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You've probably heard that Middleboro will be having a "recall vote" in September. Three selectmen are at risk of losing their seats to challengers, and probably the only reason the other two aren't is that they can't be right now: they haven't served six months since being reelected.

It doesn't take a great deal to force a recall vote : a few hundred signatures from registered voters who are displeased with the folks currently in the seats. Those sitting don't have to be guilty of anything, there doesn't even have to be a particular reason to want them off, it's enough just to collect the signatures.

Of course there are reasons. Some part of the town is upset about pay raises and other benefits for town employees. The Selectmen themselves are unpaid, but it is their job to negotiate contracts with town employees, and we Oak Pointers saw at the last regular town meeting how upset the townspeople were in that area.

The anger is a little bit misplaced, though: Selectmen negotiate, yes, but Town Meeting approves, so in a very real sense, the voters themselves were actually responsible for passing out the raises they are now angry about. That's true, but as usual, it's also murky and confused. We all know that Town Meetings are often sparsely attended except by the folks directly affected by the issues under discussion (would you have been at that meeting if there hadn't been the "Oak Point" articles on the table?). It's also true that the acceptance of the negotiations wasn't set out separately; it was buried in the budget. The Selectmen admit that probably wasn't smart in hind-site, but they point out that it's always been done that way.

Isn't politics fun? The Selectman also say that reading and understanding the laws that surround this issue isn't a lot of fun either - if you want to read http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/32b-1.htm for example, please do: I sure do not want to.

Nor do I want police and fire employees who are paid less than they should be. How much is that? Darned if I know, but if I am going to make a mistake in that area, I'd rather they got a little too much than not enough. These are the folks we hire to protect us, after all: do we want the worst that low wages can buy?

Well no, of course we want the best, right? Sure we do: we want the best of everything, but darn it, we can't afford the best of everything, which means compromises, and in the case of payroll and benefits for town employees that means negotiating within the context of the laws and the reality of what other towns pay and since 22,000 registered voters can't sit down and do that, we have Selectman who can. And did. And here we are.

Oops, not quite. Being ticked off about that may have started the recall effort, but the Casino poured gasoline on it, at least in the opinion of the 1,300 or so who voted against that deal. Those folks, still smarting from being soundly defeated at the special Town Meeting, have now decided that they'll join the effort to throw those no good so and so's out of office. Some of the folks running may be just as "pro casino" as the current Selectmen, and others may not, but I'm not sure those 1,300 even care that much: this may be more about revenge than changing the reality of July 28th's vote.

Revenge for a vote outcome you didn't like is a lousy reason to boot someone out of office mid-term. Almost twice their number voted with the Selectmen, and polls indicated that even those who didn't show up would have left the results unchanged if they had braved the heat and discomfort and voted. This is a classic case of sour grapes.

So: what should Oak Pointers do in September? Well, you shouldn't stay home. Between now and then we should be able to find out if there really is any good reason to change horses in mid stream. Maybe one of the challengers really does know a heck of a lot more about all this stuff than the sitting candidates. Or maybe they don't. Your vote and mine will be based on that, and not on revenge or petty grievances. I hope that we'll get a chance to have "candidates night" here so we can ask the hard questions that need to be asked.

I truly hope we don't let a bunch of sore losers mess up government in Middleboro.

Related Posts:

Run, Jessie, Run
Vote Influence
Board of Selectmen Candidates
Voters Against Recall Rally
Recall Election
Politics

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