Larry Shaffer turns on the charm for Amherst Town Meeting######################################
ORIGINAL POST: Sunday evening (a tad ahead of the Gazette)
My two site meters act like canaries in a coal mine, early alerting me to something of note suddenly occurring. On Tuesday a tsunami of hits from Facebook landing on a "Party House of the Weekend" post from last December almost crashed my widget.
I was actually in the middle of drafting an email to APD wondering if something terrible had just happened at 23 Tracy Circle (thinking somebody blew their brains out after posting a suicide note on Facebook linking back to me) when I managed to trace it back to the juvenile "F_ck the Fines" Facebook group.
Then a couple days ago I noticed numerous hits coming from Michigan all Googling "Larry Shaffer, Amherst" with some of them adding the term "gay". Hmm...
Turns out that former Amherst Town Manager Larry Shaffer is tops on the list for city manager of Jackson, Michigan a city about the size of Amherst (which should be a city). The gay thing is probably from his public interview use of the term "partner" for his um, other woman, Jane Ashby.
The one he divorced his wife over, and then suddenly retired from bucolic Amherst (with a taxpayer funded $62-K going away present) to follow her out to her new professorship at Central Michigan University.
I asked a conservative buddy of mine who makes Michigan her home which scenario would play better in Jackson: A gay man applying for city manager or a straight one who had an affair with his secretary while still married (costing taxpayers $23,000 to hush up) then flew the coop to be with yet another woman. All hypothetical examples of course.
Considering Michigan is more conservative than Massachusetts, with a huge evangelical community in Grand Rapids and a large Muslim population outside Detroit, it sounds like neither of my hypothetical scenarios would play out well.
So forget Mr. Shaffer's folly of charging a tax on Christmas trees sold by Boy Scouts, or getting spanked by the ACLU for attempting a heavy handed takeover of the July 4th Parade to accommodate left wing zealots or even purposely fudging figures to protect a municipally owned black hole of a golf course; his final undoing is a character flaw as old as Adam and Eve--and in this cyber age, one that cannot be hidden behind a fig leaf.
My conservative Michigan buddy agrees
I feel genuinely sorry for the employees and citizens of Jackson, Michigan. Shaffer has a Dr Jekyl-Mr. Hyde personality--he's a liar and a bully--a wolf in sheep's clothing. At first it will be the employees (especially in his office) who will experience his terrible temper and unprofessional treatment.
ReplyDeleteHis personality flaws and lack of civility parameters will eventually surface in the community though and it will be a costly struggle to be rid of him.
Citizens of Jackson..DANGER AHEAD!! Come to Amherst and seek the truth before it's too late!!
I was actually in the middle of drafting an email to APD wondering if something terrible had just happened at 23 Tracy Circle
ReplyDeleteLarry, something terrible is going to happen somewhere in this town and you will be partially to blame for it.
Don't blame the messenger (or is it shoot the piano player?)
ReplyDeleteYeh, don't forget to put your name on the credits Ed. Your as guilty as anyone with your, injustices of students, and end of the world ramblings.
ReplyDeleteWhere's the Weeeeee-sle skipper Rick Hood been hanging out?
ReplyDeleteAnyone?
The affair with his administrative assistant has never been proven beyond the rumor stage.
ReplyDeleteTrue enough.
ReplyDeleteAnd if I HAD video proof I would not publish it.
"The city council in Jackson, Mich., voted 6-1 Saturday in favor of making Shaffer the community's city manager, according to the Jackson Citizen Patriot. The next step will be contract negotiations and a background check." (Daily Hamp Gazette, 4/19/11)
ReplyDeletePresumably before the Jackson City Council voted in favor of hiring Shaffer, they had already gotten references from Amherst. I wonder who gave them....
Oh, I'm sure it was the same as Ms. Jane Doe's as written in her severance agreement: "...was employed full time by the town until leaving the position in good standing."
ReplyDeletethey had already gotten references from Amherst. I wonder who gave them
ReplyDeleteLarry, wouldn't that be public information -- not what the letter said but who was using town time to write a letter of recommendation for a non-employee?
I got the membership listing of the ACT group that way -- the public has a right to know what public employees are doing, and even if they claim the letter was written during personal time, if it was on town letterhead (which it would have to be) that the leterhead itself is public resource that they can be asked to account for...
God dang Maria Geryk is doin a great job aint she?
ReplyDeleteMaria is part of the furniture now. She'll be here for as long as she wants to be, i.e. decades.
ReplyDeleteBecause no one, but no one is going to admit that a mistake was made. She's got the securest public sector job in the Valley.
Let's review again:
ReplyDeleteWho were the driving forces in town who brought Mr. Shaffer to Amherst? And where are they now?