Friday, May 02, 2008

A liaison's responsibility (Norton boiler 9)

Some of you may recall the local election of '05. IMO the main issue was the zero budget juxtaposed with the linear park. But there were several other themes that were being played up by the then-challenging Democratic party.

One of those themes was the sewer moratorium and the constant drumbeat that the moratorium happened because the then-Council liaison to the WPCA, David Schrumm, was negligient in his duties. The implication was that David wasn't paying attention and the moratorium was a result of his negligience.

On this particular issue, I felt the Dems were offbase. To suggest that a Council member is responsible for the screwup of a particular commission or committee is to place an unfair burden on that particular Council member. And if that's the case, then as PBC liaison, Matt Altieri must be responsible for the Norton boiler mess, right?

But he's not.

Just because Matt Altieri said on April 8, 2008 that he wasn't going to "fill in the details" of the PBCs Norton boiler mess:doesn't mean that it's his fault.

And just because on August 14, 2007 he didn't recommend the Council vote to reject all bids from Norton boiler bid #1:doesn't mean that it's his fault.

I think it would be unreasonable and unfair to point the finger singularly at Councilman Altieri for this mess.

Sure, both he and David Schrumm could have done more, such as repeated emails and phone calls to other Council members, etc. but... in the end, we're still volunteers with only so much time to fulfill our duties.

No, hotWatergate is not the fault of Matt for possible negligience on his part.

But hotWatergate is partly the result of this Democratic Council's failure to perform it's oversight function.

Tim White

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

So who's at fault? All nine members of the TC? This will be a pass the buck routine. Nobody cares about the wasted tax money paid by the citizens. We always pay. How stupid are we? Wake up!!!

Anonymous said...

FUBAR says point fingers and let the people decide their fates!

Tim White said...

FUBAR, I think this may hit too close to home for you.

Is it true that you were named after this project? Or perhaps this project was named after you?

Tim White said...

Seriously though... it's just my opinion... not a statement of fact. The voters will decide who's reponsible.

Anonymous said...

How soon before we can announce that we want to run against Altieri?
Living in his district is an embarassment.
I recall him coming around last year when he was running and all he could say was they are doing the best they can do.
If this is their best, then it's time to replace them!