Dave Admin
Posts : 325 Join date : 2009-01-18 Age : 111
| | As a Taxpayer...do you consider this a big deal? | |
- Quote :
- From the Seekonk Star...
SEEKONK – Seekonk Selectmen Vice Chairman David Parker presided over the first meeting in his history that wasn’t a real meeting last week when only two selectmen showed up for their regularly scheduled Wednesday night meeting. At 7:03 p.m. Mr. Parker, selectman Francis Cavaco and town administrator Michael Carroll were the only officials sitting around the table while a dozen or so residents waited for the meeting to start. Mr. Parker said he’d wait until 7:30 to see if another selectmen showed up.
No one did.
The selectmen tried to make good use of the time by discussing general information with Mr. Carroll and a few members of the audience. 7:30 came and went, and so did any hope of an official meeting. (At least three selectmen must be present for it to be an official meeting.)
Former selectwoman Carol Bragg took to the podium and suggested the three absent selectmen apologize to the people in the audience for wasting their time. One selectman who will not be offering such an apology is John Whelan. He said he spoke to Ms. Bragg and said he would not apologize for something that was “unforeseeable.”
“I apologize that they showed up. I apologize that they feel like their time was wasted. But it was an unforeseen incident, a medical crisis. I will not apologize for that,” he said.
Mr. Whelan said he “had a family emergency on my wife’s side” that prevented him from attending the meeting.
“Bob Richardson threw out his back and Michael Brady had an issue coming up. The one time I didn’t call Michael Carroll was the one time it blew up in my face,” Mr. Whelan said.
“We do have personal lives and things do occur in our lives we cannot control. We are all human, like everyone else. We’re not better than anyone else.”
Mr. Whelan questioned the news value of this story and went on to say that the three selectmen who were not present “are the only ones that have full–time jobs and that have children. We have distinct personal lives.”
Mr. Brady and Mr. Richardson were not immediately available for comment. | |
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Mon Oct 25, 2010 2:30 pm Dave