The furnace in town hall is fixed, so posted meetings will proceed as scheduled.
Tuesday: Sewer Commission at 6 p.m. Board of Health at 7 p.m.
Wednesday: Planning Board at 7:30 p.m. Select Board at 8 p.m. (Please note that the board is meeting late due to an Executive Hearing scheduled at 6 p.m.)
Thursday: Combined meeting of the Select Board and the Finance Committee at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Keep Massachusetts Blue on Tuesday
Okay, Martha Coakley is not my favorite person. She’s awkward and lacks charisma. And her opponent is every bit as much of a hunk as he was when he posed for that famous Cosmo centerfold…just a bit greyer about the temples. But these are not reasons to throw away the vital 60th seat in the U.S. Senate.
I’ve been looking around on the internet to find out why this contest has turned into a dead heat. On the issue of health care reform, some people are saying they don’t care, since, in our state, we get to have health insurance even if we are already sick or get sick. Do these people have no friends or family who live or may someday live in another state?
Many more don’t like unemployment and other financial woes and seem to have forgotten that you can’t cure the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression in a single year. They are ignoring the fact that Scott Brown will block the reforms planned to impose financial discipline on Wall Street and stop the next recession. Martha Coakley will vote with her party.
For myself, the most important issue is climate change legislation. Coakley is for it; her opponent is against it. I simply want the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Ashfield to be able to enjoy the natural beauty of our town as much as I have. An ecological disaster is the worst legacy we could leave.
Lately we’ve had our noses to the grindstone, quite rightly working hard to fix our many local problems. But let’s take one day to lift our heads and look around, see how our nation is counting on us, and take a trip to the polls to vote for Martha. We can distinguish Ashfield as a place where voters care and help keep Washington on the move and out of gridlock.
Don’t forget that we’re voting at Sanderson Academy. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. So please go vote for Martha Coakley. Please, please, please.
Am I begging? You bet’cha.
Ruth Julian
I’ve been looking around on the internet to find out why this contest has turned into a dead heat. On the issue of health care reform, some people are saying they don’t care, since, in our state, we get to have health insurance even if we are already sick or get sick. Do these people have no friends or family who live or may someday live in another state?
Many more don’t like unemployment and other financial woes and seem to have forgotten that you can’t cure the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression in a single year. They are ignoring the fact that Scott Brown will block the reforms planned to impose financial discipline on Wall Street and stop the next recession. Martha Coakley will vote with her party.
For myself, the most important issue is climate change legislation. Coakley is for it; her opponent is against it. I simply want the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Ashfield to be able to enjoy the natural beauty of our town as much as I have. An ecological disaster is the worst legacy we could leave.
Lately we’ve had our noses to the grindstone, quite rightly working hard to fix our many local problems. But let’s take one day to lift our heads and look around, see how our nation is counting on us, and take a trip to the polls to vote for Martha. We can distinguish Ashfield as a place where voters care and help keep Washington on the move and out of gridlock.
Don’t forget that we’re voting at Sanderson Academy. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. So please go vote for Martha Coakley. Please, please, please.
Am I begging? You bet’cha.
Ruth Julian
Wisdom for Our Times
"On the plains of hesitation lie the blackened bones of countless millions who, at the dawn of victory, sat down to rest...and resting died."
Author unknown
Author unknown
Saturday, January 16, 2010
An Open Letter to the Select Board
Dear Select Board Members,
Upon reviewing the Open Meeting Law Guidelines, I see on page 19 under Disabled Access: “All open meetings of governmental bodies must be accessible to persons with disabilities.” Meeting locations must be accessible by a wheelchair, without the need for special assistance. If the town hall does not have such space, another location which meets accessibility requirements must be found.
In this case I am sure that all remedies will be looked at so that we can bring our town hall up to the standards needed and we can bring our voting back to the town hall also. This will remedy any concerns about voting at the school and putting our children at risk.
Thank you for your attention to this matter,
Karen Sullivan
Upon reviewing the Open Meeting Law Guidelines, I see on page 19 under Disabled Access: “All open meetings of governmental bodies must be accessible to persons with disabilities.” Meeting locations must be accessible by a wheelchair, without the need for special assistance. If the town hall does not have such space, another location which meets accessibility requirements must be found.
In this case I am sure that all remedies will be looked at so that we can bring our town hall up to the standards needed and we can bring our voting back to the town hall also. This will remedy any concerns about voting at the school and putting our children at risk.
Thank you for your attention to this matter,
Karen Sullivan
Friday, January 15, 2010
An Open Letter to Our Police Consultant
Dear Attorney Sampson:
I e-mailed you a few months ago, asking about standards for part-time chiefs. Thank you for your invitation to phone you and discuss my concerns. But I’m writing now to thank you for your help at Wednesday night’s hearing. You were impressive and an outstanding articulator, which has been missing in this town for a very long time.
Our police force believes they are in charge of our town. As one officer put it, "We own this town."
Mr. Kendall Chow, a much-decorated officer who was asked to step in, is now being hunted by this group,
since they hope to counter his report on the police department.
The select board just muddles on, which heightens the fear of the citizens. At times there seems only one select board member, Dave DeHerdt, who constantly strives to find the bare truth and work from there.
One has to wonder, if the police department does not respect the select board members, then how are we safe from the officers? If the select board cannot control the police department, then what chance do citizens have to protect themselves or their basic right to move about freely without being subjected to being stopped by our police?
You may be saying that the select board members are moving towards a solution. But we are determined not to settle for any return to the past. An old shoe is comfortable, but we are requiring the select board members to look for new solutions.
The police have been right on the verge of civil rights violations, and some of them have crossed it (in my opinion). Citizens of this town are frightened and scared to even stand up for their own individual rights. But they must, or at some point they will need permission from this dysfunctional department to step outside of their own homes. We are the hunted and preyed upon.
Would you stop a vehicle while it is snowing, with the reason for the stop that the license plate is obscured by snow?
Would you stop a vehicle going down Ashfield Mountain (famous for its black ice, with a bridge below that quickly freezes) for going too slow, when a normal speed will cause a slide into the bridgework?
Will these people and others come forward with complaints? There’s no chance they will, since this type of policing causes fear of retribution.
You and I know these frail violations for vehicle stops are only to see what else can be written up. Driver’s license on the person? Suspensions? And the like....just to make an arrest and increase one's stats. That is how they see policing, not to build trust and protect the safety of the public. The public becomes the prey.
You cannot enjoy the day or night at all without wondering if you will be stopped, or what kind of demigod(dess) nonsense you will have to take from the officer, or whether you’ll be arrested.
Late reports, even accident reports filed late, smoking and drinking, inaccurate logs, the cruiser being driven for personal use, and aggression are all part of an escalating pattern that just goes on and on. The select board just wants it off their table and given to someone else.
We do not want just someone that nobody else wanted to hire or someone who needs a job because he has been fired. Ashfield has hired like that four or five times already, and what did we get for it. We got to be right where we are now, the hunted and the preyed upon.
The good officers who came onto this police force stopped, looked, listened, and got onto another police force as soon as they were able, and as far away as possible. The rest may be new, but not new to what is continuing to go on here. If they do not know a good police force from a dysfunctional police force, I doubt they know what is right from what is wrong or how to keep their behavior in check. I would not hire any of them to secure my hen house!
SMCorbett
I e-mailed you a few months ago, asking about standards for part-time chiefs. Thank you for your invitation to phone you and discuss my concerns. But I’m writing now to thank you for your help at Wednesday night’s hearing. You were impressive and an outstanding articulator, which has been missing in this town for a very long time.
Our police force believes they are in charge of our town. As one officer put it, "We own this town."
Mr. Kendall Chow, a much-decorated officer who was asked to step in, is now being hunted by this group,
since they hope to counter his report on the police department.
The select board just muddles on, which heightens the fear of the citizens. At times there seems only one select board member, Dave DeHerdt, who constantly strives to find the bare truth and work from there.
One has to wonder, if the police department does not respect the select board members, then how are we safe from the officers? If the select board cannot control the police department, then what chance do citizens have to protect themselves or their basic right to move about freely without being subjected to being stopped by our police?
You may be saying that the select board members are moving towards a solution. But we are determined not to settle for any return to the past. An old shoe is comfortable, but we are requiring the select board members to look for new solutions.
The police have been right on the verge of civil rights violations, and some of them have crossed it (in my opinion). Citizens of this town are frightened and scared to even stand up for their own individual rights. But they must, or at some point they will need permission from this dysfunctional department to step outside of their own homes. We are the hunted and preyed upon.
Would you stop a vehicle while it is snowing, with the reason for the stop that the license plate is obscured by snow?
Would you stop a vehicle going down Ashfield Mountain (famous for its black ice, with a bridge below that quickly freezes) for going too slow, when a normal speed will cause a slide into the bridgework?
Will these people and others come forward with complaints? There’s no chance they will, since this type of policing causes fear of retribution.
You and I know these frail violations for vehicle stops are only to see what else can be written up. Driver’s license on the person? Suspensions? And the like....just to make an arrest and increase one's stats. That is how they see policing, not to build trust and protect the safety of the public. The public becomes the prey.
You cannot enjoy the day or night at all without wondering if you will be stopped, or what kind of demigod(dess) nonsense you will have to take from the officer, or whether you’ll be arrested.
Late reports, even accident reports filed late, smoking and drinking, inaccurate logs, the cruiser being driven for personal use, and aggression are all part of an escalating pattern that just goes on and on. The select board just wants it off their table and given to someone else.
We do not want just someone that nobody else wanted to hire or someone who needs a job because he has been fired. Ashfield has hired like that four or five times already, and what did we get for it. We got to be right where we are now, the hunted and the preyed upon.
The good officers who came onto this police force stopped, looked, listened, and got onto another police force as soon as they were able, and as far away as possible. The rest may be new, but not new to what is continuing to go on here. If they do not know a good police force from a dysfunctional police force, I doubt they know what is right from what is wrong or how to keep their behavior in check. I would not hire any of them to secure my hen house!
SMCorbett
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Quick Update on Tonight's Town Hall Action
Citing the need to avoid liability issues for the town, Select Board members voted earlier this evening to ratify all the appointments made at the July 2, 2009 emergency meeting. The D.A.'s office had found the meeting in violation of the Open Meeting Law and specified ratification of the appointments as the remedy for the violation.
The decision followed a public hearing that centered on discussion of the police department, since all of the department members were appointed at last summer's illegal meeting. A. Wayne Sampson, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association and present as an invited guest of the Select Board, said that what he heard at the hearing disturbed him, since it showed that the town does not trust the police department. He recommended appointing an interim chief from outside the town to restore trust in the department. He also recommended against using the State Police, since they are undermanned and would answer to the State Police, not Ashfield.
Though the ratified appointments last through June of this year, Select Board member Dave DeHerdt said that the law provides for town employees to be dismissed for just cause.
Ruth Julian and David King
The decision followed a public hearing that centered on discussion of the police department, since all of the department members were appointed at last summer's illegal meeting. A. Wayne Sampson, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association and present as an invited guest of the Select Board, said that what he heard at the hearing disturbed him, since it showed that the town does not trust the police department. He recommended appointing an interim chief from outside the town to restore trust in the department. He also recommended against using the State Police, since they are undermanned and would answer to the State Police, not Ashfield.
Though the ratified appointments last through June of this year, Select Board member Dave DeHerdt said that the law provides for town employees to be dismissed for just cause.
Ruth Julian and David King
Questions on D.A. Exhibits
January 13, 2010
Select Board Chair Ted Murray
Select Board Members: Tom Ulrich & Dave DeHerdt
Town Of Ashfield
MA 01330
RE: Public Hearing Citizen Comments and Concerns
After reading all of the violating emails, I found references to Buz Eisenburg.
I shall have to inquire as to his positions--those he has and those he has taken on.
1. Why is the town moderator involved in any communications between the Select Board and town counsel?
2. Is his role throughout this crisis more than town moderator?
3. Was he acting as legal counsel for the Select Board or a specific member of the select board? If so, then how can he be objective and carry out his duty as town moderator without bias?
4. Will the Select Board examine this apparent conflict and how will it be prevented in the future? Perhaps full disclosure?
May I ask when I can expect a reply?
Sincerely,
Suzanne M. Corbett
Select Board Chair Ted Murray
Select Board Members: Tom Ulrich & Dave DeHerdt
Town Of Ashfield
MA 01330
RE: Public Hearing Citizen Comments and Concerns
After reading all of the violating emails, I found references to Buz Eisenburg.
I shall have to inquire as to his positions--those he has and those he has taken on.
1. Why is the town moderator involved in any communications between the Select Board and town counsel?
2. Is his role throughout this crisis more than town moderator?
3. Was he acting as legal counsel for the Select Board or a specific member of the select board? If so, then how can he be objective and carry out his duty as town moderator without bias?
4. Will the Select Board examine this apparent conflict and how will it be prevented in the future? Perhaps full disclosure?
May I ask when I can expect a reply?
Sincerely,
Suzanne M. Corbett
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