Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Middletown Getting New Town Admin.

I've been busy. And had a kidney stone attack. Life goes on.


The Town Administrator is leaving. Here is the link for Projo Meaghan Wims article. What next? Perhaps nothing except hiring a new Admin. Perhaps someone will file for the revelation of the parting admin.'s agreement with the Attorney Gen'l. Evidently the Open Meetings law is rather fuzzy here regarding these confidentiality agreements - I won't tell if you won't tell (as long as there is $ involved).


“Unfortunately, the misbehavior and unethical conduct of certain Town Council members has potentially created this situation where the council agreed to pay off the administrator to keep his mouth shut,” Silveira said. “I will not be involved in a cover-up. Why should taxpayers pay out the actions of a single council member or multiple council members?”
and
"Both sides have agreed to a confidential clause and neither side is allowed to speak,” Rodrigues said. “These types of agreements, they’re sensitive in nature, especially when personnel is involved…You can’t be sensitive enough when it comes to personnel.”

So you've got council members Rodrigues, Mello, Barrow, & Santos on one-side & Silveira, DiPalma, & Sylvia on another. Shocking.

It seems as if Kempen's leaving was long-expected at Town Hall. Kempen is well-respected for the new trash removal service. He was the public face of the program & ran a popular listserv for the town. To think that his leaving would pass by unnoticed was, at best, naive.


However he does not seem to have been popular with Union employees, esp. after he recommended pay raises for Dept. Heads but not them.


The pro-tem Admin. is Shawn Brown who is the current town Finance Director.

What the fall-out for all this will be remains to be seen. Any comments?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Kempen is well-respected for his role in the pay as you throw program and that is it! He was one who passed the buck on all projects and refused to take responsibility for anything, just view the taped council meetings, Mr. Kempen looked out for himself and no one else. As for Mr. Silveira, wasn't he the one who was suspected of leaving nasty literature on vehicles in Shaw's parking lot during the last election and wasn't he a strong supporter of the former extremely rude council member Vaillancourt? Taxpayers need to wake up!

Anonymous said...

Mr. Kempen apparently was not popular with the union employees, just ask them, you will learn alot. For one, union employees pay dues to be in the union and they negotiate contracts, but did you know the dept heads who receive higher pay get the same if not more benefits as the union members and they don't pay dues! Become a concerned taxpayer, talk to the employees, they're the people who you deal with at town hall everyday not the managers

Anonymous said...

Ed Silveira was NOT involved in the incident you mentioned. This was all part of the rumor factory which many all too willingly bought into. You might ask yourself who was spreading these & what they hoped to achieve. As they say, follow the money!
Charlie V. never struck me as rude, but outspoken- as are most Council members. I think that the Chair could have controlled meetings better.
I always found Mr. Kempen helpful. I do realize that there were Union problems & that is not good. Dept. heads are viewed as supervisory personnel & generally not included in Union membership. Yes, they usually benefit from what the Union has worked hard for. I'm not sure I see a solution here. Do you have one?
I do speak with employees. I did not see many of them participating in any election activity, although they have a lot to lose/gain in elections. Remember, I was employed by the town myself, and have a number of friends there!
Thanks for the comments.