"Slager walked into a bar...."

....and sat right beside me.  As soon as his flaccid flesh stopped jiggling, he turned  toward me and said, "Why Richard!...You  have been so vitriolic about me of late that I'm beginning to sense that the happiest moment of your life would be to go to the bathroom on my grave!"

My reply: " Actually, No."

Slager: "Why, pray tell?"

Me: "Because the only thing I hate worse than you is standing in line."

Who cares what Ellen Baglady says?
Dick Wheeler is my MAN!!

To be true to her own image of what she is all about, Ms Begley The Peacemaker should ask the people she is trying to defend, "Have you nice town officials ever wondered why these people are so upset? It could be that you might want to think about modifying your own behavior, and actually Michael and I have a few suggestions."

If a justifiably angry citizen  roared at her that his rights were being violated by the BOS and that he was pissed off, her response would be to put her hands over her ears and say, "Your rude language  nullifies everything you have said. Please go away."

Ihateliz or Ham   When did this sign painting thing happen?

Hamatron5000 wrote:

IHL,

I have to correct you.  Thanks for bringing this to the public's attention, but you have some facts incorrect and the situation is actually WORSE than you describe here.

Here is what I heard.  I heard that the sign was not at the town library (59 Marion Road) but was actually a sign that belonged to the Friends of the Library, bought with Friends' Money and the sign was up at the Spinney Library site in Onset (which is private property.)

The selectmen violated so many laws here I can't begin to count them all.  They violated open meeting law by making a decision to deface the sign.  They never talked about doing this publicly.  They ordered municipal maintenance to go on private property (the Spinney site) and paint white paint over "branch" on the privately owned sign.

Come on, how much hatred in their hearts do the selectmen have that the sign bugged them to the point that they had municipal maintenance paint over it?  That they couldn't let it go or send a letter to the Friends and ask them to change it or something, they just trespassed and destroyed private property.

I wouldn't blame municipal maintenance because they're just following orders, they have to if they want to keep their jobs.  But the selectmen should have to personally reimburse the Friends to fix or get a new sign to replace the one they defaced.  That should not come from town money because they over stepped their authority to do this.

I hope this gets reported to the DA because they took an action outside of a public meeting and it should be reported to the police too because private property was vandalized at BOS orders.

While Janey I guess was involved, what I heard was that the entire BOS gave their approval for this.

Supposedly Move Wareham Forward is all about open communication, but these clowns just take it upon themselves to go and have private property defaced instead of raising their complaint with the Friends.

What a bunch of scumbags.  They should all resign immediately.

Not making excuses for anyone!  The BOS know that the Spinney property is not owned by the Town of Wareham.  They "ordered" municipal maintenance to deface private property.  I would have thought that M.M. would have known the town does not own that property.  Town workers are walking on egg shells, concerned about their jobs.  When an order comes down, I guess they don't question it. 

Why didn't the Friends of the Library report this to the police and if they did, why wasn't this taken to small claims court against each individual selectman or as a group of private citizens (selectmen).  They would have to show the minutes of the meeting that they agreed to do this.  We know that this meeting was not public, nor advertised as executive session.  Thus, we have blatant open meeting law violation.  If there were no minutes, then the discussion was entirely illegal, again violating laws pertaining to selectmen being together and discussing town business (to paint the sign, knowing  their fight with the Library, the Trustees and Friends) and ordering town employees to deface the sign.  If a M.M. employee was ordered to do this, then there is proof as to where the order came from.  Small Claims court may allow you to summons this info, which would be a plus in any campaign to vacate the BOS from their seats.  If one or two were not present at this meeting, then I am certain that they would not hesitate to deny that they were a part of this, and would squeal rather that pay $ for something they did not do.

Well, Friends of the Wareham Library and Spinney Library - can we proceed with this or have you tried already?  I can speak to someone in small claims and see where to start.    This may be our Phenix.  They say everything happens for a reason.   This small incident that got no press coverage that I saw, could be the downfall of our self centered "leaders".

If what IHS says is true and it happened in Sept. wasn't the litigation still going on then? I just ended not long ago. I'm willing to bet this little "conversation" took place under the bos's huge umbrella for exec. session--litigation. But if the case is  now over, doesn't that mean that those exec. session minutes must be available to the public?

Is anyone surprised at this? These people believe that they are above the law.  If the above poster is correct, there should be a police report on file. Isn't it up to the library folks to decide if they take action?

DO YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE?

You know I never really thought that Jane was as bad as some of the other selectmen ( don’t jump all over me) but after reading this I have changed my mind. She admitted she was the one that came up with the idea. It is such a petty thing to do the AROGANCE of this BOS is unbelievable. I would like to see the vote on this I can’t believe Potter went along with this. I am so sick of the Micro-management of this BOS.

Maybe Nora could tell us if the person that made the sign could fix the sign and if it can be fixed how much money it would cost. I would love to see this sign fixed, put back up and see if they DARE to paint over it again.

This incident is an example of everything that is wrong with this board of selectmen:

Petty and Vindictiveness - How much hatred do you have to have inside of you that something as small as what is written on a sign bothers you?  That it bothers you to the point that you abuse your authority as selectmen and order private property to be defaced?  Seriously, can you imagine it?  "Ohh God, that sign, it's just eating and eating away at us, Oh God, send a municipal maintenance worker over to paint over it so we can sleep at night!!!!"

Abusing Authority/Breaking the Law - Selectmen, by law, cannot make any decisions outside of selectmen's meetings.  They broke the open meeting law by having this done in private.  Selectmen do not have the power to run around town giving orders to town employees to do things.  The selectmen should personally pay the cost of fixing or replacing the sign.

Total Lack of Diplomacy - If something as small as this bothers you, then why not write a letter to the Friends?  Why not call them up?  Maybe a more practical solution could have been reached than just slapping paint all over it.  If it really bothered them that much that they just had to make an issue of it, they could have maybe used some sticky white tape or something that can be easily removed to go over the part they find offensive.  Something like that.  No, they just order an employee to trespass and vandalize the sign.

Polarizing - They pull crap like this, and then they pretend like they can't understand why no one wants to work with them.  This was basically the selectmen trying to give a great big middle finger to the library supporters.

Hypocrisy - They constantly try to do things in private that they know are wrong and would not even attempt to defend in public.  Of course they would never discuss in an open meeting about how a sign bothers them.  They know they'd look like spiteful hatemongers if they talked publicly about defacing a sign. Most people have a moral compass that tells them not to do things in private that they won't want to have to defend in public.  The selectmen don't have that in them at all.

Last edited by Hamatron5000 (2009-10-31 20:18:25)