Southbridge School Committee Meeting, August 14, 2012

Agendas for both meetings are available on the YouTube channel. Enjoy!

Southbridge Town Council – July 30, 2012

Note:  If you’re looking for the agenda for either of these meetings, you can find the information pasted into the video descriptions on YouTube.

I apologize for the election-related backlog on meeting video updates.  I’ve finally caught up with things this week.  Here’s what I have for you:

Southbridge Town Council Meeting, June 18, 2012

The agenda for this meeting was too long to paste into the YouTube metadata, so feel free to download it here if you’re interested in following along at home.

Southbridge School Committee Meeting, June 25, 2012

Southbridge School Committee Meeting, July 3, 2012
(reorganizational meeting)

Southbridge Town Council Meeting, July 9, 2012
(reorganizational meeting)

If you’re here looking for the videos of the two debates for the local elections, they’re located in the entry below this one.

Here’s the School Committee debate video:

And here’s the video of the Town Council debate:

The meeting agenda for this one ran longer than what YouTube would accommodate, so if you’d like to have it you can download the agenda right here.

FYI: I’ll have debate videos up on YouTube very soon.

Southbridge School Committee Meeting, May 8, 2012

EHS Subcommittee Meeting, May 15, 2012 (Part 1)

EHS Subcommittee Meeting, May 15, 2012 (Part 2)

EHS Subcommittee Meeting, May 15, 2012 (Part 3)

Southbridge Town Council Meeting, May 21, 2012*

*The agenda for this meeting was too long to paste into YouTube; you can download it right here.

Southbridge School Committee Meeting, May 22, 2012

Again, I apologize for the lack of commentary! If anyone would be interested in submitting a guest post, I would happily run it.

In a letter presented to me by Town Manager Christopher Clark at 7pm on Thursday, May 10, 2012, that is dated May 12, 2012, it states: “The Town has concluded its recruitment process for the Cable Access Operations and we have selected a permanent Station Manager/Production Director.” What was not stated in the letter was the true reason, that, in Mr Clarks opinion, I was”not a team player”. To be a team player, you must be part of a team. For a long time, I never felt part of his team. When two parttimers were hired, against the recommendation of myself and Cable Advisory Committee Chair Bob Cantara, I began to train and work, as a team with these two people, Mike Montigny and Stacey Renaud. Stacey and I had cleaned up the office dramatically, to the notice of many of the school department personel and other town hall employees. I gave Mike his first training session on directing a school committee meeting with great success. At no time in the last 3 weeks did the TM appear
in the access office to notice the appearance of the office. He only had ever come up at my requests.

I feel that my dismissal has much to do of my questioning the “indirect costs” that the TM charges to public access. There will be more to come as to the facts surrounding the indirect costs.

As to Town Council Vice-Chair Denise Clemence, she was not in attendance to my termination meeting with the TM. She was in and around the TM’s office at this time. As was Chairwoman Catherine Nikolla. I spoke directly to both women to express my pleasure of serving the community of SB as I was no longer station manager. Both woman expressed shock at the news of my dismissal.

The new station manager is, according to the TM, will be starting Monday May 14th. I do not know the identity of this person.

I want it to be crystal clear, as I will report to other media outlets, that all of my actions and work was directed towards the residents and businesses of SB. Being a non-resident of SB, I have never had ANY political agenda, ambition or the like. In fact, in an article by Gus Geeves of the SB evening news, I pledge a professional looking cable operation and that “politics” would remain outside my office door. I feel that my record of bringing life back to public access tv speaks for itself. It is interesting that the TM doesn’t have an assistant in his office so as to conform top his “team player” concept of operation. MANY other communities with a TC or Selectman form of government have a TM or Town administrator WITH an assistant. So the TM assertion to me of his opinion that my performance was more about me than the team.

I hope you report this as I have reported. There will be more to come in local media very soon.

Barry Davis

He later added the following:

“I stand by my statement as a true accounting of happenings of yesterday. I would like to add that I have already turned in my keys and have taken home what personal items I had brought to the town hall in the presence of Bob Cantara. I would like to have known that I feel that the Cable aadvisory committee with Bob Cantara as its chair has little or no influence on any decisions made by the TM, and that is a shame since they are, according to the contract with charter, suppose to be part of the day to day operating system of public access. Bob cantara assured me that he went to bat for me with the TM and told the TM that I was his (Bob’s) man for the position.

Let it also be known that when I was formally interviewed for the permanent position, TM Clark had stated to me and I partially quote….” I (TM Clark) can do one of two things, I can hire you now or I can do my due diligence and wait for the posting of the position on MassAccess and then hire you. MassAccess is a state wide group of public access communities that meet to enhance public access television. The position is still posted and the posting still indicates apply by 3/31/12. The TM’s due diligence was designed to make sure he would follow due course of action in the hiring of the position so as to not have the appearance of favortism in certain members of the public. The posting of the position was to be made much earlier than Mid-march due to a member of MassAccess not performing her duties and getting the job posted.

One has to wonder as to the TM’s hiring of 2 parttimers before making me permanent. One would think that the station managers postion would be the first to be made and then have the station managers input as to the hiring of his staff. The hiring of these two people went against the recommendation of SCAC Chair Bob Cantara.

I want it known publicly that Bob Cantara was a vital part of my success at SCTV through his explanation of the technical aspects of the station. He and I had the same vision for SCTV. Without Bob, the on-air look of the station would not be what it became as quickly as it did without ob training me so well. Our communications between the two of us is what helped me make the look of the station what it is today.

I feel very sorry for the residents of Southbridge in the future, not only in the public access cable tv side of the town, but in life in general. I have learned a lot about the town and the actions of the TM. Although the TM told me directly to my face during my early weeks that he was not a micro manager and wanted the public access operation to run on its own, I feel that he is indeed a micro manager. I don’t know if it because of the Town Charter, but not having an Assistant TM has the appearance that the TM is both a non-team player and a micro manager.

I wish the residents of SB the best. I highly enjoyed my time as station manager. I apologize to those groups that I have been working with that I will not be able to follow through with my work for those organizations (Relay for Life, Southbridge Fest and the Senior Expo).”

I for one would like to wish Mr. Davis the best of luck in all of his future endeavors.   In his tenure with Southbridge Cable he proved to be an incredibly dedicated and professional individual, spending many long hours both in the office and at local events in the community.

Council Vice-Chair Denise Clemence was reported to be present alongside Town Manager Christopher Clark at the time Mr. Davis was notified of his termination.
CORRECTION: This part of the rumor was debunked by Davis himself;
see update here, with apologies to Mrs. Clemence.

No other information is available at this time.

(A brief editorial aside:  if this story is true, it’s utterly bonkers.)

Here’s the video from Monday’s Town Council meeting:

As I mentioned previously, the agendas for the meeting videos are now embedded into YouTube.

In other news, it’s been quite an eventful week in local politics. I snapped a photo of the scene at 5pm in the Clerk’s office on Monday, the deadline for submitting nomination papers for the June election:

What had previously been shaping up as a four-person race for three seats on the Town Council is now a seven person race, with last minute entries from Steve Lazo and Dennis Martinek.   Other challenger candidates include myself, Shaun Moriarty, and Jean Heid.  Incumbents Denise Clemence and Larry Spinelli are also on the ballot.  The third incumbent, David Livengood, chose not to return nomination papers.

On the School Committee side of things, Incumbents Jack Jovan and David DiGregorio are joined by LeeAnn Pate, Lauren McLoughlin, and Kara Donovan in a five-way race for two seats.

Town Clerk Maddie Daoust will be running unopposed.