Bob Mitchells letters to TGN and Gov Patrick

To: Templeton watch, I sent the following letter to the editor with the statement below in hopes they might print it in a timely manner since I have not seen it yet and expect we may not see it in the Gardner news. I am sending it to you. Thanks for all the community service. Bob

To the Gardner news,

I am sending you this letter and hope it will be printed within two days as I would like to see it in black and white before it hits the internet as I have not yet posted it there. I will call you to check on the status of this as I believe your ability to respond in a timely manner is vital to the future success of print media and the people you employ. The below (without closing & signature) is exactly 1000words and I am in hopes you will appreciate my efforts
to work within the confines of your media.

To the editor,

I am in hopes you will allow me to explain to the citizens of Templeton why I did not turn in nomination papers for selectman. Though many in Templeton may understand about splitting the vote, I will take the time to put it down in black and white. Come May Templeton voters are going to have a choice to vote for open, honest, civil and representative government, or the status quo, which I do not believe is any of the aforementioned. It was an easy decision not to split the vote for civil and open government.

Having explained that I would like to let your readers know that isn’t on the internet that I filed two conflict of interest complaints with the Ethics Commission and an open meeting law violation with the Attorney General’s office. Needless to say I as somewhat dismayed when the Attorney General’s office said it would take thirty days to do anything meaningful and the Ethics Commission sent me a letter marked ‘CONFIDENTIAL” that has me steaming. Therefore, I sent (registered mail) the following letter to the governor that I consider an open and public document and I am in hopes that statement allows you to print it.

To: Governor Duval,

Enclosed is documentation that has been sent and received by registered mail to our state ethics commission and the Attorney General’s office. I certainly hope you will take an interest in how well your administration and our state government are working for us out here in central Mass. While I understand that you do not control the attorney general I do believe the ethics commission may be under your influence and wonder if you could get them to enforce their own mandate 268: 29. It appears that this mandate was established so towns like Templeton would not have to go through the kind of turmoil created by the unethical behaviors indicated in the complaint/violations.

Attached to this letter is a February 29, 2012 copy of the local paper which indicates the need for expediency on this issue. On the top right hand side you will see Mr. Mullins (Involved in the complaint /violation) has resigned in Winchendon for what most folks in Templeton now believe to be some very unethical actions to say the least. Midway down on the left side you will see the article Chief: FBI had “urgent concerns” over alleged threats”. I think there is a major concern when there are “alleged” threats at a supposedly open meeting and hope you will ask the ethics commission and attorney general to investigate this situation forthwith.

Below that in order is the letter to the Attorney General’s office and the two ethics complaints at the ethics commission and their response. It is the response and the phone conversation with the Attorney General’s office that has me asking you to review this situation as it is your administration we expect to make sure our state officers and commissions work for the citizens of this state.

Please note that the response from the Ethics Commission is stamped confidential and I am asking your office to find out why this is so as soon as possible. I believe that citizens should know what response they can expect from their commission and do not intend to keep it confidential long without a rational and substantive directive from your office to do so. I am also concerned with the conversation with the Attorney general’s office when I was told their hands were tied on the open meeting law violation for thirty days as this certainly does not address the fact that the consequences and ramifications of these violations begin immediately after they occur and tend to become worse with each passing day.

Please note: I do not consider this a confidential correspondence and will be sending it to the papers. It will also surely make it on the Templeton web sites www.thetruthisouttheretempleton.com or http://templetonwatch.blogspot.com where you can find more facts and most of the information and videos that were sent to these offices.

While I am not happy with the response in investigating I am happy with the ethics commission response (5 days) to my FOIA request for the list of towns in compliance with 268: 29, although I find the results of that information dismaying as it provided the following results. The legal counsel (Kopleman and Paige) representing 117of 341 cities and towns in the commonwealth and a significant cause and participant in the issues of Templeton, only had 57 of the cities and towns they represent in compliance with 268:29, and Winchendon and Templeton are not one of them. I think that speaks volumes as to why you should act expediently as we cannot and will not have open and civil government until we rectify the unethical behavior that prohibits it.

I do not believe there is any greater service that a Governor can perform for the citizens than to make our state and local governments more ethical, open and civil and certainly hope you will endeavor to make this a part of your legacy.

I then signed it, and can only hope the Governor realizes, that there are a lot of votes in between Boston and Springfield, and that folks all over central mass will be interested in how well their state government is working for them. I am also hoping that folks on the internet or listening to NPR that heard Massachusetts was among the 10 least corrupt states, will recall the last three speakers of the House of Representatives and the skullduggery in Templeton, and can be assured they did not contact or consult me in their survey. For this reason I am going to start a grass roots group “Citizens for Templeton” to counter the cliques, clubs, coordinator, committee or just general cussedness that seems to be running our local government and will work towards making our local government civil enough for those with greater skills that I to participate.

Sincerely Yours