Pelting with Rose Petals: The EP Ed Assoc Ad About Mayor Larisa
For the record, if the RI Ethics Commission ever finds me “guilty” of pro bono helping someone get due process in a civil proceeding, I sincerely hope that the East Providence Education Association will take out several ads for me, too.
I don’t really know anything about Larissa one way or the other, so don’t have a dog in that hunt.
The teachers unions’ business model is built upon exploiting children for the unions monetary gain (such as the recent refusal to allow advanced science teaching in Johnston, that was only reversed when their tactics were exposed to the public).
Given that, I don’t think that the teachers unions should be throwing stones.
Mayor Larisa took the teacher’s union out to the woodshed about their attempted smear of him at the last city council meeting. Not only did they completely misrepresent why he was “fined $500” by the ethics commission, they neglected to state the reason why or that their decision was appealed to the superior court. They also cut off the quote ending in “… not a hoot” before the original quotation which indicated that it would be appealed to the superior court.
He represented a client regarding a personnel matter before the city council about 6 months or so after he left office — for free. Because of a unique interpretation of the “revolving door” policy, which is supposed to discourage people from lobbying their former employer for personal gain, they told him that he should have waited a little longer, and gave him a monetary slap on the wrist (the smallest fine in the history of the ethics commission).
He also pointed out that the photo of him used in their ads is a copyrighted photo through the Associated Press.
Anyway, it’s very clear that their ignorance of the facts, and use of personal attacks have backfired badly.