Cost of Cable Worth It!

The cost of cable was worth it this week just to watch the BOS meeting of Monday, June 22, 2009!

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Brian Giovanoni stands up and extols the great success of the Town Hall Lawn Concert last year, the high attendance, the money raised for the Park Department and the Animal Shelter, blah, blah, blah....posters will be up around town.

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We attended all except I believe one lawn concert last year.

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At no time did I see Brian Giovanoni, Mimi Duphily, Willy Duphily, Helen Belmont, Diane Bassett, or any other member of Middleboro Friends. Steve Spataro lives on School St., was Selectman at the time (before he lost re-election) was our "Big Leagues" Selectman who coined the "Cheap Seats" phrase, just around the corner and couldn't be bothered to attend. Marsha Brunelle lives on Bourne St., within walking distance and couldn't be bothered to attend.

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Jean Spaulding, the Health Agent, to her credit, along with a small number of dedicated volunteers organized and cleaned up after the concerts and did the heavy lifting. They arranged for raffle prizes from local businesses, brought the food, tables, supplies.

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Brian, where were you? When I missed that single concert, was that when you swooped in to help out?

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There were a number of people who did attend, including Adam Bond, his wife, Victoria and their lively daughter, Bill Marzelli and his wonderful wife, Patty.

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And if you're going to stand up and pitch for solitary events because you know someone who's involved, how about putting together a list of events that benefit the Town? I don't recall seeing you at the Christmas Wishes' yard sale that was held on Saturday. Did I miss you?

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Christmas Wishes is an organization of hard working residents who ensure that families in need in Middleboro and Lakeville have Christmas presents and Christmas dinner. The money is raised locally and stays local.

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There are numerous other organizations that quietly go about their fundraising that are being ignored by you, Brian.

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Worth a few laughs or stomach churns was the Part Time Town Accountant who made a mistake that just happened to be almost $600,000.

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This is the comment a faithful reader sent:

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What is more important is how much of a raise did our blundering accountant get? Was it 10%?

Does he work only 4 days a weel? And he gets mileage to drive to work?

Yet, he made a $592K mistake. Oops? I'm not happt with this performance and would cut his pay.

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Maybe next time, the Board of Selectmen who don't seem capable of balancing their own checkbooks (with the exception of the 2 new members) will allow others with greater expertise to interview candidates. What happened with the last accountant? It cost how much to settle? And this one only works 4 days a week? Remember who appointed him!

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Middleboro Town Accountant's Contract

Town Accountant

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The SEMASS contract.....insert Big Sigh!

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The original contract has years to run, but SEMASS is pushing to re-negotiate. The meeting is worth watching.

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The newbie, Steve McKinnon questioned the contents of the original contract that's currently in force and not provided to the Selectmen.

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Good point!

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Where is it? Who negotiated it? Jack Healey you say? Ya wanna look at what Jack did in Southbridge?

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Voters just might like to review the contract. Is it on the PTWS (Pathetic Town Web Site)?

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Newbie Al Rullo indicated that he had picked up a copy from the Town Clerk to review.

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Wouldn't it be worthwhile if voters who paid these bills had as much information as you have available?
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Please keep in mind that if voters request that information, they have to pay for it.
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Isn't this what is needed for transparency?

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That must mean that the 2 other Board Members present, Muriel Duphily and Marsha Brunelle, our very own Gavel Queen, were fully familiar with the current contract.

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Right?

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We all know that Marsha remembers everything. Maybe she doesn't remember it accurately, but she at least remembers it.

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Mrs. Duphily?

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Some may remember that Mrs. Duphily is a single issue candidate for the casino that isn't coming who is ethically challenged and couldn't figure out that because her husband is a call fireman, she shouldn't participate in 'all things fire dept.,' is really a wonderful person who has been very active in town and she's extraordinarily talented. But worry her head about details of her office? Phewt! She clearly has more important things to do rather than bother with the responsibilities of being Selectman, like.....Town Groundskeeper, a position suggested by "Smoking Owl."

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Note to Charter Commission: Please add position of "Town Groundskeeper" to Charter changes.

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There was really more to the meeting that made it worth the cost of cable, but time is limited. Take the time to watch and you might formulate a few questions of your own.

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Are you beginning to understand why it makes sense to elect competent people to serve on the BOS?

Wisdom?

Wisdom is knowing when a scenario with which you are involved is beyond your expertise and requires advice and counsel of competent EXPERTS.

Wisdom is knowing your skills well enough to comprehend complexities and undertake the pertinent actions to solicit opinion from appropriate parties.

The following 2 quotes seem to confirm residents' suspicions that the Middleboro Board of Selectmen can NEVER being accused of acting wisely --


When they meet in April, Selectwoman Marsha L. Brunelle said she would like the tribe to address rumors that they may be scaling back the size of the proposed casino.

Selectwoman Muriel Duphily said she would like to know the status of the casino after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in February that Congress must approve all applications to take land into federal trust for Indian tribes.




There seems to be some confusion about this matter --

The selectmen initially made a request in January to meet with the tribe but had not received a response until last week.
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How was the BOS notified? Writing? Phone call? For those who have been paying attention to the questions that have been asked during BOS Meetings, this seems to be a new BOS game of dodging questions. Or can the origin be explained by the meetings the Town Manager, Charles Cristello has had with the Tribe that he seems confused about?

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Transparency, anyone?

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Thanks Ms. Elwell for confirming what residents already know.

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Footnote:

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To:

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Marsha Brunelle, who confuses blog and email, and

Mimi Duphily, who confuses her duties with planting flowers,

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You might try reading what friend and fellow blogger Carver Chick had to say. CC has already answered your question.

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I hand-delivered a copy of Carcieri v Salazar, the SCOTUS decision, to your secretary and respectfully requested that you have counsel review the decision and provide a legal opinion for the benefit and protection of the Town of Middleboro. I included a pair of glasses since the the BOS seems not to see clearly.

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To:

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Middleboro Voters:

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Town Elections are Saturday, April 4th.

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It's an opportunity to vote for change.

What Are The Issues?

Focus on the issues rather than the source and emotions of the "Bogus Letter" the Middleboro BOS received regarding the selection process for the new Fire Chief.

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A Middleboro Selectwoman has participated and offered her opinions in all discussions regarding the Fire Department.....

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...selectman Muriel C. Duphily, whose husband, Wilfred Duphily, has been a call captain in the department for 30 years.

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Maybe Mrs. Duphily was unaware of the Ethics issues surrounding a firefighter forced to resign from the BOS, as she clearly appears to be unaware of many other town issues.

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Ironically, on the home page of The Official Website of the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission this is offered

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In House Seminar
The Massachusetts State Ethics Commission is presenting a

FREE EDUCATIONAL SEMINAR

on the Conflict of Interest law for state, county and municipal employees on

Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. and

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at 10:00 a.m.

One Ashburton Place, Room 619, Boston, MA.

Call 617-371-9500 to reserve your seat.

SPACE IS LIMITED!

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Mrs. Duphily is personable and kind and extraordinarily talented. But Mrs. Duphily seems to believe that Town Government is her personal playground to do and say as she chooses, legal issues be damned! She is clearly too overbooked and distracted by personal commitments to focus on Town issues. She arrives at BOS meetings clearly unprepared and having failed to research ANY issue or reviewed the documents that are hand-delivered to each Bored [sic] member via Police Department courier. Intellectual curiosity is not her forte.

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Mimi, Dear, you need to avail yourself of the resources that have been made available to understand how government works and stop embarrassing us. And you need to find the time to ensure that you fully understand that laws, statutes, and those silly things like 'Ethics' that govern your conduct.

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Dear Mimi, that you felt the need to express your anger at the Fire Department when you said (in the Middleboro Gazette still only 50 cents)

"There's infighting in the department, there's no discipline....This has got to come to an end."

"We did it in this way so the politics would be taken out of it."

"This is hurtful."

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reveals that you fail to understand what Ethics means.
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Or in the Brockton Enterprise when you were quoted
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"Ethics felt I shouldn't be there...If that's what they're pushing for, I guess they won."

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Dear Mrs. Duphily, you either need to inform yourself, do your research, invest the time in the programs that are offered that explain town government, or you need to do us a favor and resign so that a candidate willing to take the time can conduct Town business.

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Dumbfounded #2

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Footnote: Town Counsel's Advice:

Duphily said that Town Counsel Daniel F. Murray said she wasn’t violating any ethics rules, but that when Murray questioned the state Ethics Commission, he was told the opposite, and that Duphily was liable for a $2,000 fine.

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Town Counsel wasted his taxpayer paid time traveling to Boston TWICE to fight me on an issue that he lost. The last time he lost, the judge clearly cautioned him to settle the matter and not return to court. At a future date, I may blog about the surrounding issues, but in this case, I had researched the issue and while I make absolutely no pretense of any legal expertise, Town Counsel was wrong. How many other times is Town Counsel wrong because he fails to do the research? Is Middleboro paying +$60K a year for flawed legal advice because 'that's the way it's always been done' ?

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Note to casino supporters: You supported and elected an unqualified candidate based solely on a single issue that bloggers told you would NOT come to pass. Could you give serious consideration to other issues next time around because they really matter to the rest of us?

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Note to Spataro supporters: Mr. Spataro, who told us this was the BIG LEAGUES was again ABSENT from the BOS meeting. You may recall that Mr. Spataro spent a BOS meeting text messaging, eating his supper, has been frequently unprepared and late, has no listed phone number to avoid voters.

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Is this truly what we want and need from Town Government? Is anyone watching this?

Dumbfounded #2

One of the last things I cared to do was sit through the candidates' interviews for Fire Chief, listen to the uninformed comments about casino impacts, yet again, by a Bored [sic] that's unlike any other, especially on a Fall Sunday. But the lack of videotaping, attendance by the press (can't say I blame them), poor attendance by 'regular' voters (can't blame them either) and the lack of transcription, seemed to merit attention as indicated in Dumbfounded #1.
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Selectwoman Duphily seemed to have finally figured out by the fourth candidate that activities of the Fire Department, Police Department and the ambulance service would increase should the casino ever be constructed based solely on the increased traffic. (Referring to the CRAC report, traffic was estimated at 50,000 cars per day.) Mrs. Duphily is a lovely and multi-talented lady, whose calendar seems so filled, she's unable to devote any time to research or enlightenment. Her efforts at improving the Town Hall lawn are a noticeable improvement and at the suggestion of an anonymous poster elsewhere, clearly worthy of Town Groundskeeper, an office for which she could successfully run. From her comments, however, one can deduce that she has failed to avail herself of the forums and courses offered to inform officials of their responsibilities, the pertinent laws and procedures, the basic functions of town government. Hopefully, at some point during her term, she will elect to do so, but barring that, those who supported her might step up to the plate and provide some background information to reduce the embarrassment those of us who watch suffer.
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Although it is doubtful that the casino will ever prevail for a large number of reasons (Check out CarverChick for a simplified explanation of some of the legal issues. She has an impressive ability to explain complex issues in an easily understandable fashion.) and organized opposition that continues to fight armed with the facts, it is clear that the inevitability has evaporated.
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My good friends and fellow bloggers, Bellicose Bumpkin and Gladys Kravitz and Carl's Casino Quotes have recently blogged about the local impacts of casinos on surrounding towns.
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But, I digress.
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More than a year has transpired after the TMFH that the Bored [sic] forced onto the Town, before an agreement existed, and before the Town had adequate time to review, digest and question the contents of the flawed agreement, the Bored [sic] still hasn't figured out its contents.

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Fellow bloggers have explained how the Agreement netted half of what it should have, failed to adequately address impacts, ignored the impacts on schools and much else.
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Enter Selectwoman Duphily.
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Round about the fourth candidate for Fire Chief, in questioning an out of state candidate for Fire Chief, Selectwoman Duphily stated that HOPEFULLY the casino would pay for the additional costs to the Town.

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The candidate responded with "the casino ought to pay."

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So, where and in what legal dictionary is HOPEFULLY and OUGHT TO defined in terms of a legally binding contract that casino supporters blindly accepted and the BOS signed with a Sovereign Nation?

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The Agreement that the TMFH approved with the Mashpee Wampanoag is posted nemasket. Those who would defend the document need to print it and re-read it. And please, while you're at it, print a copy for Mrs. Duphily and provide a crash course in contract law. Like it or not, those are the terms that were agreed to.

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At a recent BOS Meeting, Selectman Spataro (the Selectman with the non-published phone number to avoid those pesky townspeople, usually unprepared, who has sat at a BOS Meetings text messaging, eating his supper, arrives late and told you this was the 'Big Leagues.') indicated that even though he was the Bored's [sic] representative to SRPEDD, he hadn't attended the meetings and it was necessary to appoint another representative. In other words, the very agency that he has criticized in the past, he couldn't be bothered to represent the Town's interests to attend meetings. And was it noticed that Selectwoman Duphily failed to step up to the plate and volunteer? Has she volunteered for any meetings or committees that are the responsibility of Selectpersons to fulfill? Groundskeeper is good, but how about the necessary responsibilities that come with the elected office that you sought?

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Wasn't it conspicuous enough that after living in Middleboro for many years, Mrs. Duphily was unfamiliar with the hazardous waste site that is Rockland Industries, a site that has been reported for 40 years?

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Mr. Cristello has accomplished a yeoman's job in his short tenure bringing Middleboro into the 20th Century, never mind the 21st, but this is government by Mickey Mouse or Homer Simpson and needs to improve to meet the challenges we confront. Mr. Cristello can only do so much.