FW: The Facts - The BOS Executive Summary

[Barbara Murphy]

 

Just in case anyone is needing some clarification on the internal investigation that took place.    Attached is a copy of Attorney James Lampke's:   "EXECUTIVE SUMMARY REPORT ON INTERNAL AFFAIRS INVESTIGATION REGARDING ISSUES CONCERNING THE CONDUCT OF VARIOUS TOWN OFFICIALS AND TOWN PRACTICES AND POLICIES."    This report has been made public and more than confirms the legitimacy of the Board of Selectmen's recent investigation that has been reported in the press.    Please fell free to forward a copies so there can be an end to the misinformation that individuals have been permeating in Town regarding the Board of Selectmen's actions.    Thank you for your time.

[Neil Rossen]

For this stuff – essentially management issues – legal counsel had to be employed.?

 

A waste of town money on poor management. A reason why change is required.

[Langella, Tim]

Neil: I suggest you read the entire report. There were threats of legal actions against the town. If you're suggesting that our board of selectmen should not use lawyers when such threats are made, and instead should deal with the issues themselves, then I vehemently disagree. And if your candidate, Mr. Rooney, would try to tackle such issues without the advice of competent legal counsel, then I suggest that he would be far more detrimental to the interests of the town.

There isn't a responsible company in this commonwealth that wouldn't have sought legal counsel in the face of the threats and issues outlined in the report.

Tim







Timothy J. Langella | Member
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo, P.C.
One Financial Center | Boston, MA 02111
Direct: (617) 348 - 1845 | Fax: (617) 542-2241
E-mail: TJLan...@mintz.com
Web: www.mintz.com

---

From: southbo...@googlegroups.com <southbo...@googlegroups.com>
To: southbo...@googlegroups.com <southbo...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sat May 08 07:27:55 2010
Subject: RE: The Facts - The BOS Executive Summary

---

IRS CIRCULAR 230 NOTICE

In compliance with IRS requirements, we inform you that any U.S. tax
advice contained in this communication is not intended or written to be
used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding tax penalties or
in connection with marketing or promotional materials.



STATEMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY:
The information contained in this electronic message and any attachments
to this message are intended for the exclusive use of the addressee(s)
and may contain confidential or privileged information. If you are not
the intended recipient, or the person responsible for delivering the
e-mail to the intended recipient, be advised you have received this
message in error and that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing,
or copying is strictly prohibited. Please notify Mintz, Levin, Cohn,
Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo immediately at either (617) 542-6000 or at
Direct...@Mintz.com, and destroy all copies of this message and any
attachments. You will be reimbursed for reasonable costs incurred in
notifying us.

[Barbara Murphy]

Well said, Tim.

I agree completely.

 

Thank you.

 

Barbara

 

 

---

From: southbo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:southbo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Langella, Tim
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 7:53 AM
To: 'southbo...@googlegroups.com'
Subject: Re: The Facts - The BOS Executive Summary

[Neil Rossen]

So, we are then satisfied with the fact that Moran was appointed interim chief in the first place, and then confirmed after a costly competition was effective management by the BOS? The fact that legal counsel HAD to be employed suggests to me something wrong in the Town.

 

 

From: southbo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:southbo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Langella, Tim

Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 7:53 AM
To: 'southbo...@googlegroups.com'

[Al Hamilton]

Tim:

 

I don’t think that the 2 propositions are mutually exclusive. I agree that legal counsel should have been sought but I also think this would have been far better dealt with as an hr/management issue.

 

I don’t think that the current Board knows how to manage counsel. Admittedly this is not easy. They asked counsel what to do and counsel responded by taking out the legal tool kit and recommending that they use it. I don’t have a problem with this, Lawyers use Lawyers tools. The challenge as I see it is that there are other professionals with other toolkits that may well have been more effective, less disruptive and less expensive and they were not used.

 

I have spent most of my career working as a manager in medium sized companies and I have been aware of a few of these types of investigations they were for alleged transgressions far worse than anything the 4 employees were accused of.  I think this problem, if it even was one,  was a small nail that was sticking up that could have been fixed with a tack hammer and instead the BOS used a sledge.

 

I don’t think we have heard the last of this adventure and I suspect that before it is done the bill will be in the low 5 figures if we are lucky. If we are not it could be quite a bit more.  I keep coming back to the budgets we cut this year and thinking of what we could have done with this money and despair.

 

So, in my opinion, legal counsel should have been sought but the matter should have been dealt with as a management issue and legal counsel should have been advised that this was the clients desired approach and asked to assist under those rules of engagement. Instead, we lawyered up and I suspect that everybody lost.

 

From: southbo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:southbo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Langella, Tim

Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 7:53 AM
To: 'southbo...@googlegroups.com'

[Langella, Tim]

Neil, whether or not Jane Moran was appointed interim chief and then confirmed (or should have been confirmed) as chief is a completely different issue than what you posted below.  You said, "For this stuff – essentially management issues – legal counsel had to be employed.?A waste of town money ....."

 

 

You said that after we were presented with a 24 page detailed report, which started with the following summary:

It was appropriate and necessary for the Board to undertake a review of this situation. A key management employee had come forward and expressed concerns that the employee had observed certain conduct which raised issues of whether other employees, also being key management employees, had conducted themselves in a manner that was contrary to training Town employees had received a few short months before and could create a liability situation for the Town.

Underscoring the seriousness of the matter was the fact that the incident involved a key Department Head. In particular, aside from possibly adversely impacting the effective and orderly operation of one of the Town’s Departments that provides essential public service to the community, the Town was literally in the middle of the selection process for a key Department Head position. The situation was fraught with risk of, if in fact there had been inappropriate conduct, of tainting the selection process. If that had happened, not only would that have created liability to the Town, but it could have invalidated the selection process.

Members of the Board were also aware anecdotally of possible other incidents involving the way that the employee was treated.

I  don't know what world you live in, but in my world, people justifiably seek legal counsel when presented with situations like that.

 

 

And just so it's clear, I'm not writing here to declare which candidate I'm going to vote for on Monday.  In fact, I have not made up my mind yet.  I do, however, personally believe that trivializing serious issues into snippy little sound bites to further one's political and/or economic agenda is neither helpful nor conducive to serious discourse on issues that affect this Town.  I guess the 1st Amendment does protect an idiot's right to say the stupidest things and an asshole's right to say the most caustic things, but just because one has the right to do so doesn't make it right to do so.....And it certainly doesn't shed any substantive light on the serious issues we need to address in this town.

 

Tim

 

 

 

---

From: southbo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:southbo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Neil Rossen
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 8:53 AM
To: southbo...@googlegroups.com

[Roger Challen]

Tim,

I very much agree with you to the extent that the BOS should have "consulted" with counsel in the situation, because it is a delicate one, with some risk.  And, they should have stayed in close touch with HR counsel until it was resolved.  But, I would never do what they did, which in short is, turn a molehill into a mountain, by launching this huge investigatory process.  I hope you would agree.  If you read the report it is clear that, although this was a time of tension, grievances of the magnitude considered, which were very minor, occur all the time in every organization, and must have occurred many, many times per decade in our Town,  “I didn't get copied on an email.... I didn't get my laptop back after someone left.” My goodness…  Yet never have we had employees spending $15000 of their own money on lawyers to deal with what amounts to their doing nothing wrong."

I am very much hoping you will take a position to support John Rooney.  Unless you believe the present Board should continue as is.

Regards,

Roger

 

---

[Langella, Tim]

Al,

 

Thanks for your post.  My guess is that many people on this email chain have been involved in situations like this --- either as a manager, as an aggrieved employee, an accused employee, etc.  Given the history the town has had with the person who was clearly the employee/Department Head discussed in the report, I'm not sure I can Monday morning quarter-back the situation as readily as you, and I'll explain why below.

 

You write: "So, in my opinion, legal counsel should have been sought but the matter should have been dealt with as a management issue and legal counsel should have been advised that this was the clients desired approach and asked to assist under those rules of engagement. Instead, we lawyered up and I suspect that everybody lost."

 

When I read the report there appeared to me to be much more than just management issues to be dealt with -- so until the lawyer undertook the investigation and made an assessment of what happened/likely happened and whether and to what extent there could be liability to the town based on what occurred and what was said, how could any of the selectmen advise the lawyer to treat the situation as simply a management issue.  In other words, your conclusion assumes that the BOS knew ahead of time that the only issues were management issues, and not potential legal liabilities.  That's easy to do after you've read the report -- not so easy when you're in the thick of it.

 

Tim

---

From: southbo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:southbo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Al Hamilton
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 10:05 AM
To: southbo...@googlegroups.com

[Neil Rossen]

I will ignore the implied or should I say explicit insult you made in the last paragraph (“.  I guess the 1st Amendment does protect an idiot's right to say the stupidest things and an asshole's right to say the most caustic things, but just because one has the right to do so doesn't make it right to do so”)..... Frankly, Tim, I’m surprised at you.

[Barbara Murphy]

Tim,

I agree with you. There has been far too much Monday morning quarterbacking across the board. Quite frankly, it would have been far less of a mole hill than a mountain if the investigation had stayed secret til it was over than being discussed in the press and blogs after the leak of information that shouldn't have been leaked in the first place.

If you have also read my letter, I hope you can understand why I will be voting for Sal (who, along with the BOS did no wrong in this situation) and Andrew Mills in Monday's election...and I sincerely hope you will as well.

thanks for taking the time to read the report and responding with insightful comments.

 

Barbara

 

---

From: southbo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:southbo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Langella, Tim

Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 11:40 AM

[Langella, Tim]

Neil:  You've been dishing it out pretty regularly here, as have some others.  If you (generically speaking) give it,  you'd better be able to take it, too!

 

And I guess based on some of the things I've said today, you could put me in both the "idiot" and "asshole" categories!

 

But my point is still valid -- just because you can say something doesn't mean you should.  Insightful comments based on facts and/or analysis are much more informative and helpful than sound bites and snippets.

 

 

 

---

From: southbo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:southbo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Neil Rossen

Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 12:09 PM

[Langella, Tim]

Roger,

 

Thanks for your email.

 

I do agree the BOS was faced with a very delicate situation at the time.  I also agree that the "I didn't get copied on an email" and computer type issues in isolation are minor issues.  However, if you: a) know the history of the situation; b) look carefully at the other issues raised (i.e., demeaning and derogatory comments made by or in the presence of town officials, town employees, subordinates, and a competitor for a major department position);  c)  understand the heightened legal obligations of public officials; and d) understand the legal implications to the town if all things had gone wrong, I don't think you can say that the BOS was faced with simply minor issues....

 

On another note, I have to say that Al Hamilton raised some very important issues in an email the other day, which I've pasted below:

We have some big issues to face. We need to straighten out the state of our public buildings and determine which to keep and which to dispose of. We need to address our unsustainable employee benefits situation. We need to address the overall management structure of our municipal operations. We desperately need to find creative ways to use technology to improve productivity. We need to find ways to deliver services more efficiently. We need to find more effective ways to fully maintain town assets. We need to break down the barriers that exist between municipal departments and between town and school operations.

 

I for one think it would be very helpful if we could get some input from John and Sal on how they would address those issues.

 

Tim

---

From: southbo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:southbo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Roger Challen
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 11:39 AM

[Cfb...@aol.com]

Roger,

 

Could you forward the executive summary to me.

 

Thanks,

 

John Boiardi     cfb...@aol.com

[Susan Fitzgerald]

To any who are interested, you can find a copy of the executive summary in its entirety here: http://www.mysouthborough.com/2010/05/07/executive-summary-of-southborough-eight-investigation-released/.

-Susan

--
Susan Fitzgerald
www.mysouthborough.com

[Roger Challen]

 

FYI

 

From: John Rooney [mailto:jro...@melicklaw.com]

Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 12:09 PM

To: Roger Challen
Subject: RE: Executive Summary of the Internal Affairs Investigation released - Please forward

 

Roger,

 

Can you send this out to your email list.   I have posted it on Susan's website, and if you would be so kind to send it to the list, that would be great.

 

Thanks,

 

John.

 

 

 

Despite intimations and direct statements by my opponent about my actions, I have been an infrequent visitor to this site and I have never asked, encouraged or suggested that anyone express my thoughts or opinions through the use of their name or with anonymity. If I have something to say I will say it directly. And now, I do have something to say.

My disdain for politics is well known and the race between me and Sal exemplifies the reason so many good people never choose to participate. The focus should be on our differences and should not transcend into personal attacks that cut to the core. Our points of views and approaches to leadership are not the same, and you can either agree or disagree on the importance of those differences.

At the debates, I tried to focus on and point out the distinctions between the candidates, and certainly brought a focus on the past. But now it is time to focus on the differences with a forward looking perspective. It will do no good to go back and forth, again and again, over matters that occurred and can no longer be undone. There is an old saying: The more you run over a dead cat, the flatter it gets.

I hope we all agree on one very, very important thing, that we love this Town of Southborough. The healing needs to start and I would suggest it begin prior to a single vote being cast. Whether you support me or not, please do not lose sight of the big picture. Now is the time to focus on the future of Southborough. Please vote on May 10, 2010.

Thank you.
John Rooney

 

 

John F. Rooney, III
MELICK, PORTER & SHEA, LLP
28 State Street, 22nd Floor
Boston, MA  02109
(617) 523-6200 (main)
(617) 502-9620 (direct)
(617) 502-9720 (direct fax)
jro...@melicklaw.com
www.melicklaw.com
Boston, MA ~ Providence, RI ~ Waterbury, CT