Put Up Or Shut Up!

Ken O’Brien

Okay, the results are in.

O’Zone readers had the chance to nominate those people that they would like to see run for Southbridge town council.

Then you had 56 hours to cast your vote for those you would most like to see run.

The results were decisively in favor of three candidates, Dennis Martinek, Gary Fontaine and Shaun Moriarty.

But democracy is not a spectator sport.  As the great Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw said, “Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.”

Now that you’ve expressed your desire to see these people run for town council it is up to you to help make it happen.

Dennis Departs

Ken O’Brien

After almost five years as the leading blogger in Southbridge, Dennis Martinek has decided to retire from the arena.

His site, Speak Out Southbridge, became a mainstay of local life in the virtual world.

Often controversial, frequently vilified, it was nevertheless always entertaining.

Southbridge Charter Review Committee Strikes Back

Ken O'Brien

Back in July I wrote a post entitled The Charter Chupacabra.

In that article I made a series of predictions on how the current council would amend the recommendations of the Charter Review Committee.

With one exception all of those predictions came true. The sole exception was that the council would recommend changing the position of Town Clerk from elected to appointed. Perhaps this was a bridge too far. Perhaps it reflected the fact that the current Town Clerk had changed her party affiliation from Democrat to unenrolled.

Having been duly appointed in accordance with the terms of the Town Charter, the members of the Charter Review Committee felt obligated to respond to the actions of the town council.

Agendas And FOIA Requests

Kenneth M. O’Brien

Things keep moving quickly in Southbridge these days. First, the agenda is now available for Monday, August 8^th’s meeting of the town council.

Most notable is the following (and, oddly enough, once again the last item on the agenda):

“15. Vote to rescind the precedent created as a result of the ruling of Ex-chairman Lazo on a Point of Order at the Town Council Meeting of Monday, July 19, 2010 whereby Ex-chairman Lazo ruled that “the 2004 by-law creating a five-member Board of Health was null and void”. (Roberts Rules, p.294, line 28) “