Barney Frank Told Us So…Again.
By Jim Conley • Sep 6th, 2008 • Category: News and UpdatesUpdated: September 6th at 8:07 PM
Remember back in July when Rep. Barney Frank told the Boston Globe that the mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were “not in danger of going under.” And that, “their prospects going forward are very solid.”
Remember that?
Guess it depends on your definition of solid. Because today it has been announced that the two companies will be placed under federal control.
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Next Week…
By Jim Conley • Sep 3rd, 2008 • Category: News and UpdatesI’m wrapping up a special report on the matter of a lawsuit (alleging negligence on the part of Brookline school officials) filed by the family in the sexual abuse case of former Brookline High School music teacher Geoffrey Hicks.
Relying on interviews, court documents and information obtained through a public records law request, the story is age old - a thirteen year old girl is preyed upon and victimized (throughout her tenure at BHS) by a person of trust. The school community rallies (subtly) around the abuser. And no sympathy at the schools leads to no mercy on the part of the Town’s lawyers while litigating this $2 million lawsuit.
The case was settled for $150 thousand. Which may be the worst offense of all.
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Brookline Confidential.
By Jim Conley • Sep 1st, 2008 • Category: News and UpdatesThis is weird.
Upon my return from two weeks in the Maine wilderness, I came across this missive from the Massachusetts Ethics Commission in response to the complaint I filed concerning the apparent conflict of interest found by appointing local attorney Ken Kurnos as a member to the Brookline Selectmen’s Sanctuary Committee. Kurnos is also a direct abutter to a property which the Committee says it wants to take by eminent domain.
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No Place to Build Affordable Housing?
By Jim Conley • Aug 31st, 2008 • Category: News and UpdatesI suppose that if your view of public affairs in Brookline is one where Nancy Daly makes sense, you’re not going to do the work to adequately inform the public. Because the idea that there is nowhere to build housing (affordable or otherwise) in Brookline is flat wrong.
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Not to Say I Told You So…
By Jim Conley • Aug 14th, 2008 • Category: News and UpdatesThe TAB has a story up saying that foreign buyers are snatching up property in Brookline thanks to a weak dollar and declining real estate prices. Here’s a post I wrote in October of 2007 saying that this is bound to happen.
I’m not that smart, and I can figure these things out.
Trust me when I say that our town government’s failure to manage its finances without going to the taxpayer well is going to have a damaging effect on Brookline’s microeconomy. I’ll be anxious to hear from the so-called fiscal conservatives —operating as “Yes for Brookline”—who pushed for a Proposition 2.5 override when that happens.
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Nothingburger for $35 Thousand.
By Jim Conley • Aug 11th, 2008 • Category: News and UpdatesLooks like the “special counsel”—Worcester attorney DM Moschos—handling the Brookline Selectmen’s case before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (in the Arthur Conquest matter) has some unhappy clients — selectmen in the tiny town of Ashburnham.
Seems that Moschos has fallen short of expectations in his area of concentration — employment law.
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Missing the Point.
By Jim Conley • Aug 7th, 2008 • Category: News and UpdatesThe TAB’s front page story on the Citizen’s Police Complaint Review Committee [no link available] rather misses the point on the nature of citizen’s involvement with the process. This, because it features the insufferable Martin Rosenthal as providing the Committee’s view.
The need raised by this site is for the Committee to better understand the current process from the perspective of those who have experienced it as complainants.
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Spooner Road Decision Affirms Town’s Zoning By-law.
By Jim Conley • Aug 4th, 2008 • Category: Campaigns, News and UpdatesThe Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has affirmed Brookline’s Zoning By-law where it concerns the manner under which attic space is included in calculations of appropriate building size.
The Court has affirmed the decision of the Land Court, which essentially held that restrictions on the bulk of buildings relative to their lot size are not restrictions (if incidental) on the internal area of a residence; in this case the private development at 81 Spooner Road.
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But Not So Grateful That We’ll Buy You New Furniture.
By Jim Conley • Jul 31st, 2008 • Category: News and UpdatesOh, yes you could be more grateful. The fact is that our firefighters are persona non grata in Brookline town government. They have been left to fend for themselves while the selectmen add unnecessary positions to the town payroll and spend $700 thousand on new furniture at town hall.
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Boob Tube.
By Jim Conley • Jul 30th, 2008 • Category: News and UpdatesThere was a bizarre moment during Monday’s Citizen (we might as well drop that from the name) Complaint Review Committee as the train wreck landed on the subject of using You Tube as a public education tool. At least two members said that, “they had never watched it.”
One of them, Martin (Grandpa PAX) Rosenthal, was emphatic in making the point, as if his bona fides as a Luddite were at stake.
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Gatehouse or Bleak House (2).
By Jim Conley • Jul 29th, 2008 • Category: News and UpdatesThe financial picture continues to worsen for Gatehouse Media, the holding company which owns the Brookine TAB. Moody’s Investment Service has downgraded the company’s credit rating to near default and its stock continues to freefall.
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A Mad Cow Rodeo.
By Jim Conley • Jul 28th, 2008 • Category: News and UpdatesI’m fresh back from a meeting of the panel reviewing police complaint procedures and I think my head is going to explode.
I’ll have a column on it next week, but it’s clear that (from a citizen’s perspective) this panel is a sop to the police. I’ve only missed one of these events, and each is the same — indulging Police Chief Daniel O’Leary ad nauseum.
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Talk About Rising from the Ashes.
By Jim Conley • Jul 28th, 2008 • Category: News and UpdatesOn Thursday night, the Brookline Planning Board will begin hearings on a condominium project at 109-115 Sewall Avenue — the site of a suspicious house fire last March. The project’s developer, Jeffrey Feuerman of Chestnut Hill, will ask the Board for several variances to Brookline’s Zoning By-law.
Neighbors in the area are concerned over the proposed project’s scale (it’s too big) and will ask the Board to rein it in consistent with the Bylaw’s existing provisions — good luck with that.
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You’ve Been Warned.
By Jim Conley • Jul 28th, 2008 • Category: News and UpdatesIt’s confusing to some readers that this site pursues reforms in town government but appears to give the fire department a pass. It’s a matter of semantics. There are reforms needed in the department, beginning with appointing a chief who is less hackneyed.
This site’s concern is for the treatment of firefighters by a town government which is outright hostile to their needs.
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That Was Some Minor Glitch.
By Jim Conley • Jul 24th, 2008 • Category: News and UpdatesThe TAB has a front pager on the 2.5 hour delay in getting the Brookline fire Department at the scene of last month’s oil leak into the Muddy River.
[Click on "read full post" to view the official memorandum referenced in the TAB article.]
The story also confirms why it’s useless to interview town officials on any of their many failures. Just press play to hear the same message over and over — our screw up was actually a stunning success…the sure sign of people in way over their heads.
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