And folks, why I am concerned about a “conservative backlash” in the race for Newburyport City Council.

In the Newburyport Current, June 29, 2007, there is a Q & A (question and answer) with Ward 5 candidate Brian Derrivan.

Now, Mr. Derrivan may be a delightful fellow (I have never met him), however, his take on some issues, at least on the Central Waterfront and Open Space, well, sigh. Not a good sign for this blogger on the issues thing.

And from reading the article, it sounds as if Mr. Derrivan has almost no Newburyport civic experience. Sigh, again.

And yes, this is where I’m having this weird blogger trouble. Let’s say Mr. Derrivan is almost peccadillo free (very few of us are, so he probably has some lurking peccadilloes, I just don’t happen to know about them-yet), but when it comes down to a vote on the Newburyport city council floor, I’m not sure that he would vote the way that I might hope that he would.

And as for doing more to resolve the Newburyport Landfill matter, as Mr. Derrivan says that he would like to do, well… as I understand it, the host agreement negotiated under the administration of mayor Al Lavender (who is also running as a conservative for the Newburyport City Council, again, good grief), pretty much gave away the farm, so to speak, and contained little if any enforcement language for the City of Newburyport, MA and the residents who live therein. (I don’t know if Mr. Lavender gets to reap the benefit of the noxious odors where he lives or not.)

One can hardly blame subsequent mayors and Newburyport City Councils for desperately doing everything in their power (which isn’t much, again vast understatement, due to what many citizens are of the opinion is the flaw of the soft language in the host agreement made under the Lavender administration) to remedy the situation ever since (which was quite a long time ago).

And, why would I be concerned that Mr. Derrivan could win? Well, Ward 5 is one of the 3 most conservative wards in Newburyport, MA (conservative wards– Wards 4, 5 & 6), and in a last minute, two week write-in campaign in 2005, Brian Derrivan got a heck of a lot of votes.

And this time around, as Brian Derrivan points out in the Newburyport Current Q & A, Newburyport Current, June 29, 2007, he has lots of time to make a good solid run for Newburyport City Councilor for Ward 5 in Newburyport, MA.

Mary Eaton
Newburyport