Words from our Readers regarding the Cronyism post...

We had some interesting notes from our reader, Structure, regarding the recent post entitled "Politics, Cronyism, and Conflicts of Interest...":

This has to be one of the more ludicrous stories. A woman claims the Finance Director grabs her and she tells her union, the mayor and the Acting Personnel Director. Nothing is done. A week later she reports it to the police because supposedly she wants it documented, then the mayor reacts and says we'll investigate and puts three people in charge. None of which are the independent Personnel Director. This is very odd. But not so odd if you consider what's going on behind the scenes.

Let's start with the Acting Personnel Director. His name is Rob Sandella, he has 0 personnel experience. this is against city charter our city law which says you must have at least 5 years personnel experience. When mayor picard was first elected he terminated the employment of Marilyn FLores, she was a female, latino, labor lawyer with 10 years personnel experience and had a lot of respect from the people in city hall. He removed her and replaced her with Rob Sandella, a Democratic Town Committee member with 0 experience which is against city law. They call him Acting in order to circumvent the charter. But after 9 months in office they have never recruited for a new director. the Acting Personnel Director makes almost $59,000 per year. $59,000 for a no work job. Now that's patronage, croynism job if I've ever heard of one. so I think that's why a lot of this stuff is getting botched at city hall they don't have professional leaders, so now the mayor puts in Carol silverstien to investigate her own boss???? And then they also bring in Margaritee Showers the Homeland Security Director to investigate a personnel issue? Which while Im' on the subject of patronage, let me explain the Homeland Security story.

Also in his first week of office, Mayor Picard removed our Homeland Secruity Director Richard Fontana. Richard, I understand has a bachelors in firefighting, a masters in public health and has been teaching emergency preparedness for years. They remove him and put in ANOTHER democratic town committee member who has no fire, no police and no public health experience, all aspects of Homeland Security. hhhmmmmm I'm on a roll with this story because it is just so ridiculous that mayor Picard said in public he wuold hire the best and the brightest which sounds great in public, but is diong just the opposite.

Again, I'm a bit subjective, but all of this is available for confirmation through documetns. Our wonderful Freedom of Informatoin law gives you the opportunity to request any document that is public information. The resumes, the charter, the police complaint. All public documents.