Where Is The Integrity?

        “About one hour after ending the Special Selectman's meeting on this past Friday , Gormley called for a Special Selectman's meeting for today, Monday , the 11th.

            Special meetings are supposed to be held for matters that can't be handled at regular meetings they are not to be used to avoid the public at the last minute.

            For example, on Friday, Gormley and Co. were going to sell town property. We asked for where the bids where. We have received no response. Now we ask, where's the integrity?

           Todays special meeting for which there was no 24 hour notice is todeal with the DEP contract relative to Ed's Greenway. This couldn't have been handled at a regular meeting? Who bought the mini-bus and for how 

much? And why didn't I have a chance to buy it? Or you? How much did they get for the rock crusher that doesn't exist? Where's the integrity?

          Next time we look at who goes to these meetings in the middle of the day. Interesting to see who works for a living.”

Mr. DeAngelis asks where Tom Gormley’s integrity is, as he champions the causes of the former First Selectman.

Mr. St. John I believe was quoted saying that it would take Tom Gormley at least one if not two terms in office to get a real feel for the job.  However, Mr. St. John afforded Mr. Gormley a non-existent honeymoon when Tom failed to continue Mr. St. John’s plan to stonewall the high-band radio grant, by allowing a high-band antenna to be mounted on the chimney of Town Hall.

In addition, when Tom Gormley found out that the Town was basically, losing almost a million dollars from the Washington Dr. deal that Mr. St. John appeared to have arranged, he was determined that he was not going to take the wrap for what his predecessor may or may not have done.  Thus the forensic audit was ordered.

The audit was the last straw for Mr. St. John.  Couple that with the fictitious “Brenann” takeover of the RTC, and Mr. St. John came out of the sunset to mobilized the crippled remnants of his political machine, to target Tom Gormley, a candidate hand-picked by Mr. St. John himself, and now being seen as an enemy for doing the right thing.  

Mr. Gormley did not cause the $950,000 Washington Dr, fiasco.  Mr. Gormley did not create the Straw Pond problem.  Mr. Gormley did not spend the $650,000 rainy day fund.

Mr. Gormley does not set the Region 15 budget, yet he is accused of raising taxes by over 7%.  It was Mr. Gormley who actually cut the Town side of the budget by 2.36%. 

Mr. DeAngelis asks where the integrity is?  Where is the Integrity in posting lies about the First Selectman, the MVFD and its Chief that he knows are untrue?  

If you were to read the MoneyPit website on a regular basis you would think that Middlebury is tumbling out of control.  Its not. Last year’s budget never passed until November.  This is just a series of manufactured controversies, many that have been so distorted they don’t even have one iota of truth.  Create a manufactured smoke screen and try to set up Mr. St. John as the savior who will come to Middlebury’s rescue, to save us all from the problems he created.

Tom Gormley may make some mistakes.  He may not handle every situation they way he would have liked to have handled it.  But, Tom Gormley is a man of integrity.  He is an honest man, whose initial flaw taking over as First Selectman was to try to please everyone.  He has made a genuine effort to pull this Town back together, in the wake of the damage caused by the previous administration.

Mr. Gormley wants nothing more out of his position than to do what is best for this community.  If he makes some mistakes along the way, so be it.  No one is perfect, but you can go to sleep at night knowing that the man who sits in the First Selectman’s chair at Town Hall is a good and honest man, who unlike his most vocal critics has integrity.