I just read the letter Mark Andrews wrote to Ms. Fitzgerald regarding Myles Burke. The man is either pathological or assumes you are all stupid.  If you accept Andrews’ claims, Myles Burke is singularly responsible for the new Makepeace Medical Building. This is a building, the planning for which began years before Mark Andrews’ name was mentioned in Wareham, let alone Myles Burke’s. Further, you would infer from Mr. Andrews’ comments that perhaps Myles is not only responsible for the concept, oversight, permitting and completion of the project, but apparently also for raising the almost $15,000,000 (fifteen million) in private funds and he did all this in his spare time so Wareham could have much needed tax and economic growth. Good, we need it based on how badly he and Andrews are overspending their budgets.

It is wonderful that Myles enjoys all those wonderful designations, titles and accreditations. I particularly like the one about his being a municipal employee dealing directly with public safety for 25 years. A playground or crossing guard is also directly involved in public safety. I almost forgot, Burke’s last position was Head of Lifeguards. OK, so that’s how you describe being a lifeguard when you need to stretch the truth for the uninformed?

The truth is that almost anyone can get many of the certifications Burke has and Andrews making small of, or intentionally obscuring the realities and differences between a Building Inspector and a “Certified” Head of Inspectional Services does not change the facts. Yes, Andy Williams is a competent and wonderful man and building inspector. And yes, we have a plumbing inspector and an electrical inspector too. Yes, Myles Burke is the Director of Inspectional services and as such, oversees all kinds of things he knows little or nothing about, like plumbing and electricity. Let us not forget it was Myles who said when he first arrived in Wareham, something to the affect that he shingled his own roof once and that was the sum of his building experience.

The bottom line is that Burke is not qualified to issue a Building Permit and Andy is. A Building permit and a CO are two entirely different things. COs only come from someone with the required building experience and years of both practical and theoretical building knowledge who has met the necessary criteria with the State Building Certification Board to qualify to take the State Inspector Certification test that you must pass to be able to be certified to issue COs. It is the responsibility of the guy who issues the CO to know all the other specialties, construction, plumbing, electrical well enough to insure the building is built correctly and it is safe. The guy who signs the CO also makes the Town financially liable when he signs a CO. Andy can sign a building permit but he cannot sign a CO, as he also is not certified.

Many people can pass the test if they are allowed to take it. The test is not really the hardest part. The life experience and time in the trade is what qualifies you to take the test. The criteria are strict and have been applied to everyone who has ever taken the test, until Myles Burke. Yes, you must have time in the trade to take the Construction Supervisors test too, but sometimes someone will lie for you and say you’ve worked for them for the requisite number of years. But the Certification Myles does not have is the one that comes after his Construction Supervisors license. It’s the one that every Inspector in MA must have if he’s going to sign permits and COs. You know just about every town has a building inspector, but many cannot afford a Certified Inspector who can sign COs, so they hire them on a part time basis. We have neither.

The confusion is that the previous Wareham Director of Inspectional Services was also certified to sign COs and do inspections, but he only ran the Building department and made $60,000 yearly. He could sign COs. I think Jay could also. So Andrews hires Burke to be the Director of Inspectional Services. But Andrews pays Burke $80,000 a year, not the 60 of his predecessor, but Burke is not certified and Jay quits. The reason Andrews paid Myles the extra $20,000 was that Andrews also gave Myles the Life Guards as part of his responsibilities. That was worth $20,000 extra. This is the extra responsibilities Andrews refer to in his letter to Ms. Fitzgerald. Unfortunately in 2012 the lifeguard responsibility has been passed to another person who received a raise for taking on the job. So Myles is merely doing he same job as the previous Director, but doing so for $20,000 more and without the Certification to sign COs.

The reason Andrews is going to such lengths is that if Burke cannot get certified the town will have no choice but to hire someone who is and those people all make $60,000 to $80,000 or more. And that folks is the rest of the story.

Mr. Andrews should try to think of this like the medical field. A corpsman is not a doctor and a doctor is not a surgeon and a heart surgeon is not a brain surgeon. Come to think of it, neither is Mark Andrews, but you get the point. The differences between the designations are small socially imposed inconveniences and those inconveniences have kept us all safe for thousands of years. We call them qualifications and standards. I’m sure Mark gets it. It’s just like when you MUST graduate from law school before you get to take the BAR exam, though some folks have taken the test without ever having gone to law school. But they are not lawyers. See?

The LIES, and they are intentional lies by Andrews are that no one in Wareham, not Burke or even Andy Williams is currently certified to issue “Certificate of Occupancy” Permits (COs) and yes, by definition the Town did not receive a “Cease and Desist” order. This is not the first time Andrews has split such hairs. The Town received a letter from Bob Anderson, the state’s Chief of Inspections stating that the certification board had found that Myles Burke had failed to meet the minimum standard to qualify to take the certification test to allow him to sign COs or any other permits.

The letter further stated that Burke was late to appeal that decision and the appeals period was ended and therefore Myles could not re-apply and I think it’s forever if not for five years. The Certification Board, all of whose members have qualified for and passed the test, had given Myles three opportunities to produce the necessary documentation stating that he had five years construction supervisory experience. Obviously he never produced it because he does not have the necessary five-years as a construction-building supervisor running a “construction company” which is required to take the test. Every other person in MA with the certification has met all the requirements. The letter further stated that Burke was not to sign COs or any permits, as he is uncertified to do so. The selectman received that letter and then sent Burke a memo instructing him to not sign any permits or COs. Of course an order from the Board of Selectman not to do a certain thing is also not a cease and desist for Mark Andrews. Was either a “Cease or Desist”, no. Were both a “Hey stupid stop doing that”? Yes!

Additionally, Andrews claims Burke’s certification was not a condition of employment. LIE#3. Andrews absolutely acknowledged that Burke was not certified when he hired him. The certification was mandatory. It is in Burke’s contract that he has 18 months from his date of hire to get the exact certification that Andrews wants you now to either believe Myles no longer needs, or believe that Myles has enough of the other titles so that he’s good to go. B-llsh-t! So, in a few months Myles loses his job according to his contract, unless of course a miracle happens. Enter Mark Pacheco.

Remember I told you all a while back that Andrews had Mark Pacheco intervene in this exact affair when Pacheco tried to get Myles a free pass 8 months ago, well he’s at it again. It seems that Pacheco has gone above the governing certification board’s head to the BBRS (Board of Building Regulations and Standards Appeals Board) and has reopened Myles’ appeals period. Yep, Myles gets a second and perhaps a third or fourth appeal if necessary.  No, he still does not have the required 5-years construction supervisor experience or time in the trade or a few other things, but Pacheco is going to see to it that Myles gets to take the test. Perfect. Wish it were that easy for the rest of us. So in the end, Wareham is going to have an overpaid guy who cannot manage a budget, who is also unqualified for the certification Pacheco will most likely just mail to him. Our Director of Inspectional Services will be a guy whose real claim to fame is being Mark Andrews best friend, a political hack and having run few beaches.

I can say without reservation, regardless of what the current BOS does or fails to do, Mark Andrews is going. He may not believe it. He may not accept it. He may think this is my or your first rodeo, but he is going and if certain BOS members need to go first then so be it, but no matter what happens, whether he goes now or not, Wareham will not pick up his option when his contract is up. The question for everyone is how much damage does he do before he goes?

A week ago I suggested that Andrews would have a 1.2 million dollar deficit in the 2012 budget. Today it is already at what several of us have computed to be $600,000 and we are 12 days into the year.

We need to take Mark Andrews out onto Route 6. Face him north, bend him over at the waist and boot him in the ass hard enough so he bounces somewhere around Chelmsford.

Auto-edited on 2020-08-11 to update URLs