Ken O'Brien
Well, the New Year has come and gone, and in Southbridge that can mean only one thing - the start of election season.
While town elections don't happen until June, various local groups are already preparing for the event.
There is of course the town council as a whole (or at least seven of nine) who are hoping to place their planned charter distortions on the ballot. Their nefarious ambitions were bolstered today by an email from state representative Peter Durant (R - Spencer).
Dear Mr. McDonald and members of the Charter Review Committee,
My office has completed its review of the proposed Southbridge charter changes and the complaint forwarded from your Committee. This review included, but was not limited to, discussions with Massachusetts House Counsel; the Republican Leader's legislative team; Senator Richard Moore and his staff; the legislative staff at DHCD; and the State's Attorney General's office.
House Counsel, DHCD, and the Attorney General's office reviewed the changes as well as the complaint your Committee forwarded and have determined that the legislation is in order, as was the process. Specifically, with regards to your questions relative to Chapter 43B of the Massachusetts General Laws, Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Stark stated that the Town Council has two avenues to choose from in making the change outlined in section 4-6-1: one would be to follow Chapter 43B as specified; the other would be to file special legislation. Since the Council has chosen to file special legislation, Chapter 43B is not applicable.
Since the goal of this legislation is to place the question of these changes on the ballot at Southbridge's annual town election, I will look to file this legislation forthwith in conjunction with Senator Moore's office.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have further questions,
Best regards,
Peter Durant
Then there is the group that hopes to put an initiative petition on the ballot to return Southbridge to a Town Meeting/Board of Selectmen form of government. In so doing, they are relying upon a 1979 case, James J. Marino v Town Council Of Southbridge, which in their view would allow voters to essentially rescind prior votes adopting charters implementing a Council/Manager form of government.
Finally, of course, there are the various groups supporting candidates for town council and school committee.
As usual the main focus will be among the warring factions competing for control of the town council. Terms are expiring for councilors Denise Clemence, David Livengood and Lawrence Spinelli. It is widely rumored (though unconfirmed) that councilors Livengood and Spinelli will not seek reelection. There are also whispers (also unconfirmed) that councilor Clemence may seek the post of Town Clerk.
Among those mentioned as possible candidates for this group are former council Al ("Apple") Vecchia and Holly Christo.
In the meantime the group loosely defined as the opposition has yet to have any concrete claimants to candidacy for councilor posts. It is the hope of some in this faction to put together a unified slate to achieve a majority on the council. At present the betting is on two rival slates; one made up of Huey, Dewey and Louie and the other consisting of Larry, Moe and Curley.
I am sorry... But this is the laugh I needed today. I think the video demonstrates the current ridiculousness of the politics on the dais( I hope I spelled that right). People should not focus on politics yet. It is in JUNE!!! What scares me most is politicians always try to swing votes as we get closer and closer to the day. Dont start the bandwagon yet folks, for the sake of Southbridge
ReplyDeleteIf all that has been said turns out to be true, I cannot imagine Denise Clemence as Town Clerk. I wonder who besides Apple and Holly Christo might consider running?
ReplyDeleteThe Hitler video-I don't find it funny, but I won't fault anyone that is amused by it. Some people have no fear of Hitler, after all, he is long gone, but you don't need to wear red, white and black to be a fascist.
ReplyDeleteWhy am I afraid of fascism? Fascism can be national, and it can be local. What defines Fascism? It almost always includes these nasty nine traits:
1. The suspension of the codified rights, such as the Massachusetts Constitutional right to clean air and water, when the opinion of a few trumps the health opinion of almost two dozen local Doctors-in our local situation we are told we must allow 405,000 tons of garbage a year into our air and water space because of because the "need" of a $Million or $2M a year-under 5% of our budget.
2. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying cause of our problems, like Mr. Livengood blaming the Bloggers for our outrageously lower real estate values and our high unemployment. they even evicted our Blogs from our Town's official website !
3. Changing the Rules midstream, an excellent example being the local town council ignoring the Charter Hearings that took over a year in order to push their own corpopolitical agenda to keep their dirty dealing "Town Manager" in office so the voters can not throw him out by electing three Councilors with backbone.
4. Controlled Media - Sometimes it appears that media is directly controlled by the government, but actually our local reporters give the "one party" line because if they don't, the Town government will not participate in coverage, which would force the reporters to actually research instead of just repeating what Mr. Clark instructs them to write.
5. Obsession with Discipline & Compliance. Consider our new recycling "incentive" program. Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses-don't dare even question the authority or the litany or errors and misinformation from the Town Manager, or you will be treated like a villain by Empress Catherine the not so Great. Don't clap, don't laugh at Town council meetings or you will be dragged out by the local police.
6. Corporate Rights over Citizen Rights. - The corporate-media-government confederated effort serves as a 21st century aristocracy that taxes the poor to borrow money to then lend it to out of state Corporate interests, In Southbridge Massachusetts where the time honored Town Meeting form of government was abandoned a generation ago, in recent years five 'councilors" elected by under 15% of the voters made a decision to bring serious health risks into a community of about 30,000 people-most of the risk falling upon the two neighboring communities.
7. Town employees that challenge the Town Manager's lies are summarily dismissed, even when only months from retirement. This severely suppresses any resistance or complaining in public by the remaining employees.
8. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - no need to give examples-pick a favorite.
My point is that I didn't laugh at Hitler, because just as fascism didn't upset too many people in the early years of Hitler & El Duche, I only know of about a hundred people in Southbridge that have HAD IT, yet we live in a fascist community by definition. It ain't THAt bad YET. If a few hundred more people care, and perhaps we can get our town back?
I'm sorry that you don't find the video funny - personally I think it's hilarious.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there's nothing funny about fascism.
However, there's a long and noble history of using ridicule to illustrate and highlight absurdity of political views and politicians.
In the case of Hitler this is especially true ranging from Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" to Mel Brooks' "The Producers" and its recent reincarnation on Broadway.