Apologygate
Above is the resolution that kicked off last night's "investigation."
I'd say that "Termgate" turned into "Apologygate" last night. For me, I don't think the apologies last night were sufficient in terms of repairing the damage caused by the accusations. For instance, not only were words flying at the June 12 Council meeting and at last night's meeting... and those were, to some extent, "repaired" at last night's Council meeting... but what about all the newspapers? I think each of our three local dailies carried at least two articles on this issue... and the Herald covered it in last week's article and editorial... so how is that damage repaired? None of that damage was repaired at last night's meeting. But I have to run off to work now. Your thoughts?
Tim White
Town Council, 4th District
69 comments:
I watched some of the meeting last night and got a sinking feeling that some of the Republican council members "doth protest too much" - I'm glad Mrs. Esty is brave enough to question the status quo.
brave enough to challenge the status quo
or
foolish enough to accept Hillary’s vast right wing conspiracy
Last night was a show put on by the republicans. They played with the term of a key offical to stop a project they don't want. I watched last night and thought that we have some skilled actors in town. Bottom line is they they knew that the town clerk's office is not good at maintaining records and they knew there was a chance that if the term were changed no one would know or realize it. Pelton knew his term was up so he called to find out if it were true. There were tons of holes in that story we heard last night.
An apology I missed last night was the one from the town about how poorly they have managed and transmitted to the public information. The council may have found amusing the numerous errors in the terms of members of various boards and commissions, but it suggests a level of negligence and incompetence. I'm still struggling to comprehend how the Town Clerk's office can receive signed documents listing the terms of appointees, incorporate those documents into an internal list, and then make public a list which is chock full of errors. In addition, there is clearly something wrong when one has to go back 20 years to determine when a current appointment ends. And if the library can notify its patrons by email that they have items due in three days, why can't the Town Clerk's office notify both parties that an appointment will expire in 3 months? One hopes that information emanating from other town offices is more accurate.
Perhaps the most insightful statement made last night was from a gentleman who said that Cheshire is no longer a small town where personal relationships replace strict regulations and often overlook poor performance. Cheshire has reached a size and sophistication that it should expect a level of professionalism from its government.
"Cheshire has reached a size and sophistication that it should expect a level of professionalism from its government."
That's not the way the good ole boys want it and it is not going to change. The special interests, run this town. What they want they get.
We need a police commission and a ethics commission that are elected and totally independent, but the good ole boys are always against anything that would insure a clean open government that serve all the people equally.
and those fake phoney tears from Slocum. What an actor. He tried to get the term extended got caught and now he blames others
Give me a break
Tim you need to back off the town manager-the one man judge and jury stuff is for babies
Knock it off you look like a real fool
5:23 I was there last night and Tim Slocum was not acting.
5:54 What do you mean by "back off?"
So who apologized?
so much for the late night soap opera...what is going to be down about the Strathmore dam,,,, let a developer force it on an unwilling neighborhood?
This whole issue and all the accusations that Esty made dragging people's names through the mud could have easily been avoided if she did one simple thing. That is, she should have questioned the procedures followed by the town clerk back in Feb. when she discovered a discrepancy. Instead she blew this whole thing into a huge issue accusing Soltis and Slocum of shenanigans, cheating, going behind the backs of the council, etc. What she did was outrageous and inexcusable. Then she has the nerve to say she was shocked at the procedures followed to record and track terms of commission members. Who is she kidding - all she had to do was ask back in Feb and she would have learned all she needed to know about how things get recorded. Then to make things worse last night, she didn't even apologize UNTIL she was nearly forced to by others who were clearly disgusted by her actions and lack of a genuine apology. Talk about acting...she knew exactly what she was doing all along.
Tim, I hope you make sure this meeting is retelevised soon and often throughout the day.
I'll followup with Henry Chase (of Henry Channel fame) to make sure he airs it, the same he would air any other Council meeting.
To ask for it to be televised more (or less) than usual wouldn't be right.
Tim,
If you mention to Henry or anyone else that a particular recording of a council meeting should be rebroadcast, you are exploiting an extremely lax system to gain a political advantage. I'm sure that you never remind Henry to rebroadcast council meetings, so don't make exception in this instance.
I hadn't thought of it from that perspective. Although, to be upfront, I have in the past spoken to him about airing Council meetings... basically to increase the number of times they were shown. Regardless...
I sent him this email a few minutes ago...
Henry...
Do you know yet when you'll be replaying last night's meeting?
thanks,
Tim
anyway... my intent was not in "exploiting an extremely lax system to gain a political advantage"
My intent was to ensure people have access to information and to find out when the meetings would play... then I could mention it here, if anyone is interested.
For my part, if I had committed a a major gaffe last night during the meeting... and it was recorded on tv, and someone made the same comment... I would do the same thing... make sure that the meetings are aired so that people could become aware of what I did.
I know that may seem unlikely... but that's who I am. I believe the voters should have access to information. Heck... if I didn't feel that way, I wouldn't do this blog.
Open, honest, accountable, transparent government... then policy.
and I almost forgot...
thanks for pointing that out. I appreciate it. Going forward, I'll keep that in mind.
There were no sincere apologies. Esty and Hall showed their attorney
skills, i.e. "if you can't convince, confuse." Hopefully, they'll pay the price of jumping to conclusions and besmirching the
the good name of some very good people. Another layer of suger coating has been peeled off to expose how fake those 2 liberals really are. I hope the Republicans "make lemonade" out of this one.
Tim,
I apologize for the accusatory nature of my previous post; my intent was not to single you out but to state in general terms that it is inappropriate for elected officials to hint that certain regulations or protocols, even those as seemingly innocuous as the schedule to rebroadcast council meetings, should be adjusted. I agree with you that the town should publicize a schedule of when council meetings will be aired. In fact, one of the recommendations of the G channel committee was for the town to put a schedule on their website. Unfortunately, in light of recent events, I'm not confident that the town could get that right.
ED... thanks, but you made a very good point last night. And I apologize for what I did.
I think I'll use this opportunity to try to expedite the implementation of the cable study group recommendations.
The way this was handled does not incourage good people to volunteer for these commissions. This is unfortunate as both people in the family have to work today. Good volunteers make a well run town.
Tim:
I still don't know what happened. It the investigation over?
The accusations by Hall and Esty were made solely to make it look like the people for keeping the zone for high tax return to the town were trying some under handed means of stopping their pet project. The sewer capacity is a big issue and they want to sweep it under the rug. You can't solve real capacity problems with a pen.
The PZC is flying blind on this zone change. There are huge impact considerations that have the potential to cost the town millions of dollars, but there is no time to get an impact study before by the date that the vote has to be made.
Impact studies are normally made after the developer has submitted a development plan, but that would be done after the zone change, and it would be too late. Once the zone change is done, it is a done deal for the entire 400 acres. This is a catch 22.
If they approve the zone change, it is for all 400 acres of this zone and no one has a clue as to how bad the development can get with box stores. Queen St or worse.
The only reasonable action is for the PZC to turn down the text change and tell W/S that if they want to resume that they have to perform an impact study before a text change is considered again.
The other reasonable action is to make no change to the zone. This might give the owners incentive to find a developer that conforms to the current zoning.
Cheshire should go slow. We will have to live with the result forever and it has a lot of potential to be bad. Remember the pool? Let's be sure of this.
Watertown asked Konovan for an impact study before any zone change and they pulled out probably because it would have shown too many negatives for the town.
The current P&Z hearings have been a farce and unprofessional. They are being run without the town attorney present to give a legal opinion as to the ramifications of changes that the developer is requesting. They are being advised by a Town planner who is intent on getting it approved with housing and with almost no written restriction. They have not even questioned if the requested use is really needed. If People really want more shopping is this the place for it. They have not questioned if limiting rental units to two bedrooms would really limit the number of children or why are rental units planned insteat of private units. Why not develop what we already have. Does Cheshire really need 400 acres of shopping? Do the Cheshire residents want housing there when there is already 16,000 acres of undeveloped residential land. They have not once asked what could be done to develop the zone under the current zoning which would have a high payback in tax revenue. They have not had any professional source of information other than the applicants input and that of the biased town planner. They have not had any input from the heads of the town departments, this is unbelieveable. During the public hearing they seldom if ever questioned any of the speakers and never answered speakers questions. They have a few commissioners that came into the hearing with their minds already made up and who steer the conversation and try to push their ideas on the other members. Marty Coburn for one acts like he is on the devoper's team. They have been relying on polls that are totally inaccurate and referred to by Strollo, Voelker and others as meanigful facts. I think Strollo believes they are factual, whereas Voelker has to know they are bogus. No one questions how Voelker figures it would net $800,000 to the town even with housing. The Cheshire residents have been kept in the dark. The minutes of the the 5/21 meeting were mysteriously not put on the web, and the 5/21 and 6/25 meetings were not televised and no good reason has been given why there is no television other than we don't do those meetings.
Under the current conditions, the only reasonable decision the commission can make it to turn it down and have real hearings that are based on real information. Not only does the commission have to be fair to developers, they have to be fair to the people of Cheshire.
The last two commennts are great. These are some of the real issues. No lawyer and some of the P&Z members are in the planning stage which is dead wrong. Mr Cobern is not a lawyer and is getting everything wrong. Why is he running the show? Lots of questions on his support of this text change. Big change for the" under 50,000 sq ft" man. The Chairwoman who did a good job at the public meetings is letting this get away from her. A NO vote is the only logical solutions until more info is obtained. Do it on our time frame not theirs. Also, some members should not vote on this based on their previous recorded votes.
This whole investigation was a joke. Smoke and mirrors. What is the real reason they waited until Feb to replace a Chairman of such an important group? This should have been discussed months ahead of time. Shame on everyone for playing politics with such important issues before us. Sewers, culverts, dams,zone text changes,state budgets, farms etc,etc,etc. Don't waste your time or ours (the citizens). Remember us and if you don't Nov is around the corner.
All Esty had to do was ask the Town Clerk about the changes. Simple! But no, she had to come out with guns blazing calling it underhanded, shannigans and questionable. She ended up looking like the town jester with egg all over her face (and Hall to). Do we really want to re-elect fools in Nov. I think not!
Hall and Esty should be ashamed of their shenangans to attack numerous people, months after she found an error. The dirty tricks didn't work and they got real worried that an investigation would only turn up their nasty plot. So, they thought all they had to do is give an apology and everything would be just humky-dory. Wrong, it's not O'K, you can't do it that easily. From all the news reports that were made, many in town and the surrounding area, felt an actual underhanded scheme had been made to disrupt the system, and many of those will never ever hear the results and will continue to believe the charges.
Esty had said that Pelton would have been renominated if it were not for the shenanigans. Well, they are conceding that there were no shenanigans and until someone proves there were, then the people that made the charges should just shutup.
Now the process to correct this must be made. The new appointee to the WPCA should be asked to resign and Pelton renominated and reinstalled as chairman.
If Solomon does not want to resign, then the council should expand the board by one and reinstall Pelton. If after a period of time a board member resigns, then the number of board members would be reduce by one.
Since the council had all the votes to appoint the new member, they should have all the votes to return Tim Pelton to the post of chairman, assuming he would accept it. This would be a real apology and not just a bunch of words.
Pelton's term is up he is done. It is time for new blood on WPCA. As a leader Pelton got nothing done it was time for him to go.
Did the repulicans replace Bob B. right in the middle for the Denint. upgrade, I think that they did. That was not a critical time?
5:05PM I wholeheartledly agree. Esty said that Pelton would have been reappointed to the WPCA because he was doing a great job. Well if she really meant it then he should be reinstated. He shouldn't have been removed in the first place, not until all the facts were put forth. If they don't then Esty and Hall look like fools.
Tim, I agree with you that the apologies at last nights meeting were lame at best. The Cheshire Herald ran an article that was full of acusations. Dave Orsini was right on the ball when he took them to task. The Herald has become nothing more than a rag newspaper.
The fact that the Town Clerk has not been following the proper proceedures is not to be missed. She has not been doing her job and that was brought out on Tue.
"Pelton's term is up he is done. It is time for new blood on WPCA."
Your just a vicious old man, doing whatever you can to discredit a man of intergrity and that's the problem the good ole boys have with him. If you can't buy him, discredit him.
If the owners of the Herald were smart they would replace all the editors and hire those that would present a balanced view of things. There is a movement afoot to possibly introduce another town paper. The Dems can have the biased liberal Herald and the rest of the town can enjoy a real town paper. I hope it happens.
I hope we do get another town paper. The Herald stinks, it has no articles of real value. Their editorial staff should have apologized for the past two articles. Cheshire residents would benefit from another paper.
Yes I agree the Republicans should not be under and crtiz. for anything they do. The Herald should be run by the Rep party and they should get to print anything they want. It is not right that anyone should say anything bad about any Republican. Only the Democrats should be under the gun. It is what we want-oh man what am I saying-that would be like China or Vietnam. Oh I almost forgot my neo-con roots.
Or as bush once said
Im the decider
the Herald should be taken over by a neo-con who would control the crit. by drowning out all bad things said about them
I heard that she has also failed to inform the town of certain legal actions that could expose the town summary judgements against our best interest.
Also if weak proccedures have been used for 20 years in town and she has been in her position for 12 years is she not responsbile for problem, who else should be, she is the one getting paid for maintaining the records.
"...Your just a vicious old man, doing whatever you can to discredit a man of intergrity and that's the problem the good ole boys have with him. If you can't buy him, discredit him."
Your implication is that other people on boards and commissions are bought who and if you want to imply that should you not give your name?
Pelton should be reinstated as some of the comments here indicate. Esty did say she would have voted to reinstate him if it weren't for the shenanigans. There were no shenanigans so that previous vote to replace Pelton should be rescinded. I doubt Esty would even consider this but, Tim, do me a favor and ask her if she'll keep her word.
Soltis was just following procedures for the past 13 1/2 years as did the town clerk before her did. Isn't it Milone's responsibility to determine and oversee the proper procedures? Seems he'd be responsible for how business is conducted up at town hall. He should have put his 2 cents in at Tuesday nights TC meeting.
Esty's forced apology was a disgrace. She could have asked her questions back in February but instead jumped at the chance to turn this into something it shouldn't have become. Accusing people of shenanigans, cheating, and being underhanded amounts to defamation of character. She dragged their good names through the mud. I hope they sue her.
Esty needs to put a letter of apology in every newspaper that covered this story she created, and her last sentence of the letter should announce her resignation from the council. Then and only then will this be put to rest.
Pelton is acting like sgt schultz
That I know nothing stuff is not buyable
He and Schrumm were tying to block the north end by using the WPCA
sorry-not gonna do it
Get back old timer
WS and the boys gotcha again
Caught ya red handed
Yer busted pal
get back to your horse and buggy
Many questions have been raised. We will get the answer on July 9Th at the P&Z meeting. Let's pay attention to the reasons given for their votes. This will all be done with no studies. What a town. They must have a huge crystal ball.
What was J. Adinolfi saying at the shenanigan meeting? Was it relevant?
"Tim:
I still don't know what happened. It the investigation over?"
I believe the conclusion was to withdraw the motion for an investigation, then the topic of "procedures governing appointments" (my words) was sent to Ordinance Review.
From my viewpoint, the issue sent to ORC is completely independent of the proposed (and withdrawn) investigation.
The whole episode is really quite sad... we could've quite easily skipped the mudslinging and sent this straight to ORC.
"What was J. Adinolfi saying at the shenanigan meeting?"
he's thinking about running for Council again... I think I mentioned that here a month or two ago.
Oh no. That will be sad. How is he going to explain why he sits next to W/S all the time?
"Also if weak proccedures have been used for 20 years in town and she has been in her position for 12 years is she not responsbile for problem, who else should be, she is the one getting paid for maintaining the records."
If not the Town Clerk, then probably the Town Council. With regard to ownership, my guess would be this:
1) Town Clerk duties are defined by state statute, town charter & council resolution (possibly)
OR
2) if it's not explicitly in those places, I'd guess it's a council responsibility.
But I'm not a lawyer... that's just a guess.
8:23PM No one said the Herald should be run by the Rep party. We need a town paper that is going to be unbiased in either direction (which the Herald is not). The Herald should never have printed the editorial they did without facts supporting their accusations. The editorial this week in response to Esty's and their blunder was a joke. They have had a few editorials that warrant apoligies to town residents, but they apparently don't have the nerve. We need another town paper badly.
Esty used words like "cheating, torquing the system, back door activity" when your proven to be wrong the logical thing to do is apologize. The fact that she couldn't bring herself to do that speaks volumes. Dave Orisini had to shame her into it which only made her look worse.
"If the owners of the Herald were smart they would replace all the editors and hire those that would present a balanced view of things."
I've worked in a number of companies and it didn't take me long to realize that when your rotten at the top, it extends all the way down through the organization.
I've had enough with balanced view.
Do the job of a reporter and dig for the truth, print the truth no matter who it might hurt, but be damn sure you have the truth.
The Herald has had real problems with the truth. The truth is not always what you want it to be.
They have visions of big ad money coming from massive development in the north end and like all the local papers have felt the pressure of the advertisers that have financial interests in the northend. They have to realize that you need subscribers to have ad revenue and you need the subscribers more. It's the advertisers that need the newspaper.
Dave Orsini gave the Herald plenty of bad press at the meeting. Maybe (but I doubt it) this will be a wake up call for the editorial staff. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT, AND BEFORE YOU START THROWING STONES MAKE SURE YOU ACTUALLY HAVE A TARGET!
A big hand for Estey and Hall's performance.
When they lost neeed for an investigation they then became outraged by the process. Estey said she didn't realise the process was as back as it is. She just couldn't let it go. A few acting classes an she might become convincing.
Give us a break. The process is not bad. Sure, you can add more steps, but maybe the thing to do is to have the Town Council maintain the website and just send the authoriztion form to the town clerk to keep on file as they do with so many other documents. theirta
Maybe Estey and Hall should have consulted a good lawyer before launching their attack.
Fake outrage is what Orsini was all about. He said he was the victim of the same but that is all bs bc he was dirty as hell during the apple valley mall thing and did not that robertson guy go to jail?
Keep acting dave the world loves actors
If the world loves actors then Esty and Hall deserve total admiration and the Oscar!
"did not that robertson guy go to jail?"
he resigned from the Council (which led to the appointment of Sandy Mouris to the Council during Spring 2001), but I don't think there was any jailtime involved.
After this fiasco that's exactly what Esty and Hall should do "resign".
Hooray for Dave Orsini. Well the cowardly mud slingers, including the Cheshire Herald, got it back and didn't like it a bit. If these mean spirited people are not put in their place, they will continue with their dirty tricks.
"Tim you need to back off the town manager"
What attack? Since when is asking for information, an attack. The TM is the judge and jury. Many on the council know not to question his authority.
We need an ethics commission free of the council and the TM.
I think it is a disgrace that the republican town committee went to the republican town clerk and the republican chair of the WPCA had his term extended. If it were the other way around how with the republicans have acted?
Also it is clear that clerk's office is a mess. I would fire anyone who was responsible for a process and when it fails comes and says 'that is the way it was always done' when in 12 years never made a suggestion to change it. How long would she last in a real job.
8:32AM I would suggest that you get your facts straight. The Rep Town Committee NEVER went to the Town Clerk and asked that the term be extended. That was the whole issue Esty and Hall were hoping for something illegal and got egg all over their faces.
Oh his term was not extended? I must have missed that. Did it not take a call from the town attorney to have her change it? Is the offical record one paper that she checked and read wrong? Come on?
The inconsistency was on the town website which I understand has a few errors. The whole matter could have been straightened out if Esty just talked to the Town Clerk. Hall apologized for the things he said and the trouble that was caused and Esty did after she was shamed into it. There was no underhanded activity, as much as the Democrats were wishing for it. Sorry, you don't want to believe it, but those are the facts.
You are wrong the offical record was changed and it took someone from outside the office to find the problem (esty) and the town attorney to get her to change it. If she can't keep records she should go now. It was just not the web site. Oh no not ture.
She had no idea what the offical record was. What she said really made me think that someone did do something wrong. She said someone from the party would come in and tell her there was a problem and she would review it and make a change and tell no one. In this case she reviewed it, got it wrong, and then changed the records so the term was extended. A crime in America. Do you really believe that people who would stop at nothing to defeat the North End are above this?
It's no use trying to convince you that nothing illegal was done. So I'm not going to try. All I know is the only ones taking heat for this are Esty and Hall.
"How is he going to explain why he sits next to W/S all the time?"
I have a dog like that, who always sits close by waiting for a scrap of meat or something that might fall off the table. He's not too smart, but he is a good lap dog.
I can't wait for the headline, Schrumm beats Esty, and then we will be done with her.
I'm surprised people haven't really thought the committee appointment issue through to its logical conclusion. The current appointment stagger for the WPCA is 1-3-3 when it should be 2-2-3. By correcting Mr. Pelton's term to '08 - the stagger becomes 0-4-3. Also, the Rs retain the chair and prevent the Ds from getting the majority of what Scrumm has called the most important committee in town.
With 4 appointments in '08 - the next council would have gotten to appointment the majority on the WPCA. Gives the Rs a chance to if they win this fall.
What the Rs and our current town clerk have asked us to do is accept they are incompetent and didn't realize the effect of their honest mistake. This from some of the most politically astute people I know.
4:27...By posting this same comment at different topics convinces me it's Liz Esty doing the posts...nice try Liz...give it up....you messed up big time!
No I listened very closely to her and I think that she is right. That office is a mess and she has no idea what she is doing making very likely that someone abused the system.
"That office is a mess"
please explain.
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