Disfunctional Selectman Part Deux

[Michael Collins]

When I started the original blog about disfunctional Selectman, I was speaking of Bob Cohen, Mr. Transparency. Last Tuesday’s Selectmen meeting has brought forth another candidate that is now a serious contender for that title. It is the single issue candidate, “Bullwinkle” Bob Leclair, and his squirrely sidekick “Rocky” Neil Henderson.

At this meeting, it was like watching a play with pre-written and pre-rehearsed dialog with Bullwinkle, Rocky, Transparency and the sixth Selectman Patrick Moore, the handicapped Section 8 (a) company owner, who is a natural for the role of Boris. Missing was Boris’ sidekick Natasha - Paige Duncan. They were all trying for an Oscar or a Tony.

Bullwinkle has been criticizing town officials for at least 20 years, Remember his attacks against Elementary School, KP North, King Phillip, new wells, sewers, septic systems, stormwater systems, etc. etc. etc. When the school supporters somehow voted him into the office, his first act was to resign from the Clerk position because it was too onerous. Was he afraid that someone might criticize the critic? It is always easier to sit back and point fingers.

On Tuesday, he was back to his old tricks. He was trying to gather support to criticize the Board of Health for leaving the town vulnerable to EPA fines. If I remember, that Board tried to get a bylaw passed at two town meetings in 2008 to avoid that problem. Boris, Bullwinkle and Rocky were mainly responsible for killing it. Boris said that the bylaw was not needed because the Planning Board was already doing it. This was untrue -but lying is business as usual at the Planning Board.

In April 2009, I recall that I and others voted down Bullwinkle’s faultfinding article at Town Meeting. But now, just because it was sent to Cohen by sidekick Rocky, does it become a legitimate issue for wasting Selectmen’s time? During the meeting, Cohen tried several times to float the idea to appoint yet another committee to look into this. This would be the fourth committee on the subject. Did he forget that Leclair got the Town Meeting to dissolve the last committee? Boris was also willing to cooperate with any one, butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. But, for many months, he did not attend a single meeting of the third committee and then tried to get McFeeley in trouble for telling the truth about this. What has he been smoking?

Selectman Goddard said it best: “Mr. Chairman, this is looking like a set up, so that Leclair can present an infomercial against the BOH, and I resent that.”

[Mark Farinella]

Has anyone mentioned that the proper spelling of the word is "dysfunctional?"

[Michael Collins]

Thank you Mark. I am always ready to learn.

[Albert B Collins]

I believe you just did, Mark, and we all thank you for it.
Now it seems to me that the Wrentham Board of Health has at least as much autonomy as the Board of Selectmen in that they are both elected boards and are not "accountable" to anyone beyond the voters, the by-laws and MGL. The point is that LeClair as a selectman is only trying to whip up a crowd with is idiotic and amazingly uninformed statements - the BOH does not and should not explain itself to Mr. Transparency, Bullwinkle or any of his cronies, including the chief justice of the planning board Pat the Liar.
It is well known that these cartoon characters (LeClair and Henderson) have consistently belly-ached about decisions made by the town for years - and always after the fact. One of the gripes about the high school was that it wasn't built on state school land. Huh? True enough. It wasn't built in Uxbridge either. They are just two farts searching for "truth" with a lamp in broad daylight.
Cohen, a.k.a. Mr Transparency, on the other hand, is a different matter all together. I'm amazed the Board has not relieved him as chairman: signing a petition to abrogate speech, thinking Foxboro had a 1.5 million dollar surplus, wanting to bring back the override (sic) the day after the voters rejected it, and disciplining town emplyees without any authority or consensus from his own board! That jackass can only bring more lawsuits that we can't afford. Besides we all know whose whore he is.

[Michael Collins]

Wrentham Cable played the tape again and I a chance to watch it more carefully. The words that best describe Bullwinkle, Rocky, Boris and Mr. Transparency are gall and chutzpa.

Boris (Patrick) promises to attend meetings if a new committee is formed - will his past record of total non-attendence be erased? He and Rocky complain about the meager amount charged by Town Counsel to review the bylaw - I think it was about $2500, but Patrick is silent on how his firing of the previous Planner cost the town $75,000 to settle a wrongful discharge lawsuit. Rocky Henderson started his usual recitation of BS about how this was a learning moment. When asked, he said that he would not participate on committees or attend hearings where his ideas can help shape the issue. He made it clear that he wants to participate only as a stone thrower after the fact.

Bullwinke is crazy as a loon. He is a self promoter and creates an impression that he knows what he is talking about. I am not a technical person but I have asked others if they think he knows what he is talking about. The answer is a resounding NO.

The Selectmen and the Planning Board should start meeting on Saturday mornings when it is cartoon time on TV.

[Albert B Collins]

It seems to me that the Wrentham Board of Health has at least as much autonomy as the Board of Selectmen in that they are both elected boards and are not "accountable" to anyone beyond the voters, the by-laws and MGL. The point is that LeClair as a selectman is only trying to whip up a crowd with is idiotic and amazingly uninformed statements - the BOH does not and should not explain itself to Mr. Transparency, Bullwinkle or any of his cronies, including the chief justice of the planning board Pat the Liar.
It is well known that these cartoon characters (LeClair and Henderson) have consistently belly-ached about decisions made by the town for years - and always after the fact. One of the gripes about the high school was that it wasn't built on state school land. Huh? True enough. It wasn't built in Uxbridge either. They are just two farts searching for "truth" with a lamp in broad daylight.
Cohen, a.k.a. Mr Transparency, on the other hand, is a different matter all together. I'm amazed the Board has not relieved him as chairman: signing a petition to abrogate speech, thinking Foxboro had a 1.5 million dollar surplus, wanting to bring back the override (sic) the day after the voters rejected it, and disciplining town emplyees without any authority or consensus from his own board! That jackass can only bring more lawsuits that we can't afford. Besides we all know whose whore he is.

[Michael Collins]

At the Selectmen meeting of August 4, we saw another display of ignorance and mendacity by both Bullwinkle (Leclair) and Mr. Transparency (Cohen).

Any time the discussion takes a direction that Mr. Transparency does not like, he starts quotes unnamed experts that support his position. Steve Langley correctly called him on it and Mr. Transparency backed right off showing that he was lying when he was invoking these "experts". He also lied about how the planning board has never waived frontage and setback requirements. I think they did that in spades for their pal, Ken Dooley for his development on Chestnut Street.

Bullwinkle, the most politically-obsessed Selectman of the lot, kept calling everything discussed as "politics" meaning he did not agree with the discussion. Here is a man who finds truth so elusive that he had to make a Cable TV show to prove that fact.

By the way, why is the developers' attack dog Whiting Rice attending all Selectmen meetings and is given every opportunity to pontificate by Mr. Transparency? Is this Franklin resident the new nominee of the Capone/Cohen/Moore clique for McFeeley's job?

I repeat my previous comment that the Selectmen meetings be moved to Saturday morning when it is cartoon time on other channels.

[Pixilated]

Re: why is the developers' attack dog Whiting Rice attending all Selectmen meetings

I've heard he is the inside candidate when the Selectman's office reorganizes after one the secretaries leaves this month and Cohen goes to Town Meeting to ask for more money for the position so as to create an Assistant Town Manager position.

[Albert B Collins]

C. Whiting Rice is one of the all time great imposters. He thinks he is owed a living from the taxpayers and to anyone who dares to besmirch his repute - beware - he will sue: frivolously, mindlessly, verbosely and, in the end, pointlessly. He is a stick up artist without a mask who has a very particular sensitivity to how he is spoken to by town officials. If they don't prostrate themselves and genuflect, they will be sued.

Now it appears that fatso Cohen wants to shill him as the next town administrator while they try and fire McFeeley. Trust me you don't want this hairball touching anything in town. He is the ultimate slimebag who made a living whoring for developers. Now that there is no developer work, Cohen thinks we should take in this orphan. Sorry, the inn is full.

[Albert B Collins]

From:
Wrentham Zoning Board of Appeals
Minutes for May 10, 2006

The applicant also sought to add an additional unit to the proposed structure at 567 South Street. The applicant was present and was represented by C WHITING RICE. Chairman Seymour asked C. WHITING RICE if he were the C. WHITING RICE who signed the ZBA Decision on the January 21, 1980. Mr. RICE responded that he was a member of the Board that decided the case in January 1980. Seymour read from M.G.L. c.268A sec. 18(a), the conflict of interest law, that states that a former ZBA member who has participated in a previous decision cannot appear before the Board on an application for that same property. Seymour offered Mr. RICE a continuance to confer with his clients. After consultation Mr. RICE resigned as the applicants' representative and left the room.

...and there you have it - another stellar performance by C WHITING RICE.

[Michael Collins]

I can confirm the comments by "Best in show" about C. Whiting Rice. The Town Administrator posted the job vacated by Valerie Brownly, which was described as a Licensing Clerk's job, and then hired someone to fill the job opening. It seem that Mr. Transparency - Mr. Cohen, had a s**t fit because his plan was to put Whiting Rice in that spot. You can bet that this issue will not come up in an open Selectman meeting but might end up as another formal reprimand in the Town Administrator's personnel file.

Will the rest of the Selectmen get their act together and reorganize the Board so this clown sits, not in the center of the Board of Selectmen, but at the edge?