On Brookline Reprise (3).
By Jim Conley • Jul 3rd, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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They say that, “snitches end up in ditches.” But in Brookline instead of eating dirt, our snitches are busy digging up dirt for developers. That’s what happened last week, when On Brookline got word that the Town’s Housing Director Fran Price was ratting out (the muzzled) plaintiffs in a lawsuit to lawyers for the Boston Archdiocese [see story].
This brings to mind the excellent series on Brookline’s whistleblower policy contributed by Archie Mazmanian.
Archie posits that local whistleblowers have been deterred by the feeble policy put in place by the Brookline Selectmen. That’s no doubt correct. Or it could be that town employees, like Price, are blowing the whistle on taxpayers to the cronies in the real estate trades.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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I have had no responses to my “Open Letters” to AG Coakley and to MA governmental employees covered by the Whistleblower statute. Perhaps an “Open Letter” to the Legislature should be forthcoming to let our State Senators and Representatives know about the lack of implementation of this statute they passed in 1993. The Legislature might consider making it more expensive (up to $500) for a governmental unit employer’s failure to comply with the statute. But it should be kept in mind that the Legislature and its component unit employers are not exempt from the statute. Query whether the Legislature and its component unit employers are in compliance with the Whistleblower statute? The Legislature may prefer the status quo. Who cares if the public might benefit from the enforcement of the statute? Whose money is involved, anyway? Why, it’s the public’s money!