$109,000 Odiously Obtained

Hard to believe that May 14’s suspiciously collegial and jarringly unprofessional display by Phelan, Thompson, and Leonard wasn’t the culmination of an orchestrated plan to “scrub” a little more out of the already paltry 30% remainder of the town budget, which will have to suffice for every other department that is not the school. Grishman was curiously taciturn, though not blameless. Keep in mind that the self-important spectacle was in response to our Finance Committee’s removal of $130,000 from the school’s coffers.

What happened behind the scenes? May we have a possible violation of the Open Meeting Law? We’ll never know, but I’ve directly heard Leonard remark that the law is ridiculous, no one abides by it, and it doesn’t get enforced, anyway. Doubtless she feels similarly about the Ethics Commission, where complaints have been filed regarding her fervent lobbying to add money to the school budget, when she may be bound to abstain from certain aspects of those deliberations and votes – considering that Leonard’s wife is a teacher on the Swampscott Middle School’s payroll.

While viewing the meeting remotely, my incredulity was first fed by newly-elected Chair, Phelan, feigning disbelief (“What, you want me to start now?”) when Fletcher handed over the gavel. For someone who should have expected her installation to occur at the end of the meeting, Phelan was remarkably well-prepared to carry on with the agenda.

Just as phony were Thompson’s and Leonard’s “concerns” for the taxpayers, who will be stuck with an even larger burden next year when there’ll be nothing left to “scrub,” except perhaps town staff’s salaries, bonuses, professional development, a few more department heads’ cell phones, and many other costs deemed “padding” by the fab four, but that in reality maintain employee morale and a well-run municipality. The disregard shown for the diligence and expertise of staff in every non-school department was appalling.

Maybe there’ll be a push to change the bylaw that mandates postal delivery of the town warrant, about which Leonard dismissively wondered aloud: why can’t town meeting members just pick it up? She also scoffed at the extent of the town’s need for legal counsel! She even questioned how much copy paper gets used at town hall. And, one of vice-chair Thompson’s ideas was to have any town employee who earns more than $100,000 annually hand over $100 a month to satisfy the school department’s desires.

This is leadership?

Notably, despite the insistence of Leonard and most members of the School Committee that they’d completely “scrubbed” the school budget of any excess, the line item representing the superintendent’s salary is underutilized, i.e., there’s money left. And this is merely one single example of what may be hiding in that budget, not to mention a number of vague line item descriptions that need deeper investigation.

Repugnant, too, was Leonard’s overly-familiar and disrespectful address of our interim Town Administrator, Gino Cresta, as “Cresta.” Twice. The expression on her face belied any camaraderie, which was obviously disingenous, to borrow a word she overuses and spits at the undeserving to shore up her own nasty, false claims.

Unfortunately, Leonard’s self-aggrandizement is being nurtured by too many, and I regret supporting her during her candidacy.

All of us want our children to attend the best schools, and I'm happy to pay for that. Most of us believe teachers and the support staff should be well-compensated and respected. But none of that should be accomplished at the expense and humiliation of our other town employees.