William Lantigua (left) meets with Gov. Deval Patrick in 2009, shortly before Lantigua took office as mayor of Lawrence. Patrick spent the day discussing Lawrence’s precarious finances with city officials.

William Lantigua, the ethically challenged mayor of Lawrence, has issued a statement celebrating the departure of Eagle-Tribune publisher Al Getler, according to Tom Duggan of the Valley Patriot.

“For the past six years, Al Getler has worked to discredit our community, our residents and our image as a whole from behind his desk in North Andover,” Lantigua wrote, adding that he plans to reach out to new publisher Karen Andreas “to better promote the positive news that continues to break in our City of Lawrence.”

I know Andreas slightly, and I assume she will tell Lantigua that the Eagle-Tribune will continue to hold him accountable.

Getler left as part of a shake-up at four daily papers north of Boston owned by the Alabama-based chain CNHI earlier this week. Andreas, who had been publisher of CNHI’s Salem News, is now regional publisher for all four dailies as well as the company’s weekly papers and websites.

Photo (cc) by the office of Gov. Patrick and published under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.