Greg Roach's Berkshires Blog
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
  The road to Hell is paved with good intentions
Here's an interesting letter to the editor from Richard A. Jones Sr. about Leo Senecal's attempt to regain his pension which was taken away after he was convicted of a felony for illegally dumping oil in the city landfill:
I have sat on the Grand Jury twice. One time was when Leo Senecal was in the hot seat (for illegally disposing of oil), obviously ratted out by a fellow employee.

The state was represented by a woman from that entity presenting the charges. When I questioned her as to the composition of said oil, she could not tell me.

In my opinion, those charges never should have been brought. I found this guy to be totally ignorant of the potential for what he did. His only intent was to save the city some money and bookwork.

Why didn't the city have a procedure in place to deal with this occurrence? The city itself is the culprit here, to not have covered such an eventuality and have a procedure in place to deal with it!

In my opinion, Senecal was not a highly educated individual and dealt with the problem as best he could, given the circumstances. I voted not to indict Senecal because I saw no malicious intent!
OK. These are all relevant points that might help persuade governor Patrick to sign the special legislation needed to reinstate the pension.

But then this effort derails itself by playing into stupid racial stereotypes for no reason whatsoever:
The DA's office puts itself forward as a knowledgeable, all-knowing entity. NOT SO. BUT, they lead those on the jury to believe they know the score. Nothing could be further from the truth. Were Senecal to be black, he would have his pension, and it would never hit the news.
(emphasis mine)
Oy. So much for that particular argument.
 
Comments:
Hmmmmm....I often wondered if he wasn't just following directions from the front office? Would seem logical, being that nobody does nothing without orders from on high, that he would take it upon himself to make a command decision as big as that without it not having been presented to the front office first?
 
If so, Senecal's loyalty is probably going to cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. I don't know too many folks who would roll over to protect their boss like that. It seems unlikely.
 
I'm sure there is no paper trail but the unspoken word and innuendos would surely be enough for someone in his position to assume that it was cleared with the front office. You have to remember those people working at the town hall are working under the thumb of a tyrant who holds their very existence in his hands. They will do whatever they have to, to please, so as to hold on to their jobs. If there is no direct connection to the front office, it can be argued that the atmosphere created by the mayor was such that he could be held culpable by reason of established principles of decision making within his administration. (The Three Monkeys)
 
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