Caamano
takes another crack at Templeton
In
July 11th edition of the Gardner News, “Senior News editor” Andres
Caamano takes another shot at Templeton in his OP-Ed column “Templeton
takes another crack at changing town counsel”. Why is this individual obsessed with
Templeton’s choice for town counsel? Is he a resident of Templeton? Did he
attend Monday night’s BOS meeting? Does he pay taxes in Templeton?
On
July 2, 2012 I submitted the following blog entitled Justice
League. Within this blog are links to the February, March and May legal
invoices for the Town of Templeton. Here is the link for the April
K&P invoice.
$5,097.55
February (2/16/12-2/28/12)
$7,417.47
March
$4,289.47
April
$7,986.67
May (only 2,900 left in line item)
?????
June….. take a guess before you click the link below…
With
Jeffrey Ritter as Town coordinator, I have every confidence the town of
Templeton will be able to stay within the budgeted line item for Town counsel
with our new law firm Deutsch, Williams, Brooks, Derensis & Holland.
In
my opinion I would strongly suggest that Mr. Caamano write about something
meaningful, like the Worcester
County Retirement System.
Well well well, proof is in pudding, way to control legal cost is not to call leagl (town counsel) every time a question comes up, to ba carol skelton did not understand this concept. To late for lenny to be responsible to Templeton. The only debacle mr caamanos is the failure of columbus wilder and mullins to do simple math. I have a matrix with expenses for legal and spending 10 grand in one month is not smart. The party your newspaper chose to support screwed up, period. I am a former employee of the gardner news, C. Gordon Bell would never allowed this to be, the one sided, pro skelton-columbus coverage to happen. $5,000.00 per month for general and another counsel labor would have been fine, except members of the select board decided to give carol skelton, what she and her husband failed to give to the taxpayers, every chance, benefit of doubt and a hearing, which was not required by law, not needed and way above what chapter 41, section 23C requires. Stupid stupid columbus wilder mullins for changing legal in the middle of the month. Sort of like caamanos stating inan article that there were hormones raging in Templeton when Julie Farrell spoke on and voted on an issue. In case caamanos has forgotten that line, I have it on file. Mead at 5 grand per month with other firms at labor and tax tile was good until columbus wilder mullins acted foolishly in February. You want a story Andres, come talk to me and look at the bills and the minutes, by-laws of Templeton. A settlement is a settlement and it is covered by the by-laws, approved by the Ag and len kopelman said it was not a settlement except when it came to the bill. The debacle is having you as a senior editor, newsreporter or any way involved in writing anything about Templeton without knowing the facts. Take me to court and lets get you len columbus skelton on the stand. Andres needs to stop taking direction from echo hill and otter river, you need to think about how long Templeton has to advertise through the gardner news and you need to think about honest reporting.
ReplyDeleteI wonder If Mr.Caamano has any understanding of how much damage he does when he writes incomplete, one sided stories. He may think it has hurt our standing in the Town of Templeton, but he is so wrong. Because of this blog, people have found another way to get the information they need. When the Gardner News goes down the tubes, Mrs Bell can only blame herself. She should have kicked you and your other buddy out long ago. If she has anything to do with how the paper is being run, well, the paper has not died, you guys killed it, and she did not try to stop you. I know I have tried to get your attention, tried to ask "if you have any pride in your work at all"? If you did have pride you would not have continued this shrade. The Citizens 4 Templeton, will continue to try to make the town we all love stronger and more efficient. So, you can support anyone you want, but do it on your time. It will all come out in the wash. Your credability is long gone. My opinion, and a proud member of the Citizens 4 Templeton. Bev.
DeleteThis article is one of the funniest things I've read that's trying to pass as actual news, I thought I was reading an excerpt from a fiction novel! Lowly reporter, did your teachers not teach you in Journalism 101 to check the facts? And report both sides? Honestly, I just don't know how any serious news editor outside of this area would read your work and ever consider you a professional journalist. Its really such a disservice to the community. This area of MA needs to be supportive of one another to help lift us all up and when a newspaper (the only game in town) does not carry out its mission to inform the community of facts and information, lets their personal bias cloud their obligations, it breaks apart the fabric that keeps us together. It is as if the respect for your profession has been lost. Or maybe you were never taught. So sad.
ReplyDeleteSo, does the public believe what they read in the newspaper? The comments from an attorney who has a very long list of negative testimonials and a paper trail that shows years of poor service? Or does the public believe what they read in alternative information sources (Pauly's blog, social media, word of mouth, witnessing in person, viewing recorded meetings)? Personally, I tend to go with my own research, whatever facts are made available, and what I witness in person.
And one more thing…attorneys are very competitive. They love to make their competition look bad. So, the public really should dismiss any comments that one attorney makes against the other. Its silly nonsense. Have you ever heard of an attorney speaking highly of someone that beat them out of a job? Saying the newly hired attorneys are in danger of being fired in other towns (making the competition look bad) really is a mute point as there are many other attorneys right now making the statement that Kopleman & Paige actually got fired from yet another town. Its a fact.
The first thing an attorney trying to win the belief of the public is to seek the widest audience for a response. Hmmm, how about a lowly small town news reporter who would jump at the chance to have an interview with a powerful player in the story that would get attention. An attorney knows how hungry newspaper reporters are for a story. An exclusive!! And the lowly reporter may think writing this article may make for a good portfolio piece down the road. So, the attorney gets to work giving his response as if he is in court speaking to a jury. Its simply natural for an attorney to react to accusations. Its how he makes a living. Without real facts in a case, an attorney would try different tactics in order to convince the jury to see the finger pointing at the other side. "I'm not the bad one. They're the bad ones." My opinion is that is exactly what's going on here. This attorney cannot respond with the truth, so he must get to work making the opposing side look worse and take the attention off of them. I just think its too late for this tactic. It would be nice if this law firm would simply walk away and leave this little rural town alone. If they have so many other towns as clients, then they really don't need Templeton's business. With one less client, they can give better service to their other existing clients. Please, go do a better job for them. Stop provoking animosity for no reason. Walk away with some dignity.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me like Mr.K. has a very unusual interest in our town. Maybe he needs to stay in control so the mistakes he has made in the past do not see the light of day. Good luck with that one. The good guy has to win once and a while. So why not us? I am lol, Bev.
DeleteI believe caamano is the one and same who authored a story about Jeff Ritter that was so full of holes it could have passed for swiss cheese. I believe he actually printed some words about it in a half hearted sort of kinda correction because he had goofed so badly. Just another example of poor one sided no fact check writing.
ReplyDeleteOh, you mean the article where he was reporting information on another Jeff Ritter? Almost forgot that one for a moment. Can't wait to see what fiction is written next because at this point, its more humorous than the comic strips in the back of the paper.
DeleteFact check for caamanos and the snews: A public records request by caamano to Templeton would have produced an expense report of all legal for fiscal year 2012/July 1, 2011 thru June 30, 2012. A look shows that end of March without the addition of kopelman charges, there was $19,727.50. So with Aprile, May & June to go, there would have been a surplus left in legal. So it seems the debacle was on columbus (that guy that the snews always printed his letters so quickly) wilder & mullins. February 21 - 28 February 2012 $5,097.55 plus the $5,000. paid to BBM. 10 grand in one month, followed by March bill of $7,417.47, April bill of $4,289.47, May bill of $7,986.67 for grand total of $24,770.16. four months K&P bill almost equal to 5 months bill of BBM. Lets count apples and oranges, 4 months at 5 grand per month general legal services with BBM, 20 thousand which leaves 5 grand left over for other such as labor. If one looks at the bills for February, march, April May, the labor costs were for on the most part spent getting rid of Jeff Ritter ( and here I thought he just resigned, 14 grand gone too) a call about town rehiring jeff Ritter, by myself, a couple calls about town planner being let go, told to punch clock etc, very little. Truth is there was/would have been funds to cover labor costs of a second firm, hence we would have been right on budget. Not the money savings I was interested in but if anyone remembers and it is on the blog sometime back, I stated we would see at the end of the year, the numbers would have told the story. Now if we did not have the lieing recall crowd, there would have been no labor costs associated with Jeff Ritter, a savings, no change of town counsel in mid stream, no double spending on legal with inflated bills to follow, another savings, no change mid stream of anything and the town would have had a smoother town meeting and most likely a shorter one. I guess doing this research would have taken too much time for caamanos. I actually did it as I wrote this, pulled files with the records on the desk, read added, subtracted and typed all at once. I would think a so called professional journalist could do it faster. He at least could have done it as well or better, just a little time, public records request and some reading, but what do you expect for 75 cents (cost of the snews)
ReplyDeleteMaybe someone should send his boss the facts and ask them to be printed.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with that one,lol, Bev.
DeleteAs the FB page "Let the people be Heard" states....no one from the audience in attendance at the meeting on July 9th spoke in favor of retaining K&P. The rationale VW and CS could come up with was their hourly rate was lower.
ReplyDeleteUse 252 Baldwinville rd as just one example of how K&P did not look out after the town of Templeton's best interest. No building inspection, no appraisal, no 21E performed on the property. One page settlement statement that doesn't even list the address of the property. The purchase price of $399,925 was higher than the ASSESSED value of $366,000 ( in 2007 before the real estate market crash ) These actions or inactions by our attorneys at K&P has cost this town a lot of money. NO ONE can make the claim that these actions were in the best interest of the Town of Templeton.
Just my opinions....based on FACTS.
Any doubt about Jeff Ritter being able to control legal costs while still ensuring things get done.....see June legal bill from K&P. Seems to show part of problem with high legal bills was the former town coordinator and interim coordinator carol skelton, Included is columbus, wilder mullins and recall crew who supported it, they ran up large un required legal bills as if they were trying to screw things up financially in Templeton. Why does it seem Templeton town employees are willing to come forward and talk about issues and put on the table so to speak, concerns, questions, gripes and seem to be glad just to be able to do this without fear of retribution, a big part of that answer is Jeff Ritter, he does not take sides with issues, he just deals with them and the June legal bill demonstrates that. What happened to Templeton 1st candidate columbus and wilder and mullins looking out for town employees and the taxpayers. As "on paper" facts show, they were all about going backwards rather than forward. Now that wilder and mullins face possible recall, they want to play nice and let by-gones be, at least in public, as they still report to echo hill after every meeting. Where is this comparison in the gardner news????
ReplyDelete