It looks like Greenfield Mayor Bill Martin may have a tougher time getting a budget past this new Town Council than his appointees.
It wasn’t always that way. The previous “progressive” council rubber-stamped pretty much every spending plan put in front of them, while occasionally putting the kibosh on one of Martin’s appointees, usually for ideological reasons.
A living, breathing example is current council Vice President Isaac Mass, who, had the council gone along, would be sitting on the Planning Board right about now rather than taking the Ginsu to Martin’s capital and operating budgets the way he did this past year.
Mass’ “budget-hawkery” was such that it led one exasperated town official to exclaim, off-air, at the height of the spring budget season that the former council “should have let him have the damn Planning Board seat when they had the chance.”
Alas, they didn’t, and the rest is history. But what also appears to be history is the previous council’s practice of “vetting” mayoral appointees, as evidenced by that body’s recent approval of Rod Hart’s appointment to the Human Rights Commission.
Hart, of course, was one of the people at the center of this past winter’s controversy surrounding Greenfield Police Detective Sgt. Dan McCarthy’s decision to hang a Confederate flag in his Shelburne Road garage, within viewing distance of Hart’s home and, more importantly, his adopted, African-American son.
The council’s vote on the Hart appointment was technically 6-5 against — three votes short of the nine needed to block — and came after a protracted debate over what some view as anti-religious images on Hart’s Facebook page.
Precinct 4 Councilor Wanda Muzyka-Pyfrom questioned whether the council should ratify an appointee who displayed such images just one month after passing an anti-hate resolution written in response to a series of racist email photos of At-Large Councilor Penny Ricketts.
Apt as Muzyka-Pyfrom’s point may have been, I believe the council was asking the wrong question.
I tend to agree with those who questioned the relevance of what an appointee posts on social media, and if that is going to be a standard, it should apply to everyone. However, Hart is no ordinary appointee. He is one of the protagonists in a hugely controversial incident, which is still on the commission’s plate, even though its new chairman desperately wants to see it removed.
I don’t know if Hart still has an ax to grind or not on that issue, but if he does, that would seem to me to be information the council would like to have had before taking a final vote. But Hart never appeared before the council’s Appointments and Ordinances Committee or the full council, which used to be standard operating procedure under the previous council. I know I had to do it when I was appointed to the Greenfield Community TV board of directors almost two years ago.
Ricketts pointed out, in Hart’s defense, that a lot of other appointees also didn’t go before the appointments committee. Fellow At-Large Member Karen Renaud made the strong argument that it’s a mistake for the council to vet mayoral appointees, bristling at Precinct 1 Councilor Verne Sund’s revelation that some of his “veteran friends” in Northampton, where Hart teaches school, heard him denigrate the town. Renaud dismissed it as “hearsay” which should have no bearing on the appointment.
The two guys whose opinions seem to matter the most here are Martin, and new Human Rights Commission Chair Phillipe Simon, both of whom feel Hart is right for the post.
“When I studied the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it said people have the right to profess their opinion, their religion and their beliefs,” Simon told the Recorder. “There is nothing inconsistent with human rights with someone expressing how they feel about religion.”
Simon also doesn’t believe having Hart will be a distraction, but says he will be held to the same standards as everyone else on that board.
“All commissioners will be expected to have a good working relationship with all town departments, including the police,” Simon said. “Being outspoken is a skill that I would like to see developed as a tool to serve the town’s needs, so I thought (Hart) was a good appointment in that respect.”
As for Martin, it does not appear Hart’s connection to the McCarthy flag issue factored at all into the decision to appoint him.
“He’s a citizen, he’s got a brain and he has some experience, he’s educated and he’s motivated, so we’ll see how the Human Rights Commission deals with all of their topics,” Martin said.
Yes, we will, and I just hope Martin doesn’t wind up regretting his choice when that day does come.
Chris Collins, who worked in local radio in a number of capacities, has observed political life in Franklin County for years. He also is a former Recorder reporter and a Greenfield native.