LAWRENCE, Mass. — It was an emotional night in Lawrence as the soon-to-be-former mayor, Dan Rivera, got ready to step down and take over as the leader of Mass. Development.
“Tonight I’m announcing my resignation for mayor in the city of Lawrence,” he said during Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. “We have made Lawrence better. All the mistakes are mine and all the progress, we made it together, we’ve made it as one.”
Mayor Rivera thanked the city he has served in since 2013. The army veteran who led the city through the beginning of this pandemic and the terrorizing Merrimack Valley gas disaster will now become the next CEO of Mass Development. His new focus: creating jobs, increasing housing and stimulating growth statewide.
“Rivera will bring dedicated leadership experience, compassion and a steadfast commitment to economic recovery,” Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker said.
Lawrence is a COVID-19 hotspot, so the leadership transition period there is going to be key. Lawrence has a high population of immigrants who have been shown to be disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. The city remains among the leaders in average daily incidence rate per capita.
As of this week, Lawrence has 11,468 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 173 confirmed deaths, and the numbers are steadily increasing. In the midst of the surge, the red zone community is losing its leader one year early. Rivera, whose family emigrated from the Dominican Republic, is well connected with the diverse community there, but now leaves on January 8 and will start his new role on January 11.
>>>MORE: Tufts frontline health care workers get Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine as more shipments arrive in Mass.
“I look forward to being that person in the room for the communities because I’ve been the community on the outside, on the other side looking for state help,” Rivera told Boston 25 News’ Wale Aliyu. “We’re going to do good things, not just for the whole of the commonwealth, but communities like Lawrence too.”
When asked what he had to say to people who said it was the wrong time to leave office due to the pandemic, Rivera responded with this:
“I got to tell you, if this was the beginning of the pandemic I would not have left. The City Council president is well-versed on the matter. The staff is prepared and informed; there’s a path being laid out.”
Now the debate is whether the city should use funds for a special election to pick a new mayor or if the council president should finish out his second term and use the money to combat the pandemic.
“I should have the right to vote,” Lawrence resident Steven Gil said at the meeting. “COVID cannot be an excuse.”
The council decided to send the vote to the ordinance committee to make a recommendation, so we won’t know the answer to that question likely until the meeting on December 29.
Meanwhile, Mayor Rivera said he has already begun working to facilitate a smooth transition fiscally and administratively.
Follow Wale on Facebook: WaleAliyuTV Twitter: @WaleAliyu or Instagram: WaleAliyuTV
Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/7QOJU3BNCJERBNKJC5LWTBYFLU.png)
