Whitey Bulger was arrested on June 23, 2011 and will be going on trial for 19 murders next week, 713 days later.
Mary Ellen Johnson's filed a lawsuit on November 4, 2010 and it will remain unresolved for 944 days by the time Whitey heads in for jury selection next week.
The cases obviously have nothing in common. But -- so much for speedy due process!
Both the State Appeals Court and the State's Supreme Judicial Court have ruled the District Court judge made an obvious error in dismissing the case and that Dr. Johnson's contract was never invalidated --- yet the Town is apparently still unwilling to resolve the case.
Instead of working to negotiate a reasonable settlement, the Town has allowed their insurance company's attorneys to drive the financial bus by wasting months of very expensive legal time filing inaccurate motions, and deposing former School Committee members for several hours each about topics that have had absolutely nothing to do with the case at hand.
This isn't fact-finding, this is retaliation.
Yes, I know, the Town has litigation insurance. The attorney is working for the insurance carrier -- not the Town, Does anyone seriously think that the insurance company will not recover the fortune they are paying out in legal fees by jacking up the Town's premiums? Does anyone think the eventual pay-out will get any smaller by delaying it? Even if the lawsuit outlives Dr. Johnson (who looks damn healthy!), I have no doubt her counsel will continue the suit on behalf of her estate -- if for no other reason than to recover the fees he's built up responding to the Insurance attorney!
So what's the point?
Regardless of posting process, constructive notice, or de minimus standards, the State Appeals Court, and later the State Supreme Judicial Court made it very clear that this stopped being an Open Meeting Law case 21 days after the contract was approved by one School Committee and not properly cancelled by a subsequent Committee. It's now a straight-forward contract case.
Like so many other issues in this Town, somebody needs to be willing to stand up, and do what needs to be done -- regardless of whether or not the decision is a popular one.
Dr. Canfield has done a good job at doing the right thing -- he's tackled the Community School, The Pool, The Lunch Ladies, and the Athletic Director issues and he has made it clear he will soon be resolving the school facilities usage issue. All tough issues -- but issues that needed to be resolved. Unfortunately, given the budgetary restrictions, and the magnitude of the dollars involved in this case, its unlikely he can do much to help this situation --- except maybe to extol the virtues of stepping up and doing The Right Thing --- and sharing his bottle of aspirin.
The 2010-2011 School Committee may have made this mess, but its going to be up to the 2013-2014 Board of Selectmen to clean it up.
46 comments:
Damn. Governor Lame Duck Deval Patrick is right. If he does not answer the EBT scandal questions eventually we will all forget welfare fraud ever existed. Now wait a damn minute...President Barack Obama is employing this obviously brilliant tactic with respect to Benghazi! OMG it does work...let me think...Sherry...er.. Sherry McDonald...no, no thats not her name...Sherry Malfeasance? Damn, it is true..we forget very important things over time! Nice comment Bob...people will eventually forget MJ's lawsuit over time, if it weren't for you and this blog. Thank you.
The Truth Maker has been asking this question about every week during conversations with fellow towns people. They also would like to finally get some closer on this dark spot in Sandwich History.
The time is always right to do what is right.
It seems apparent that this will be bad news for the Town. Somebody just needs to have the balls to resolve the situation ..... Your right, Canfild hasnt hesitated to piss people off to do what needs to be done. Nobody is looking atvthe Big Picture .... As usual.
I was having some friendly conversation with some families that have not decided to buy into the programs at the high school next year and they all told me it has to do with the present adminastration/
Can any one provide how many assistant principles we have had at the high school over the past 15 years. This was related to me along with other revolations that make me ask this question.
What a scam. The town allows the lawyers to run up the bill, johnsons attorney wont object -- because he knows when he wins the Town will end up paying his fees too. The insurance company doesnt care, theyll recover their costs by raising the premiums.
Nobody has to admit they made a mistake ..... The taxpayers just end up eventually getting screwed.
Somebody should pay. An experienced educator received a good evaluation and a new contract and then had her career trashed -- still, nobody has ever said why.
Er....Johnson who?
Its funny even the cc times has dropped this issue. Maybe the editor is hoping that people will forget that he supported the idiots that caused this mess.
NO HIDDEN MOTIVE IN THIS POST
This woman claims to love children and the Sandwich school system, yet continues to waste tax payer money with her lawsuit. Taking much needed resources away from the very children she claims to care so much about. All she cares about is herself. Yes, and your comments will all be defending her saying the town should just settle and it will all be over…yada yada yada. Go away MEJ, go away!! Go ruin someone else’s town with your sniveling condescending attitude.
Nice to see Caps Queen finally staggered out of her burrow ...
1:01, seriously? After receiving a good evaluation and a new contract, four vindictive idiots (two of whom had never worked with her before) effectively fired her and then trashed her reputation with trumped-up bullshit and she is supposed to just take it and walk away?
If someone ended your professional career (if you had one) would you just walk away?
If they were so concerned about "much needed resources" they would have listened to the warnings from the Selectmen and others that their actions would make the Town liable.
It’s hard to believe that anyone would not agree with the substantive message of this post; it is well past time to settle the Johnson case.
By settling you mean Johnson drops it and walks away right?
No. I meant, as did Bob, that the right thing to do isto make a fair offer to compensate Dr, Johnson for damages and settle.
It is time to settle this lawsuit and move on. right or wrong the court ruled and we need to settle somehow. On that note let's not give Dr. Canfield too much credit here for "handling" tough issues like the Athletic Director, Lunch Ladies or the community school. All those decisions were based on his own agenda not the interest of the school. He somehow nominated his buddy Mr. Hall for Employee of the year as new facility director. Really? after one year we know how this person works - I don't think so. Why does he not know how to fix the sewer gas coming into the building? why do we have a generator at the High School to power us at a HUGE cost to the school. Why did he not know how to handle issue with winter storm at Oakridge - we did have a 3 foot snow storm and it didn't affect the school. What about the fact that we have NO working water fountains in the High school. I could go on and on with many aspects but this is just one of Dr. Canfield's buddy hires just like Mr. Kennedy was. He would have saved the community school and Mr. Kennedy if the Town had not put him in his place. Not sure what the lunch ladies ever did but perform their jobs and as far as Mr. Cosgrove goes....it seems to me this was Dr. Canfield's personal agenda again and he had support from Dr. Booras. Have we looked at that? Why has Dr. Booras had sooo many assitant principals? Her time has come to move on as well maybe Dr. Canfield could help out with that before we loose all our students. If your Dr. Booras approved you will do fine in Sandwich but rules are not the same for everyone. And furthermore......you hide behind your website with a pompous judgement yet I do not see you at the school committee meetings. You left after your term and you had your chance now it's time to move on from this website as well.
Facilities is a joke and we need to fix the schools we have. The High school has window sills falling out, they are running on a generator again and where is there pool water? This is just to start. We continue to drive students and families away.
What? Are you alleging the Employee of the Year process is corrupt? I'm shocked! I wonder if he will get it next year too?
It's amusing to see somebody writing in anonymously to accuse me of "hiding" behind a blog that has my name all over it!
Who's the one hiding?
Do you think my thoughts would be any different if I was sitting in the School Committee meeting room --- its been a long time since there has been any substantive conversation or serious questions asked during those meetings. It is impossible to watch a meeting without the "fast forward" button.
So, I should "move on" from the website? If it bothers you ... go elsewhere. I'm sure you could find some school-related drivel with no opinions out there to fill your day.
My goal is to get people involved -- and pissed off enough to do something. If we had sat quietly and smiled a few years ago, the Community School would still be diverting funds from the School District -- and The Pool would still be leaking -- both money and water dollars and gallons -- and everybody would continue to swear it wasn't.
And ... more people might have believed some of the venomous nonsense spewed by the Teachers' Union President -- if her "mistruths" were not pointed out on a regular basis.
And ... more people might have believed the School Lunch program doesn't cost the Town anything to run. (It's not in the school budget -- but the TOWN budget does include the cost of payroll taxes & benefits for food service employees -- who DO earn more than they would in similar private sector positions.)
And ... people may not have realized that School Counsel was warned that the Committee had 21 days to file a court action to attempt to invalidate the Johnson contract, but apparently chose not to do so.
Brother Bob
It must be fustrating to update some about past history, especially when they are part of it.
How many fixed employees of the year awards have been handed out over the years, prior to when Mr. Canfield took over? Not only by the schools, but the town as well.
It seem like whenever someone may be in trouble they get employee of the year and all is forgotton.Not in every case however.
As far as the dispute for the new position for Athletic director goes, Mr. Cosgrove never had the requirements to do the job in the first place as they were overlooked and he was unable to meet the requirements for the new position as well, thus he did not get picked.
As far as Dr Booris goes you
you may be on target. That is why we asked the question at the very beginning as to how many vice principles has been employed in the past 15 years at the high school and what are the reasons for this the turn around ?
As far as being pompous, one needs to consider the source when reading this stuff from an unknown source and just smile . It is called a gatcha
Idon't know anything about sewer gas or water fountains. But it sounds like someone has done sour grapes !
I think it's a stretch to call either Hall or Kennedy a "buddy hire". Canfield is from out of town and both those guys appear to be qualified ...Kennedy did what had to be done and Hall is working with what he was given. He wasn't the one who built the school with a 3rd floor generator and no easy way to refuel it. BUT he should have raised a flag when he saw the half-ass generator setup in a building that had been designated a regional emergency shelter!
i also think it's silly to criticize somebody for pointing out some of the stupid things that happen around Town...unless, of course, you are one of the idiots making the stupid decisions ---- especially if you aren't willing to put you own name on your comments.
Somebody should just concentrate on keeping us safe from the evils of natural gas!
The scuttlebut around town is that the Union has elected a new president to replace the present tyrant.
Who warned the school counsel and what date concerning the Johnson contract.
Me. May 13, 2010 at 9:18 AM.
All involved have copies of the email.
If the School Committee and the BOS don't decide to settle soon, it will continue to add fuel to a fire that should have been put out years ago. Legal council for the school department really seems to have dropped the ball on this. It also seems like he gave horrible legal advise when this all started 3 years ago.
The women who pursue their campaign regarding this issue, foolishly believing they saved the children of this town, are wildly self-egrandizing what happened. So far the School Committee, Board of Selectman, Superintendent have not been able to get the situation under control. The town's position seems foolish at this point.
The union may have elected a new President, but i suspect the old one will still be pulling the strings -- even as VP.
The union may have elected a new President, but i suspect the old one will still be pulling the strings -- even as VP.
The old one is VP. That is depressing news. I guess she can't give up her self-righteous platform. God help us all.
Amazing! Once again that NONE of you are at school committeee meetings to express your opinions publicly. You may be putting your name here or not but where it counts is at open meetings in town and yet nobody goes to them. When you are employed by the school you learn things the outside would NEVER be aware of. Step up people and go ask these questions at public forum that's where change can really happen not posting on Mr. simmons blog as he does not go to these meetings either. This is just a bitch session and point the finger on here. If your intentions Mr. simmons is to get people talking....you do.....but not in the right way. GO TO MEETINGS!!!!!!!
What happened to promoting within our district.....now we only bring out of town/out of state workers. It's sad the state we are in. Sandwich has lost it's stature!
Hey Bob if those posting here are not getting any attention , why is 724 posting?
You apparently have there attention, we need some smily faces to be up here somewhere/
I will admit that I have not gone up in awhile, but non the less we did watch the discraceful way the past union president and athletic director acted. We did speak to the chairman in regards to the public display of what bullies do.
You are right in one regards that working for a school; system that allows some one to hold a job that they are not qualified to do speaks volumns to why things need to be changed, which is what the present superintendent is doing.That is unless you are part of the inner circle of bullies as shown by example a few weeks back. It was to bad that the those in the audinence were not also on display, so that every one could see how well it is not all about the children at all.
8:54, I think that's what caused this problem. You can only keep hiring your friends and neighbors for so long .....or the place ends up looking like that town on Deliverance. I have been hearing some banjo music lately ......
You can sit at Public Forum and huff and puff all you want --- but in addition to actually speaking directly to those elected to represent us, the best thing you can do is to try to point out the stupidity and waste to as many people as possible in the hopes that they will support somebody who is actually willing to stand up and make actual changes.
Just "going to meetings" accomplishes nothing.
I stopped going to meetings a few years back. As I distinctly recall, I had the misfortune to be seated near one woman who yelled out throughout the meetings and swore like a drunken sailor. I found the experience to be most stressful so I started watching the meetings at home and on occasion, corresponding with SC members via email. Of course, It may be safe to return to the audience at this time since the low class, loud mouth now sits on the board!
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME 3:54 AND SIMMONS. LOW CLASS/LOUD MOUTH.SIMMONS YOU PUBLISH THIS TRASH (BUT IF ITS ONE OF YOUR FAVIORATES YOU DON'T PUBLISH THE NEGATIVE EVEN THOU ITS ON TV AND MY COMMENTS ARE NOT AS CRASS AS SOME OF YOUR POSTING) YOUR A HYPOCRATIC SIMMONS AND AN ASS. AS FAR AS 3:54 YOUR NOISE IS STUCK SO FAR UP ITS A WONDER YOU CAN WALK WITHOUT TRIPING.
I have never been called a "hypocratic" before.
I was going to stop publishing emails from School Committee Members, their spouses, and their kids -- but the CAPS QUEEN'S final post was just too good not to share.
Let's have a contest -- overlooking the capitalization, how many spelling, grammar, punctuation, and other errors can you spot in 4:53's response?
Bob it would appear that you have struck a nerve or two. Some of the lesson from lifes other side often get lost in the translations by 4;53 reponse. I has to be rather difficult to rationally understand what or whom they speak about given the present truths by MRS> Beasley.
One lesson from lifes other side ofter would state one must consider the source to better judge what they speak.
In other word, "you plant beans ... you get beans" ?
Somebody been in Momma's basement too long!
Bob! Congrats. I didn't know you became a medical doctor! Wow. It is kind of fun to have her back though. I agree with Carl, we need some emoticons to really express how we feel about this stuff!
Big doings September 30 at the Barnstable Court
September 30? I read there's a hearing on motions to dismiss on September 5. Anyone know? I don't want to miss this one, if only to see who sits with who in the audience.
That Motion will be denied like some before.
Hopefully I will find the time to attend this enlightment process for the town of Sandwich, if the general public can be seated?
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