His Lordship finally figured out that he does not want to make little old me a martyr to the First Amendment (plus I don’t die easily). Hey, at least now I’m thrown in with the venerable Amherst Bulletin. How dare they name names of overworked volunteer members of PUBLIC boards and committees!
The problem with crafting an official resolution thinly directed at one individual is that in this particular case it stands no chance of working. Plus, now that he’s lost his partner in crime Anne Awad (as far as the Open Meeting Law is concerned) he will have a harder time getting fellow board members to act as a rubber stamp.
That should have a “chilling effect” on his ideological nonsense.
What about the most basic part about it being a bill of attainer?
ReplyDeleteWhat about the most basic part about the Anti Klan Statutes (including Section 1983) and violation of civil rights under color of law?
Why do I somehow suspect that some competent attorney sorta advised someone about the consequences (to both Weiss and to the town) of having passed such an ordinance...
Ed
Yeah, that too!
ReplyDeleteFrom today's Howie Carr Column (http://www.bostonherald.com)
ReplyDelete"Not only that, but you serve in the Legislature while not even living in the city you’re supposed to be representing. You can go for a tax break in some other town, and nobody indicts you, or even hits you with a fine, you’re just allowed to announce that you won’t be seeking reelection."
So, umm, what Awad did would be considered illegal in the rest of the Commonwealth. But not in the Brave New People's Republic of Amherst....
Ed
Especially in Amherst, we get all these transient academics who move here, want to pad their resume for a better job at some other bigger University--so they serve on a board or committee and enact stupid (socialistic) ideas that don’t work, but take a few years before the crap hits the fan--and by then they are gone.
ReplyDeleteNotice long time Town Manager Barry Del Castilho moved to Buckland (probably the lowest tax rate in the state) after 20 odd years of screwing up the town. Yet he will collect 80-K annually off Amherst taxpayers for the rest of his life.
And since he married his secretary, she too is probably getting an Amherst pension.
Thanks for your hard work Larry, all it took was a photo and some time getting to know the Registry of Deeds software and "Ms. Do As I Say, Not As I Do" is getting an early retirement, hopefully pension free.
ReplyDeleteYou know, this is a tailor made Howie Carr Hack de Jour column and or radio segment. Local Beautiful Person in a People's Republic openly flouts the law, yet is enraged when discovered. Rather than own up, she blames the vast right wing conpiracy and the harm vested upon her fragile mental state, because lets face it, she shouldn't have to deal with this, because she is for "The Children"
- Ryan
Hey Ryan,
ReplyDeleteYou're most welcome.
And as you know, the next move is to a new government.
I sure hope so, Larry. We are long overdo.
ReplyDeleteThsnks Larry, for beign YOU.
Until later...............
"Especially in Amherst, we get all these transient academics who move here, want to pad their resume for a better job at some other bigger University--so they serve on a board or committee and enact stupid (socialistic) ideas that don’t work, but take a few years before the crap hits the fan--and by then they are gone."
ReplyDeleteWhat on earth are you talking about? We realize that you have little respect for the people that educated you, but do you really think serving on a town board goes into an academic's resume, and that is the basis for getting a "better job at some bigger university" Can you give a few examples of people who have done this?
Well, Barbara Griffith springs to mind. Although it was her husband who got a better job. Rick Rice (although technically he was not a professorial academic). Dick Minear, oops--no, he's still around.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the backgrounds of the current select board members? Is there any legal or business training amongst them?
ReplyDelete- Ryan
No, not a lick.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad that you are so unaware of how things work in the academic world,which you have so much dislike for. If serving on a town board ever helped an academic get a better job.... never mind.
ReplyDeleteMy wife is a tenured professor at a prestigious private college, so I have a bit of experience with how it works--not too mention living my entire life in academic, overly enlightened Amherst.
ReplyDeleteSo you actually believe that your wife, (I'd rather not get personal) or anybody else, for that matter can get a job offer based on their participation on town board, rather than their knowledge, productivity, international stature? Wow!
ReplyDeleteProvide a bona fide example, and perhaps we'll listen to you on this one. Otherwise, it's just the usual smoke.
I realize that there are probably a few academics in town that help pay your family's bills, so you probably talk to them at your shop, but methinks you know next to nothing about their careers.
I suppose it's fun to think you know everything about this topic too.
"My wife is a tenured professor at a prestigious private college"
ReplyDeleteDoes your wife participate in any town boards or committees?
It would be interesting to see how many academics even list town boards and committees on their "resume."
Yes, actually she was a member of the Town Commercial Relations Committee last year (not to pad her resume but because she genuinely wanted to improve the town).
ReplyDeleteShe found it a waste of her valuable time (mainly because the Select Board was clueless when it comes to business)
So, it's probably none of our business, but does she put it on her resume, as you say academics do, and will it help her get a "better job at some other bigger University" This is feeling too personal for me, but I am still looking for you to come up with an example to prove your point. Otherwise, it's just typical bs.
ReplyDeleteSince I don't know which "prestigious private college" I don't know if she has already done what you claim academics do. Is she at Amherst?
No, not Amherst College. Since she's been at Babson seven years she did not put last year's TCRC experience on her resume.
ReplyDeleteStrangely enough, one of the things on her resume eight years ago that caught the attention of the guy who hired her was she was twice ranked #1 in New England for Womens Black Belt fighting by Karate Illustrated magazine.
So you just never know what will spice up a resume.
You have absolutely no idea how academics get hired.
ReplyDeleteYes, fancy titles downtown DO help your CV. The principle of education (perhaps just at large land grant colleges but I think more) is that you need to have an equal mix of teaching, research and public service.
ReplyDeleteAlso, involvement in municipal affairs helps those wanting to go up the admin ladder because town/gown is an issue everywhere.
I have seen many CVs and have seen muni stuff a lot on them. And seen it evaluated as an important thing, particuarly on upper levels.
My thoughts exactly (although you put them a tad better)
ReplyDeletegosh I guess I'm outnumbered by the experts. In academic departments, public service to a town is not the same as service to the profession which is what counts. service to town is personal.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe you're just not high enough up on the ladder (although probably making a cushy salary)
ReplyDeleteSee now if you had put in a few years on the Planning Board, Finance Committee or Illustrious Select Board you would be University Vice Chancellor of something or other
Lets not forget that the academic community has a vested interest in town government whether elected or appointed. Just like teachers, cops, firefighters, and the like, they too have the implicit knowledge that their institutions depend on the town for services, zoning and permitting. So aside from padding the resume like any other person, their is also institutional loyalty.
ReplyDelete- Ryan
Yeah, like that sweetheart deal the Select Board, acting as Sewer Commissioners, gifted Umass $40,000 by waiving effluent water fees by a 3-2 vote, with two of the three "yes" SB members having ties to the University.
ReplyDeleteAnd one of them, a Professor, gets a sabbatical about six months later. Hmmm...
I'm going to have to say it. You are really showing ignorance of how universities work. Sabbaticals are in the university contracts that have been negotiated with both republican and democratic administrations. Whatever you think of that particular SB member, if with all your clever sleuthness, you can show a link, then show it. (The same goes for your resume argument)
ReplyDeleteBut there's probably enough going on without making up conspiracies/payoffs that don't exist. It just shows how uninformed you are about academic procedures and politics. Maybe I should start a blog investigating people in town that seem to be living beyond their means. Hmmm... drives a nice car, nice bike, nice camera, flies to China a lot, runs an athletic club that nobody I know belongs to, have to dig out those mortgage docs that I downloaded and see what's in them, spends most of his day on his own blog, and the rest either investigating or responding, wife works at "prestigious college" that is not AC. Hmmm. Husband says wife may have gotten job because of some black belt thing... Hmmm
And Ryan has me totally messed up. He says academics do public service out of institutional loyalty and you say that they're doing it to pad their resumes to get out of their institution to a bigger and better one. Something isn't logical here, but what else is new.
And who doesn't have a vested interest in the town government? Store owners, club owners, landscapers, restaurant owners, academic types, retired people.... they all do. This has been fun, but it's becoming nonsense. It is really interesting to see how at least a couple of people view academic types and what drives them with no knowledge of how the system works. I think it's time for another book.
Have to go and enter this conversation as a publication on my resume. You know, publish or perish, even when I'm on vacation from my cushy nine month job. Then Ill volunteer for a few boards, and then bam, I can increase my cushy salary by rising higher up the ladder, and then I can join a health club and maybe my kid can get karate lessons. So... it seems that if I volunteer and get a promotion, athetic clubs come out ahead... Hmmm.....
Getting a little late in the day for cappuccino
ReplyDeleteOne car has 110,000 miles on it and the new one (only a year old) has 22,000. The mortgage documents would show we took out a Homestead Declaration 15 or so years ago and guess what? We’re still here.
The bike is seven years old and the camera is a $99 point and shoot (with 3x optical). Please feel free to start your own blog and stop wasting my bandwidth (although it is free). But you may actually have to identify yourself.
Academic Anon:
ReplyDeleteYes, of course a person will undertake town government out of a sense of public service that happens all the time. However, with academia being the dominant employer in town it stands to reason that those officeholders employed by the institution have a potential conflict of interest more often than not.
As for padding the resume, lets face it, plenty of people do, and they are encouraged to seek office by their union, guild, professional society, association etc.
- Ryan
As to the sewer discharge water, you can blame me.
ReplyDeleteI raised the question of why UMass was going to be paying MORE for SEWER DISCHARGE WATER than homeowners were paying for sanitary drinking water.
I asked this in light of the costs of providing clean (well tasting) and sanitary drinking water (pumping, piping and cleaning) versus the cost to the town for the university to have its own pumps obtain this water (and then distill it for the steam plant's needs).
I asked this in light of the fact that the water (discharged from the Amherst Sewer Treatment Plant (located ON THE UM CAMPUS...) would otherwise flow across UM-OWNED LAND THAT WAS *IN HADLEY* and then eventually to the Connecticut River (which can't be reached from Amherst).
And the point I raised was why doesn't UMass simply offer to buy it from the Town of Hadley at half price and then pump it back. Amherst has no choice, they can't sell it to anyone else, they can't store unlimited amounts and it eventually will go downhill -- and into Hadley....
Someone with an IQ above 12 realized that this wouldn't look good in the Boston papers and that is when the "deal" was struck.
ED