Bloodsport = Clinton Politics

Wow, I’m stunned.  The do nothing BOS actually did something at one of their infrequent meetings, and it actually made sense.  At the urging of Selectman Connolly the board created three sub-committee’s to study Regionalization, Capital Planning and Changes to Town Government.

I’m glad to see that the board that hasn’t done a damn thing all year accept issue liquor licenses and turn down automobile sales permits has done something that makes sense and has a pro-active tone to it.

I won’t get too giddy though, It may be nothing but lip service by the Chairman to placate the masses as it had been brought up in open session by Connolly and couldn’t be swept under the rug.  Who knows, maybe they have room on their committee for someone that served on the Charter Commission and as a Selectman, one who has true insight and a working understanding of town government and what is lacking.  I wonder what would happen if I applied???

Hmmm, maybe, just maybe it’s worth a shot, I wouldn’t expect to be selected as this board wants things to stay as they are, but it would be a good exercise in showing what hypocrites they are.  Dickhaut and Haley both ignored the  proposal I put forth as a starting point when I  was still on the board.

In fact here’s the starting proposal which was cut from the old charter document and put forth for DISCUSSION, this never took place as Dickhaut and Haley just sat there slack jawed and ignored it.  http://www.josephnotaro.com/Archived/change_agent_2_13_08.pdf

It should be an interesting committee, bet the outcome is what Dickhaut wanted all along, A strong Town Administrator with no specified duties so she can tell him / her what to do without boundries.

January 19th 2010

OK, Here are the Clinton machine count results:

Brown—–2719—61.3%
Coakley—1655—37.3%
Kennedy–58——-1.3%

Congratulations to the 2719 Clinton voters who voted for Scott Brown. You my friends are part of history, the start of something bigger than you may realize. I’m watching his victory speech and he is truly a class act, gracious and
positive.

I can’t wait for the 2010 mid-term elections when the House and Senate get re-adjusted so to speak. One party rule sucks, you need that check and balance of differing opinions.  I mean that to be any single party Republican or Democrat.
You all did a great job, Thank you.

****************************************

Below is my letter to the Editor in support of Scott Brown. In these dark days of massive government debt, the specter of a potential bureaucracy larger than the IRS if Obama-Care were to pass and with one party Democratic rule that’s crushing what’s left of the middle class, we need a leader like Scott Brown.

Coakley with the morally bankrupt national democratic political machine have run one of the most negative attack campaigns I’ve ever witnessed.  (Besides local Clinton Elections!)  These people should be damn ashamed of themselves - I doubt they are though.

Scott  Brown is to much of a gentleman to run a negative campaign and I applaud him, win or lose. Although I do believe he will prevail, nothing is ever over until it’s over.  I hope to God he does win and shows people that through perseverance and honesty you can prevail against heinous attack campaigns. GO SCOTT BROWN.

My Letter–

I would like to ask all voters to please get out January 19th and vote for Scott Brown as our next U.S. Senator. He is a stand up man with a great message and the common sense ideas needed to help lead us out of the mess our government is in.

From an across the board tax cut for families and businesses that will increase investment and create new job growth to his belief in limited government, and in the boundless power of the free market to create jobs and wealth for our people, Scott Brown exudes all that is right with his views and great attitude. Scott Brown knows that the big-spenders in Washington need to quit expanding our government and defending their wasteful spending, and start expanding the economy and defending our jobs.

Scott Brown believes that in Massachusetts, one-party power breeds corruption and arrogance, and it’s time we end
it.

Again I ask that you please vote on January 19th for Scott Brown as your next U.S. Senator, It’s a decision you won’t regret.

The tax burden via the real estate tax split that has been levied for years on commercial and Industrial property owners has been a disincentive to stay in Clinton, or for businesses to locate or relocate here. Look at the empty mills and storefronts on High St. Some business failures and closings are obviously due to to the economy but you have to wonder how many of those would still be here if we had equitable tax rates for all…something I’ve pondered for quite a while.

Chairman Dickhaut seems to believe TIF’s are the answer, but they only last a finite amount of time and are only good with regard to new businesses. This is like when you open an account somewhere and they give you a better introductory rate. then it goes up and stays there. Existing businesses get no break other than the reduction of the rate split. Don’t get me wrong, the TIF is a good tool to have but is only one tool, not the be all end all of economic development.

Also Commercial and Industrial property values have not diminished in value like residential properties have, resulting in a double whammy on our businesses. The difference between the average increase and the increase with the split adjusted down to 1.65 is $28 per year which translates to $7 per quarterly bill. This is a pittance and doesn’t even register on my radar screen, for the record I’m a fiscal conservative.

When I was on the BOS the split we inherited was 1.75. We dropped it two years in a row at that time Scholastic Books decided to relocate in Clinton citing the business friendly reductions of the rate split. Last year the newly seated BOS raised it to the maximum level, also called the red zone by the business community. In fact when looking statewide businesses avoid communities that are at the max.

I can only hope the BOS has seen the light and this trend continues, if it does and more businesses were to locate here it would have the effect of actually reducing our residential tax burden even though we have a lower split, because more business would be paying taxes into our coffers.

I applaud Selectmen Haley, Sheridan and Connolly for having the courage and common sense to reduce the split, you did the right thing! Congrats…

In a stunning display of hypocrisy the Lancaster Zoning Board of Appeals granted the Lancaster Police Department a special permit to practice and qualify on land that’s zoned residential. Lancaster has already set a precedent by serving cease and desist orders to both the Clinton Police Department and previously the Clinton Fish and Game for exactly the same purposes.

I believe this helps Clinton’s position with potential litigation. Lancaster has applied zoning laws differently in cases that are the same. I really don’t care about their nuanced decision that there aren’t residence’s as close by or what not. The facts are the facts, It’s a grandfathered use, shooting never stopped and Clinton has a right to use the property for Police department qualification and practice.  In fact as a non-profit entity the police are most likely exempt from these unjustly applied zoning laws. In my opinion Clinton is being singled out by Lancaster due to collusion with two of Clinton’s Selectmen, LeBlanc and Dickhaut.

In another case of hypocrisy the Clinton BOS voted 3-2 to deny a permit to an applicant to reopen the small car lot at the corner of Main and Water streets. Of course they all say they’re pro-business and want to help the little guy but when it comes right down to it they just don’t care. The person was from out of town, I bet if it was someone the dissenters knew, they’d have passed it in a New York second! Denying someone the opportunity to open a small business to earn a living in these trying economic times is just downright wrong.

The final case is that our our “stellar” selectwoman MaryRose Dickhaut voted against allowing Chief Laverdure to appoint three recently retired policemen as “special police officers” in order for them to be covered under the town’s umbrella policy and able to work details when full time officers aren’t available. Thankfully the other selectmen weren’t pigheaded about this and it passed.

Yeah, they all say they’re pro-public safety until they have to vote on allowing police to qualify at our range and to defend that right in a court of law if necessary or to help keep our Police Department full time. With the lack of funding all dispatchers will be laid off, possibly an officer. With the three latest retiree’s, four laid off dispatchers and a laid off officer we’ll be down eight people. this will result in only two officers per shift for a town of 14,000. What are our supposed pro-public safety selectmen doing about this? Nothing of course, because they’re hypocrites!

So here we are again back at the rifle range issue, although I have a lot more to say than selectmen Dickhaut and LeBlanc are plain wrong on that issue. they’re wrong on a lot more than that.

Selectman LeBlanc seems to be doing what’s in his own selfish interest, not what’s in the best interest of our town, our police force and in effect US. I would posit that LeBlanc has had conversations with the Lancaster town administrator that undermine the work our town counsel is doing to preserve our right as a town to use the land for police firearms qualification. Mr LeBlanc, if you’d like to deny that please chime right in!

Now we have the Lancaster police applying for a special permit to qualify and practice at the range they use WHICH IS ZONED RESIDENTIAL. I question why Lancaster hasn’t applied their zoning laws equally to their own police department. If Clinton gets a cease and desist order for qualifying on residential property then Lancaster MUST get the same under their zoning laws. If not then nullify the one against the Clinton Police Department. This selective enforcement is hypocritical and wrong.

Now for the financial ramifications. We have a BOS that’s supposed to be looking out for our best interests, they are NOT. When they formulated the budget it should have taken the overtime line item into account. The police shouldn’t have to rely on overtime for the normal everyday operation of their department. I understand budgets have to be cut, however common sense shows that in times of financial turmoil crime rises, it’s a fact. Now we may have less police on the street, dispatchers laid off and replaced with officers who would be on the street performing their duties. The BOS has botched it’s budget big time on this front.

So here’s where the rifle range issue, safety and fiscal responsibility merge together into one large confluence. First, we have an underfunded police department. Second we have officers that haven’t been able to qualify and practice because Dickhaut and LeBlanc are on a mission to shut down the rifle range and are in my opinion in collusion with Lancaster town officials to undermine our best interests. Third, to qualify the police may have to go to a private out of town range at some cost to the town. I’ve heard price tags of $10,000+ per year and a need for more overtime which we have no money budgeted for. We’ll be less safe, with less officers on the street and incur higher costs.

Finally, if they succeed in closing the rifle range it would need to have a lead remediation done at a cost in the neighborhood of $2,000,000. These selectmen are a detriment to the people of Clinton and should be damn ashamed of their actions. They have put our safety at risk, our financial state at risk and have potentially damaged our police departments relationship with our sister town…for what just so some people don’t have to hear the police qualify during the day for a couple weeks a year, These selectmen are a bad joke who put their self serving interests first and put our police department in the middle of their political brinkmanship. Please remember this next spring when you go to the polls.

Lancaster has issued cease and desist orders to the Clinton Fish and Game and also to the Clinton Police Department stating that they cannot shoot at the Clinton rifle range because it’s partially located in Lancaster and zoned residential.

Well the range that the Lancaster Police use is located in Lancaster and is zoned residential…How is it that they can continue to shoot and qualify there and Clinton is prohibited?

I understand the Lancaster Police have requested a special permit to shoot on their residentially zoned range, if this is approved I would expect the same standard to be used for the Clinton P.D,  If not this is a complete double standard and totally unacceptable.

The Clinton BOS that hardly ever meets anymore (last meeting was somewhere like October the 7th) and is finally meeting again November 10th should be fighting for our sovereign right to use this resource. I really don’t care if it has to go to litigation.  Because very importantly if Clinton loses the right to shoot there and the range reverts to ” open land” there will be a $2,000,000+ bill for lead remediation and that is a hell of a lot more than a simple zoning litigation case will cost, and that’s why we have a Town Solicitor in the first place.

This whole thing is so out of control with the anti-gun duo of LeBlanc and Dickhaut causing disention beetween the two towns police forces that we probably are better off that they only meet every five weeks or so. They’ve pushed their self serving agenda to the limit, trying as hard as possible to keep the “blue collared, regular Joe’s” off that range and turn that section of town into a private enclave for the prestigious professionals that live there. Its a  private enclave for the priveleged. UNBELIEVABLE!

In the latest edition of the Tines and Courier here is what Lancaster Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco has to say about OUR rifle range:

“Lancaster doesn’t want police barred from shooting at the Brandli parcel — it wants to talk. So said Town Administrator (TA) Orlando Pacheco this week, adding that he was disappointed with the anger and name-calling that followed Lancaster Building Inspector Peter Munro’s letter to Clinton selectmen, late last month, ordering them to “cease and desist” discharging of weapons at the rifle range off South Meadow Road.”

“We know the Clinton Police Department qualifies [its officers to carry firearms] in October,” Pacheco said Tuesday. “We wanted to send that, really, as a way of motivating them to file a special permit.

First off there is no WE in a unilateral decision. Pacheco reportedly ordered the Lancaster Building Inspector to issue the cease and desist order. I’m not so sure that it was at the request of any Lancaster resident either.

But was it as unilateral as it looked??? I’d make an educated guess or call it my opinion that it wasn’t. (The Lancaster BOS were out of the loop).  As the story unfolds we find that the police officer that was verbally browbeat  (this has been described as a hissy fit.) for practicing there was met at the gate by Clinton BOS Vice Chairman LeBlanc, his friend and a Clinton firefighter who lives nearby.

Second, isn’t it strange that instead of requesting to be on the agenda of a Clinton BOS meeting a cease and desist order was issued…to get Clinton to talk!?  this is all too coincidental. Backpedaling is a better word to describe this. I’ll wager an educated guess that there was collusion between the two CLINTON selectmen involved as well as the Lancaster TA.  Yes, the anti second amendment and anti law enforcement duo  most likely called their willing ally in Lancaster and requested the cease and desist be ordered against their OWN police department.  Now the Lancaster TA  said it was to get Clinton to talk, fat chance. It was just another ham handed effort by our horrendous pair of self serving selectmen to silence the rifle range.

Another quote from the Times and Courier:

Dickhaut and LeBlanc also defended a meeting they had attended, separate from the other selectmen, to discuss the cease-and-desist order with the police chief and town administrator.

“On Sept. 20, I was called by two residents, one in Clinton, one in Lancaster,” LeBlanc said. “I was told there were two people shooting.” He walked to the property and “encounter[ed] one of Clinton’s police officers coming out of the range in his police vehicle with a private citizen. … I thought the [2007] cease-and-desist order applied uniformly.”

LeBlanc asked for the meeting with Police Chief Mark Laverdure, “just to have a discussion,” he said. “I didn’t believe there was disciplinary action required.”

This is a half assed mea culpa, two selectmen meeting with the police chief without the rest of the BOS knowing anything about it and for a for a pretty long meeting, then asking him to order his men to not use the range is a bit more than a “DISCUSSION“. This borders on an abuse of power to get their self serving agenda item finished.

Of course there was no disciplinary action required, the police have always qualified there and should in perpetuity. that range is Clinton’s range and has been for 80 plus years. The chief is being put in the middle by this pair.

These selectmen should be finished, thrown out of office when their terms are up. We don’t need self serving, power abusing officials who have no clue what our real issues are. look no further than this…

…The state has said it would be cutting local aid again and this inept pair hasn’t even started looking at ways to save jobs…yes proactively looking at all options to save law enforcement, firefighters, DPW workers, school personel and non-union employees. Once again Clinton Selectmen are playing their fiddles while Clinton burns,  it’s just absolutely unbelievable and so damn amateurish!

Once again the anti rifle range pair of Clinton Selectmen, Chair Mary Rose Dickhaut and James LeBlanc have shot off their mouths. This time is different though, In a meeting with Police Chief Mark Laverdure the pair without prior authorization or prior knowledge of the rest of the BOS summonsed the Chief to a meeting at Town Hall. During this meeting the pair asked the Chief to order his officers to stop shooting at the rifle range and find somewhere else to perform shooting qualifications.

This practice is not only unethical, inappropriate and likely illegal but also violated the other Selectmen’s rights to be a part of any policy decision regarding the Police Department. They are the Police Commissioners after all.

Dickhaut and LeBlanc have once again used their positions of power to try and politically manipulate the usage of the Clinton Rifle Range. This practice is an abuse of power and must be stopped immediately. These two Selectmen have done more to harm relations between the two towns and their police departments than any previous board ever has.

Lets see which Selectmen step up to the plate and support their Police Department and which ones are spineless jellyfish in the face of controversy! I suspect I know the answer and don’t look forward to writing about the 4-1 vote.

These two need to be voted out of office and are a total disgrace to the Town of Clinton. They  are individuals who have put their own agenda first and public safety last.

UPDATE:

Last night the BOS voted 3-2 to appeal the cease and desist order against the Clinton Police Department. I’d like to publically thank Selectmen William F.Connolly Jr, Kevin Haley and Kathy Sheridan for doing the right thing and trying to uphold the Town of Clinton’s right to use it’s property and for standing up for local Law Enforcement.

As for Lancaster, Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco who ordered their Building Inspector to issue the cease and desist, he certainly knows he works for the Selectmen doesn’t he! Actually by doing Dickhaut and LeBlanc’s bidding for them I would say he just doesn’t know which towns Selectmen he works for.  He unilaterally ordered the Inspector to issue the order without the Lancaster BOS knowledge or direction. That’s a real nice way to foster employer-employee relations!

If I were on that board I wouldn’t tolerate an usurption of my duties and the further political and day to day friction it has caused between the parties involved.

I find it very interesting that the BOS hasn’t been meeting on their two week schedule that was always the norm once summer was over. Even through the summer months they only met a couple times.

I have a really strong feeling that a lot of the town’s business is being conducted in a sub-rosa manner. There are a couple events that have lead me to this conclusion but I’m not at liberty to reveal these or my sources.

In the past when I was on the BOS we publicly vetted any and all subjects, large and small in front of the camera in public session, this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Our once transparent local BOS has become more like looking through a an algae filled aquarium. “I think I see something, well, maybe not. I don’t see  discussion on subjects that effect us or our town going on anymore.

-What’s the status of the potential 4+ million dollar remediation of the leachate at the capped landfill?

-What’s going on with the Senior Center, we purchased the land and now what?

-How about water and sewer rates, it’s high time these are examined, before some future board inherits the need for a huge increase like when I was on the board. We inherited years of a lack of oversight and had to raise rates by a huge amount. This was unfair to both ratepayers and the then sitting board.

-Whats the year to date budget looking like, are we in good shape or just scraping by? Inquiring minds want to know.

I could go on and on but you get the picture, no information is forthcoming.

The state’s tax receipts are still falling month to month and there may be another cut to local aid, if so the BOS will be in reactive mode once again. Don’t you think Chairman Dickhaut would be working with the board to have a contingency plan in place if more budget cuts are needed? Maybe even meet with the Finance Committee to make sure the town is ready for what may transpire.

This BOS needs true leadership and to educate the citizens of Clinton on the issues that effect us now and will effect us in the future.

The need for transparency and the dissemination of information to the public is imperative if the citizens of Clinton are to be an informed electorate.  I guess that’s the key, they don’t want an informed electorate.

A quick thanks to DPW Super Chris McGown for putting down a skim coat of asphalt on Water St, it certainly makes driving it a lot easier, Thanks Chris!

I was very happy to see that the Planning Board recently gave preliminary approval to Brady-Sullivan of Manchester N.H. to develop the former Lancaster Mills.

I applaud the Planning Board for doing what was right rather than what was politically expedient.  Chairman Mary Rose Dickhaut and Selectman Kevin Haley again stated in an open meeting of the BOS that they were against it. Selectman Bill Conolly stated he was for it and I’m not sure where the others stood.

For the leadership of this town to say NO to sorely needed tax revenue and potential short term jobs building out the project and longer term jobs that would be available in the commercial industrial portion is just plain foolish and lack any vision for the town as a whole.

Again, thanks to all who made it happen, you did the right thing!