"Mayor James E. Harrington has suspended one of his top aides for conduct he said was not appropriate.

Moises Rodrigues, director of community services for Harrington, has been suspended from his job for three days without pay following an investigation into inappropriate conduct, the mayor said Thursday.

Harrington said he suspended Rodrigues following an investigation into claims that he circulated a photo of mayoral candidate Jass Stewart kissing his partner, Denzil, on their wedding day and made disparaging comments about Stewart.

“I think he had a lapse in judgment. He feels bad about it. I feel bad about it,” Harrington said Thursday. “But I need to make sure that everybody in the administration, and in the campaign, knows that it's unacceptable behavior.”

After a city resident complained about the situation and The Enterprise began making inquiries into it, several people in the city said they have witnessed a campaign to make Stewart's sexuality an issue. [...]" Enterprise.com

What's your reaction to this issue?

I think as usual we are in the face a dysfunctional city governed by a Mayor whose objectives is to hunt voters and become re-elected for his big fat reform. JAMES HARRINGTON is a high school drop out who started a small business and became a city councilor for a part-time job, and was commended by the former Mayor Jack Yunits in 2005, who by the way, did a little better than his predecessor, but ended up committing a big mistake by leaving his office three months before the end of his mandate just to offer the seat to Mr. Harrington, his friend.

Mr. Harrington by his turn, turned around to look for who would be his best catch to hunt Cape Verdean votes. Moises is his boy.
Now see Mayor's comment :
“I think he had a lapse in judgment. He feels bad about it. I feel bad about it,” Harrington said Thursday. “But I need to make sure that everybody in the administration, and in the campaign, knows that it's unacceptable behavior.”

Guess what, Moises Rodrigues is another drop out who would join the team to help hunt the CV votes. The Mayor knows he did wrong but feels sorry for him? No he still believes he can still count on the votes that Moises can earn for him. The three day suspension, I bet, was negotiated between Harringhton and Moises Rodrigues just to not jeopardize his campaign goals.

His success against a new candidate Jass Stewart was of a difference of 1% in the primary election on September 18th. His days are being counted down. Moises Rodrigues is a clown pseudo-leader, so arrogant that the only thing that he has to tell you is that he is the number two men in the City Hall and he is the boss of all kriolos. I am very ashamed of him working for me in the city. He is too low. I heard him saying so much nonsense that i couldn't imagine him being a DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY SERVICES representing all communities of Brockton.

Many people are now asking Mayor to fire him. Moises Rodrigues was contacted by JASS STEWART in 2004 to help him in the campaign because of his 5 point plan that addressed many issues of the Cape Verdean community and would be great to have him on his team. Moises said yes until he consulted Mr. Harrington who saw the chance in getting Moises for a partner considering his apparent success when he ran for city councilor and promise him a position at the city hall if he commit to help him get the Cape Verdean vote.

Moises did not think twice and came back to Mr. JASS STEWART with a completely new story. Does it sound like someone you know?

hmmm!

Moises Rodrigues sold himself. He would have better run again for city councilor. As a city councilor he would have his own voice and would have better represent the true interest of the community and would never been fired.

MR. Jass Stewart has just got less 107 votes against his opponent Jim Harrington in a 45,000 registered voters in Brockton. Mr. Jass Stewart has a clear plan made up out of an exhaustive research door-to-door of the neighbors in Brockton to diagnosis the needs of the population. His five point plan that addresses education, safety for Brockton, homeownership, leadership, and ACCOUNTABILITY, which seems to be biggest one missing now in the city hall, addresses many of the problems that we have now in Brockton. Mr. Stewart is in constant communication with the community, showing up in every meetings in discussion with the community, met with the Cape Verdean small business owners, founded the "New leadership funds" just to train, fundraiser and encourage new leaders to become elected officials and is eager to invite Cape Verdeans to run for offices.

Mr. Jim Harrington doesn't even show up at the Annual Gala Dinner of Capeverdean Association of Brockton, yet goes on vacation to Cabo Verde.

I think we deserve better. Let's be done with Harrington and Moises and take our next step. Let us support JASS STEWART FOR MAYOR OF BROCKTON on November 6th 2007. Tell your friends, everyone you know lives in Brockton and we run the necessary change for Brockton.

Cabrala

I'm desappointed to learn that Moises sold himself and the Cape Verdean vote to James Harrighton in the last elections. I guess his interest wasn't the well-being and representatition of the Cape Verdean community in Brockton but rather securing his $53000 yearly salary. And the consequences of his lack of advocacy for Cape Verdeans is what we see today in Brockton:
- lack of after school programs and educational support services for one thrid of Brockton public schools student population (the Cape Verdean children)
- lack of ESL class and other city services for the immigrant community in Brockton
- a city where crime is up, where unemployment is up, where foreclosures are out of control,
-and a community plagued by shooting and killings while the mayor goes in a public TV debate and, instead of working with the community to curb crime, bashed the Cape Verdeans:

"On the issue of crime, Harrington argued that it’s others that need to take more responsibility. Brockton has seen 11 people, including three teenagers, killed this year.
Harrington said he recently addressed a group of Cape Verdean residents on the issue.
“One person stood up and said to me, ‘Well, why is it a Cape Verdean problem?’” he recalled. “I said, ‘Because your kids are killing each other, that’s why.' ...” By Kyle Alspach ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER(http://www.southofboston.net/specialreports/yourvote/pages/brk-090707mayordebate.asp)

And Moises is still coming back asking us to vote for this inactive and incompetent Mayor?

This time the CAPE VERDEAN VOTE IS FOR SURE GOING TO JASS STEWART.

Oh! Wait a minute. James Harringhton has already lost the Cape Verdean vote. I just remembered that Jass Stewart won all the 3 wards with the largest concentration of Cape Verdean voters (wards 2, 4 and 7) in the primary elections on September 18th.

Well, Cape Verdeans are smart enough to not choose a mayor based on his sexuality or who he's married to. Rather, they will vote on a candidate based on his ability to lead a city successfully and bring solutions to its challenges.

Regarding Moises, I was surprise that he did this. From my past interactions with him, I had the impressions that he was open-minded, tolerant and respectful of difference and minorities especially since he's one of them. It was unfortunate that he hold these strong homophobic feelings towards gays.