Food Fight

When you get a chance, check out today's Sentinel (UPDATE: Here's the link). If there was any question as to Dean Tran and Ted DeSalvatore's relationship, forget it about it now.

Tran sent an e-mail to councilors ripping DeSalvatore for DeSalvatore's letter in Sunday's Sentinel about Tran's landlord petition. DeSalvatore claims he signed on to the petition only with some caveats, and those caveats never happened, so he wants out. Tran claims, logically, that signing on to a petition means you support the petition.

According the City Clerk's office, there is no formal process for signing on to a petition. Typically, a councilor files a petition with the clerk, and includes the name of sponsors.

Here's a "no-duh" question: Who gave the e-mail to the Sentinel? This isn't the first time an e-mail amongst the councilors has been leaked to the public (at one point, even Save Fitchburg gone one).

It's one thing for councilors to be in a food fight. It happens. Sometimes they last a few days, sometimes a few weeks, sometimes they never go away. The interesting and disturbing trend in Fitchburg is that councilors don't seem to mind airing their dirty laundry in full public view. It's silly to think all 11 will get along all the time on everything, but you'd think they'd keep the bickering a bit more internal.

Consider, also, this: Jody Joseph saying the warring on the council is the worst he's seen, and he said it was cranked up when the current batch of rookie councilors came into office. This could mean a couple of different things. Certainly, there was some "new blood" feeling on the part of voters in 2005. Is this an old generation-new generation headbutt? Or was Joseph pointing fingers at specific councilors?

Certainly, Tran has developed himself as a proactive councilor and one who doesn't particularly care to take a lot of, um, gruff from colleagues. This latest episode -- proactive petition, fighting back -- is a perfect example.

DeSalvatore, however, is a whole different bag of cats. He, obviously, is running for mayor. Is Joseph pointing the blame DeSalvatore's way. If so, do other councilors feel the same way? It's an important question because councilors have, in varying degrees of size and power, machines that they manipulate on election day. If eight, nine or even 10 councilors are spreading the word to followers not to vote for DeSalvatore, it could be a electoral problem for DeSalvatore. Not saying that's the case, but if it is, its a political problem DeSalvatore needs to solve in the next five months.