Let’s Get It on Film.
By Jim Conley • Nov 27th, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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I’m making a call for donations so that I can purchase video equipment that will allow me to broadcast segments from the weekly Brookline Selectmen’s meetings.
For instance, residents need to view the stunning arrogance of Town Treasurer Stephen Cirillo, Children’s Hospital Vice President Charles Weinstein and Selectman Robert “The Mensch” Allen as board member Gil Hoy asked questions on a contract between the Town and the Hospital during this evening’s session.
Maybe Hoy had a point to the questions he was asking. Maybe not. But Hoy was elected to office with many more votes than any of the three stooges dismissing his questions out of hand. And Allen’s adolescent histrionics and intemperate remarks on “moving on” are especially baffling given that he prattled on about his family’s experience with Brookline Recreation for several minutes previous to that. Talk about a need to move on.
It also is a marvel to me that Cirillo can dismiss an elected official with a terse statement and a turn of the back from the podium. But that’s how it goes in Brookline.
I’ve seen this show before - the bullying , the arrogance and the incompetence - and it seldom ends well.
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Update: In fairness to Allen, Hoy was cutting across the grain of unquestioning servitude to developers (Weinstein). I mean, selectman’s chair Nancy Daly’s fawning over the Children’s building booster had me reaching for the barf bag. Says Daly: “Children is giving non-profits a good name.”
Oh, for the love of Pete. Children’s and other non-profits negotiate these payments-in-lieu of-taxes (PILOTS) because it’s in their self interest to do so. A PILOT gives the non-profit a certain measure of control over what they pay the town in exchange for services (e.g., police, fire and schools). Suppose they (the non-profits) weren’t as cooperative; there’d be a hew and cry that would reach to the corners of Beacon Hill.
Non-profits that pay PILOTS do so because they can. And that’s one step away from because they should.
So let’s cut the triumphs for Weinstein and Children’s. And let’s start electing people to public office who are not as compromised or naive as Daly and Allen appear to be.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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Remember when Brookline was PILOTless? Now the Town is piling up PILOTs but not quite flying high. Perhaps Stephen Cirillo has the confidence of a co-PILOT and feels he doesn’t need the support of Hoy, who may not run even run for re-election. But with the intracacies of Brookline politics, Stephen may some day need a parachute. Now that the BU and Children’s camels have their noses under the Brookline tent, how far behind is the rest of the LMA overflow expansion? Without a parachute, where o’ where might Stephen land? (You only have two guesses.)