The thought of sitting through a three-hour budget meeting at 9 a.m. on Saturday is enough to horrify most people.
But you didn’t need coffee to stay awake at today’s City Council hearing in Methuen.
While the council took a short recess, Chairwoman Deborah Quinn and
council hopeful Jack Burke (a rival of Quinn’s) stood in front of a reporter and had a nitpicky, yet entertaining, argument about whether the council broke its own rules during the meeting. As they bickered, three men stepped between Mayor William Manzi and Joe Pappalardo (husband of City Councilor Jeanne Pappalardo) to keep them from fighting.
“We were exchanging views on the municipal budget,” Manzi said after the meeting, down playing the incident.
Joe Pappalardo stormed out of the building and has yet to return a phone message left at his home. Stay tuned to tomorrow’s Eagle-Tribune.
