Keeping people accountable

Apparently I struck a cord with my latest letter to the Enterprise because even as it published my submission, their editorial staff published yet another editorial - clearly intended to deaden my arguments - entitled, "Don't Forget The Students."

Except their editorial said almost nothing about the students. Rather, it tried to defend those who have overseen the high school renovation project. The unnamed author asks, "It is really possible that some public official has acted with such negligence that he should be fired?...Look hard enough and one could probably find all sorts of misjudgments, miscalculations, and mistakes. But it's very unlikely any misdeeds will be uncovered."

Hmmm...so, according to the Enterprise, as long as there are no misdeeds (i.e., someone intentionally screwed up) then it's perfectly OK to blow $19 million of taxpayer dollars. Sorry, but I don't buy that for a minute.

In the real world, $19 million worth of misjudgments, miscalculations, and mistakes = find a new job.


This is the letter as it was published in the Friday, February 15, 2008 edition of the Falmouth Enterprise. They titled it, "Not Brush Off 'Mismanagement'"...

The high school renovation project is, by current estimates, 30 percent over budget and 18 months behind schedule. While it is tempting to “get the job done and move on” as the Enterprise suggests in its Tuesday editorial, we should not simply brush off this kind of mismanagement.

We probably should've known something was seriously amiss when, at the last town meeting, Dan Shearer was told that regular updates from the school building committee, “have been in the Falmouth Enterprise." Frankly, those updates are worthless from a project management standpoint.

Moreover, town meeting is often called the "congress" of our town. I doubt our representatives on Beacon Hill are eagarly awaiting today's issue of the Boston Globe for the latest update on state projects. This is a $65 million dollar endeavor – a few dollars in copies and postage every quarter is not too much to ask, and it could've saved us $19 million. I've an email address; that costs nothing.

In the private sector, heads would roll over this, and the same thing needs to happen here. It is not enough to blame the contractor or architect – someone in town hall is responsible for overseeing this contract, and if we are to stop the bleeding and avoid another fiasco like this in the future, the people responsible need to be replaced. This is not pointing fingers, but rather holding people accountable and protecting the taxpayer's investment.