They HAD a secret #2

Two years ago the assistant I.T. Director was let go for sending an email complaint about his boss to town manager Larry Shaffer, also copied to the entire Select Board.

I filed a public documents request for said dispatch; the town manger turned me down citing Exemption C, the most often used excuse: "Personnel and medical files or information; also any other materials or data relating to a specifically named individual, the disclosure of which may constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

But in late February I requested any and all "separation, severance, transition, or settlement agreements made since January 1, 2005 between the town of Amherst and their employee's that include compensation, benefits, or other payments worth more than $5,000."

So here it is: Just another case of an employee who suddenly disappears (with $25-K in hand)
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A Gazette reporter called yesterday to interview me about the original post concerning the town manager's sudden retirement with a $62-K going away present and his, errr, administrative assistant also disappearing that same day with a $22-K payday after only 3-and-a-half years employment with the town.

He wanted to know "why the people should care?" Good question. Not sure I answered well enough for him and even if so it may never see the light of print anyway, so I will answer it again here.

Of the 13 individuals covered under these agreement more than half of them are simply routine retirements or early retirements. But because they are all kept secret, it casts a shadow on those that are routine, as though they did something wrong.

When the town attorney informed the town manager he had to give up the documents, Mr. Musante requested another week to contact the former employees via snail mail to inform them that someone had been given their legal agreements.

And I'm sure some of them--even those who should not be--started to get nervous.

The highest payout ($44,000) was actually the most normal in that it was a very-high ranking employee with over thirty years of distinguished service. That settlement included unused vacation pay, sick time, personal days, longevity pay, etc.

Another woman who had left the same position Ms. "Jane Doe" occupied (administrative assistant to the town manager--and I'm told by multiple sources did a much better job) was not on the settlement list, because she received no money. Since she voluntarily resigned her town position for a better job at Amherst College, you would expect no such settlement.

So then why did "Jane Doe" get paid $22-K when she "voluntarily" resigned ten months later?

If the former town manager Larry Shaffer had used $22-K out of his $25-K going away present, then I would have not pursued this case so vigorously. But since it was all funded with tax dollars, I honestly believe the people have a right to know.

Just another WikiLeaks document dump...

So once again I have set my blogger controls to automatically publish at 2:30 this afternoon another chapter from my recent acquisition of 82 pages of legal documents via Public Documents Law concerning secret settlement agreements with 13 town employees over the past five years.

No, I'm not afraid town officials will have me terminated with extreme prejudice between now and then or anything, it's just that even though I now live a cyber-life I still have ink in my veins. And nothing is more motivating than a drop-dead deadline.

What's yours is mine

Trampoline half on town property. Note also cleared, mowed area of encroachment

A couple square yards here and a couple there, pretty soon you're talking football field

No wonder the folks cocooned in high-end houses on Tanglewood Drive are so heated about the town finally getting around to turning the expensive old dump into something productive--a lucrative, environmentally friendly solar farm.

Not only do they now enjoy a great view, but some of the folks have enhanced that view by encroaching on town property.

A backyard view

A tree fort and swing way out on the landfill

Cleared manicured area beyond the property line

Boys will be (little) boys

No, believe it or not, this is not a Saturday Night Live skit

UPDATE: Friday April 15 3:30 PM Umass must be paying attention. Off campus bad boy behavior will no longer be tolerated. Code of Student conduct changes are a coming
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UPDATE: Wednesday 2:30 PM The Facebook group is gone undergound, long live civility. As always, Comments are the best.
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ORIGINAL POST: Tuesday morning

Strike up the ditty "Fight...for your right, to parrrrrrrrty!" The irate lads who live at 23 Tracy Circle have taken to Facebook to rage against the machine. Nice language boys. Gotta wonder if they have family on Facebook who will get to see their diatribe.

Note from screen shot above (taken yesterday) that they had 170 members, but are now down by four (who probably don't want HR pros to know they were once part of such an immature group when they go job searching.)

23 Tracy Circe (a residential neighborhood)

The Thin Blue Line

Solar powered Electric Chair?

This detonation of a backpack nuke at last night's Select Board meeting--publicly suggesting Amherst will be an "accomplice in a capital crime"--was obviated a couple hours later, when reading from a prepared statement during his Town Manger's report, John Musante informs the Select Board he's given up on using DEP approved contaminated soil to regrade the old unlined landfill.

Still, you gotta love Mr. Boothroyd's borrowing from Steve Jobs the "one last thing" intro before dropping the bombshell.



End result? The town losses $250,000 in disposal fees paid in work/equipment barter from the major contractor rebuilding Atkins Corner, who will now have to pay cash to another disposal facility at a greater rate per ton for the 6,000 ton load.

And the town will have to rely on street sweepings and catch basin crud to try to make up the difference for the regrading but will probably have to bring in clean fill at additional cost in labor and cash. All in all, a lose-lose scenario.

Twenty years ago Mr. Keenan enhanced his "fiscal conservative" image by volunteering to clean up pigeon poop from the Town Hall attic after Town Manager Barry Del Castilho (worried about the health of his secretary, who later became his wife) was preparing to spend over $100,000 to have a hazardous waste disposal company clean it up.

And a couple weeks ago Mr. Keenan blew the whistle to DEP about 20-30 barrels of potentially hazardous waste (paint from UMass) that was buried somewhere in the landfill over 25 years ago by town DPW workers.

But if everyone is also so concerned about the integrity of the landfill cap, then why try to force the town into cracking it open to dig for those 20 or 30 needles in a haystack?

Solar Flare

Atkins construction soil

John Boothroyd and Dave Keenan, two outspoken critics of the town's attempt to recast the old unlined landfill into a sea of shiny solar panels took their battle directly to the Select Board at the unscripted 6:30 PM "Question Period" tonight, focusing on the potential health hazard of pesticide laced soil approved by the DEP as partial fill to repair sagging areas of the landfill cap due to settling common after 20 years of decomposition.

John Musante, during his "Town Manager's Report", told the Select Board the contaminated soil controversy had created "a lot of anxiety" and become a "distraction."

The regrading of the landfill will occur regardless of the solar array project and since the use of lead arsenate soil was a relatively minor part of the overall work, he directed DPW chief Guilford Mooring to abandon the idea of using 6,000 tons of tainted soil from the Atkins Corner Road project, although he praised Mr Mooring for "trying to be entrepreneurial".

Musante by no means backed down on the ambitious project to construct a 4.75 megawatt solar farm on the landfill that could provide the town with a million dollars per year in combined electricity savings and property tax revenues.

Mass spending

The Governor just approved a $327 million supplemental budget to get the state through the rest of the year to maintain "critical services, core safety net programs" and provide reimbursement to cities and towns for cleaning up after the worst winter in collective memory.

UPDATE: 7:35 PM
And in local news, the illustrious Select Board just voted unanimously to close off half the downtown Spring Street lot and a few more spaces on Boltwood Avenue to park the three large tour buses that will descend on the town for the newly e-x-p-a-n-d-e-d (to two days) Extravaganja Event, April 16th and 17th.

Last year the Amherst Board of Health considered expanding the smoking ban to include outdoor public areas such as the town common, but the proposal was dropped.