It looks like the Safe City Ordinance wasn’t the only controversial matter on the Greenfield Town Council’s plate last Wednesday.
Late in the meeting, Mayor Bill Martin opened up the political Pandora’s Box of a legal skirmish between the town and GCET, the quasi-public agency responsible for implementing and administering Greenfield’s new municipal high-speed internet service.
The legal dispute centers around the town accountant’s decision to remove around $600 in interest payments from the GCET account, which General Manager Dan Kelly classified as “theft.” This argument has been percolating for close to a year, but came to a head when Kelly threatened legal action against the town in an internal email which someone leaked to Council President Brickett Allis.
There are still a lot of moving parts to this story, but the email and the corresponding public exchange with Martin ripped the scab off a political wound that has been festering for some time.
Though one of the most important projects of the Martin era, GCET’s establishment has long been a thorn in the side of the current council leadership, which has never been happy about handing over $5 million to an entity over which they have little to no oversight.
They also aren’t thrilled about the mayor’s decision to negotiate a contract to make Kelly, at $150,000, the town’s highest paid municipal employee, a move the council checked by trimming the contract back to $120,000 over two years. That lead to what Allis termed a “shakedown” by Kelly, where he allegedly threatened to leave unless he was compensated at a level consistent with current market rates.
There are also some questions as to GCET’s current financial “burn rate,” and it’s long-term financial viability, and whether the town will have to come through with more money in the future. Add it all up and you have a pretty sordid situation, the details of which have been documented by Council Vice President Isaac Mass in a letter to State Auditor Suzanne Bump, along with a request for the state to intervene.
What that may look like is anybody’s guess, but my feeling is we’ve just scratched the surface of what will likely be a major story moving forward.
So much for having a Republican in the Franklin County Beacon Hill delegation.
Second Franklin District State Rep. Susannah Whipps this week took the “R” out of her bio when she announced her intention to change her party affiliation from “Republican” to “unenrolled” — which she says better aligns her ideologically with a majority of her constituents.
“Serving as state representative while not affiliating with either major political party will allow me to more effectively utilize the relationships I have developed with the members and leadership on both sides of the aisle, and better serve all of the people of my district, without the obligation of towing any particular party line,” Whipps said in a statement released Monday.
Whipps also made it clear that she’s had enough of what she called the “unpalatable” two-party squabbling which is currently dominating political debate at the federal level.
“I often say that the federal government could look at Massachusetts as a model, in regards to the way our state government operates,” Whipps said. “That contrasts sharply with politics at the national level, where the once healthy, lively debate of issues has turned to almost constant partisan attacks.”
The big questions are how the change will affect Whipps’ committee assignments, and which party she will caucus with, if any. Beyond that, I love the move — as I do any which encourages independence from a two-party I believe is slowly killing our democracy.
Well played, representative.
Hopes of a western Massachusetts Beacon Hill budget dynasty have been somewhat dashed with the announcement that First Franklin District State Rep. Steve Kulik will not chair the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
Kulik was on a short list of potential successors to outgoing Ways and Means Chair Brian Dempsey, who left to become a lobbyist. Kulik was one of two western legislators on that list, but was largely considered a dark horse for the job, which, instead, will go to Boston Democrat Jeff Sanchez who most recently chaired the Health Care Financing Committee and the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health.
“He is a very good choice, especially with his expertise in the area of health care policy,” Kulik said.
“Health care represents 41 percent of the state budget, and we face a lot of uncertainty about what will come out of Washington in terms of changes to the Affordable Care Act,” he added.
Kulik will retain his position as Ways and Means Vice-Chair, which is good for him and the region. Still, it would have been nice to have him in that post at the same time Stan Rosenberg is holding the gavel as Senate president, especially during what will likely be increasingly uncertain budget times in the years ahead.
Chris Collins is the Franklin County News Bureau Chief for WHAI, WPVQ and WHMP Radio. He is a former staff reporter for The Recorder.