LAWRENCE — Gov. Deval Patrick's $35 million bill to rescue Lawrence is all but "dead" because Mayor William Lantigua refuses to step down as a state representative, fellow lawmakers said.
"Unless he resigns, the bill is dead and you will see a control board in the city," said state Rep. David Torrisi, D-North Andover, who also represents Lawrence and has repeatedly asked his colleague to resign the state post.
Rep. Barry Finegold, an Andover Democrat, agreed, saying that even if Lantigua does resign now lawmakers won't allow the city leaders to privately borrow as much as $35 million without "stringent control."
News of the bill's likely demise came yesterday after Republican leadership called for a five-member control board to take over running the city finances immediately. Without such oversight, GOP members said they could not support House Bill 4421 which would allow Lantigua to borrow and bail the city out of its ballooning $24.5 million deficit.
State Rep. Bradley Jones of North Reading, the House minority leader, said Republican members agreed that in its current form, the bill "is not one we can support ... It's insufficient."
Driving opposition to the bill is Lantigua's continued refusal to give up his role as a state representative and Patrick's inability to get Lantigua to resign from the job before he filed the bailout legislation, Jones said.
Lantigua is making a combined $170,000 as a state representative, a job he's held since 2002, and Lawrence's mayor. He was inaugurated on Jan. 4 as the state's first elected Latino mayor.
Lantigua went into hiding Tuesday as lawmakers, city leaders and residents went to Beacon Hill for a public hearing on Patrick's bill which gives Lawrence the financial lifeline it needs to keep it from going broke by spring. It also gives the city a Jan. 31, 2011 deadline to balance the books or risk a state takeover.
Yesterday Lantigua was back in his City Hall office, agreeing to pose for photographs but refusing to answers questions about whether he will resign his state post or why he is willing to risk state takeover to hold onto both paychecks and the dual responsibilities.
He also wasn't answering questions about why he didn't go to Boston to perform his duties as a member of House Ways and Means committee or to show support of the loan needed for his city. Fellow lawmakers were highly critical of his absence Tuesday while his Chief of Staff Leonard Degnan claimed Lantigua did not attend for "ethical reasons."
"That just proves the point. He could not show up and testify," Jones said. "If you really care about your city, step down."
Lantigua has boldly rebuffed requests from Patrick, Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray and Lawrence's Democrat Statehouse colleagues who have repeatedly asked him to resign. Jones stressed yesterday that a state representative's job is not part time.
"Maybe (Lantigua) treated his job as a part-time job and look where your city is now," Jones said.
Under Patrick's bill, Lawrence could borrow the $35 million and the state would have a financial "overseer" who would advise the state on Lawrence's progress before the Jan. 31, 2011 deadline.
Republicans said an overseer is not enough and they want to strengthen the bill's safeguards by instituting a five-person control board immediately. The mayor, City Council president, and three state appointees would sit on the board. The state's attorney general, auditor and governor would be asked to make the three appointments on behalf of the state, Jones said.
Having an overseer work with the city for a year is too weak, Jones said. He pointed out that the state already props up Lawrence's $220-million-a-year budget with more than $150 million in local aid.
"Why are we going to put a Bayer aspirin on a massive tumor," he said. "Let's ramp it up now."
Patrick, in a statement released yesterday, disagreed with the Republicans and said Lantigua's new administration should be given time "to get the city's finances in order."
"This would happen with a strong state-appointed overseer who would have strict oversight of the city's financial management. A control board is a huge intervention and one that we have included as a possible solution if Lawrence fails to get its house in order over the next 10 months," Patrick said.
Jones also contended that the Patrick administration might be playing politics with the bill, saying Lawrence is being given breathing room to pay its bills because of "electoral consideration."
Administration officials quickly rebutted the comments.
Lawrence has voted overwhelmingly for Democrats — including overwhelmingly backing Attorney General Martha Coakley in her unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate — and Jones said the city could be key in Patrick's re-election campaign this year.
"The Democratic Party, the governor and the lieutenant governor — they want to make sure that they don't offend anybody voting-wise in Lawrence," Jones said.
But the administration's budget chief, Jay Gonzalez, fired back, saying Jones was "mischaracterizing" the governor's proposal and insisting "politics has nothing to do with it."
"It's about what's the right answer for the people of Lawrence," he said.
Gonzalez said that with a new mayor — albeit a controversial one — and largely new City Council in office, the city should be given a chance to work with the Patrick administration to dig itself out of its budget hole. He also asserted that the proposal includes no state money, only borrowing authorization that the city would pay back on its own.
"We should, in all circumstances, tread lightly and deliberately in a situation in which we take away from a community its ability to make decisions through its own elected representatives," Gonzalez said.
The Statehouse News Service contributed to this report.
