City Council live blog: 9/21/10

Posted by Jeremy Shulkin

Decisions, decisions. Is tonight the night that you log into our Cover it Live widget and spark a riveting discussion about city council matters, or do you sit down in front of WGBH to watch the four gubernatorial candidates debate? (It’s going to be moderated by CNN’s John King, if that persuades anyone.)

If you picked the former, here’s the agenda. See you at 7:00.

7:11: We’re about to start. Shout out to the group from Pushkin, Russia that’s here.

7:19: The mayor says a lot of councilors are “very excited” about the PILOT agreement made with Clark University. MOB (Mike O’Brien) says the money is “significant” when added to other money from other schools. Clancy holds the Clark item for the first item next week to use as leverage to see if similar negotiations can be started with Holy Cross. Rushton wants the other schools contacted as well. Lukes wants more in the report, including breakdown of property owned by each school and their other assets. Eddy wants Clark President David Angel to come in and accept gratitude next week.

School Committee letter sends direct message (updated)

Posted by Jeremy Shulkin

Yesterday evening the Worcester School Committee, in the midst of a year-and-a-half-long contract negotiation period with the teachers union (Educational Association of Worcester), sent out a pointed letter that essentially says “We’ve been rational, but the union hasn’t.” (My quotes, not theirs.)

The nearly 900-word letter doesn’t mince words in placing blame on the EAW for the “broken down” negotiations, and corners the “we’ve tried everything and they’re the ones being unreasonable” angle. (The second set of quotes are mine again, not theirs.)