Hack Attack — Condition Red
By Jim Conley • May 1st, 2008 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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I’ll bet this is going to be talked about for some time. A few days before a local election, the TAB runs a story saying that last September Gil Hoy was “forced out” as chair of the Brookline Board of Selectmen.
Of course he was. Who didn’t know that?
It was clear at the time that Hoy had lost the confidence of board members and stepped down. But what’s instructive is the period that led up to the resignation. Throughout the weekend before he quit, Hoy was the subject of a rather vicious smear campaign orchestrated by one of the colleagues featured in the TAB story. I wouldn’t dignify the rumors that were spreading by repeating them and neither would the TAB, at the time.
Hoy was a target of the more despicable elements of town government because he was making noise over reforming the Zoning Board of Appeals, as well as other profit centers for the cronies of certain political figures.
When Hoy resigned, Town Administrator Richard Kelliher and Police Chief Dan O’Leary said that Hoy had been, “in contact with Boston Police.” Turns out, according to Hoy, that he received a moving violation. Why didn’t O’Leary say that at the time? Why suggest that it was something more? Because he’s a hack who knows where his bread gets buttered.
The story has Selectman Bobby Allen saying that Hoy flashed his police commissioner’s badge during the stop (I thought those no longer existed). How does Allen know that? From the results of O’Leary’s clandestine investigation into the matter? From police officers at the scene? No, he says Hoy told him.
And the two other dim bulbs who make up Allen’s coalition on the board — Selectmen Nancy Daly and Jesse Mermell — vouch for his account. Then, based on “credibility issues” with Hoy, the TAB endorses Daly for re-election.
Please God, take me now.
Despite its flaws, the TAB story confirms what I’ve thought for some time — Selectman Betsy DeWitt has gone over to the dark side. It was probably over the treatment her husband received when Selectman Bobby Allen tried to boot him from the Brookline Preservation Commission. Bullying does work (on some people).
Let’s call the TAB story what is — another hit job by the really creepy people in town government. I mean, really creepy.
Update: My how things change. Apparently, the genesis for today’s story is outrage by Hoy’s colleagues over his suggestion that he resigned as board chairman. When asked at the time about Hoy’s stepping down, Selectman Jesse Mermell told the TAB that Hoy’s resignation letter “speaks for itself.” What’s changed?
Update (2): Remember, Hoy taking the chairmanship was something of a surprise. The developer community needs a reliable tool chairing that board. Allen was damaged goods and Mermell was only recently elected. So that left Daly. But when word got out that she might chair, it was met with widespread disapproval — and for good reason. Hoy was in, but hanging by the thinnest of threads. And when the rumors began to swirl, he was a goner.
Update (3): In case you missed it, Allen and Mermell are co-chairs of Daly’s re-election campaign. Creepy. Really creepy.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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“NANCY DALY*”
In endorsing Nancy Daly for reelection (a la Barry Bonds for major league baseball records purposes) the Brookline TAB may have stigmatized Daly even though she has not set much of a record even by Brookline standards. Will the TAB’s asterisk follow her political career in Brookline? Or, if she is unsuccessful, might the TAB’s asterisk follow her if, after waiting a year, she jumps into the legal pool of former Selectmen-attorneys competing for what seem to be lucrative legal fees? The TAB’s asterisked endorsement may be comparable to damning with faint praise.
Good one; almost all of that was new information for me. It also makes me see more clearly how naive I’ve been in the past.
Re: Update (3)
Dick Benka would seem to be a potential challenger of the status quo if he is elected on May 6th. Since Mermell, Allen and Daly are joined at the hips, politically speaking, perhaps voters concerned with the status quo tending to vote for Benka might consider Hoy instead of Daly as Hoy has on occasion gone against the grain on the Board, particularly with the Conquest May 24th Town Hall Brawl and the eventual shake-up of the ZBA. (I don’t think too many in Town were displeased with the mass ZBA resignations.) With potentially Benka and Hoy going against the status quo grain (groan?) of Allen and Mermell, Betsy DeWitt could become the swinger on the Board. So perhaps the TAB’s asterisked endorsement of Daly may be the kiss of death for her reelection.
Consider the TAB’s front page article today on Hoy’s resignation as Chair of the Board several months ago, suggesting that the other four Selectmen ganged up on him to resign. Harken back to the days of yesteryear when then Selectman Michael Sher brought to light certain matters concerning the Town’s beloved DPW as well as certain political machinations, resulting in the other four Selectmen (and most of the Town’s managers) ganging up on poor Michael and rewarding DPW Commissioner Tom DeMaio with indemnification funds to pay his attorney, a former Selectmen, $11 large. The irony in the Sher pile-on is that Gil Hoy fully participated. Then Hoy became a victim going against the grain of the rest of the Selectmen and the Town’s managers more recently. So perhaps Hoy has learned a lesson. But the bigger lesson is for Benka, especially if his campaign words are to come to fruition. Benka may need Hoy to buck the status quo. Then next year, the anti-status quoers can focus on Allen, assuming that DeWitt swings the right way in the meantime, to restore fiscal sensibility to our Town.
THIS IS NOT AN ENDORSEMENT FOR EITHER BENKA OR HOY, although it is a non-endoresement of Daly.