Saturday's print edition of the Gazette left out the last two sentences from the Internet version that makes it very clear the state sided with me on my public documents request:
States asked to rule on Ledges record request
Daily Hampshire Gazette 3/17/2007
SOUTH HADLEY - A candidate for Selectboard has asked the state's supervisor of public records to intervene in obtaining the names, ages and addresses of people who are members at the town-owned Ledges Golf Course.
Daniel Champagne this week sent a letter to Alan Cote, supervisor of public records, requesting assistance after a written request for this census data made to Town Administrator Patricia Vinchesi was denied.
Though Vinchesi provided information about season passes and total rounds played in 2006, 55 and 28,031 respectively, in a letter sent to Champagne Tuesday, she pointed out more specific details are not available.
"We do not track different players or the number of South Hadley golfers and no public records exist to this effect," Vinchesi wrote.
Champagne, whose letter is co-signed by Sherrie Champagne, a candidate for Town Meeting, isn't sure of this.
"Being business owners for 26 years, we know of no business that would not want to track client census information," Champagne wrote in his March 12 letter to Cote.
The Champagnes have been critical of January's Town Meeting decision to construct a nearly $700,000 clubhouse at the course. Supporters have argued that the clubhouse will help reduce the annual deficits the course has been running.
Champagne's letter requests that, in addition to the people who are members, the names of all players in 2006 and those who purchased gift certificates also be released.
A similar public information request was made in Amherst last Spring, where golf course critic Larry Kelley was initially rebuffed in his effort to get the names, ages and addresses of people who are members at Cherry Hill Golf Course.
In April, Cote supported Kelley's request to get this information from Amherst officials:
"(G)iven that the Cherry Hill Golf Course is a municipally funded and managed facility the course is subject to the Public Records Law," Cote wrote.
- SCOTT MERZBACH
Last year I sent out this release:
Amherst strikes out in Public Records contest
Former Amherst Bulletin columnist Larry Kelley requested (1/10/06) the names, ages and addresses of the 196 season pass holders (2005) at the municipally owned Cherry Hill Golf Course. The town invoked Exemption (C)“intimate details of a highly personal nature,” to deny the request.
In a letter to (now retired) Amherst Town Manager Barry Del Castillo Supervisor of Records Alan Cote directed “You are herby ordered to provide Mr. Kelley with copies of the responsive records…”
At a public (1/9/06) Select board meeting, where the fate of the golf course hung in the balance, Mark Power, a Town Meeting member who obtained a no-bid concessions contract at the golf course testified: “Over 80% of membership at Cherry Hill are college students, teen-agers under 17, and senior citizens.”
However, a 2003 marketing study commissioned by the town and directed by a Amass Sports Management professor revealed exactly the opposite: Users over age 65 came in at 5% and those ages 12-17 barely registered at 2%.
In 1996 the Public Records division also sided with Kelley on the release of public documents concerning the sexual harassment case filed against Superintendent Dan Engstrom by a seasonal employee. The town investigated (costing taxpayers almost $20,000) found him guilty, and then tried to keep it quiet.
####
Of course, only in Amherst would town officials meet in private to discuss how to react to an order to release public documents:
In a message dated 4/12/06 7:19:34 AM, gerryweiss@comcast.net writes:
Larry
I've put this item on the agenda for the next 3 way meeting of chair, vice-chair and manager (Friday - not open to the public.)
In a message dated 4/17/06 6:29:45 AM, Amherst AC writes:
Hey Gerry,
So am I going to get the names and addresses by Wednesday, April 19'th? In a follow-up phone conversation the Public Records folks said you had ten "consecutive days" (not business days) to respond. And your letter arrived Monday, April 10'th.
Larry
In a message dated 4/17/06 11:18:27 AM, gerryweiss@comcast.net writes:
Larry,
I asked John Musante for the info for my own use and he agreed that he had to send it to you. Anne Awad suggested the town send out a notice to all season pass holders that you have requested this information and that we must send it out per instructions of the Public Records dept. I'll remind John Musante of his deadline.
Gerry
So I complained to the DA about this Friday 3 way meeting (And of course, at the time nobody knew Selectboard Chair Awad and Selectman Hubley were secretly married):
Northwestern District Attorney
Elizabeth Scheibel
One Gleason Plaza
Northampton, Ma 01060
4/19/2006
Amherst Open Meeting Law Complaint
I wish to file a formal complaint about a closed meeting held April 14, 2006 on town property between interim Amherst Town Manager John Musante, Select Board Chair Anne Awad and Select board Vice-Chair Gerry Weiss where matters of public concern were discussed and actions suggested.
On Monday April 10’th the town of Amherst and I received a letter from the Secretary of State’s Office overruling Amherst’s denial of my Public Documents request for the names, addresses and ages of Cherry Hill Golf Course Season Pass holders.
Since Mr. Weiss quotes Ms. Awad suggesting the town take actions (sending out letters) concerning this issue, obviously a public policy discussion took place at that private meeting Friday, April 14’th.
If one-less-than-a-quorum of Select board members routinely meet on Friday’s to set simple housekeeping details with the Town Manager for their weekly Monday night meetings, that’s fine…but when discussion takes place, I believe that crosses the line. Circumventing the Open Meeting Law by ignoring the spirit of that essential regulation.
Sincerely Yours,
Larry Kelley
The DA found that since a quorum was not present no violation occured. Go figure!
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Luck of the Irish not with Cherry Hill
I promised a reporter (who is also now a born again blogger) that I would be up and running (or I should say snowshoeing) on St. Patrick’s Day. And since we’re both Irish, I figured I had better keep my promise. So here goes:
Today’s Front Page Gazette story by Nick Grabbe (above the fold, no less) “Cherry Hill Boss Resigns” was about as surprising to me as the announcement that Select Board Czar Anne Awad and Select board minion Robie Hubley have been secretly married for a while.
Dan Engstrom may be a decent golfer (I heard he took a lot of weekends off to play at tournaments) and turf manager (with a degree from Umass Stockbridge a most reputable institution) but anybody with an ounce of sense would almost instantly realize he’s not a brain surgeon…I mean, MANAGER.
Mr. Grabbe called me last week and wanted my files (that go back 19 years) from 1996 where Engstrom was found guilty of sexual harassment. It was my first use of Public Documents law and I had to appeal the town turning down my request.
State Public Records Supervisor Alan Cote agreed with me and the town had to release the investigation, with the name of the young women blacked out for her protection.
Now if it had been a DPW worker, firefighter, or police officer found guilty of sexual harassment in overly PC Amherst you can bet they would have been summarily fired. But not the “Boss” of the golf course. I think at the time Town Manager Barry Del Castilho (who married his secretary) figured Big Old Dan was irreplaceable, especially in mid-season.
Engstrom did absorb a one-month suspension (with pay however), and I’m fairly sure the part-time seasonal help did the pesticide applications, even though they did not have proper state license for handling potentially deadly chemicals (the neighbors will be happy to hear this now, but that’s what they get for the reverse NIMBY lobbying that brought us Cherry Hill in the first place).
Another disconcerting event for neighbors occurred in 2000 when Engstrom burned the remains of the old clubhouse to avoid the $55 per ton dump (I mean landfill) fees. Town Meeting had been told they could build a 1,500 square foot new Clubhouse for $100,000. I told Town Meeting they were out of their minds and it would cost at least $130,000.
Former Conservation guru Pete Westover (Supervisor of Dan Engstrom at the time, although he had no business or management experience but was great at playing in the woods) in response to a question from the floor about huge bonfires for almost a month replied, “As far as I know brush was the only thing burned.”
So I went to the site early one morning and started digging (literally). And with the very first turn of the spade uncovered burned nails—some of recent vintage and some colonial vintage (the Clubhouse, a former barn, was ancient).
I complained to the Department of Environmental Protection, the fire chief did an investigation and Engstrom finally admitted they “accidentally” included construction debris with the brush, with a housing project less than a football field downwind. The DEP found them in violation but issued no fines.
Five years ago I noticed in a budget spreadsheet (acquired thru Public Documents Law) that “building maintenance” had gone from a budget projection of $2,000 to $32,333 (a Big Dig style overrun) in FY01 and then back down to $2,000 in FY2002. Now you have to wonder how a brand new building requires $32,333 in maintenance?
Yeah, they had fudged the books by using an extra $32,000 to during construction, thus making the $100,000 Clubhouse a $132,000 Clubhouse (pretty damn close to my prediction to town meeting in November, 1999).
And they were to cheap to use an actual contractor to do the foundation work so they stole a crew of DPW workers (and a backhoe) for a day or two and used the town engineer for a full-week to do the blueprints for the Clubhouse as well, thus impacting the DPW budget thousands of dollars.
In March 2004 Dan Engstrom testified before the Select board “things I believe are turning around” in response to then-Chair Carl Seppala’s question about current revenues/expenditures. Yeah, right.
That year Cherry Hill went on to lose $127,201, the second highest loss in history ($136,000 in FY01 being the record--but $32,333 of that was from the Clubhouse overrun).
About three weeks ago Select Board member Rob Kusner called me to complain about something I posted at http://www.inamherst.com/ and in the course of the conversation let slip that the rookie Town Manager Larry Shaffer had paid a surprise visit to Cherry Hill in early August and was not impressed with what he found.
On August 17’th Shaffer issued a brief press release saying Engstrom was no longer manager and was now a groundskeeper and would be working year round rather than getting five months off with pay.
Of course Engstrom would still be collecting his $60,000 annual salary (more than the highest paid classroom teacher in the venerable Amherst school system). And, although his business has required $900,000 in taxation for operations over his tenure, Engstrom doesn’t even live or pay taxes in Amherst.
So NO… I’m not surprised he “resigned”. What do I think happened? Sexual harassment again? Maybe. But, during his one-month paid vacation he was required to undergo professional counseling.
Theft? Maybe. Cherry Hill is a CASH business. Six years ago Dan left over a thousand dollars in cash in the temporary clubhouse overnight from a week-end tournament Cherry Hill hosted and the shed was broken into and the cash disappeared. Police never found the culprit.
For the Record I issued this statement on the Town Meeting listserve yesterday (mainly to scoop today’s Gazette article):
I do not celebrate the demise of Dan Engstrom. I have ALWAYS felt he was in way over his head as a manager--and certainly others in town administration should have noticed that. The real villains are former Town Manager Barry Del Castilho, the Select Board, the Finance Committee and Town Meeting. And the real losers are the taxpayers who have thus far spent over $900,000 on the operation of a sub-par golf business.
Today’s Front Page Gazette story by Nick Grabbe (above the fold, no less) “Cherry Hill Boss Resigns” was about as surprising to me as the announcement that Select Board Czar Anne Awad and Select board minion Robie Hubley have been secretly married for a while.
Dan Engstrom may be a decent golfer (I heard he took a lot of weekends off to play at tournaments) and turf manager (with a degree from Umass Stockbridge a most reputable institution) but anybody with an ounce of sense would almost instantly realize he’s not a brain surgeon…I mean, MANAGER.
Mr. Grabbe called me last week and wanted my files (that go back 19 years) from 1996 where Engstrom was found guilty of sexual harassment. It was my first use of Public Documents law and I had to appeal the town turning down my request.
State Public Records Supervisor Alan Cote agreed with me and the town had to release the investigation, with the name of the young women blacked out for her protection.
Now if it had been a DPW worker, firefighter, or police officer found guilty of sexual harassment in overly PC Amherst you can bet they would have been summarily fired. But not the “Boss” of the golf course. I think at the time Town Manager Barry Del Castilho (who married his secretary) figured Big Old Dan was irreplaceable, especially in mid-season.
Engstrom did absorb a one-month suspension (with pay however), and I’m fairly sure the part-time seasonal help did the pesticide applications, even though they did not have proper state license for handling potentially deadly chemicals (the neighbors will be happy to hear this now, but that’s what they get for the reverse NIMBY lobbying that brought us Cherry Hill in the first place).
Another disconcerting event for neighbors occurred in 2000 when Engstrom burned the remains of the old clubhouse to avoid the $55 per ton dump (I mean landfill) fees. Town Meeting had been told they could build a 1,500 square foot new Clubhouse for $100,000. I told Town Meeting they were out of their minds and it would cost at least $130,000.
Former Conservation guru Pete Westover (Supervisor of Dan Engstrom at the time, although he had no business or management experience but was great at playing in the woods) in response to a question from the floor about huge bonfires for almost a month replied, “As far as I know brush was the only thing burned.”
So I went to the site early one morning and started digging (literally). And with the very first turn of the spade uncovered burned nails—some of recent vintage and some colonial vintage (the Clubhouse, a former barn, was ancient).
I complained to the Department of Environmental Protection, the fire chief did an investigation and Engstrom finally admitted they “accidentally” included construction debris with the brush, with a housing project less than a football field downwind. The DEP found them in violation but issued no fines.
Five years ago I noticed in a budget spreadsheet (acquired thru Public Documents Law) that “building maintenance” had gone from a budget projection of $2,000 to $32,333 (a Big Dig style overrun) in FY01 and then back down to $2,000 in FY2002. Now you have to wonder how a brand new building requires $32,333 in maintenance?
Yeah, they had fudged the books by using an extra $32,000 to during construction, thus making the $100,000 Clubhouse a $132,000 Clubhouse (pretty damn close to my prediction to town meeting in November, 1999).
And they were to cheap to use an actual contractor to do the foundation work so they stole a crew of DPW workers (and a backhoe) for a day or two and used the town engineer for a full-week to do the blueprints for the Clubhouse as well, thus impacting the DPW budget thousands of dollars.
In March 2004 Dan Engstrom testified before the Select board “things I believe are turning around” in response to then-Chair Carl Seppala’s question about current revenues/expenditures. Yeah, right.
That year Cherry Hill went on to lose $127,201, the second highest loss in history ($136,000 in FY01 being the record--but $32,333 of that was from the Clubhouse overrun).
About three weeks ago Select Board member Rob Kusner called me to complain about something I posted at http://www.inamherst.com/ and in the course of the conversation let slip that the rookie Town Manager Larry Shaffer had paid a surprise visit to Cherry Hill in early August and was not impressed with what he found.
On August 17’th Shaffer issued a brief press release saying Engstrom was no longer manager and was now a groundskeeper and would be working year round rather than getting five months off with pay.
Of course Engstrom would still be collecting his $60,000 annual salary (more than the highest paid classroom teacher in the venerable Amherst school system). And, although his business has required $900,000 in taxation for operations over his tenure, Engstrom doesn’t even live or pay taxes in Amherst.
So NO… I’m not surprised he “resigned”. What do I think happened? Sexual harassment again? Maybe. But, during his one-month paid vacation he was required to undergo professional counseling.
Theft? Maybe. Cherry Hill is a CASH business. Six years ago Dan left over a thousand dollars in cash in the temporary clubhouse overnight from a week-end tournament Cherry Hill hosted and the shed was broken into and the cash disappeared. Police never found the culprit.
For the Record I issued this statement on the Town Meeting listserve yesterday (mainly to scoop today’s Gazette article):
I do not celebrate the demise of Dan Engstrom. I have ALWAYS felt he was in way over his head as a manager--and certainly others in town administration should have noticed that. The real villains are former Town Manager Barry Del Castilho, the Select Board, the Finance Committee and Town Meeting. And the real losers are the taxpayers who have thus far spent over $900,000 on the operation of a sub-par golf business.
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