Friends of the Mayor

For years I kept on the old website The Ogulewicz Chronicles the memoirs of former Springfield City Councilor Mitch Ogulewicz. However, after several years declining readership and what seemed to be declining relevance caused me to take the chronicles down. However, when I saw recently that Springfield mayoral wannabe Dom Sarno was praising former State Rep. Ray Jordan as if he were an elder statesman, I realized that the public needed a refresher course on Springfield political history. As a result, I have resurrected from the vaults of The Baystate Objectivist some of the more instructive of the Ogulewicz Chronicles, and returning them to the Internet in hopes of improving the electorate's political memory. Here's another good one:

Of the many candidate forums Mitch Ogulewicz spoke at during the election campaign of 1983, few made a more lasting impression on him than one that took place at St. John's Congregationalist, a predominantly black church on Union street. At first there was little to indicate that it would be anything more than a typical "Meet the Candidates" night.

Running for mayor that year virtually unopposed was Richard Neal (his opponent was William Montana, a mysterious political fringe candidate who almost never campaigned). Neal made a standard two-minute stump speech and then left the building. The forum then turned to the City Council candidates.

With such an unwieldy field of 24 contenders, it was difficult to cover many issues, so to give the event some focus, the candidates were asked to answer only a couple of questions of special concern to the black community. The first of those questions was an inquiry as to why so much taxpayer's money was being spent on revitalizing Downtown, while so little was being spent in neighborhoods such as Winchester Square (now called Mason Square).

As one by one the two dozen candidates rose to give their two minute replies, the event became a boring drone-a-thon as each contender made vague promises to do more for the neighborhoods, some day, some way, details to be provided later. By the time it was Mitch's turn, he was sick of all the meaningless blather and decided he would shake things up with a little bit of badly needed frankness.

"The reason you receive so little economic development money in comparison to the Downtown business interests," Ogulewicz explained, "is because you don't count."

The audience gasped.

"If you ever expect to compete with the Downstreet insiders for a bigger piece of the pie," he continued, "then you are going to have to be a lot more active, a lot more vocal, and vote in much greater numbers than you do. But if you will do your part here in the community, I promise that if I am elected I will do my part in City Hall to make sure the voices of the neighborhoods are heard."

The congregation erupted into loud applause. After the forum was over activist Roger Williams approached Mitch and asked how he and others in the black community could help with the campaign. Prior to that day, Mitch had only a weak campaign organization in the black community, but after that forum and with the help he got from Williams, he was well on his way to a solid showing in the city's black precincts in November.

That candidate forum impressed upon Mitch what a sore point the conflict between Downtown and the neighborhoods was. It wasn't just in places like Mason Square that Mitch heard these complaints, in every neighborhood people seemed to feel that the Downtown political insiders were getting all the attention, while the residential areas were being allowed to decline. Mitch felt that there had to be some way to bridge the gulf of alienation that existed between the neighborhoods and City Hall.

Now that he had been elected, Ogulewicz was in a position to do something about it, and he soon came up with a plan. He realized that part of the problem was that City Council meetings took place at City Hall, meaning that any citizen who wished to participate in their city government had to come downtown. Ogulewicz wanted to see what would happen if somehow people could share their opinions and concerns with a City Councilor without having to go all the way to City Hall.

Mitch concluded that the best way to achieve this would be to start holding "office hours" in every neighborhood in the city. Of course State Senators and State Representatives had been holding office hours in the neighborhoods for years, but no City Councilor had ever done so. Mitch wondered what would happen if city residents could just walk down to their local school, library or fire station and greet a City Councilor waiting there to answer their questions and deal with their concerns.

On January 2nd, 1984, Mitchell James Ogulewicz Jr. was sworn in as a City Councilor. In the weeks that followed his inauguration, Mitch set up a schedule of office hours that would bring him into direct contact with every neighborhood in the city. The reaction to his announcement of office hours surprised him. On the one extreme there was Yolly Nahorniak of the Pine Point Community Center, who did everything but hire a brass band and roll out a red carpet for Mitch's arrival, while at the other extreme was Karen Ledger of Indian Orchard, who seemed to discourage Mitch from coming to her neighborhood.

Mitch later heard from some who attended his office hours that Ledger felt that people should come to her civic association if they needed help instead of talking to a City Councilor directly. Her negative attitude surprised Mitch, who had expected his office hours to be completely non-controversial. But Ogulewicz was insistent on going to every neighborhood and not allowing petty political turf wars to undermine his access to the citizens he served.

The East Forest Park session at Nathan Bill Park turned out to be the largest turnout of all. When Ogulewicz arrived he was amazed to see the entire Community Center packed to the walls. Mitch couldn't imagine what neighborhood problems could cause the mostly affluent residents of East Forest Park to flock to see him in such numbers.

To his surprise it turned out to be a public uproar over an Adult Basketball League. According to the chief spokesman for the aggravated citizens, retired police captain Jim Williams, there was this basketball league of guys in their 20's and 30's who were using the courts at Nathan Bill Park for their nighttime games. Capt. Williams explained that not only were the games noisy, but there was lots of drinking by both players and spectators, illegally parked cars, blocked driveways and problems with people urinating on lawns and cutting through yards. The neighborhood was very forceful in making it clear to Mitch that they were fed-up with it.

The entire situation puzzled Ogulewicz. Hadn't the citizens tried to get the city to enforce the noise, drinking, parking and trespassing ordinances already on the books? Yes, the residents explained, but they had been repeatedly put off or handed promises that never came true. It occurred to Ogulewicz that maybe this was the sort of problem that was best handled outside of official channels. Mitch suspected that there was simply a lack of communication between the East Forest Park community and the leaders of the Adult Basketball League. Perhaps if he were to talk with the leaders of the league one on one then some sort of accommodation could be worked out that would be satisfactory to all parties. He was given the names of two men he didn't recognize as the persons who were in charge of the league.

Their names were Kevin Kennedy and Mike Graney.

Ogulewicz called them and asked to meet with the two men wherever they wished. They told Mitch to meet them at Jilly's, a tough Parker Street bar notorious for its rowdy clientele. That evening however, the only fisticuffs would be verbal. Over beers Mitch laid out the neighborhood's concerns as they had been explained to him by the irate crowd at his East Forest Park office hours. He was taken back by the seeming indifference of Kennedy and Graney to what he was telling them. Wouldn't they make at least some attempt to accommodate the concerns of the residents, Mitch asked?

Kennedy and Graney made it clear that they didn't have to. They frankly told Mitch that they were personal friends of the new mayor, Richard Neal, and as such did not have to worry about any interference from City Hall or the neighborhood itself. When Mitch persisted that the people of East Forest Park had a right to protect their neighborhood regardless of the political connections of the league's organizers, Kennedy addressed Mitch in the tone of a person talking to someone who has a hard time understanding reality. "We are close friends of the Mayor," Kennedy said. "Fuck those people."

When Mitch left Jilly's that night, after having accomplished nothing, he was very disappointed in what had transpired. Mitch was politically sophisticated enough to understand that a little bit of favoritism by politicians toward personal friends and supporters was only natural and could be overlooked if within reason. But it surpassed all reasonable bounds for Kennedy and Graney to feel that their relationship with the Mayor meant that they could dismiss the public interest with a crude obscenity.

But if that was the attitude of the friends of the Mayor toward the legitimate concerns of the residents of East Forest Park, then Mitch concluded that those citizens deserved to know exactly where they stood. When he reported back to the East Forest Park residents at another packed meeting at Nathan Bill Park, he spared them nothing. After recounting his fruitless attempts to relate the neighborhood's problems to Kennedy and Graney, Mitch told them their final response.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Mitch said, "I hope you will forgive my language, but I believe you should be told precisely what mayoral aide Kevin Kennedy said in response to your concerns. He told me, "Fuck those people!"

The audience erupted in rage at this news and residents began calling for ways to raise money for a court action to be taken against the city demanding the enforcement of the local ordinances. While in the end nothing was resolved that night, City Hall was bombarded over the next several days with angry phone calls and threats of legal action. The public outcry threatened to create a major political embarrassment for the Neal Administration, and so, quietly and without comment, the Adult Basketball League moved their games elsewhere.

It was a significant political triumph for Mitch on behalf of the people of East Forest Park, but it did not come without a price. It had come at the cost of some of Mitch's respect for the Neal Administration and his faith in the Administration's commitment to treat all citizens equally. It had also strained his own relationship with the Mayor, since Kennedy and Graney had complained to Neal about the uppity new City Councilor who did not show the proper respect for the Mayor's friends.

Mitch Ogulewicz no longer lives in Massachusetts. Kevin Kennedy is currently an aide to Congressman Richard Neal. Michael Graney has held a number of city positions and was the leader of the failed effort to build a baseball stadium in Springfield.

There was a panhandler sitting outside the Haymarket Cafe last week and I gave him a buck because he had a great line.



He said: "Got any spare change to help pay my hair gel bill?"

Andy and I were bummed out recently because we had no money to go anywhere like maybe New York or Cape Cod or Nevada or somewhere, anywhere just to get away from our same old routine. Then a brilliant idea came to me (I'm prone to them).

Let's just go rent a hotel room on Route Nine!

Yes, beautiful Route Nine, home to suburban sprawl at its finest, malls and stores galore, all interspersed with farms, their cows and the occasional swamp. Checking online we found that the cheapest joint on the route was the illustrious Howard Johnson's, hotel of choice to the Valley's most discerning lowlifes. We drove right over, checked right in, and began to enjoy our new environment. With the help of some adult beverages and controlled substances, the place didn't look too bad at all. Hey that blue chair looks a little French, like maybe you might see it in the court of Louis the 14th, that is if the Sun King were on welfare.




The paisley pattern on the bed sheet reminded us of San Francisco during the Summer of Love!



There was even a pool. Not quite the Atlantic Ocean at Hyannis, but hey, the water is just as wet!



Actually, Andy and I never used the pool, being able to keep each other very entertained indoors. So, the next time you feel trapped in a dull routine, with no money to break out of it, remember that it's all in your head and that a change of location, even just a new roof over your head, can make all the difference as you enjoy an imaginary vacation.

The work of our own Bo Burnham is becoming increasingly transgressive - and funny. If he ever gets the chance to perform outside of his bedroom, he's either going to be the hottest sensation to come out of Massachusetts or else get himself into some real trouble. Or both. Here's his latest.