Some Greater Lowell Technical High School School Committee members think the relationship between Superintendent Mary Jo Santoro and the attorneys at Long & DiPietro, LLC. is too close.
“There’s a little to much comfort and too much money being tossed around,” said Fred Bahou, who represents Lowell.
A report prepared by the school’s business office shows that from July 2009 to this past December, the district paid $307,695 to the Hingham-based law firm.
An analysis of the report on legal-services fees shows that in fiscal 2011, there were more than 80 phone calls, discussions or emails between Santoro and the attorney’s office.
Some of the names in the report, which was obtained by The Sun through a Freedom of Information request, are redacted and in some cases, the detailed expenditures say “telephone conference with client,” so there could be more exchanges of communication if “client” is Santoro.
“It was really alarming to me that we had so much communication and with that communication was cost,” said Bahou.
Santoro said the amount of communication is necessary because she is the person at the school who provides information to the attorneys for responses to charges against the school district.
Fueling talk about the relationship between Santoro and the attorneys, there was some speculation that Long & DiPietro represented Santoro when she was negotiating her contract for superintendent with the School Committee in 2010, creating an obvious conflict.
However, in an interview, Santoro said she sought her own legal counsel through a referral from the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents.
Attorney Howard Greenspan, of Peabody, advised her and drafted her initial contract, she said. Greenspan, however, did not sit in on contract negotiations.
Rosann DiPietro sat in on negotiations representing the School Committee.
The School Committee has employed the services of Long & DiPietro since July 2006.
“I think there is a relationship that has been built over the last six years,” said committee member Erik Gitschier, of Lowell. “It has to be built, but I think it is too close.”
Other members, Victor Olson, of Dracut, and David Tully, of Dunstable, do not find the relationship between Santoro and the firm to be too close.
Tully said he believes the amount of communication is necessary due to ongoing collective bargaining and the number of grievances filed.
“I’m absolutely sure. They don’t call just to spend money,” said Tully.
Olson accused the committee members who said they thought the relationship was too close of “grandstanding.”
He said the committee votes on whether to take grievances to arbitration, so they shouldn’t be surprised if the fees paid for legal-services have gone up and that more communication is necessary.
“It surprises me how some committee members could question these things,” he said.
He said he would rather be safe than sorry and seek out legal advice.
Attorney Michael Long said there have been about 90 new grievances filed in recent years, according to Tully and Santoro.
The Hingham-based law firm had charged $200 an hour for its services, but in July, the firm boosted its fees to $225 an hour, without informing the School Committee.
Long told the committee at its last meeting that the firm had told the other school districts it represents that it was raising its fees, but had not told Greater Lowell Tech.
Gitschier said he was concerned that the school continued to pay for the bills for six months without realizing the fees had increased.
“That’s no longer a mistake — how do you not know it’s going up,” he said.
Gitschier cited one example of Santoro consulting the school’s attorneys where he thought a decision could have been made by the superintendent.
He said he wanted to tour the school and sit in on a class. Santoro told him the tour was fine, but she would have to consult the attorneys about the classroom visit.
Both admit there was miscommunication because Gitschier had wanted to sit in on a shop class, not an academic class.
In an interview, Santoro said she needed legal advice because sitting in on a classroom could be considered teacher observation and School Committee members are supposed to stay out of the day-to-day operations of the school building. Legal counsel advised Gitschier could sit in if the teacher and a union representative agreed to the classroom visit.
Gitschier said he went to Minuteman High School in Lexington to sit in on a class.
Do you think Santoro is too close to the lawyers?

Former State Sen. Steve Panagiotakos, who left office in 2011 after 18 years on Beacon Hill, has registered as a lobbyist and is counting Community Teamwork, Inc. as one of his first clients.
“I want to get back into dealing with public policy issues,” said Panagiotakos, 52. “The more I thought about it, I mean, I spent 18 years doing that. I have some experience and somewhat of an expertise doing that. I think I know about the issues.”
Panagiotakos registered as a lobbyist in early January.
Besides CTI, he is also representing the Massachusetts Chiropractic Society and a California-based educational services firm he also does consulting work for.
He is also expected to represent the interests of thousands of police and correction officers affiliated with the New England Police Benevolent Association. Its executive director, Jerry Flynn, has a close relationship with Panagiotakos.
Panagiotakos, a Lowell Democrat, has kept a low profile since he decided not to seek re-election in 2010. Panagiotakos was chairman of the budget-crafting Ways and Means Committee when he left office.
In addition to running his Lowell-based law firm, Panagiotakos has also worked as a strategic policy adviser for the firm Greenwood & Hall, a national educational firm that contracts with universities to assist with admissions, financial services, retention and other student services, after leaving the Senate. Greenwood & Hall is now one of Panagiotakos’s lobbying clients.
Panagiotakos said he is still working out what his clients’ legislative priorities are. He said he is not advocating for any particular piece of legislation.
He said his work with CTI, a local nonprofit community action agency, will focus on issues such as housing, homelessness, mental health assistance and employment.
“Right now it’s in its infancy,” he said. “Strategizing. Getting it up and running.”
Panagiotakos would not be the first former Greater Lowell politician to get into the lobbying business after leaving office.
Former Lowell City Manager John Cox has worked for the Salem-based law firm McGlynn & McGlynn since 2007.

Gallagher and Cavanaugh, showing great faith in the downtown, recently spent what had to be at least $1 million purchasing and renovating Gaslight Building on Shattuck Street for their firm’s new headquarters. Previously it was located in the Boott Mills complex.

The Column Blog carried a post on the new Gallagher & Cavanaugh LLP offices last Dec. 15. http://sunthecolumn.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/

Gallagher and Cavanaugh have no regrets moving. However, they are concerned about what’s happening just a couple blocks away. The brawl that started inside, then spilled outside, of Fortunato’s early last Friday morning prompted the lawyers to pool their collective thoughts and articulate them to Mayor Patrick Murphy and City Manager Bernie Lynch in a six-page letter dated Feb. 12. Read  Gallagher and Cavanaugh letter

Some of the letter’s more salient points include:

• Downtown Lowell is home to many fine establishments. Unfortunately, their reputation is being sullied by a few bad apples.

“It would be a major mistake for us if they were to be perceived  as part of this problem, and somehow penalized as a result,” Gallagher and Cavanaugh wrote.

The statement appears to be a shot across the bow of the License Commission, which has proposed rolling back the last call hour of 1:45 a.m to midnight for all bars.

• Downtown bars would be “encouraged” to install one or more surveillance cameras.

“The presence of a surveillance camera would serve to deter irresponsible service but could also capture employee theft and provide evidence for law enforcement in the event of a disturbance within the bar.”

• Who does the License Commission represent?

“A downtown bar owner is obviously entitled to build a business and make a profit, and the LLC should not be insensitive to the legitimate interests of downtown bar owners,” Gallagher and Cavanaugh wrote. “However, the welfare and safety of the general public should be the LLC’s chief concern.”

That’s another shot. License commissioners have been accused of being too cozy with the bar owners. Last year when top city officials urged the commission to change its twice-per-month 3 p.m. meetings to an hour that is more convenient for all parties, commissioners resisted, in part because the commission didn’t want inconvenience the men and women they are supposed to be overseeing. Astonishingly, Commissioner Brian Akashian said in a Dec. 1 Column Blog post http://sunthecolumn.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/ that meeting at night is “prime time” for bar owners.

In wrapping up, G and C write: “As those involved well know, this is a time for more than talk. It is a time for all those empowered to effect positive change — the LLC, city officials, the City Council, downtown bar owners, and the law enforcement community — to immediately take fair and reasonable steps to stop irresponsible service and ensure that it not continue, and to send the message to potential downtown bar patrons that punishment for criminal behavior will be swift and severe.”

But what at least one member of the local law enforcement community found most unnerving about the brawl inside, then outside, of Fortunato’s in downtown Lowell early last Friday morning were the addresses and attitude of the 14 suspects who were arrested on various charges.

Only three were from Lowell. Others hailed from Andover, Lawrence, Cambridge and elsewhere.

“In the past we have been able to break up brawls because the officers who responded knew who was fighting, or knew their families, fathers and mothers, brothers or sisters. We could talk to them and usually break through,” said one officer who was in the thick of it. “That wasn’t the case Friday morning.

“None of these people were known to Lowell police,” the officer said. “It was an outside group that came in to use this establishment.”

The brawl was discovered at about 1:30 a.m. by a Lowell police officer who happened to be driving by the business at the corner of Market and Palmer Streets. Every available Lowell police officer was summoned to the scene, as were reinforcements from the UMass Lowell Police, State Police and from several local communities.

Besides the 14 arrests, three police officers were injured. Thankfully, none seriously, as the officers returned to work each day.

But it was indeed dicey. The officer who spoke with The Column Blog recalls seeing one LPD officer on the ground, trying to bust out of a head-lock one of the thugs allegedly had him in.

“It was just like one of those old time hockey fights,” the officer said. “Everyone was just fighting. Girls on girls, guys on guys.”

As officers broke up one fight and moved the suspects outside, they’d just start fighting again.

“It was absolutely crazy,” the officer said. “It was like something from the movies.”

The officer remarked at the complete lack of respect for law enforcement exhibited by the suspects.

“They just don’t care. They will fight anyone for anything. They just don’t care,” the officer said.

Despite the arrests, injuries, and damage to property, the officer described the Fortunato’s brawl as somewhat of an anomaly.

“It was just real bad timing,” the officer said. “There’s been a number of incidents in the downtown that have been sort of building up to this, but I believe that most of the club owners care about what goes on inside their businesses.”

Whether an anomaly or not, city officials are responding aggressively. City councilors will spend much of their weekly meeting at City Hall tonight, 6:30 p.m, speaking about downtown disorder and ways to restore peace.

It will also be the topic of a special City Council meeting Thursday night, 6:30 p.m., also in the City Council Chambers.

Boxford Republican Bill Hudak announced in late January that he would end his quest against Democratic 6th District Rep. John Tierney because a “business opportunity” had presented itself.

Hudak, whose outspoken nature ruffled some feathers during his first run against Tierney in  2010, was cryptic, however.

In an email that went out Monday, Hudak finally elaborates on a new, “proprietary, unique health system based on Nobel Prize winning science, which I could not talk about, until now.”

Hudak wants to reverse the aging process!

He’s peddling a system call “Prime.” According to his email, “It reverses the aging process, expands the arteries, enhances brain activity by supporting cell communications, memory, and healthy cognition. It’s amazing – a veritable fountain of youth!”

Hudak goes on to say: “Alone, this system will lead to more youthful and longer life, increased oxygenation of the tissues and organs, preventing and reducing heart attacks, strokes, memory loss, and diseases of the brain which are caused by hardening and narrowing of the arteries, and more.” 

Hudak said he just spent several days at a conference in Orlando with the founders of the product, whom he called “my new business partners.” They include, he said, Olympic gold medalists Dan Jansen and Bonnie Blair.

“We covered the most intricate details of these systems and the positive effect they will have on the health of the public,” he said.

 After pulling out of the race, Hudak said he would not endorse the other Republican in the race, former state Sen. Richard Tisei. He said it had nothing to do with the fact that former Gov. Paul Cellucci had endorsed Tisei.

“I couldn’t care less if a former governor, who is an establishment person, endorses another establishment person,” Hudak said. “I’m the people’s candidate — and they endorse each other.” 

And Hudak said he was planning to run in 2014, especially if “Tisei was still involved, because my supporters know that little will change if he’s elected.”

The mostly North Shore district also includes the Greater Lowell communities of Billerica, Bedford, Burlington, Tewksbury and Wilmington.

The Belvidere resident has a lot at stake, so he chooses his words carefully. He rarely speaks out publicly on the issue de jour.

Spend a little quiet time with him, however, at one of the downtown restaurants he likes to frequent and you’ll get an earful about the delicate ways city politics, business and public safety intersect.

So those who know Duncan remained in a state of shock Friday over his choice of words in a page 1 Sun story on Thursday focusing on what has become an all-too-common occurrence: downtown lawlessness when bars close at 2 a.m. weekend nights.

“It’s turning into a Wild West town. Anything goes,” Duncan told The Sun’s Hiroko Sato.

It’s like Duncan was clairvoyant. Early Friday, every available Lowell police officer, backed up by State Police and police from several neighboring communities and UMass Lowell, was summoned to Fortunato’s at the corner of Palmer and Middle Streets to quell a riot that started inside the bar then spilled outside.

There was, literally, blood on the sidewalk.

Lowell Police Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee’s comments describing the chaotic brawl were chilling:

“The worst in recent memory.

“There were approximately between 250 and 300” people present inside the club when “a riot broke out.

“There were multiple combatants, people throwing bottles, chairs — any type of projectiles they could find to throw within the establishment,” said Lavallee, who received a verbal account of the melee from the police department’s on-scene commander, Capt. Bill Taylor.

As news of the brawl filtered to Duncan by mid-morning Friday, a pit developed in his stomach. He, and others like him who have poured so much of their time, money, and effort into improving the downtown, at times feel like they are losing the battle.

Today is one of those times.

It’s time to fight fire with fire and be outspoken, Duncan said.

He stands by his comments.

The city, he said, needs to address the worsening situation with all its might. Standing beside the city needs to be the business community, downtown residents, and any all parties that rely on the downtown or call it home.

As concerns about violence in downtown Lowell after bar closing time reached a crescendo this week in the wake of a 2 a.m. vicious beating of two Westminster men on Middle Street, the city’s License Commissioners are still squabbling with the city administration in a power play tug-of-war about changing their meeting times by three hours.

Defiant License Commission Chairman Wally Bayliss said he would not bow to “King Bernie” and change his board’s meeting time.

Late last year, then-City Councilor (now mayor) Patrick Murphy, filed a motion requesting City Manager Bernie Lynch identify an alternative meeting time for the commission, which currently meets at 3 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays of each month, to allow for more community input. It was approved unanimously by the Council. Lynch had made a similar request to the commission in 2009. Of course it fell on dead ears.

Last month, the commission, perturbed that the mayor and city manager were stepping on their toes, held a public hearing to discuss changing their meeting times, but due to a snafu about what day their meetings would be held (Lynch originally offered them Monday night, but later changed it to Thursday nights at 6:30), they could not take a vote.

They did hear from eight people in favor of changing the meeting times, including Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association President Kathleen Marcin and Police Superintendent Ken Lavallee and five people in opposition, including Lowell attorney George Eliades and four bar owners.

At last week’s meeting, Commissioner Ray Weicker moved to hold another public hearing to discuss holding meetings on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Bayliss scoffed at the idea, suggesting the commission simply place Lynch’s request on file. In other words, bury it.

“Bernie runs everything like King Bernie, I’ll say it right now,” Bayliss said. “And he is not.”

Bayliss added no one from the city manager’s office or the Law Department “has had the common courtesy” to discuss the request with the commissioners or their executive secretary, Ryan Wynn.

Both motions died for a lack of a second.

Despite the fact the commission has been talking about this possible change for more than a month, Commissioner Brian Akashian said he’d like “to think about it a little more.”

This week, Enterprise Bank founder George Duncan, in whose parking lot the most recent assault occurred, and Lowell Plan Executive Director Jim Cook, put the blame for downtown troubles at the feet of the commission, who Lavallee has been critical of in the past for their handling of licensing issues.

Several downtown residents have said the commissioners are out of touch with what is happening in their neighborhood, as evidenced in comments Weicker and Akashian made to The Sun this week.

Both said it is not true that people come into the city from surrounding towns whose bars close at 1 a.m. instead of 2 a.m., with Akashian saying they would not have time to get into the city, park and drink before the “1:30 a.m.” last call.

However — last call in Lowell is at 1:45 a.m., as set by the city, and as anyone who frequents the downtown will tell you, people come in from other towns at midnight, not after the 1 a.m. closing time in Dracut or Tewksbury, knowing they can stay in a Lowell bar until 2 a.m.

The commission will discuss meeting times again at their next meeting, scheduled for Thursday, March 8 at 3 p.m.

With the North Common Village code violation mess still fresh on everyone’s minds, City Manager Bernie Lynch recently jettisoned the board’s chairman, Mark Paton. Lynch said he wanted to “shake things up.”

The most significant thing about Paton is his ardent support of Executive Director Gary Wallace.

Lynch was ultimately successful in appointing Tim Green — hardly an outsider when it comes to the LHA — but not without some arm-twisting.

Walter “Buddy” Flynn’s term on the board expires Dec. 31. Like Paton, Flynn is a strong Wallace supporter and is also a former LHA resident.

Flynn also has seniority among current board members. But he’s only been a member for about a decade.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 I’m going and 10 I’m staying, right now I’m about a 4,” Flynn said.

At 74, Flynn remains involved in real estate and spends much of his winters in Florida.

“I’ve pretty much accomplished what I wanted to and that’s put smiles on people’s faces,” Flynn said.

Flynn doesn’t sound like someone who has a lot of interest in sticking around for another five years, which is the term’s length.

Assuming Flynn calls its quits, there’s already someone interested: Paulette Renault-Caragianes.

A resident of Christian Hill, Renault-Caragianes is the city’s former head of health and human services who now does the same job for the City of Somerville. Renault-Caragianes also serves on the Lowell Board of Health and was formerly employed by the Lowell Community Health Center.

Renault-Caragianes is more than familiar with the North Common fiasco, but that’s not what’s driving her. “I’ve always been interested in community health and how it intersects with low-income families,” she said.

Speaking generally, she also said it’s healthy for public boards and commissions to undergo periodic changes in personnel.

“And that includes boards of health,” she said.

“So yes, I’m very intrigued by the prospect of a seat on the housing authority board,” she said. “But I wouldn’t want to displace anyone, per se.”