Update from the Bunker.
By Jim Conley • Sep 25th, 2008 • Category: News and Updates, The Allen FilesI’ve been able to negotiate a deal out of this financial crisis which will allow us to purchase the remaining half of the pile above; but to pay as if the whole pile were being purchased.
I call this approach Frankonomics, and it’s all the rage.
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Guest Column: Systemic Accountability (Part 2).
By Archie Mazmanian • Jun 2nd, 2008 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Override Ballot, Previous Columns, The Allen FilesThe ultimate question is, how can Brookline residents be assured that our Selectmen have duly and truly accounted for the Town Administrator’s performance if the Boards evaluations rendered pursuant to Section XI are not available to the public?
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It’s a $25 Million Renovation Project.
By Jim Conley • Jun 1st, 2008 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, News and Updates, Robert Allen, Town FinancesThere they go again. In all the nonsense over having $700 thousand left over for office furniture from the town hall renovation, the flunkies in the town administration want us to believe that they’ll have only spent $14 million on the gut and build out.
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Cardinal O’Malley Comes Calling.
By Jim Conley • May 26th, 2008 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Nancy Daly, Previous Columns, Robert Allen, St. Aidan'sI hope that the Cardinal has healing in mind for his Wednesday visit. I hope he speaks to neighbors so that he can hear first hand of the toll this project has taken on them. I hope he asks his development team why the buildings are not being draped to prevent the release of asbestos and lead from window caulkings (pictured left, click to view) when they agreed to this as part of the lawsuit settlement.
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The Reckoning.
By Jim Conley • May 22nd, 2008 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Override Ballot, Politics, Previous Columns, Schools, The Allen FilesThere’s a reckoning coming, a swift and painful collapse at the foundation of our public institutions. A reckoning that will put to the lie the town hall propaganda of Brookline as “Massachusetts’ best run community.” A reckoning that will show the folly of placing our trust in a Board of Selectmen featuring four intellectually and ethically corrupted individuals (i.e., Allen, Daly, DeWitt and Mermell).
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The New Selflessness.
By Jim Conley • May 19th, 2008 • Category: Brookline Advisory Committee, Brookline Selectmen, Jesse Mermell, Nancy Daly, Override Ballot, Previous Columns, Robert Allen, St. Aidan's, The Allen FilesI’ll tell you what’s selfish - it’s school administrators and teachers whipping parents into a state of fear so as to vote them a pay raise. It’s the selectmen and the school committee unwilling to manage their $200 and $70 million budgets, respectively, in a way that avoids a tax increase on the elderly, who now get to choose between winter heat and paying their property tax bill.
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Brookline Does a Flashdance.
By Jim Conley • May 15th, 2008 • Category: Betsy DeWitt, Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Selectmen, Gil Hoy, Jesse Mermell, Nancy Daly, Police, Previous Columns, Robert Allen, The Allen FilesWait a minute. Don’t voters have the right to know of Hoy’s traffic transgression before the election? Sure. But Hoy is also due that the charges be aired by more reliable sources than his opponent and her two campaign chairs (Selectmen Bobby Allen and Jesse Mermell). Voters also have the right to know that these three “colleagues” were likely lying when they said that they had first heard of the badge flash from Hoy himself.
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Blowback (3).
By Jim Conley • May 6th, 2008 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Gil Hoy, Nancy Daly, Politics, Robert AllenAs voters go to the polls today, it’s not too early to put up the first postscript to the recent campaign for Brookline Selectman — everything is on the table.
With the hit job on Gil Hoy appearing in Thursday’s TAB; and with that serving as the reason for their endorsement of Nancy with an Asterisk [...]
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On Brookline Selectman Nancy Daly.
By Jim Conley • May 5th, 2008 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Brookline Zoning, Campaigns, Gil Hoy, Jesse Mermell, Nancy Daly, Politics, Robert Allen, St. Aidan'sOh, where to begin.
If, after reading this site, for even the shortest period of time a voter is confused on the merits of re-electing Nancy Daly to the Brookline Board of Selectmen, let me put it to you this way — there are none.
Nancy Daly is nothing if not contemptuous of the public interest. [...]
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Hypocrisy Is So Hip.
By Jim Conley • May 2nd, 2008 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Campaigns, Goldberg Follies, Nancy Daly, Override Ballot, Politics, Robert AllenI updated a previous post with this material, but I don’t want it to be missed.
Readers will recall that the last time the TAB addressed the issue of selectmen flashing badges, (as they did in yesterday’s front pager on Gil Hoy) it was when they passed over former Selectman Deborah Goldberg for Lieutenant Governor on [...]
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Blowback.
By Jim Conley • May 1st, 2008 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Campaigns, Gil Hoy, Jesse Mermell, Nancy Daly, Politics, Robert AllenMy ear is bleeding from being on the phone all day on this TAB political hit job [see post below].
Seems to me that the paper has really stepped in it. You just can’t run a story like this a few days before an election. Especially when the sources are a candidate (Nancy with [...]
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Hack Attack — Condition Red
By Jim Conley • May 1st, 2008 • Category: Betsy DeWitt, Brookline Selectmen, Campaigns, Gil Hoy, Police, Politics, Robert Allen, The Allen FilesI’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 [...]
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Character Watch.
By Jim Conley • Apr 13th, 2008 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Nancy Daly, Politics, Robert Allen, St. Aidan's, The Allen FilesThe Globe’s City Weekly section takes a run at political analysis in today’s issue. And let’s just say they’d better stick to re-purposing press releases from Brookline Town Hall.
Beyond not knowing the proper spelling of the saint (Aidan) whose name graces a demolition project wreaking havoc in North Brookline, the Globe thinks that the [...]
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Truth in Advertising.
By Jim Conley • Apr 11th, 2008 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Nancy Daly, Override Ballot, Robert Allen, Town FinancesWhether or not a proposition 2.5 override ballot bailout passes on May 6th, it’s hard to miss the fact that the current town hall team is not up to handling the people’s business. They have only one arrow in the quiver - raise taxes.
This is not a surprise.
We have no meaningful audit function in Brookline. [...]
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Happens All the Time.
By Jim Conley • Apr 9th, 2008 • Category: Asbestos, Brookline Selectmen, Robert Allen, St. Aidan'sLast Monday, during the St. Aidan’s PR spectacle put on by the Town and the Boston Archdiocese, Brookline Selectman Bobby Allen treated the crowd with this analytic pearl: “We demolish buildings in Brookline all the time” (implying that the St. Aidan’s demolition—and its asbestos abatement—is no big deal).
Well, if your view is bucolic South Brookline [...]
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