In the end, perhaps this was all inevitable. As soon as Grafton’s first override passed on June 14, 2014, we were on a countdown to yet another financial predicament. And despite yesterday’s passage of a second override in six years, we find ourselves in exactly the same spot these years later – counting down yet […]
Small town government, at its worst
Just last month, the Assistant Town Administrator sent an email to a number of unknown town employees, asking them to write letters or emails to the Select Board to advocate for their boss’s new contract and substantial pay raise. When that email became public, I and Select Board Member Peter Carlson called for an independent […]
WARRANT-GATE: The Select Board Removes a Warrant Article Affecting SuperPark. A Fight Ensues.
Fresh on the heels of our last covid-era local government controversy, we now have Warrant-gate, brought to you by exactly the same people who brought to you Letter-gate. The facts and circumstances are straightforward: A Grafton resident brought a Citizen’s Petition to re-direct $240,000 in tax-payer money away from the proposed “Super Park” to other, […]
Lettergate – The Controversy Grafton Needs Now
With Lettergate, our latest controversy in which Grafton’s Assistant Town Administrator sent from her work account an email to town employees requesting that they write Select Board members to advocate for the Town Administrator’s new contract, we have reached peak Grafton town government disfunction. This mess succinctly embodies the directionless garbage fire the Board has […]
It’s the approach, stupid.
Let the record show, that in order for a short-handed Select Board to have a binding “majority vote,” the Board needs only a majority of the members present at a meeting, constituting a quorum, to make up the “majority vote.” In other words, if there are only three members of the five member board present, […]
Endgame
Here’s a secret that I can now share: I’ve always hated Planet Grafton. Don’t get me wrong, at times the writing was okay, and it could be cathartic in certain moments to share with all of you my misadventures in local government. And, along the way, I hope that this space did some good in […]
Grafton’s Wasted Year Begs the Question: Do We Even Need Selectmen?
Quick, name the Grafton Board Of Selectmen’s biggest accomplishment in the 2018-2019 year. Go on. I’ll wait. During Grafton TV’s Selectmen candidate Q&A session*, Board Chairman and candidate for re-election, Sargon Hanna, repeatedly suggested that, despite Grafton’s pressing fiscal issues, our real priority should be “unifying” the board of Selectmen within itself and encouraging other […]
Peter Carlson for Selectman – With a Bullet
Earlier this week, an innocuous Peter Carlson for Selectman Facebook post caught my eye, and stood out to me as a prime example of the difference between Peter and his two opponents in the May 21 election. That post is as follows: The Road Stabilization Fund is a direct result of solid fundamental planning and […]
A Quiet, Substance Free Election? Not On My Watch.
This is – no lie – the single most important municipal election of the past ten years, and yet there is zero buzz about it. Let’s change that right now. We’re facing a million dollar deficit next year. Without adding significant additional income, or implementing dramatic expense reductions, you can expect fewer town services, larger […]
Grafton’s Three-Eyed Raven Speaks…
The year is 2014. Grafton has decided that it can’t afford to pay for quality schools based on what it has budgeted. The community bands together to pass a tax override to give schools more than they would have received under proposition 2.5. The year is 2016 . The town government has done absolutely nothing […]
