BrocktonPost City Hall & Public Affairs

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Balzotti Appoints Gomes As Interim PD Chief

BrocktonPost

BROCKTON--On Friday, Feb. 10, Brockton Police Capt. Emanuel Gomes will be sworn-in as interim police chief in preparation for the retirement of current Chief William Conlon.

“The position of police chief is one of the most, if not the most important job in the city,” Mayor Linda M. Balzotti said in a prepared statement.

“Captain Gomes has the experience and knowledge to continue the successful work being done by the Brockton Police Department,” she added.

Gomes is expected to take over for Conlon, who will be retiring after more than 6 years as chief, and 26 in the department.

The ceremony will be held at City Hall, Friday, Feb. 10 at 11 a.m. in City Council Chambers.

The event is free and open to the public.

“A lot of very good things are going on in the Brockton Police Department, and we want to continue being a full service police department,” Gomes said in the prepared statement.

“I intend to continue the good things Chief Conlon has put in place and maintain those standards,” he said.

A 25-year veteran of the Brockton Police Department, Gomes began his career as a patrolman in April of 1986.

He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in April 1997.

Gomes became a Lieutenant in July 2000, and promoted to Captain in April 2002.

Gomes has overseen operations of the department on several occasions in the chief’s absence.

Gomes was born in Portugal and moved to Brockton’s Campello section at the age of 8.

He attended the Huntington School and South Junior High. He is a 1981 graduate of Brockton High School.

Following his graduation from Brockton High School, Gomes earned an associate’s degree in Criminal Justice from Massasoit Community College.

He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Roger Williams University.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Warren Visits Brockton's Cindy's Kitchen

By Lisa E. Crowley BrocktonPost BROCKTON--Democratic Party senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren spent more than an hour Monday afternoon visiting with owners and employees of Cindy's Kitchen in Brockton during campaign stops that included Brockton, Abington and New Bedford. "It was great," said Cindy's Kitchen co-owner Eddie Byers, who with his wife Cindy escorted Warren around the company's plant. Warren aide, Alethea Harney said Cindy's Kitchen was singled out because it is one of the manufacturing success stories in the state. "We want to make sure the conditions exist for these type of companies to succeed," Harney said. Warren, a Harvard professor and consumer advocate, is running against Republican Senator Scott Brown for the seat in Congress. While Warren has competition in the Democratic Party, most believe she will be the party's eventual nominee.

For his part, Byers said he was happy, but unsure how Warren and her campaign heard about Cindy's Kitchen, a producer of all natural salad dressings, marinades, dips and sauces that ship to restaurants and wholesalers across the country, including Whole Foods, Costco, and Roche Bros. Byers, a Brockton native, who began operating in 1996 and in 2008 expanded the facility to its headquarters at Minuteman Way, (correction: Industrial Way) said he is not involved in Warren's campaign and only knows he was contacted by her staff members for a visit yesterday. Harney said during Warren's travels across the state they heard great things about Cindy's Kitchen and wanted to highlight a successful manufacturer as a part of a program to continue positive conditions for small business and manufacturing growth. Harney noted Cindy's Kitchen has grown from less than 50 employees, to about 100 today, and the company hopes to double by the end of 2012. "They're a success story," Harney said. Earlier in the day, Warren visited Cafe Arpeggio and the downtown business district in New Bedford. Warren then headed to Brockton and Cindy's Kitchen, followed by a stop at Martin's Bakery in Abington. (Photo caption: Top photo: Co-owner Eddie Byers shows Warren one of the company's specialty dressings. Second photo: Warren, center, talks with Cindy Byers, left and Eddie Byers, right. Photos courtesy Cindy's Kitchen/by Justin Kane.)

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Stewart State Rep Run Still Undecided

By Lisa E. Crowley

BrocktonPost

BROCKTON—Councilor-at-large Jass Stewart’s decision to run against State Rep. Geraldine Creedon is still up in the air—at least until after two meet-and-greets with residents at the end of this month.

“I’ll know in March,” Stewart said during a telephone interview Sunday afternoon.

Stewart, who has said he is considering a run against Creedon, issued an email Saturday whose subject was titled “Serving as your State Representative,” which some took as a signal Stewart was all-in for a run at the state position.

Creedon has represented Brockton and Easton as the 11^th Plymouth District Rep since 1995.

Stewart said in fact he received several emails congratulating him on his decision to run and wishing him good luck.

However, Stewart said his mind is not made up, and the two meet-and-greets scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 25 and Sunday, Feb. 26, will be the final information gathering sessions.

“I want to hear what the public has to say about where I can do the best for Brockton,” Stewart said.

The meet-and-greets are open to the public.

The first will be held Saturday, Feb. 25 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the home of John and Holly Thomas, 221 Depot St., South Easton.

The second will be held Sunday, Feb. 26 from 1 to 3 p.m at the home of Gary Lyon and Joe Rucker, 117 Fairview Ave., Brockton.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Patrick Highlights Massasoit In Community College $ Appeal

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BrocktonPost 
BROCKTON--FROM GOV. DEVAL PATRICK: 
 
We have 240,000 people looking for work and
nearly 120,000 open jobs today in Massachusetts.   
 How can we have so much opportunity available
and so many people still looking for a chance? 

 
Business leaders tell me over and over again
that it is because the people looking for jobs don’t have the skills
required.    
Many of these openings are for
“middle skills” jobs that require more than a high school diploma but not
necessarily a four-year degree: jobs in medical device manufacturing or lab
technicians or solar installers, for example. 
And a lot of those forced by the economic downturn to make a change in
their careers, people in their thirties or forties or fifties, don’t have the proper
training for those jobs.    
We have a
“skills gap.”  
We
can do something about that.  We can help
people get back to work.  And our
community colleges should be at the center of it.
 
For
the work they do, community colleges rarely receive proper recognition, let
alone adequate funding.    
I have visited many
of our community colleges and seen their good work.  They are an important resource, and we must
ask more of them.
 
At Massasoit Community College right now,
students in the one-year Medical Assistant program learn hands on skills
through an 8-week clinical internship at a local facility.  
This is good - - but
we need more of it and we need it everywhere. 

 
We need that kind of sharper mission across
the Commonwealth, so that community colleges become a fully integrated part of
the state’s workforce development plan.    
Our
colleges must be aligned with employers, voc-tech schools and the Workforce
Investment Boards in the regions where they operate; aligned with each other in
core course offerings; and aligned with the Commonwealth’s job growth
strategy.    
We can’t do that if 15
different campuses have 15 different strategies.  We need to do this together.  We need a unified community college system
in Massachusetts.    
Our competitors –
states like Virginia, North Carolina and Washington – have instituted unified
systems and are using them to their competitive advantage.  
 
I have proposed a $10 million increase in
state funding for community colleges to help them meet this mission – and I
have challenged the business community to come up with a match to help make
this a reality.    
It is not unreasonable
for community colleges to ask for more resources to support their mission; and
it is not unreasonable to ask for them to be more accountable to our workforce
development strategy in exchange. 
 
Given how important community colleges are to
their local cities and towns, some are concerned that this proposal would mean
Beacon Hill is telling their campus what to do. 
I don’t want that any more than you do.  
The goal of this proposal is to ensure that
community colleges have the tools they need to be as responsive as possible to
the job openings in their region.  Creating a more unified system is not about
losing local control; it is about connecting every city and town to the full
range of economic possibilities in the Commonwealth.  It’s about making sure a large employer in
Boston knows that there is a skilled workforce in Brockton and reason to expand
there.    
It’s about making sure the small
business in Canton has a convenient, locally focused, fully supported resource
to help its workers build careers in Norfolk County and grow the economy
there.  
 
The problem we are trying to fix is the
skills gap; the problem is not the community colleges.  The community colleges are the solution.  
The
challenge facing people looking for work, people in doubt about the future of
their American Dream and their place in the workforce belongs to all of us. We
can meet that challenge if we work together. 
  
For the good of the Commonwealth and the sake of our future, we must.
 
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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Illegal Video Poker Games Found, Say Brockton PD

By Lisa E. Crowley

BrocktonPost

BROCKTON—Two Brockton businesses—Patriot Convenience and Joe Angelo’s Café--will face possible license and criminal penalties after Brockton Police said they found illegal gambling video machines at both locations during License Commission inspections.

“We are pursuing these violations both at the state and local level,” said Capt. Manuel Gomes.

Gomes said Code Enforcement Officer Scott Uhlman spotted the video gaming machines in rear rooms of each establishment, and police believe they may have been used for illegal gambling.

“We’re told all the time they're for entertainment purposes,” Gomes said.

Gomes said he couldn’t say if much, or any, money was gambled via the video games.

Gomes said a full report of the video games will be forwarded to the License Commission, who are expected to hold a disciplinary hearing on each business, if not next month, sometime in the future.

“Penalties could run the gamut of fines, suspension, and even the revocation of the license,” Gomes said.

Gomes said the state Attorney General’s Office would also be contacted for potential criminal charges, however, Gomes said, under most circumstances the penalties that can be inflicted at the local level are often more harsh.

“They can pull the license,” Gomes said.

Joe Angelo, owner of Joe Angelo’s Café on Main and Crescent Streets, said his four video poker games have all the required state licenses and are legal.

He said there was no gambling going on, and the reason the videos were in a back room, closet-like space was because he had to move them from the front dining room when he hired a new chef and needed to create a new waitress station.

However, because he is already facing sanctions from the License Commission because of a stabbing outside the bar and other issues, Angelo said he is going to remove the video machines from the bar-restaurant.

“They hold all of the cards,” Angelo said.

A police log entry by Officer Uhlman states at 12:52 p.m. on Jan. 19 he found four video gambling games in a separate room with “people drinking, smoking, and gambling.”

Patriot Convenience, located at 963 Main St., whose owners could not immediately be reached, had two video poker machines and another video game towed away and seized by police as evidence last week.
The machines were seized Jan. 19.

Joe Angelo’s’ machines were not seized.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Property Tax Bill Fight Needs Sales, Housing Data

By Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—Homeowner Bill Russell and more than 30 other residents met Wednesday night to hear the numerous steps and research they must complete to possibly reduce their property tax bills—in some cases which have jumped $15,000 to $20,000 this quarter.
One resident, Bill Russell, who lives at 39 Grinnell Road, adjacent to Deanna Road where many residents have issues, showed his latest tax bill that went from $159,000 to $180,900—a more than $21,000 difference and wondered even if he went through the process to gain an abatement, or a decrease in the tax assessment, if the city assessors would lower his bill.
“You know they’re not going to do anything,” Russell told the crowd that gathered Wednesday at the Arnone Elementary School. Ward 2 City Councilor Thomas Monahan organized the meeting because he has received dozens of calls, as has his fellow councilors about the jump in residents’ tax bills during this quarter that are for the 2011-2012 fiscal year.
Nearly 50 residents and officials attended. Residents must file an abatement petition by Feb. 1 in order to have the city officially review the assessed value.
During the meeting Bill Bearce, owner of Bearce Insurance, said residents will have to do a lot of research to show the city assessor’s office that the assessed property value, a calculation which all tax bills are based, is too high for the current home sales market.
“It’s a paper-laden process and it’s also a research-laden process,” Bearce said.
A description City Assessor Paul Sullivan would agree with.
Sullivan, in a telephone interview late last week, said residents must follow a deadline-oriented process that begins at City Hall.
“Read the website, read the website, read the website,” Sullivan said.
The assessor’s website outlines all of the steps residents must take in order to request their assessment be lowered.
It also lists criteria for those who can ask for tax deferments—or postpone of paying tax bills—such as the elderly.
Sullivan stressed that the website offers residents a lot of information on the how the city calculates a property’s assessment and the process of what residents must do if they disagree with the city’s number. “You have to prove us wrong,” Sullivan said.
“You can’t just come in and say, “I don’t want to pay this. I don’t want to pay any tax.' You have to prove us wrong. Prove us wrong,” he said.
Also topping the list of resident must dos is filing an abatement request by Feb. 1.
During last night’s meeting, Bearce agreed residents need to be armed with information such as sales data or square foot percentages and not anger and indignation.
“It keeps going back to ‘what would someone buy your house for,’” Bearce said.
Bearce said City Councilor Thomas Monahan has posted a link on his website for home sales “comps,” or comparables.
Residents can type in their address and search their neighbors’ property values to see if one house is larger or smaller than the other and has the same assessed value.
Bill Russell and several Deanna Road residents, a street they said has no more than 12 houses on it and is a Campanelli development where the houses are all very similar, have seen their assessed values jump $10,000 to $20,000.
Russell, who has lived his house since 1970 when the neighborhood was constructed, said he believes the reason is because two homes in the neighborhood were bought as foreclosures, completely gutted and renovated with new kitchens, bathrooms, decks and other accessories.
Bearce and Bernie Hassan from Briarwood Real Estate looked at Russell’s bill and some others in the neighborhood like Jerry Epstein, a retired truck driver living on a fixed income whose tax bill for his house on Deanna Road increased by $16,000 and said the group had some ammunition to take to the assessors. Officials suggested meeting with the assessors office informally, but if that initial meeting was unsatisfactory, then residents must file an abatement petition by Feb. 1.
Forms are available at the assessor’s office or on the board’s website.
The assessors office does not actually hold a hearing unless the resident asks for one. The assessor’s office must issue a written decision.
If the decision is unsatisfactory to the resident, the next step is an appeal to the state Appellate Tax Board. Registrar of Deeds John Buckley said his website also has information about foreclosures and home sales from not only Brockton, but also the more than 20 other cities and towns in Plymouth County.
He urged residents to view the website, contact his office or city councilors if they need help to do the research because it is the information about area sales and comparable home values that residents must be armed with to even begin the abatement process.
“The more evidence you have--the better,” Buckley said. “Data speaks for itself,” he added.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Grease Ignites Johnson Court Fire

By Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—A blaze at a Johnson Court three-story apartment house has left more than a dozen people without a home after firefighters knocked out a fire that began on the third floor.
“The third floor and the roof were heavily involved,” said Fire Chief Richard Francis Monday morning.
He said he believed 14 people living in the building are now looking for a place to stay.
Francis said the Friday night fire, which began at about 9:17 p.m, is believed to have started when a man on the third floor made French fires in a pan full of grease.
Francis said the man told fire officials he made the French fries and believed he had turned off the pan on the stove when he went to eat them.
However, his snack was interrupted when the kitchen filled with smoke and a roaring fire began to spread through the top floor of the house at 10 Johnson Court.
Francis said one occupant was transported to an area hospital and suffered smoke inhalation. He said she is believed to be fine.
The second and first floors were evacuated and otherwise no one was hurt.
“Anytime you can contain the fire to the house or floor where the fire is, you’ve done a good job,” Francis said.
He said battling the fire was made difficult because of the narrow street and the electrical wires that criss-cross the road from house-to-house on the tightly packed street that has a handful of other high occupancy three-story apartment houses.
“We had a lot to contend with,” Francis said.
The American Red Cross is helping individuals and families who may have been displaced by the blaze.

He said part of the roof caved into the third floor and the first and second floors have suffered extensive water damage.
Francis said the building has been deemed uninhabitable at this time, and residents who receive a letter from the Fire Department indicating the building has been ruled as unlivable, may be able to seek help through the Brockton Housing Authority.
For those in the future who might be cooking French fries in a pan on a stove full of hot grease, if there is a fire the last thing to do is throw water on it.
"If you have a grease fire do NOT throw water on it," Francis said. "When you have hot grease and you throw water on it, all it does is splatter and everything around it--curtains, napkins, anything--can catch fire," he said.
The best way to put out a grease fire is to cover it and smother the flames. If the fire is still contained in a pan, Francis said use a pot cover to smother it. If it has spread, use an extinguisher rated for grease fires.
He said baking soda or flour might help smother it, but the best thing to do before trying to fight the fire is call the Fire Department.
"Call us first," Francis said.