In My Opinion

The fire fighters’ contract has finally been settled and it’s been a long, drawn-out battle that I think no one on either side would like to repeat. In my opinion, there were plenty of mistakes made in this process by pretty-much everyone involved. But I believe that the biggest impediment to a settled contract was the involvement of Selectman Sears. The harsh tone set by Mr. Sears in his repeated attacks on firefighters which began with his dissatisfaction in the 2010 fire fighters’ contract agreement, along with his constant pressure more recently to try to get the union to negotiate in public and thereby violating bargaining rules, resulted in unprecedented hostility between the firefighters union and town officials; and a cooperative, working relationship between the two parties was lost. No one should ever underestimate the possibility (or probability) that this contract would have been settled early and civilly had it not been for involvement of Selectman Sears.

As if Mr. Sears’ “contributions” to the negotiations weren’t harmful enough, he is an employer to each and every Tewksbury fire fighter, as defined by Massachusetts General Law, who denigrated those employees continually and publicly, resulting in a hostile workplace environment. One only needs to read his Patch blog, “Sears Questions Miceli's Voting Record -- Miceli gets Flunking Grades from 3 Independent Employer Groups”, to get a small sampling of Mr. Sears’ unbridled distain towards the Tewksbury fire fighters. Sadly, that was not his first, nor would it be his last attack on his employees.

Regarding a separate issue, Selectman Wilson seemed frustrated with negative comments directed toward him for simply trying to do his job as a selectman when he wrote, “None of these issues should be personal attacks on the board, they should be issue-based discussions. The fact that residents continue to make these issues personal and talk about the people instead of the issue is the real problem”. I would like to borrow that comment and substitute a few words so it reads, “None of these issues should be personal attacks on the fire fighters, they should be issue-based discussions. The fact that Selectman Sears continues to make these issues personal and talk about the fire fighters instead of the issue is the real problem”. I think that if anyone might know how the fire fighters felt for the last several years, it would be Scott Wilson.

But angry, personal comments didn’t come solely from Mr. Sears. Any disagreement has differing opinions on both sides of the issue and that’s to be expected. But many posts were so similar in nature that they were hard to ignore, especially the opinions that were tainted with harsh insults. It was then that I began to look more closely at those types of posts. One blogger who really stood out was a person named “Red”.  Red first appeared on the Patch the day after the 2013 annual town meeting in which the residents voted to restore the cuts to the fire department. He described the fire fighters as greedy, selfish thieves, and continued that rhetoric for months to come. Red would also go on to heavily promote Penn National in the slots proposal, attacking and insulting anyone who had a difference of opinion. I noticed so many extraordinary similarities between Mr. Sears’ posts and those from “Red” as far as the argumentative tone, wording, aggressiveness, abrasiveness and an utter dislike of fire fighters themselves, that I was completely convinced that Mr. Sears and Red were one in the same. It has recently come to light that Mr. Sears was not behind those “Red” posts and so for that mistake, I apologize to Mr. Sears.

So who is Red? Learning from my mistake, I’d rather not accuse anyone else so I will simply state the facts as I understand them:

According to the Patch, Red contributed over 1,000 posts since May, 2013.

According to the Patch, Red made his final post on September 16, 2013 in which he advertised an estate sale at 27 Tomahawk Drive.

According to the Patch, “Dave” posted 4 additional ads for the same estate sale at 27 Tomahawk Drive.

All previous posts by Red dating back to May of 2013 no longer show Red as the author; they now show that the author is Dave.

When you click on any author in the Patch, you will be brought to a collection of that person’s more recent posts.

When you click on any post by Red, you will find his posts combined with the 4 posts from Dave for the estate sale at 27 Tomahawk Drive.

When you click on Dave’s posts, you will be brought to the same collection of Red/Dave posts

Dave McGinness resides at 27 Tomahawk Drive.

Dave McGinness was a recent member of the Tewksbury Finance Committee.

Dave McGinness has resigned from the Finance Committee.

In the end, there were no winners. This entire episode has caused many fire fighters to reevaluate their career choices and several very good fire fighters have indeed decided that it’s time to move on. Hopefully we all will learn enough from this debacle so that it never happens again.

In my opinion, the town would benefit greatly by voting Selectman Sears out of office come springtime. In my opinion, Dave McGinness leaving the finance committee is not a bad thing at all. In my opinion, the Patch should fight to maintain its credibility by requiring all contributors to post under their own names. And in my opinion, I think there are plenty of readers who have heard more than enough from me so I will do my best to stay off the Patch in the future. I got dragged into this conflict by Mr. Sears’ post mentioned above, when I didn’t even know what a Patch blog was. And I hope to return to those days when I didn’t feel the pressure to constantly defend my chosen profession.

Sincerely,

Mike Callahan