Brookline Does a Flashdance.
By Jim Conley • May 15th, 2008 • Category: Betsy DeWitt, Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Police, Brookline Selectmen, Brookline Town Government, Gil Hoy, Jesse Mermell, Nancy Daly, 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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Hack Attack — Condition Red
By Jim Conley • May 1st, 2008 • Category: Betsy DeWitt, Brookline Police, Brookline Politics, Brookline Selectmen, Brookline Town Government, Campaigns, Gil Hoy, 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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Pass the Kool Aid.
By Jim Conley • Apr 30th, 2008 • Category: Brookline Police, Brookline Town GovernmentSo, I’m sitting here at the public hearing of the police citizens review panel listening to the chair of the Town’s Human Resources Board Chairman Kenneth Kurnos going all Clarence Darrow on behlaf of Brookline Police Chief Daniel O’Leary — “the best police chief in the continental US.”
He’s looked into the chief’s soul and can [...]
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Absurdity Alert - Condition Red.
By Jim Conley • Apr 14th, 2008 • Category: Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline DPW, Brookline Police, Brookline Selectmen, Brookline Town GovernmentI think my head is going to explode.
Last Tuesday, the Brookline Selectmen appointed special counsel to represent them and other town officers in the matter of Arthur Conquest’s complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. (Can’t pay for teachers, but billable hours are another thing.)
And who did they hire? Why, our old friend [...]
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Counsel Me This (2).
By Jim Conley • Apr 14th, 2008 • Category: Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Police, Brookline Selectmen, Brookline Town GovernmentIt just gets worse.
Now, let me say that I am not 100 percent certain that the Patricia Correa whom the Brookline Selectmen will appoint as an associate town counsel tomorrow is the former AAG they tried to appoint to their police complaint review panel (more like 97 percent).
That said, they’ve completely lost it.
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Counsel Me This.
By Jim Conley • Apr 14th, 2008 • Category: Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Police, Brookline Selectmen, Brookline Town Government, Brookline Town MeetingThe web of town government malfeasance in the Arthur Conquest matter becomes more and more tangled. And judging from the reaction of those ensnared, we’re in for a nasty amount of wriggling.
Conquest has filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination stemming from his treatment at the hands of Broookline town government. [...]
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So Long, Laurie Partridge.
By Jim Conley • Apr 10th, 2008 • Category: Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Police, Brookline Selectmen, Brookline Town GovernmentI haven’t been this excited since I first saw Susan Dey play Laurie Partridge on my television screen (in Technicolor). Word out of last night’s meeting of the Citizen Police Complaint Panel has me giddy. Well, hopeful anyway.
I’m not sure that the direction in which this panel is heading is what (some of) the [...]
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Myth: There’s No Fat to Cut.
By Jim Conley • Apr 8th, 2008 • Category: Brookline DPW, Brookline Finances, Brookline Override, Brookline Police, Brookline Selectmen, Brookline Town Government, Myths of the OverrideIn a separate universe the idea that voters would have to bail out a town government—in a community of $14 billion valuation—to the tune of $6 million (or roughly 2.5 percent of operating revenue) would be the stuff of tragic comedy, not serious policy.
But here on Planet Brookline we’re treated to an epic display of [...]
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Brookline’s Race Problem (3).
By Jim Conley • Apr 7th, 2008 • Category: Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Police, Brookline Town GovernmentAs follow up to the post below, some question why an outside group (like a civil liberties union) would become involved in an incident where police handled themselves in a “rude and discourteous” manner. Except for the racial implications, this would seem to be one of many such cases across the Commonwealth.
But what happened [...]
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Brookline’s Race Problem (2).
By Jim Conley • Apr 6th, 2008 • Category: Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Police, Brookline Politics, Brookline Selectmen, Brookline Town Government, Nancy DalyWe’re fast approaching the one year anniversary of the May 24, 2007 Brawl at Town Hall, and we’re no further ahead in addressing civil rights in Brookline than we were the day police tried to charge Arthur Conquest with assault, of the verbal variety.
Why so?
It’s simple. Because for once, the victim of racial discrimination, [...]
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