Marchese cartel, no one’s buying – except the usual cast of characters on the Capone circus bus; clowns such as Miss FOIA herself, Paula Sterite, whose home was raided by police on February 28 as they confiscated all computers. But just like Resnek and Philbin, it will all come crashing down on their empty heads. It’s just history repeating itself – and these clowns just can’t help themselves.

Stay tuned.