Power Grab by Select Board and Town Administrator blows up in faces
Sources close to TownieTalk can confirm the Town no longer has an Independent Board of Assessors.
Last Friday, Long term member and Assessing expert Robert Reardon resigned. Late today, Chair Charles R. Laverty III resigned effective immediately. This leaves just recently appointed minimally experienced Daniel Dargon as the sole Assessor.
How did we get to this crisis? A quick primer.
Over the course of four to five years there has been a concerted effort to consolidate power in the Town Administrator office which has led to an exodus of Town employees and contentious issues between the Town and its employee Unions. (SprayGate and Civil Service scandals as an example). In addition to poor treatment of Town employees the same power grab group went after elected officials that didn’t drink the Kool-Aid they were selling. Public tarnishing of the highly regarded elected treasurer and similarly the elected board of assessors smoothed the way to con the public into supporting appointed positions versus elected.
Angus Abercrombie (P8 Town Meeting) is just a kid that was used as a pawn to forward the power grab. He sponsored the warrant article to remove the BOA from elected to appointed and doesn’t know any better… blame it on youth. As a result of his actions the issue went to the voters. The result was a split decision separated by about a dozen votes.
Time Magazine 2006 Person of the Year and Precinct 7 Town Meeting member PJ Looney (Wellington Kickball HOF ’74-77) represented the people by requesting a recount. Ralph Jones (of the infamous “imminent” Library fire danger letter) represented the Yes campaign supporting an appointed BOA. The recount closed the difference to a poor man’s six pack and success for the Yes campaign.
Immediately, Patrick Murphy, from the BOA who was up for re-election and won, was notified his experience and good looks were no longer needed. The Town then replaced Murph with a salaried Town employee, Daniel Dargon. Ironically, just a couple months into his appointment a major complaint was filed for lack of responsiveness by Dargon. (Dargon owned the lapse and is not the issue but you get the irony).
The Town recently approved major funds to purchase a new software system for the BOA. It requires a massive amount of effort. The Town is also on the verge of a massive transformative event which even the most skilled BOA would struggle through. The Town is worse off today than it has been in decades because of this ill-conceived power grab. Similarly, the Civil Service debacle which was supposed to lead to a surge in hires is slow off the gate. Not all change is good change, and these are a couple of examples of bad change regardless of how much mustard Bob McGaw (TMM) has expired in his fridge
For those keeping score the Select Board wants Town Meeting to “trust” them. Their bully approach is not working and has cost the Town employees and created more work and added cost. Lizzie Dionne and Roy Epstein are welcome to respond to this brilliant piece of journalism by emailing townietalk02478@gmail.com.
Mark Paolillo prior Select Board member opposed the change so he has no ownership in this blunder.
As for Angus Abercrombie… I warned you it was a mistake to be the pawn in this power grab. Now many will suffer, and it’s your name attached to it. Read more Townie Talk and drink less Kool-Aid and remember with age and Townie Talk knowledge comes wisdom…