Word: aldermanic
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...typical. More common were dull evenings at high school commencements or jaunts to union meetings at rural hamburger stands. At the Forsyth County Courthouse I heard well-meaning politicians worry about library book thefts and ambulance service. At Winston-Salem's City Hall I watched a gruff old Republican alderman roll his eyes while a fellow board member--a 28-year-old former Black Panther--discussed problems of old people in a housing project...
Still, John Howe's personal unfamiliarity with the assessment process is unusual. Alderman Puglia calls Howe "the most unqualified assessor in the history of Massachusetts." In a deposition under oath during assessment victim Cosmo Capobianco's libel suit against Howe, Howe admitted that he has had "very little" training in the real estate business, and that he did not know the most important and elementary concept an assessor must learn--the three basic methods of appraising the value of real estate...
Several months after Marie Howe bought the Charnwood Road property, her brother raised the assessment by $900. He says he did this because the property had increased in value after his earlier assessment because it was no longer vacant. But Alderman Puglia charges that Howe raised the assessment only when he found out he was being investigated for conflict-of-interest. "After they became aware that I was snooping around, they took a pencil and tried to cover their tracks by changing the assessment," Puglia charges...
Paul M. Haley, one-time Somerville alderman who admits that he "never had anything in common" with the Howes, says publicly that the increased assessment of his property was justified: "[In my neighborhood] I think it was just my house and a couple of others at the time (that had an increased assessment), but I can't quarrel with anyone, you know...
Robert Nunziato, a supporter of Howe opponent Mayor Ralph and a one-time candidate for alderman, did not want to talk about Howe's increase of the assessment of property owned by his father and uncle. "We've been here too long in the city," he said. "What they do, they do. I'd rather forget about...