I have some fun in my column this week goofing on Middleboro as a Nanny town over some if its by-laws such as the one that outlaws Silly String.

On a different topic, I’m getting my band wired up with the obligatory web page and social media. The web site is http://16shillings.com. If you are so inclined please take a moment to like our FaceBook page.

I haven’t been all that happy with President Obama – especially when compared to the unrealistic world-changing expectations I had for his presidency. I was against the auto industry bailout (I was wrong about that), I was against the Obama bailouts, and I was against his extending of the Bush tax cuts, I thought his alternative energy policy was weak bordering on non-existent, his prosection of the Wall Street evil-doers was a joke, and so on.

He had a lot of good ideas that any sane person would agree with that he couldn’t get done because he wasn’t dealing with sane people – he was dealing with a Republican Party dog that was being wagged by an intransigent, far-right, scorched-earth, teabagger tail of the Republican party that has single-handedly brought normal government business to a stand still. On balance – when compared with the Republicans – Obama is the only game in town. He has a boatload of good ideas that would appeal to most liberals and moderates. Unfortunately, the Republicans have turned their compelling small-government message into a fiscal disaster that is basically tax cuts that aren’t paid for, wars that aren’t paid for, presciption drug benefits that aren’t paid for ….. all wrapped up in a blanket stencilled with “it’s the socialist Kenyan’s fault”. Pure Bullshit. The far-right wants the budget deficit addressed. So do I. They want it addressed with cuts alone. The part of the world that lives in reality knows that is not possible. Even when Obama offered plans that had $2 in spending cuts for every $1 in increased taxes – the Republicans said “no”. I’m still waiting for the Republican plan that addresses the deficit with spending cuts alone.

All that said, a president is measured by his ability to accomplish things and bring the people to his side. Obama hasn’t done that.

But today – Obama showed why he is worth voting for. He addressed a politically dangerous topic and stated in unequivocal terms that he is in favor of gay marriage. Downright refreshing.

Recently we had kerfuffle in Middleboro about changes to the town by-laws that will make it easier to fine people for certain offenses such as swearing, shoveling snow into the street, and smoking …. uh … what was it …. um … oh yeah …. marijuana. It got me thinking about town by-laws and what the heck are they exactly. My all time favorite by-law is definitely the “Silly String” by-law described further on.

Massachusetts has more laws than you can shake a stick at and many are only applicable in a given town if that town votes to accept the law. Our town by-laws are mostly a list of state laws that were locally accepted at town meeting. Each year the Middleboro Town Clerk updates the list of by-laws. Here is the 2011 Town By-Laws.

Reading over the document I have several observations:

• We had some sort of serious horse problem in the 20′s
• Throwing a banana peel on the ground – funny though it be – is illegal according a by-law adopted in March 1927
• It is illegal to throw snow balls “or other missiles” …. DAMNIT.
• Somebody in the 20′s was a real killjoy
• Town meeting quorum dropped from 250 to 150 in 1942 – side effect of US entry into WWII in 1941?
• Up until 1973 it was OK to drink alcohol in your car and in public
• As of 1988, if you have a child out of wed lock, it will cost you $10 amend the birth certificate if you later “legitimize” the birth.
• There is a fee of $100 for an “automatic amusement device” … hmmm …. kinky.
• We didn’t have a Capital Planning Committee until 1990. How did we decide to buy $1M fire apparatus before that?
• The 53 year period from 1927 to 1980 created 10 pages of by-laws. The subsequent 31 years created 45 pages.
• On Sept 24 2001, just 13 days after the 911 attacks, we adopted a by-law to safeguard the citizens of Middleboro: Article 28 – Silly String
  The town has experienced problems with persons discharging “Silly String” in an around public ways of the town. “Silly String” is causing a deterioration of the aesthetics of the community and damage to personal property. The public safety, health and welfare are adversely affected by the discharge of “Silly String” at parades and other public gatherings …..

  There is a hefty $300 fine for “Silly String” infractions – the same as the proposed fine for marijuana ….. coincidence?…….

There’s lots more but you get the gist.

On the agenda is discussions about the GM’s contract, forensic auditing, various stash’s of cash, and more. See the M&E 5-8-2012 agenda.

I’ll try to go and support the new G&E commission members.

My column in this week’s Middleboro Gazette discusses what I consider to be overly generous salary perks that have crept in the firefighter’s contract over the years. Without digging too deep I come up with about $340K in salary perks that could be eliminated with no loss of coverage – money that should go to library, parks, and other departments that have been hit too hard with cuts over the years.

I single out the 2004 contract as a particularly onerous case but you could look at pretty much any contract and find brand new giveaways that don’t belong. The closings of the North and South substations were not caused by Middleboro being too cheap to pay its firefighters. They were caused by the budget blowing up after the outrageous giveaways to the police and firefighter’s unions – such as the Quinn bill for police and the career incentive giveaways in the 2004 contract:

Starting in the 2004 contract, we pay a bonus of 10 to 20 percent per year to a firefighter with a degree — Associates, Bachelors, or Masters in Fire Science. This is virtually unheard of and we can’t afford it. If there is actual value in these degrees they should be prerequisites of employment that are funded by the firefighter. Prior to 2004, we had a too-generous incentive of $6,500 for a Master’s degree that became a bonus of $22,000 for the average captain in the 2004 contract.

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Middleboro has an article on the next town meeting warrant that would make it easier to assess fines for swearing, smoking dope, and shoveling snow into the street. The article was sponsored by Police Chief Bruce Gates and is being reported by some major news outlets. Gates is getting some ridiculous, outrageous, and undeserved heat via comments. On the bright side, Middleboro hasn’t gotten this much attention since the last batch of ghosthunters came through … no such thing as bad press.

Judging by the comments on the accompanying article somebody should create a swearing fine for the Internet. Gates is getting lambasted out there by a bunch of uninformed knuckleheads who are pulling the free speech fire alarm with comments like this:

To hell with our constitution and free speech. We need this Hitler wanna be to fine us into submission! The people of Middleborough need to get rid of this so called police chief and replace him with someone who worries about crime!

Hitler wanna be? Come on dude – Hitler references are so last millenium.

Let’s be clear about what the article is doing. It is giving the police the power to ticket people who violate certain bylaws the town already has on the books. Instead of going through the hassle of a criminal charge, police would be able to issue non-criminal tickets – fines.

I’m rather ambivalent about Chief Gates. I don’t love him, I don’t hate him. He’s doing a good job from what I can tell. But these sorts of anonymous attacks are a scourge on the Internet. I’ve been the target of far worse than what the chief is getting via comments and in more public places – including at Halloween gala’s held in my own town hall. You shrug it off and go on your way. It just detracts from reasonable discourse.

I’m on the fence with some of these fines and would also like to see them as separate articles rather than one big one. BTW – here is the warrant article:

From The Enterprise:

Smoke pot in public, get a $300 ticket. Shovel snow into the street, pay $50. Swear loud enough for others to hear you, pony up $20.

Those are the penalties up for debate at Middleboro’s town meeting on June 11. A public hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at Town Hall.

• Pot smoking – no
• Snow shoveling – yes
• Swearing – no … .or maybe

Personally I’d like to see a $1000 fine for littering and hidden cams at the popular dumping areas to catch offenders.

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Reminder that there is a real fun musical event on Saturday night at the UU church – located right next to Middleboro Town Hall. This is not a “church” event – it’s an event put on by a church – if that distinction matters to you

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On Thursday we had a rehearsal of sorts to work out the sound and let the performers polish up their stuff. It got me thinking about my ongoing issues with stage fright.

When I’m performing regularly it’s not that bad – though there is always at least a twinge before the gig. If I haven’t played in a while or under certain conditions my stage fright is really bad. I’ve played in bands in various configurations since I was 17 or 18. The bigger the band, the less the stage fright because there are other people to hide behind.

Solo fears
I’ve always had a wicked mind block about playing totally solo. In a moment of sheer insanity I booked a gig for myself at the Flat Iron Cafe in Middleboro a couple of years ago. The two months leading up to it were filled with anxiety …… and rehearsal. When the night finally came, I’ll never forget standing in front of the packed room, all alone, guitar in hand, petrified, and staring into the dark gaping maw of three hours of just me on guitar, vocals, and the harmonica I had only started playing two months earlier. As I prepared to start playing I was thinking “What the hell am I doing here …. why am I putting myself through this”. The gig went well and I started playing solo acoustic semi-regularly and that went a long way to reducing my stage fright. That said, even though I was playing solo pretty regularly, I still had a lot of issues. I would move particularly difficult pieces around to accommodate my nervousness, and sometimes not play them at all. Self defeating and lame.

Flash forward to the UU event rehearsal on Thursday. I was able to get up cold and play a few songs without any extreme amounts of anxiety. This has been an unexpected benefit from joining the Middleboro UU church. In fact the whole UU experience has been positive and totally unexpected but that’s a different topic. Pretty early on they asked me to play a song during service. This is very different from playing a gig where you can be nervous and play kind of lamely on the first few songs before you warm up and hit your stride. You walk up cold to a quiet room that is actually listening. The first couple of times were pretty tough for me.

Each time I’ve played at service the congregation has been very genuinely supportive. Each time it got easier. Eventually I teamed up with Rob and started playing gigs and church services with him. Somewhere along the way the stage fright lessened to the point where I was doing rehearsal the other night in front of trained musicians, vocalists and really talented people. I had plenty of jitters but nothing that I couldn’t manage.

It’s not just music performing that is problematic. I get nervous when I speak at a selectman’s meeting or at town meeting. Shortly after I got sucked into town politics I had the ultimate trial by fire – speaking in front of several thousand people at the Town Meeting From Hell, appearing on Chet Curtis, and a Sunday news program in Providence. That was a tough gig.

Stage fright is a funny thing. I’m lucky that it’s not so severe that I can’t function when I need to. But I’d function a whole lot better if I didn’t have it.

I’ll be playing as part of Sixteen Shillings at an event at the Middleboro Unitarian Church. There will be a number of other performers as well. The Middleboro UU church is a great old room built in the late 1800s. There will be refreshments downstairs.

If you have any interest – accept the Facebook event invitation and then invite others. Or go old school and use the phone or emai.

We encourage you to join us Saturday, 4/28/12, for an event called “So, We Think We Have Talent!” and we all know we do.

Pam Levine is organizing the refreshments. The evening will start with appetizers, fun finger food, and a variety of refreshing drinks downstairs in the parish hall. Then everyone will be invited upstairs to hear a variety of musical and comic performances. The talent includes seven different individuals and groups. The “house band” (better known as the Starry Night Band) will perform several pieces, and a special visit by Barry Simon as Presto the Prestadigitator will make the evening magical. Heidi Lawton will entertain with several wonderful vocals. Patty Simon and Sue Curtis are working on their flute duets for the evening. Just to be sure the evening doesn’t get too highbrow, Jeff Stevens and Andrew Putney are putting together a couple of their favorite Tom Lehrer songs. Mark Belanger and Rob Dragunas will perform as “Sixteen Shillings”, combining their great instrumental talents with strong vocals. Mark will also play backup for Helen Casoli on a couple of tunes. All these “mature” performers will be joined by young Heidi Woofenden, who will bring her delightful soprano voice to the evening. The event will wrap up with more food in the form of heavenly desserts with coffee and tea for all.

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the door that evening. All ages are welcome, and a special family rate of $30 will get the kids and parents in for a show that everyone will enjoy.

Please make an effort to join us Saturday night, April 28, to sample our delightful food and enjoy our many talented performers. Hope to see you there!

I started whining about cable in this post … and finally pulled the trigger by cancelling our cable TV service – covered in this Gazette column. Short version: I replaced cable with broadcast HD and streaming Internet content.

I have to say that I’m really pleased with the results and want to flesh out some details that didn’t make it into my blog/column.

Antenna tales
When I finally got a newish TV that could manage over-the-air broadcast digital I bought the cheapest antenna with decent reviews as a proof of concept. It is an RCA antenna – basic rabbit ears w/UHF. This thing worked pretty dang good and cost around $8. It works OK but mostly proved that broadcast TV was viable.

I didn’t want to mess with an outdoor andtenna so I bought one of the best reviewed indoor antennas I could find – around $35. This antenna has really great reception. Unfortunately a couple of channels that I really wanted were a bit shaky.

After a couple of months, I had decided that I would ditch cable. I bought this antenna for around $48. I put it in my attic for maximum height. I’m currently getting 31 channels and almost all of them come in very well. The other 2 antennas are being used in the kitchen and a spare bedroom TV.

Family buy-in
So I got the antenna, the Roku, and signed up for Netflix streaming, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Prime. I was convinced that this combination was viable for replacing cable TV. My family doesn’t have the same unreasonable hatred of cable that I have – I wanted them to buy in. I asked them to stop watching cable and just use the other sources. The kids hated the idea. Then something cool happened. The kids warmed up to Netflix and Hulu and very quickly started to prefer it. We talked about the savings and they got it. It’s not so much that they cared about the financials – though they did to a degree – but mostly that non-cable content was as good as if not better.

Last Monday when I told Jake I was shutting of cable – he basically said “who cares?”. I have to hand it to Marese and the kids for indulging me in this. So far so good.

I’ll be making significant changes to nemasket.net in the next few weeks. I’ll be trying out some new themes and making a lot of changes under the hood with the way posts are tagged and categorized.

Feedback welcome.

Welcome to Middleboro. The store is very nice – much more upscale than the Stop and Shop you replaced. Stop and Shop must have been the place where they sent old meat and produce before it went to the dumpster to see if anyone was dumb enough to buy it. But it wasn’t all bad. I want to tell you dear Trucchi’s why I went to your store today. spent nothing, and then drove to Hannifords to spend $60 in groceries.

When you first opened, I thought your prices were a bit high but I let is slide since it was the first week. The price that really bothered me was the cost of canned soda – particularly Diet Coke and Pepsi. You were asking $13 for 3 twelve-packs. That’s $4.33 – not far off of what it would cost me in Cumby’s.

I was encouraged in week 2 when you had Pepsi for $3 per twelve-pack. I went to visit you last Wednesday specifically to buy diet Coke. You were back to your $4.33 price. It’s only $1.33 more right? Wrong. It’s 44% more. It’s a LOT more. I bought 2 twelve packs because I was pressed for time. For all its problems with produce and meats, Stop & Shop had a lot of very good store brands – including diet soda that was about $2.50 per 12-pack.

Today I went to visit you dear Trucchi’s to get more diet soda, dinner, milk, and various and sundries. I went straight to the soda aisle, saw the same too-high price, and drove over to Hannifords. I bought 6 twelve-packs – they were on sale for $3.00 each. Usually either Coke or Pepsi are on sale. If they are not I can always buy the Hanniford’s store brand for $2.79. You do not have a store brand for diet cola my dear Trucchis.

And that’s the problem.

The next time I need soda, I probably won’t waste my time driving down to visit you. Since you don’t have a store brand, and charge too much for regular Coke/Pepsi – I’m going to be overcharged more often than not when I go to buy a few things.

Sorry Trucchi’s – but good luck anyway and welcome to town. I’ll still shop at you – but just not that often due to your pricing on this item ….. I’m sure there are items that fall into the same category …. and that’s why other people won’t shop at you.

I’ve been wanting to do it for years, and threatening to do it for almost as long. On Monday it finally happened. I drove down to Comcast, returned my cable box/DVR and shut off cable. You can read about it in the Gazette which contains much of the information from in this post.

Reminder
Join Melissa Guimont and the Middleboro Mess Movers and pick up litter so our town doesn’t look so low rent. The group meets the 3rd Saturday of every month from April to November.

As I mentioned in my last column, I’ve been looking over various contracts for Middleboro town employees starting with the fire department. With the contract up this year(I think), I think it’s instructive to look at the recent contracts for perspective on where we are, how we got here, and where we should be going.

• 1998 – 2004: This contract was originally written in 1998 and updated in 2001. It was in effect until 2004
• 2004 – 2012: This is the current firefighter’s contract – originally written in 2004 and updated several times. The big ticket in this contract is the education incentive. In prior contracts firefighters would get a couple of hundred bucks for earning degrees. In the 2004 contract firefighters got a 10% for an Associates degree, 15% for a bachelors, and 20% for a Master’s degree. The contract is pretty well loaded with stipends, incentives, and other nice perks. 2004 was a big year for salary increases in Middleboro and very likely contributed greatly to subsequent layoffs and the closing of the then brand-new North fire station.

I’ll be writing my next column on the current firefighter’s contract – possibly focusing on the differences with the prior contract. Any thoughts are welcome.

We’ve long been unhappy with the configuration of our home. It’s a ~100 year old dutch colonial. the bottom floor has a living room that runs the width of the house, a kitchen that runs the width of the house, with a small bathroom and pantry/laundry room. I’m looking for someone who could advise a way to redesign the bottom floor to something that we’d be happier with – more open, more modern, and better for entertaining.

I don’t know if we are looking for an architect, interior designer, or both. Any suggestions?

Vote in today’s election in Middleboro. I previously endorsed Steve McKinnon for Selectman, Rob Dragunas/Tobey Eugenio for School Committee. FinCom Chairman Rich Pavadore – speaking as a private citizen – is advising votes for Peter LePage as write-in candidate for the open seat on FinCom. There are no candidates on the ballot:

…. Peter LePage, 871 Plymouth Street as a write in for Finance Committee. Peter was on the Finance Committee a few years back (Replaced by Mr. Stephen McKinnon now running for a second term on the Board of Selectmen.) Peter is a knowledgeable and sensible addition to our committee and will fill the open seat we currently have. If you decide to support Peter, you need to write his name and address shown above.

As Rich said – all you have to do is write the name and address in the spaces provided on the ballot. Try to get the address correct but don’t worry if you forget it. The MA Secretary of State advises that the key factor in counting the ballot is voter intent:

All write-in or sticker votes should include the correct name and address of the candidates. Courts have ruled that a vote should be counted whenever the intent of the voter can reasonably be determined, even if a voter omits the candidate’s address or makes a mistake in the name or address.

Recently I endorsed Rob Dragunas and Tobey Eugenio for Middleboro School Committee. In his prepared statement at candidates night, incumbent Thomas included a zinger at me which I responded to in my next column. The zinger implied to me that non-lifelong residents(like me) who weren’t on the school committee(like me) should not speak up when they are unhappy with the schools.

Former school committee member Paul Hilton – who led the failed override campaign – wrote a letter to the Gazette in support of Thomas and included a similar bumpkin zinger:

During my tenure, the School Committee, through the administration, became exceptional at restructuring the system with the annual reductions in staffing that were necessary due to declining resources. However, we failed as a community, and thus as a School Committee, to secure adequate funding to support the programming necessary to provide the educational system that we all want(ed) and expect(ed) for our children.

The bellicosity of particular individuals in our community seems to have led them to seek simple solutions to the critical and often complex issues confronted by the Middleboro public schools.

Each significant action of the School Committee, and the school administration, is vetted in public session. Although there seems to be considerable critique regarding the failure of the Middleboro public schools in making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), there was little, if any, input from these critics in developing methods and means to overcome these challenges.

This is the old logic that if you are not on the school committee, a lifer resident, or part of the inner sanctum, you should not dare to speak or voice an opinion. As far as “little, if any input from these critics” goes …… I’ve written numerous columns about the schools and have a pile of ideas. But apparently I shouldn’t be concerned about the schools failing to make AYP year after year after year after year unless I’m able to solve the problem. Funny I thought that’s what the school committee, school admin, and school staff were supposed to do.

Note that Hilton says we “failed as a community, and thus as a School Committee, to secure adequate funding”. In other words, the School Committee should be held completely blameless for the schools. It’s your fault Middleboro for not passing the $300 per year override that would have done little for staffing except to pay for contractual salary increases.

I’ll repeat some of the ideas I have for the schools. First off we could make raises, salary, and tenure dependent on performance. Instead of laying off the newest teachers we should layoff the worst. Instead of giving administrators raises no matter what – give them raises based on school performance. How about individual study plans so that the five smartest kids in class could work at a higher level.

I covered much of this ground in various columns and posts and don’t want to hash over it again. As I said in my last column on the subject – if you are happy with the schools – vote for Thomas. If you want a new direction vote for someone else.

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Update – I just found out that the maximum work week for firefighters in MA is 42 hours if a town votes to accept Chapter 48 Section 58D.

That means Middleboro has pretty much the same schedule as any other fire departments that have adopted CH48 S58D. Whether we have or not, the firefighter schedule is codified in the firefighter’s contract.

I’ll tell you that googling for fire schedules does not make that obvious. Nationwide it seems that most departments are doing a 56 hour schedule. Who knew that MA would have such a ridiculous law.

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I spent some time … OK well a lot of time, reading over the current contract for Middleboro firefighters for my column this Thursday in the Gazette. Here are the raw contracts for anyone who is interested:

• 1998-2001 Firefighters Contract
• 2004-2012 Firefighters Contract

The column has to do with firefighter scheduling. Middleboro firefighters work 2 days out of every 8 days minus vacations. Most fire departments seem to use the Kelly or 48/96 schedule which has 3 days out of every 9. The Middleboro schedule has 91 days per year compared to 121 days per year for the Kelly and 48/96.

Schedule types (X is a 24 hour shift)

================================================================
Sched Type | On(X)/Off(o)  | Shifts/yr | Hrs/Wk | Repeat cycle
================================================================
Middleboro | XoXooooo      |  91       |   42   |   8 days
Bridgewatr | XoXooooo      | 104       |   42   |   8 days
Kelly      | XoXoXoooo     | 121       |   56   |   9 days
48/96      | XXoooo        | 121       |   56   |   6 days
BFD 24/48  | Xoo           | 121       |   56   |   3 days

Looks like by high-end babe-magnet car is on death’s door. It’s true – my 2000 Ford Focus wagon looks like it needs a new engine after on 200K miles.

I’d appreciate any suggestions for a new car – where to buy, model, make, etc.

Some thoughts:

• Don’t care if it’s new of lightly used. Are there deals to be had by buying from a rental car agency or expired lease cars? Where?
• Good gas mileage is a must
• Needs to be big enough to fit 4 adults and a dog comfortably and be able to carry a small bit of musical gear(speakers, guitar, etc)
• Prefer a quiet ride so I can listen to music on the highway

Other than that I’m not fussy. I just want something that will reliably get me from point A to point B and be reasonably efficient. I’m not that big on hybrids or electrics because I’m dubious that the cost is worth it and that the battery technology isn’t causing as much environmental hazard as gas is. The more mileage the better.

Here are all documents I received from the Middleboro Gas and Electric resulting from a public document request I made on 2/28/2012. I was charged $42.59 cents which was paid for with my own money.

Missing data: – I only got the credit card data for 2011.

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Original request

Ms. Ferreira,

Pursuant to Massachusetts state law, I am requesting the
following documents.  I would like to receive them in
electronic format via email if possible.

1. A list of current Middleboro G&E employees, their salary, position,
   and town of residence.

2. In the Benefits section of The General Manager's contract it
   states:

  > The GM shall receive all employee benefits that are currently in
  > effect and all employee benefits established during the term of
  > this Agreement that are applicable to Senior Management of the
  > Department.

  I would like to see the document that defines benefits that "are
  applicable to Senior Management of the Department."

3. Any document that describes GM Granahans' company car if different
   from the document in item 2.

4. A list of all G&E employees that have a G&E credit card

5. All credit card receipts for 2010, 2011, and 2012.

6. Performance reviews for GM Granahan for 2009 through the
   present including his full compensation for each of those
   years.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

This coming Friday March 16th is an important night for our town. The Middleboro Gas and Electric Commissioners changed their meeting in the hope that you wouldn’t notice. They are hoping that many of you are busy and can’t be bothered to attend their meeting because of your busy schedule. They pray that your week was busy and there is no way you can attend. They are hoping you won’t pay attention because you have already made other plans.

I accept blame for the problem that has become the G&E because I was not paying attention. Thanks to the efforts of one lone Commissioner, Mike Solimini, who worked hard to open my eyes and many others to the problems. I have spent well over the past year attending meetings and witnessing what I can only label a tremendous embarrassment to our community. I have never seen a Board continually disrespect voters time and time again as the Middleboro Gas and Electric Commissioners have to the town of Middleboro.

In my time observing the Board, I have witnessed the following;

• A Commissioner spending excessive amounts of money on travel for “Board Business” to resorts and vacation destinations
• Failures to follow state law and provide contracts not only to citizens but to Middleboro’s Town Treasurer and Finance Committee
• Repeated violations of Massachusetts’ Open Meeting Law
• Commissioners have not followed Massachusetts law and participate in a mandatory online training on the Massachusetts’ Open Meeting Law
• Commissioners had no idea that their General Manager was the highest paid Public Utility Manager in the state
• Commissioners never approved the General Manager’s contract in a public session
• Allowed the General Manager to set rates for consumers rather than elected officials
• Failed to take control of the agenda at their own meetings and have allowed the General Manager to set the agenda
• They have refused to schedule a one on one meeting with the Board of Selectmen
• Hiring outside legal counsel at $350 per hour to fight Open Meeting violations rather than using Town Counsel
• The Chair of the Gas and Electric refused to allow the public or a member of the Finance Committee to comment or ask questions until after the Commissioners had voted their budget. 

I rarely make requests of the readers of this Blog, but I must ask you please to attend Friday night’s meeting. We need to stand strong and put these people under a microscope. With the exception of Mr. Solimini, they have VIOLATED our trust and we must take them to task.

If you don’t attend, you will be part of the problem!

Rich Young

The G&E meeting has been rescheduled to Friday March 16. It will be held in the Middleboro Board of Selectmen meeting room.

G&E Commission Agenda for 3-16-12

I’m getting word that the Middleboro G&E has postponed the meeting scheduled for Tuesday until Friday. Stay tuned for further information.

The locals are turning up the heat on the G&E and there is an acute shortage of fireproof underwear in town.

An important message from Selectman Allin Frawley – speaking as a private citizen:

To my Friends and Neighbors in Middleboro and Lakeville,

There will be a very important meeting of the Middleboro Gas and Electric Commission, on Tuesday the 13th, at 7:30pm at the Middleboro Gas and Electric Building, 32 South Main St, Middleboro.

Under New Business the G&E Commission will be releasing 9 years of executive session minutes.

9 years!

This is a gross violation of Open Meeting law.

Included in those minutes are the negotiation of the General Managers Contract which was illegally voted on and signed in Executive Session. A Contract that made the GM the highest paid General Manager of a municipal Utility in the State, at $188,850 +3,631.73 productivity bonus, for a total of

$192,481.71

Plus a vehicle and gas card, and full medical and dental. He also gets 15 vacation days, 3 personal days 12 holidays and 2 floating holidays.

Once again this contract was negotiated and signed in Executive session.

His performance reviews and subsequent raise have also all occurred in Executive Session.

His salary has increased by $32,481.71 in the last 3 years

These are just two examples of the inappropriate actions that this Board has been involved in.

The G&E Commission also has to address 4 Open Meeting Law violations.

The Board then plans on another Executive Session to “Conduct negotiations concerning General Manager’s Employment contract, including without limitation Annual Base Salary Performance Adjustment.

Please attend this meeting on Tuesday Night at 7:30 and put a stop to these abuses of the public trust.

Thank you,

Allin Frawley

And now a public service message:

St. Mary’s Primary School Proudly Presents “Fun-de-Mental” and cordially invites you to attend a tantalizing adult evening of food, drink, magic, mentalism and fun that will both baffle and delight. Adam Bond, Candidate for State Representative the 12th Bristol District, and his wife Victoria will perform this classic show to raise all funds for St. Mary’s Primary School in Taunton. Please try to attend. It will be at:
Portuguese American Civic Club
175 School Street
Taunton, MA
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Time: 6:00pm – 11:00pm
Social Hour with Cash Bar available – 6:00pm-7:00pm
Dinner – 7:00pm
Fun-de-Mental Show – 8:00pm
Price: $30.00/person (tables of 8 are available)