Ousting Mayor Albano

A Failed Attempt

 

 
I laughed to read this old Springfield Newspapers article I stumbled upon in my vaults recently. It tells about an attempt by local activists to remove controversial Springfield Mayor Michael Albano from office by a recall petition.

Interestingly, the recall did not revolve around the more obvious sins of the Albano Administration - such as its corruption, cronyism and incompetence. Instead, it focused on a proposal for a government run needle exchange program. That may seem to be too small an issue in the context of Springfield's many more serious problems to generate such passion. But the needle issue was actually a kind of symbol for those larger issues, with the Albano Administration's stubborn refusal to consider the public's wishes not to have such a program, as expressed at the polls in a referendum, being seen as symbolic of the Albano Gang's larger indifference to the public interest.

Unfortunately, needle exchange also proved to be an issue that ultimately divided the forces of reform, because many enemies of the Albano regime, who might otherwise have supported a recall, felt alienated from the needle exchange activists. The more liberal reformers supported needle exchange from a civil liberties and public health perspective, and therefore couldn't get behind the recall effort. 

The inability of Albano's many critics to ever find an issue or a candidate around which they could unite was a major reason why Albano served as long as he did. It wasn't until the city's finances collapsed in 2002 that Albano was finally discredited, after which reformers were successful in uniting around Charles V. Ryan's campaign against Albano's chosen heir, Senator Linda Melconian.

Originally Published November 6, 1998
article by Chris Hamel

Calling Mayor Michael J. Albano "arrogant and disrespectful," the grass-roots group Citizens Against Needle Exchange announced yesterday it will try to topple his administration by seeking a recall election.

The group, CANE, was emboldened at the polls Tuesday by the defeat of Question 5, which asked Springfield voters if a state pilot needle exchange program should be established in Springfield. The referendum was nonbinding, so it has no immediate impact on plans to open a needle exchange at the former Wesson Memorial Hospital on High Street.

Citing a health crisis in HIV and AIDS in the city, Albano was a catalyst for the program.

Karen A. and Robert S. Powell II, who are among the three founders of CANE, held a news conference at their Sixteen Acres home. They said no date has been set for the start of the campaign, which could lead to a recall vote.

"We would have preferred it didn't come to this, but our hand has been forced," Robert Powell said in a prepared statement. "We have tried every other avenue available to us, but our representatives have refused to listen."

Needle exchange was approved 5-4 by the City Council in July, after two years of wrangling. Voters shot down the referendum question 15,768, or 60.8 percent, to 10,186, or 39.2 percent.

The Powells said Albano is unwilling to talk to residents about issues and does not respect the people. They were joined at the news conference by Robert W. Brown, president of the Springfield Retired Police and Firefighters Association, who said the 700-member group will support CANE in the recall effort.

The Powells' neighbors, Leroy and Bessie Crenshaw, who are CANE participants, were also present.

Albano , who coincidentally held a fund-raiser attended by 200 last night in the South End, said he was not surprised by Tuesday's vote or CANE's recall intentions.

"This is the third time they've stated their intentions for a recall," he said.

He noted that he had welcomed the recall effort before, telling CANE to come after him, rather than assail the City Council about needle exchange, last summer. Albano said the recall effort is about mayoral politics and uniting various groups that disagree with him.

Albano said he received a death threat on his home telephone answering machine yesterday. He said the caller cited Albano 's position on needle exchange and told him to change it or he would be slain.

Albano said he reported the matter to police, who are investigating and have assigned extra patrols near his home. He said Paula C. Meara, provisional police chief, offered him advice, including a suggestion he wear a bulletproof vest. Albano said he will follow through on some of the recommendations.

Brown, a retired patrolman, and Leroy Crenshaw, a public school teacher, each have had mayoral aspirations, with Crenshaw once running and Brown considering it by taking out papers. Crenshaw's bid failed.

Karen Powell said CANE has no one in mind to replace Albano , and no one in CANE's leadership, which includes co-founder Susan Gallo, has plans to run for office.

The Powells said CANE is angered by the apparent unwillingness of Albano and the five councilors in support of needle exchange to change their positions in light of Tuesday's vote. The five councilors targeted are Brian A. Santaniello, William T. Foley Jr., Barbara L. Garde, Barbara J. Garvey and Bud L. Williams.

Karen Powell said the public school system and downtown revitalization are other areas in which Albano 's administration is lacking. She said the recall is not based solely on needle exchange, and she warned that city councilors, especially the five councilors who voted for needle exchange, are not immune from recall.

 

Sadly, the recall never happened, but I don't remember exactly why. I think the activist were never able to get enough signatures to put the recall on the ballot. The failure of the recall was not the end of the matter, however. The following year, in 1999, when no contender came forward to challenge Albano for re-election, the Powell's chose to run their dog Simon as a protest candidate. Amazingly, the political pooch received hundreds of write-in votes. 

Three Pics

A picture of Chancelor Robert C. Holub and Springfield Mayor Dominic Sarno on a UMass bulletin board. 

Amherst is in dismay as the beloved Raos Coffeeshop is closed for renovations. 

The babbling brook near my house. 

The Powell Kickoff

Tuesday I was in Springfield all day, starting in the morning with the Springfield Control Board meeting at City Hall (see previous post) and at night at the official kickoff rally for Karen Powell's City Council campaign. In between I sort of shlepped around my old stomping grounds in ol' Pine Point, going to lunch at Tony's Pizza on Boston Road. There I ran into former City Councilor Barbara Garde. She said that she's been drinking heavily since she left office. 

Just kidding. Actually she said she's enjoying life after politics very much.

After lunch I wandered across the street to visit Doyle the diabetic Twig Painter to see how he's doing (lousy) where he took this picture of me. Not bad aim for a blind guy.

 



At around 5:30 I headed over to the John Boyle O'Reilly Club where the rally was to be held.

Greeting arrivals at the door was former City Councilor Carol Lewis-Caulton (left) and North End activist Germaine Kennedy. 

Another former Springfield City Councilor on hand was Paul Sears.

 



Sears is best remembered for having cried out in warning that it was folly to build the New North Elementary School (now Gerena) on a sandy swamp by the riverfront. Millions of dollars later, time has proven Sears completely correct.

Also present was conservative bloger Bill Dusty (left) and activist Michael Gosselin. 

Here City Councilor Timothy Rooke chats with former mayoral aide Michelle Webber.

This is a picture of the candidate herself, surrounded on her right by her husband Bob Powell and on her left by current City Councilor Bud Williams and the Master of Ceremonies John O'Brien of the #1 ranked radio show Bax and O'Brien.

O'Brien's introductory remarks were hilarious. Explaining that he alters his name depending on the gig, he introduced himself as "John Boyle O'Brien." He then lashed into local politicians with acidic wit, telling the audience that City Councilor Bill Foley had intended to attend, but abruptly cancelled upon hearing that no TV cameras were present. State Representative Angelo Puppulo, who had stayed only briefly and then left, was declared by O'Brien to have departed because "he realized he'd already won an election and didn't need to stay."

O'Brien even poked fun at myself and fellow blogger Dusty, saying that we "lived our lives on computers" and therefore were as close to real live women as we ever get. Of course I never go in search of women, so the joke didn't really apply to me, but I took the ribbing in good humor and resisted an urge to shout out, "Stop, you're making my boyfriend jealous!"

The biggest laugh of the night was at the expense of State Representative Benjamin Swan.

 

O'Brien said that Swan had bought him a drink, but refused pay the taxes on it! The line, based on Swan's seemingly endless controversies over unpaid taxes, made the audience howl with laughter. To his credit Swan himself took it in good humor.

O'Brien suggested that Karen Powell make use as a spokesperson for her anti-crime commercials the individual who was shot and injured the other day in Springfield, a person who had also survived the Kennedy Fried Chicken shooting in January. O'Brien said the victim could be used in commercials to encourage people afraid of crime to move to the city with the slogan, "We may have lots of shootings in Springfield, but our aim is terrible!"

Referring to a biographical sketch of Powell on Dusty's website, O'Brien recounted how Karen and her husband had been the founders of the activist group that opposed a taxpayer financed needle exchange program in Springfield called CANE, for Citizens Against Needle Exchange. O'Brien joked that the needle exchange supporters were campaigning under the name Citizens Utilizing Needle Technology, which is getting a little bit raunchy considering the Mayor of Springfield was sitting just a few feet away. Everyone groaned, but with a smile on their face.

Before his talk reached the point that the vice squad would have to be called in, O'Brien surrendered the microphone to award-winning Springfield educator Melinda Pellerin-Duck, who gave a surprisingly fiery speech, openly denouncing those politicians who had passively allowed the widespread corruption of the Albano years to continue until the FBI was forced to step in. She was then followed by Mayor Charles V. Ryan, who gave an overview of his long political relationship with the Powells. Here is a picture I took earlier in the evening of Mayor Ryan and his wife Joan with School Committee member Antonette Pepe.

At last the candidate herself spoke to a wildly cheering crowd.

Afterwards, I spoke to Mayor Ryan and asked him whether there were other reformers running for Council seats this year, and aside from GOP candidate John Lysak there don't seem to be any. Dom Sarno, who is giving up his seat to run against Ryan, appears to be creating the only vacancy. Widespread rumors that incumbent Rose Marie Mazza-Moriarty was stepping down now appear to be unfounded. That only makes it even more important that voters rally with enthusiasm behind whatever challengers enter the field, especially behind a proven reformer like Karen Powell.


Hey, it's the first day of summer! The weather is just gorgeous, officially beginning summerlike activities already underway. On the Amherst town common I spotted a woman  reading on the grass.

 



Some people prefer to read not on the grass but in the air, like this kid reading a comic book near Amherst College.

A baby rabbit appeared as I walked down University Drive recently and sat as co-operative as a model while I photographed it. 

The Reformer's Choice Karen Powell

 

Springfield desperately needs fresh blood on its City Council, but there seems always to be a shortage of good candidates to replace the incumbents with. Either there are not enough challengers, or what challengers there are consist of those who merely want to get in on the corrupt action themselves. 

What a delight it is then to receive the announcement that legendary Springfield activist Karen Powell (above left with Springfield First Lady Joan Ryan) is running for a Council seat.

Karen, the wife of prominent businessman Robert Powell, is best known for her work with the citizen action group CANE, which twice defeated plans for needle exchange programs in Springfield, and for their successful role in scuttling Mike Albano's scandal plagued baseball stadium scheme. Karen will not be the first member of her family to seek elected office. The Powell's dog Simon received hundreds of votes when he ran for mayor in 1999, a campaign I described at the time as follows:

Simon Powell, the canine companion of activists Bob and Karen Powell, agreed to work like a dog in 1999 to defeat Springfield Mayor Michael Albano, who was otherwise running unopposed. I personally attended the Simon for Mayor rally as the informal master of ceremonies, for which I arrived elegantly attired in a suit and tie usually reserved for Halloween, as we all stood in line and proudly shook the paw of the mayoral contender.

I also spoke in Simon's behalf as he barked out his campaign promises of a return to good government, an end to corruption, the liberation of the county dog pound, repealing the leash law and imposing a tax on cats. Afterwards we all enjoyed a dog's lunch, until the rally had to disperse amidst never substantiated rumors that the candidate had run off with a bitch in heat named Monica.

Amazingly Mayor Albano did respond to our rally, declaring the next morning on Bax and O'Brien that if dogs could vote they would support him over Simon in gratitude to Albano for the planned new Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Shelter.

Despite Simon's dogged campaigning, many voters felt that a canine mayor was redundant, Springfield having already gone to the dogs years ago. Although every dog has it's day, Election Day was not to be Simon's as the dog eat dog tactics of the Albano camp successfully smeared Simon as a real son of a bitch. Yet even in defeat, Simon the Mayoral Pooch was still able to garner over 600 write-in votes.

Now retired from politics, Simon resides quietly in 16 Acres with the Powells, where he is known to bark happily whenever he sees Charles V. Ryan on television. It has not yet been determined whether the now somewhat elderly Simon will be making campaign appearances or holding fundraisers on behalf of Karen. 

The biggest challenge Powell faces in her campaign is her tendency to be more honest than diplomatic, a virtue in an activist but a possible liability for a politician. However, Antonette Pepe is another political figure known for her frank assessments, and she has no problem getting elected to the School Committee. Certainly the current Council would benefit greatly from a straight shooter, and the no-nonsense Karen Powell definitely fits that bill.

Unfortunately, Powell is the only real reformer I know to be definitely running for Council besides candidate John Lysak. Of the incumbents, only Bruce Stebbens and Timothy Rooke can really be said to deserve re-election. That leaves plenty of room for other good government reformers to get into the political pool, and let's hope they jump right in.


On the Hadley section of the rail trail today I came across these two vandalized STOP signs. This one comes from someone political.

What power are they talking about? Surely not the electric power! I guess it's just a random statement against all authority. Hey, you can be in my revolution if I can be in yours!

The other STOP sign expressed the exact opposite sentiment. 

I think few of us need a STOP sign to command us to do that.

Finally, my cousin in Arizona sent along this poster; just look at the price of the show!