Open Meeting Counts, So Get it Right & By-Laws Changes at Onset Fire
After an absence and hoping someone else would step up and do it, I went to the combined Onset Fire, Water and Fire Station Building Committee Meeting today. The meeting was posted for 4:30 PM back on September 19th. As I arrived at 4:50 after making the school run and finding the three Prudential Committee members and their paid recording secretary in conversation and signing paperwork, I assumed that I was late and did not interrupt to announce filming. I didn't bring my camera and tripod because I was late. I was very surprised when Fire Chief Goodwin arrived at 5:00 PM and they announced they would open the meeting. What? Hadn't it opened at 4:30? No. They were "socializing said the Chair Pamela Pike," one of them on the clock. That must have been what was happening when Melissa Goodell described Pamela Pike as a "cougar" referring to her younger male partner.
There had been a Water Commissioners meeting scheduled for yesterday, September 25th, that had badly mistaken dates and when I noticed it I emailed the District objecting. It was posted by Frank Kowzic. That meeting was cancelled but the cancellation was not posted on the website only taped to the window, the agenda simply vanished. We pay two clerks well over $30.00 an hour in pay and benefits and required meeting notices are not correct. This is at least the fourth time that I personally noticed and I do not look very often these days.
Do you know that prior to my objections in 2016 the agenda was ONLY posted on the other side of town at Wareham Town Hall? Not on or at the District building. Never online because it was impossible. We've come a long way, aye?
So once the meeting did open, without the paid water commissioners, what went on?
The District got a $20,000.00 grant for radios, which is great. The three lots upon which the new station will sit must be legally combined. There is an engine getting painted.
More interestingly, the By-Laws committee, which never acknowledged my two written applications, is undertaking a change in the command structure of the fire department. This committee is largely comprised of lay people, not professional fire fighters. Why are they making these kinds of proposed changes? Since these are now appointed deputies, why is it even subject to by-laws? This is allowing committee member Fernandes to hold up filling a deputy position that the current, valid by-laws say WILL BE filled. What does the union say? The department is filling these shifts with volunteers and overtime. Ostensibly the District's lawyer was asked to opine on this failure to fill an open position despite applicants and interviews but has not yet done so. Any change must be approved at District meeting in May, and I hope they don't ask us to pay to hold a special meeting for it, which will be Thanksgiving week again and guaranteed to be badly attended? This is a big-corporation tactic, failing to fill positions to avoid paying a full timer pay and benefits; incredibly ironic since committee members and part-time clerks get FULL benefits!
This By-Laws committee apparently wields tremendous power but I did not see their previous meeting posted. There is apparently another meeting scheduled for October 2, 2019. I really hope that some of you will go as anything presented at District meeting is already a done deal.
The Fire Station Building consultant had not yet arrived when the chairman Pamela Pike called for a recess, and as my phone battery had given up, I decided not to wait. Since the building committee hadn't come to meet with him either, even though he was driving in from Boston, I figured it wasn't crucial.
Here's the unedited video (I don't know how to edit video).
Next issue: is there a proper use of Executive Session to conduct business secretly?
There had been a Water Commissioners meeting scheduled for yesterday, September 25th, that had badly mistaken dates and when I noticed it I emailed the District objecting. It was posted by Frank Kowzic. That meeting was cancelled but the cancellation was not posted on the website only taped to the window, the agenda simply vanished. We pay two clerks well over $30.00 an hour in pay and benefits and required meeting notices are not correct. This is at least the fourth time that I personally noticed and I do not look very often these days.
Do you know that prior to my objections in 2016 the agenda was ONLY posted on the other side of town at Wareham Town Hall? Not on or at the District building. Never online because it was impossible. We've come a long way, aye?
So once the meeting did open, without the paid water commissioners, what went on?
The District got a $20,000.00 grant for radios, which is great. The three lots upon which the new station will sit must be legally combined. There is an engine getting painted.
More interestingly, the By-Laws committee, which never acknowledged my two written applications, is undertaking a change in the command structure of the fire department. This committee is largely comprised of lay people, not professional fire fighters. Why are they making these kinds of proposed changes? Since these are now appointed deputies, why is it even subject to by-laws? This is allowing committee member Fernandes to hold up filling a deputy position that the current, valid by-laws say WILL BE filled. What does the union say? The department is filling these shifts with volunteers and overtime. Ostensibly the District's lawyer was asked to opine on this failure to fill an open position despite applicants and interviews but has not yet done so. Any change must be approved at District meeting in May, and I hope they don't ask us to pay to hold a special meeting for it, which will be Thanksgiving week again and guaranteed to be badly attended? This is a big-corporation tactic, failing to fill positions to avoid paying a full timer pay and benefits; incredibly ironic since committee members and part-time clerks get FULL benefits!
This By-Laws committee apparently wields tremendous power but I did not see their previous meeting posted. There is apparently another meeting scheduled for October 2, 2019. I really hope that some of you will go as anything presented at District meeting is already a done deal.
The Fire Station Building consultant had not yet arrived when the chairman Pamela Pike called for a recess, and as my phone battery had given up, I decided not to wait. Since the building committee hadn't come to meet with him either, even though he was driving in from Boston, I figured it wasn't crucial.
Here's the unedited video (I don't know how to edit video).
Next issue: is there a proper use of Executive Session to conduct business secretly?
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