Councilor wants to keep Menino from pulling a Menino

By adamg on Wed, 04/29/2009 - 8:54am

The Herald reports that City Councilor John Tobin (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain), wants to change the city charter to keep Tom Menino from getting re-elected, engineering the elevation of the current Hyde Park city councilor to city council president, then stepping down, making the councilor the next mayor, not that Menino has ever in a million years said he would ever do something like that, mind you.

You may recall this was how Menino first became mayor, although without the engineering part, when Ray Flynn headed off to the Vatican. Menino is close with the current Hyde Park councilor, Rob Consalvo.

To replace the current system, Tobin would make the city clerk (currently, former Councilor Rosario Salerno) interim mayor until a special election.

The Herald also reports that while some (presumably on a vacation day) city workers spent yesterday collecting signatures for Menino, off-duty firefighters were out in force doing the same for their best bud, Michael Flaherty.

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Comments

Quitate tu pa' ponerme yo

By Sock_Puppet on Wed, 04/29/2009 - 9:24am.

I kinda like Consalvo. Seems like a nice guy. But that's not the right way to become Mayor. I'm not sure if I want him to be Mayor. I might. But I'd at least want him to convince me first instead of playing 'quitate tu pa' ponerme yo' like a banana republic caudillo.

Cue comparisons to Russia. Will Consalvo be Medvedev to Menino's Putin?

And cue a ready-to-roll theme song. Will they go with the reggaeton of the 12 Discipulos? Or will they go with the more classic tune, a la Fania All-Stars?

12 or 13?

By Stevil on Wed, 04/29/2009 - 10:56am.

There are 13 city councilors - so does that mean if Consalvo becomes mayor the rest are his disciples or do we need another disciple. I'd be hesitant to classify any of our councilors as all-stars.

Sock puppet - for those of us who don't speak Spanish (?) translation please of Quitate tu pa ponerme yo? Possibly the Masshole classic: "Do you have any idea who I am, officer".

Click on the reggaeton link if you haven't - nice sound - and love the Red Sox jerseys and hats.

Move over, it's my turn

By Sock_Puppet on Wed, 04/29/2009 - 11:48am.

Colloquially, it could be translated as: "Move over, it's my turn." (Literally, it's "Remove yourself so I can put myself in.")

The phrase is used as a description of the way politics traditionally tends to be done in Latin America: the leadership rotates among a small group of connected (probably even related) politicos. There's no real difference between the nominal leader, as they all really represent the same group, but it provides the window dressing of democracy.

So you can see how it springs to mind talking about the MFL possibly putting in his godson in a backdoor move.

Seems like a weird time to

By ShadyMilkMan on Wed, 04/29/2009 - 9:28am.

Seems like a weird time to even be talking about this with the mayor running again, worry about him stepping down after he, if he does, win reelection.