By Beth David, Editor
Oh, where do I begin?
You remember last week’s article on the Board of Public Works needing to rescind the vote for the Water Superintendent, right? Well, they did it (see page 3), and no one changed his vote, so the same guy got the job.
Simple, right?
Nah!
You also remember the part about that letter, the unsigned letter that the Neighb News was not supposed to have?
Well, that letter is quite the piece of work. It’s a cheap shot at Jeff Furtado, who is now Fairhaven’s Water Superintendent. I won’t publish it unless he decides it is in his best interests to have it published. It’s a cheap shot, by a petty man. The things in that letter were either gained by privileged information or from rumor, hearsay and innuendo. If the things in that letter are true, then a decent person would simply have asked the board to peruse Jeff Furtado’s personnel file for areas of concern.
Instead, the person who wrote the letter disparaged Mr. Furtado’s character and implied that he could not handle the stress of the job. As if our water will suddenly turn to poison if one guy takes a few days off. The author of the letter did not sign it, did not say where he got the information, and even refused to own up to writing it….at first anyway.
The Neighb News left messages for Selectboard member Dan Freitas by email and by phone, because we got a tip that he wrote the letter.
He did not answer either.
Before the meeting started on Thursday (see page 3), Mr. Freitas again refused to answer. First he said he had no intention of returning my call or email; then he said “no comment,” and turned to a couple of people standing there and said: “You guys heard that, right?”
I guess the implication is that the Neighb News is fake news and that I, Beth David, editor, publisher, reporter and owner, production artist, bookkeeper, ad salesperson and delivery person, make up stuff because I’ve got nothing better to do.
In the course of the meeting, Mr. Freitas admitted to writing the letter, after he told the board how ashamed of themselves they should be.
I say, “Shame on YOU, Mr. Freitas.”
Maybe the board did not handle this situation well. Okay, they didn’t. To be honest, if not for your foolishness, this column would probably be all about making fun of them: Open meeting law snub, three times; public works superintendent not sharing the letter with the board; no discussion at the last meeting; a total lack of understanding of what it means to let the public in on the deal. But I digress.
You beat them out for fiasco of the week, Mr. Freitas.
Writing that letter was a cheap shot, an unfair shot at a guy who is simply trying to improve his professional situation.
Not signing the letter was cowardly.
How it got spread around behind the scenes is still unclear. But it was sneaky. Who did the sneaking around? I dont know. It doesn’t matter.
You wrote the letter. It’s on you.
Your bullying ways are becoming more and more clear as time goes on. And your judgement, well…see the above.
Until next week then…see ya,
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Click here to download the entire 2/1/18 issue: 02-01-18 Plunge
