Melville Supporters Protest Adams Selectmen Actions
 Edward Driscoll, former selectmen and close friend of current board member Paula Melville, gave a riveting speech in Melville's defense. Driscoll said the board and the town administrator should be ashamed for trying to humiliate Melville with an "ambush." |
"[Town Administrator Jonathan Butler] has forbidden town department heads to speak with a duly elected selectmen. All information must be filtered through him so he controls the flow of information. Next he trumps up ethics charges in an attempt to humiliate this duly elected representative," Melville's close friend Edward Driscoll said in a impassioned speech during Wednesday's Selectmen's meeting.
The former selectman continued, "When that doesn't go far enough, he used the sheriffs to intimidate this selectman into attending this ambush Monday night, this political lynching, and finally he threatens to arrest this duly elected selectman if they set foot on public property."
"Let me say it one more time, you used the police as a political tool. This is America! You used the police to stifle debate in Adams, America. You should be ashamed of yourself and the other four of you whether you encouraged it or not, you went along with it and you should be ashamed of yourself also."
Driscoll received a roaring standing ovation from a meeting room full of Melville supporters. A full transcription of Driscoll's speech is below.
His speech originates from the board filing charges Monday against Melville for allegedly releasing confidential information. The board held an emergency meeting to pass a series of motions that banned Melville from speaking with department heads, entering town department premises and reporting her to the state Ethics Commission. Unable to contact Melville, they had a sheriff's deputy hand deliver the meeting notice, but she did not attend.
Melville did not explain the actions that led to the emergency meeting nor did she explain why she did not attend it. She did say she wished a member of the board — not a deputy — had informed her of Monday's meeting. At Tuesday's preliminary budget presentation, Melville made a brief statement saying she was confident that an independent review by the Ethics Commission will clear her name.
"I welcome an investigation by the Ethics Commission," Melville said. "I'm going to continue to do the job I was elected to do."
At the end of Wednesday's meeting she made an additional statement to her colleagues claiming their actions created a "negativity" that damages the town. A full transcription of her statement is also available below.
Tension between Melville and the other selectmen has been building since she was elected, and spilled out into the public two weeks ago when officials publicly chastised her for going rogue. Melville has been accused of writing letters to agencies and demanding information as a representative of the town, trying to micromanage certain departments and failing to communicate appropriately with the town administrator. She has misrepresented herself as speaking for the entire board and has damaged relationships with other agencies on multiple occasions, according to board members.
The board even went so far to reel in Melville as to revise the town's ethics guidelines, which were approved Wednesday. The changes strengthen the guideline's language concerning interaction with town departments and agencies — a move Melville opposes and says infringes on her personal liberties. A workshop meeting was held last week to review the role of board members and governmental ethics.
Despite her numerous supporters at the meeting, a clearly annoyed Adams-Cheshire Superintendent of Schools Alfred W. Skrocki said she and Driscoll had spread untrue rumors about the school's budget. Melville, a former Finance Committee member, has been requesting information regarding a $7 million difference in school expenditures and operating budget in the last audit.
"It was not overspent by $7 million. It was not overspent by a penny. I want to make that very clear. There has been no budget that I have been involved in that has been overspent," Skrocki said, adding the difference in spending was because of grants and state aid among other forms of income listed separately from the operating budget.
He said no one other than Chairman Michael Ouellette had contacted him for information; Melville retorted she would have asked for the audit but she would have been charged for a copy.
"You have the information Paula, but you didn't understand it and you didn't bother to come up and ask for an explanation," countered Skrocki. "Instead, what happened is that there have been rumors that have been started by you and Mr. Driscoll that the school district is lying."
"Basically what he said is that you are looking at two different documents," Ouellette told her. "One is the actual operating budget and the other one includes grants, school choice and all these other receipts."
The board voted in favor of setting up a meeting with Skrocki to explain the school's budget and the difference in more detail.
"The point of me bringing this up is that for nine years now the town of Adams gave $5.25 million extra dollars to the Adams Cheshire Regional School District and with the reserves or wherever this extra money came from, they evidently don't need that help from the town of Adams," Melville said.
Edited at 12:15 a.m., March 3, throughout.
FULL TRANSCRIPTIONS:
Ed Driscoll:
"I sat at this table for 12 years and I just want to make a few comments and a rhetorical question or two.
I want to know how things have become so dysfunctional. I want to know what has led to the town Administrator banning department heads from speaking with duly elected selectmen and go so far as to threaten that selectman with arrest if they put their foot on public property.
I served for 12 years on this board and I am astonished that the situation has come to this. I got one piece of advice when I first came on the board and it came from Earl Kelly. Earl said prior to making any decision always find out the information yourself. It's only human nature for somebody to spin information to their own point of view. He said don't rely on anybody to give you the real story but get it yourself. I stuck by that advice and it worked well for me.
A selectman in this town is elected to use their judgment and come to a decision as to what's best for the community. In order to reach those decisions a selectman needs to see all sides to every story and they need to get all the information they can. Thomas Jefferson said that information is the currency of democracy. Restricting ones ability to gather that information, to provide it only through the filter of the town administrator is thwarting that democratic process.
During my time on the board I was in Town Hall nearly every day and it was the same for my colleagues, one of them who happens to be sitting here now has a business on the main street and he was in Town Hall in the early afternoon nearly every day. Another one of my colleagues was here almost every morning on her way to work. We visited with department heads, we spoke to the employees and we knew what was going on and I still talk to various department heads on a social basis and several of them have told me that they were forbidden by Mr. Butler from speaking to Mrs. Melville. I was appalled. Who do you think you are?
The people of the town of Adams have always pride themselves on the fact that our government has never, never been mean spirited. There was dissent, there was debate, there was lively discussion but the boards always came to a conclusion and put their rancor away when it was done. The decent people of this town will not stand for those kind of character attacks, attacks that's motivation is to embarrass and humiliate and coerce the duly elected official and then I see in the newspaper that she was served by a sheriff with a notice demanding that she attend a meeting on Monday to answer some charges against her. This was simply another attempt to intimidate and humiliate her. Why is it? Because she asks questions? Is it because doesn't tow the line? Whoever came up with this plan should be ashamed of themselves.
So, to sum it up, Mr. Butler has forbidden town department heads to speak with duly elected selectmen. All information must be filtered through him so he controls the flow of information. Next he trumps up ethics charges in an attempt to humiliate this duly elected representative. When that doesn't go far enough, he used the sheriffs to intimidate this selectman into attending this ambush Monday night, this political lynching, and finally he threatens to arrest this duly elected selectman if they set foot on public property. Let me say it one more time, you used the police as a political tool. This is America. You used the police to stifle debate in Adams, America. You should be ashamed of yourself and the other four of you whether you encouraged it or not, you went along with it and you should be ashamed of yourself also. Goodnight."
Paula Melville:
"You could have waited. You could have waited to hear my side of the story but you chose not to. Waiting would have been the right thing to do; the fair thing to do.
I'm not sure what your motivation was, is. I do know one thing though and that is that your actions have created a lot of negativity. So much so that no one sitting here looks very good. That can't be good for the town of Adams.
I hope in the future we remember to act always with the best interest of the town and our town's people in mind and in heart."
