KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE

No I’m not off my meds. Every single person at last week’s department head meeting with the Fin-com heard the screaming in the hallway. All anyone needs do to find out what happened is find someone who was there and ask him or her, but do it privately and swear to protect that person. Everyone who was there knows that if they talk about what they saw and heard they will lose their job and the BOS will do nothing to protect them from the tyrant. And, and this is the point, when they go, Andrews will replace them with someone from his professional or friend network, regardless of their qualifications.

Folks, we need to keep ourselves focused on Andrews and his behavior and machinations. I list the people he’s brought in not so we can hate them or attack them, but so you would all realize just how we are losing control of the fabric and culture of our community.

In no way should anyone take my comments as a slur on any of those people. As a matter of fact, attacks on the chief and others completely miss the point. As I’ve said in the past, it appears we have a chief who is getting the job done for us. Personally, it has always been my opinion that anyone who puts a gun on every day and goes out to protect my life and property by putting theirs at risk cannot be over paid. If however you feel that the new police or building department is involving itself in politics, well that’s another fight. So if you have issues with the chief, or anyone else, then make that case based on their actions, not simply because they were hired by, or as a result of Andrews.

The issue is not Rick Stanley, or Myles Burke as people. The larger issue is loyalty. Small towns regularly have department heads and employees who come from within the community, or those who come from outside to be part of a community. Andrews is practicing a textbook hostile takeover style by driving out old employees and replacing them with his cronies.

Simply ask yourselves this question; if push comes to shove do you believe the Andrews team members will demonstrate their loyalty for you and Wareham or will they close ranks around the guy who gave them their jobs? And if you believe that some of them are overpaid then the question is, what do you think Andrews purchased with that money?

While I have disagreed with people on many issues in Wareham, I have always accepted that regardless of which side I find myself on, people on both sides are focused on making Wareham better. We may disagree on the path, not the destination. For the first time we have a growing faction whose loyalty is first to Andrews. If this is the town you want then do nothing. If not, the fight is with Andrews, not the people he’s hired. Besides, if Andrews goes he will most likely take these people wherever he goes because that is how a virus works. He will need them infect a new host.  At his next job Andrews will surround himself with people loyal to him so he can do exactly there what he’s done here.

Unless we do something about Mark Andrews, by the time he does leave he will have replaced every department head or director with his people and they will have replaced as many of our current employees and your friends with their people as they can. That’s how it works. Two years from now you will not recognize the Wareham Andrews leaves us. It will not just be broke, it will be dysfunctional.