Yesterday The O’Zone published an article titled The
Minutes Waltz (Or Is It Tap Dance?).
In it we contrasted the minutes of the DPW
subcommittee as presented to council members and as read at Monday night’s
council meeting with the way the O’Zone reported that meeting in our piece Really?
Let’s Hope It’s A Trend!.
In response to a comment on Thursday’s article
Evelyn Rivera, who prepared the subcommittee minutes, replied in part, “Minutes
are just that "Minutes" not "hours" and therefore I do not
write minutes verbatim. No one, I repeat, no one edits my minutes. If anyone is
interested in the exact wording of a meeting they should attend such meeting
otherwise an abbreviated version is all they are getting from me. I tape such
meeting so that if anyone wants to sit there and listen to a meeting (whether
it's a 5 min. meeting or a 5 hour meeting) they can do so. I am happy to
provide them with a copy.”
Following that offer, The O’Zone received a copy of
Ms. Rivera’s tape recording of the meeting. Following is the portion of that
tape covering discussion of agenda item #2, “Vote to accept
the agreement between the Town of Southbridge and Allan F. DiPietro Masonry for
concrete masonry work at various locations in an amount not to exceed
$20,000.00. Funding to come from Water & Sewer and DPW current budget
accounts.” Readers can evaluate
whether the minutes presented at the council meeting accurately reflect the
actual discussion. Also, they can determine if the issues we have raised are
worthy of being pursued.
(Voices heard include Town Manager Clark, DPW
Director Blakely, Councilors Vandal and Carrasco and citizen members Lazo and
Morin.)
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
ReplyDelete― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
In fairness to Evelyn after reading comments on this blog I contacted the Ozone and provided a copy of the audio of the DPW meeting in question, so that everyone can hear that there was no tampering or changes made to these minutes. She is a town employee that is devoted to her job and maybe should get alittle more money to take these minutes. These meetings are all held at 7pm at nite and takes away from her family time.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in the Corp, we had a term for the work provided by civilian government employees:"Good enough for government work'" I.ll give ER a D plus orf maybe even a C minus for that recent meeting minute report, taking intpo consideration it is the end of the day, but look at the following video of a meeting, and maybe the defensive minutes reporter can provide the minutes she took at that meeting for comparison.
DeleteYou Lazo's are such soft hearted gents when it comes to the ladies in distress. Steve your heart is as big as the sky, even when it isn't the holidays. Not paying the Town employees enough. The problem was right in front of us all along and I never saw it.
(part 2) This is the meeting I am concerned about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhGNl7h8mGk
DeleteIn my opinion the Clark Administration is bullying one Town tenant ( Airport) while it kisses the buttocks of another ( everyone knows which tenant I mean without saying).
What I learned from listening to this tape is there is no reason why the DPW can’t do this work themselves. When is the council going to stop complaining about taxes and control spending? Or is that too much work?
ReplyDeleteSteve Lazo was the only one at this meeting who didn’t sound totally clueless. Now that he is not on the council how many more of these things have happened that we never heard about? This is what happens when the council is made up of two kinds of people, those in the manager’s back pocket and newbees.
ReplyDelete