Amherst Select Board: town's highest ranking elected office
Interestingly the Select Board has been through this Conflict of Interest issue before, so you would think history would not repeat itself.
Click to enlarge/read
Back in 2007 rookie Select Board members Alisa Brewer and Professor Rob Kusner voted to allow UMass free use of effluent water (in a close 3-2 vote) that normally would have cost them over $100,000 annually. I instantly filed a complaint with the State Ethics Division.
Note Ms. Brewer's body language
Interestingly they found no violation because the board members had (sort of) made a PUBLIC disclosure at the 9/17 meeting immediately before the discussion/vote.
And they had filed a disclosure form with the Town Clerk, although those forms were filed a week AFTER the 9/17/2007 Select Board meeting.
Note this disclosure filed 9/25 was for a 9/17 meeting
Whereas this time around Ms. Brewer still has the 2007 disclosure form on file, but she did NOT make a public announcement during the 12/21 meeting about her UMass affiliations.
Rob Kusner's disclosure filed 9/24 to cover a 9/17 meeting
There is no there there on this one.
ReplyDeleteI'm a freakin photon torpedo, so I only have to get close.
ReplyDeleteI say go for it Larry. They should have revealed any conflicts at the meetings start.
ReplyDeleteAnd if they were any questions they should not have voted, period.
Yep.
ReplyDeleteI would say I'm "locked and loaded" but I had a Select Board member try to have me arrested back in 2007 for using that phrase.
"the interests of my husband are shared by a substantial percentage of the town population"
ReplyDeleteThis and the fact that it is both widely known and already on file -- and has been known to you for years -- how MANY times do you wish to have her disclose it?!? As if meetings weren't long enough already, imagine all five reading their complete CVs before each & every vote. Is that what you want?
Personally, I think you are both being a sore loser and tactically stupid here.
The vote was 5-0, think it won't be 4-0 if she doesn't vote?
I also question your wisdom in the larger issue -- Amherst College is one thing, but as Massachusetts is a Commonwealth, UMass doesn't owe Amherst anything.
Be careful about the NVA children issue lest you get what you ask for -- if the single mothers are kicked out of North Village, as they were kicked out of Lincoln, where do you think they wind up? And don't think that UM wouldn't do that -- they have done worse.
And what would happen if UM were to no longer have the special 100% reimbursement for AFD in the student insurance? What if it privatized its own on campus ambulance business and then said "good luck collecting" for the off-campus AFD runs. Even though the AFD doesn't get the money, the town does....
She took the time to make that public disclosure at the Select Board Cable Ascertainment Hearing recently.
ReplyDeleteThe vote was unanimous at a meeting called at an odd hour with not a single member of the general public in attendance a few days before Christmas.
It deserved a lot more discussion -- especially since it resulted is such a lousy deal.
Larry, you don't even want to imagine what Queen Enku would do to you for the "only have to get close" line above -- Hint: "your name is now 'Seung-Hui Cho'."
ReplyDeleteBeing arrested would be the least of your worries...
I would imagine she takes more offense at your use of the term "Queen Enku".
ReplyDeleteSo I will not worry in the least until you suddenly disappear.
The Amherst "Uber Gifted Wunderkinden" are NOT good about conflicts of interest, this blowhard is so self-assured and ingrained, it's really pretty dismal. For years Kip Fonsh was BOTH a teachers union leader-Amherst high teacher-AND a member of the Amherst-Leverett school boards-this was a blatant conflict of interest-which was brought up-he was over seeing the hiring/ firing-quality/performance control and salarys for the teachers- but he also was one-and teachers union boss-therefore he did his own performance evaluations-teacher reviews-and salary discretion's. My family and other protested this-but the school nutz would just have none of the law-this remained illegal, like the recent case where the regional school committee did not post meeting dates-the AG ruled against Amherst-but not before the school nutz wrote letters to local papers-resting on laurels-that this could just be disregarded-another illegality. Keep these looners on the run Larry-good work-Kudos-what keeps the light of democracy alive !
ReplyDeleteLocked and loaded Larry? No you never were and never will be. Your just a poster boy, a make believe somebody that no one remembers. Wow locked and loaded, please I can't stop laughing.
ReplyDeleteSpoken like a true ... well, whatever you are.
ReplyDeleteNo Larry, Enku Geylae would be deported back to Somalia long before she could ever make me disappear -- although "give me what I want and I'll go away."
ReplyDelete(She could have, back when things could have been amicably resolved, and she chose not too...)
Besides, I highly doubt Queen Enku is bright enough to understand the Louis Carroll reference: "No, no!" said the Queen, "sentence now -- verdict later."
I consider her worse than Bull Connor -- at least he could say he didn't know any better...
How's that persecution complex going these days, Ed?
ReplyDelete"Martha Beall Mitchell was the wife of John Mitchell, Attorney-General in the Nixon administration. When she alleged that White House officials were engaged in illegal activities, her claims were attributed to mental illness. Ultimately, however, the facts of the Watergate scandal vindicated her and garnered her the label, "The Cassandra of Watergate"."
ReplyDeleteI think that quote says it all.
ReplyDeleteAlso worth reading.
http://www.texaspolicy.com/press_release/detail/amid-campus-protests-universities-worry-about-fundraising
Keep kidding yourself Ed. You're just obsessed with a school you haven't attended for years and a town you don't live in. You need a life.
ReplyDeleteLets see some more dancer coverage, you have created some followers...you asked for it. No conflicts...just dance.
ReplyDeleteI'm not obsessed, I'm vindictive, and there is a difference.
ReplyDeleteAsk yourself one question, penis-breath: How would I even know that the Texas Public Policy Foundation even exists, let alone that they are located two streets over from the Texas State Capitol Grounds in Austin?
Some people enjoy spending time/money going to football games. I prefer retribution. How long did it take Cato???
Hell, I don't care if it is getting folks kicked out of nursing homes because they have lost their state pension benefits for past illegal activities, I'd enjoy doing it. Likewise, I could care less about the human costs of getting the UM budget cut -- and that, boys 'n' girls, is what I am working on right now -- for FY-2020...
RTestore Lake Hitchcock!
Sorry to tell you Ed, the guys right. It's obsession, you need help my boy. Ever tried masturbation to relieve the stress?
ReplyDeleteObsessed and accomplishing nothing. A losing combination, Ed. How's life as a schools system superintendent? Oh, wait, you're not.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what Freud would make of the cowardly schmuck who wrote that line.
ReplyDeleteThe Short Lobster Company is doing quite well.
ReplyDeleteI've always said I was more qualified than Maria G, not that I wanted to do it.
I much prefer to operate in the shadows -- always have.
And we won't have school system superintendents in 5 years, anyway.
So you got your doctorate in education to run a lobster company?
ReplyDeleteYou don't even know what a short lobster is, do you?
ReplyDeleteNor do I care.
ReplyDelete