City Councilor James Donahue could have been a hero.
As City Hall and the man or woman on the street worried about what would happen if the city lost its lone conservation officer to budget cuts, Donahue suggested the city look at using some of the $900,000 it had on hand to study tapping the Merrimack River as a potential drinking water source.
While the study money was not appropriate, Mayor James Fiorentini and Donahue's colleagues on the council thought the idea had enough merit that they studied further and worked out a way for Conservation Officer Mark Sheehan to receive a part of his salary through the Water/Wastewater Department.
It was quite a coup for Donahue, who has had a reputation as a lone wolf, the opposite of a team player who was more interested in grandstanding than working cooperatively for the good of the city.
Yet here he was, receiving compliments from the mayor — with whom he has had a stormy relationship at best — and fellow city councilors.
The gracious thing to have done is to accept the accolades, express pleasure that he was able to help the city navigate its current budgetary difficulties, and stop talking.
But that's not what happened.
"I was right on the river," Donahue announced to The Gazette after discussions about the river-tapping study results turned out less positive than the administration had hoped.
It is no secret that Donahue does not support the drinking water study. He has called it a waste of money and he has taken every opportunity to denounce the mayor's interest in it.
It may turn out that Donahue was right all along and that the Merrimack River is not the appropriate place for Haverhill to look to meet its drinking water needs in the future. But in turning the discussion from saving Sheehan's job to his own political positions, especially when he is a lame-duck councilor with no intention of running for re-election, Donahue went from hero to instigator.
Worse yet, Donahue mocked fellow councilors who voted for his censure last year.
"I really have to thank my team of activists who were blogging at my home at 3 o'clock in the morning. Their hard work shed light on this issue and it was worth getting censured for," Donahue said.
The majority of Donahue's colleagues on the City Council voted to censure him after the Gazette's sister publication, The Eagle-Tribune, reported that several posts to its message boards, carrying a number of different user names, all came from Donahue's e-mail address and were made in the middle of the night.
Censure is a public chastisement that carries no actual penalty.
The posts were highly critical of Fiorentini and complimentary to Donahue.
The mayor and some city councilors said they believed Donahue was writing all the posts himself, and trying to make his colleagues look bad in the process. The activity, they said, was counter to the best interests of the city and the City Council.
Donahue has continued to deny that he wrote all the posts, and told The Eagle-Tribune at the time that he had a "team of bloggers" in his home sending the comments.
