So, it looks like Mike Marketti was able to dig up the September 14, 2009 Town Council meeting in which Mrs. Beinema was appointed to the Board of Health, and he stitched it in with some footage of Wednesday’s Municipal Trainwreck. Enjoy:
Of course, as you know, I’m a big fan of having access to the whole story, by which I mean, of course, the whole meeting video. On that note, here’s the video from this past Wednesday:
FYI, there is no music at the beginning of this meeting, but the sound is otherwise fine. Also, it may take a few seconds before the video pops up.
As it happens, I also have the full video for the September 14, 2009 Town Council meeting, in which Mrs. Beinema was first appointed to the Board of Health:
As you can see at 9:10, as Councilor Clemence reads the EHS Subcommittee Minutes of 9/2/09, she states “Mr. Clark stated that the information requested by Mrs. Fenwick-Beinema had been received.”
At 10:15, Councilor Regis states (regarding Mrs. Fenwick-Beinema’s BoH appointment recommendation in the EHS meeting minutes) “On Agenda item #1, I Just think it’s important to include in here that we did request, um, the information that we had asked for from Mrs. Fenwick-Beinema, um, we did get, and um, but we did also request that once everything was submitted to Superior Court and actually filed and signed by Superior Court, that we asked that a copy of that be placed on file with the town.”
I know it’s totally possible for people to mis-speak, and maybe Councilor Regis didn’t mean to say what she said, but given that what she said at that meeting backs up what Councilor Clemence said, it *really* seems like someone somewhere is lying about something.
I hope everyone gets a chance to read Ken O’Brien’s take on the councilors signing of an affidavit against Ann Beinema. If true, the Sept 14, 2009 meeting proves perjury. Absolutely brilliant Ken!
Gosh I am so confused! I guess I need Councilor Regis's moral GPS to find my way around all the confusion. Could anyone possibly be so obtuse and live? This video so clearly shows what a trap these fools made for themselves.
I'm brand new to all this southbridge politics drama so forgive me but, WTF!!!!!! how can they move forward with this knowing they will face a lawsuit that WE will have to pay for, when it's on video smacking us all in the face?????? this is nuts……i guess i'm supposed to say peanuts!!
Hi Dan and welcome to Southbridge. The problem we have here is that the only significant source of new revenue available to the town comes from the landfill expansion. Proposition 2 1/2 limits how much the town can raise from property taxes each year and the town budget is growing faster than the real estate tax base. The town manager is reluctant to cut the town budget because that involves tough choices he doesn't want to make. So, anything that threatens landfill revenue is a threat that has to be dealt with. The cost of defending the town in court is small compared to the money we get from Casella so I think this is a gamble the town manager is willing to make.
here's an idea……get rid of the welfare office, stop building low income housing attracting more folks who come along with them with their hands out but don't contribute to the town in any way. make it inviting for businesses to open up shop here in town (anything other than yet another bar) and revenue would quickly generate. help us clean up our neighborhood that was hit by the tornado since it is the first neighborhood people see when they arrive in town from worcester street north, instead of acting like we are the ugly step child who can be hidden in the corner ("move along folks, nothing to see here"). and just to be sarcastic here, put up a toll in our neighborhood and collect money from all the damn tourists who continue to mozy on through and gawk and stare, get in our way yet can't roll their damn windows down and speak or even give us eye contact……..with the amount of traffic through here now, they would make a hefty amount for the town…..just sayin, but what do i know?
Dan, you know a lot more than a lot of people around town about how dysfunctional and flat-out broken our municipal leadership has become. You've lived through it.
Thanks for sitting through the video. I know it's not exactly the most fun thing to watch, but we all need to educate ourselves thoroughly if we ever hope to create any meaningful change.