Here’s this Week’s Somervillen Voice of The Week” Choice and You Decide:

We’ve been hearing that there is a lot of tempers flaring about many new decisions being tossed around up on the second floor up at city hall recently. We heard now that the administration is pulling the city gas cards away from Somerville building inspectors. 

 We know that the building inspectors are using their own vehicles but on the other hand so aren’t the Traffic & Parking Department Parking Control Officers using their own vehicles and gas as well as other city inspectors are. 

So the question here is if you were in the same shoes as one of those employees should they really be using their own vehicles gas and liability to do city jobs? What’s next are they going to have police and firefighters pull up to the pumps and pay for their own gas for police cruisers and hook-and-ladders as well? Let’s face it saving the city money is one thing and a good thing, but taking advantage of employees and putting the fear of God into them is another thing. Now we wonder are these employees being squeezed into this situation and if they get the urge to complain about it to whomever, does that mean that they could be put in a position of getting fired and lose their jobs somewhat like that veteran services director who allegedly complained and expressed his personal opinion and got fired? 

The City of Somerville has a lot of good people working for it and we should acknowledge that a little better and show our appreciation at times instead of dragging some of them through the mud with spirit of the moment personal vendettas. 
We think that the board of alderman should be kept more up to speed on many issues that that take place sometimes without their knowledge and someone should inform them of such as that they should be getting more involved in all of these arguments before and when they happen and not just letting advisers make these decisions on their own and letting the board find out after it happens. 

And what’s with all this debating up on that same floor at city hall on whether or not to create a new position and hire an assistant to the assistant of the mayor, a “Deputy Chief of Staff” really? Do we need one and can we afford it? Some are even saying that with an assistant maybe the chief of staff will be able to start returning some phone calls once in a while. But hey wait a minute here, doesn’t the current chief of staff have a city gas card and even a driver at times with a city police vehicle? And if he does have one, does that mean his gas card will be taken away as well? Also, does that mean if that ridiculous new assistant to the assistant position is created, that we will have to get a gas card for his new assistant and/or a another driver for that new person as well? 

And while we’re on this subject, we just want to make one thing very clear that we think the mayor is doing an awesome job and that he is taking the city to the next level and putting Somerville in a very good position. We may not always agree with him at times and we let him know that as well, but we have to admit and give him credit where credit is due that he is doing a good job but he still needs to cross the “T’s” and dot the “i’s” a little better especially with his advising team and not let them run to freely and to far on their own at the taxpayers expense. The mayor and his team should just take in a deep breath and revisit many issues out that have questionable red flagged troubling signs of constituent as well as board disagreements attached to them and iron them out to reach a happy medium. 
Again, the “Who is Advising the Mayor Saga” continues, so let us know what you think about this situation and what the city can do to make it work better for the city and between all parties involved. 

Sent in by our readers!

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News Weekly and Boston News Group belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News Weekly or Boston News Group, its staff or publishers)
Send Us Your Choice for This Week’s Somerville News Weekly “Somervillen Voice’s Topic” of the Week!
What topic is the most deserving of that title for the world to see for any recent good deed or mind boggling thing that they may have recently accomplished!

Send all your “Somervillen Voice ” candidate choices to:Wmtauro@bostonnewsgroup.com or call: (617)293-2016
All calls and contacts are kept strictly confidential!