In another astounding defeat for historic preservation in Southborough, the Board of Selectmen, now dubbed the “Select Board” voted to renew the contract for Department of Public Works head Karen Galligan.
Readers will remember that this is the same Ms. Galligan who is under investigation by the State Inspector General’s office (along with town Administrator Mark Purple and former BOS chair Martin Francis Healey, who signed the proposal) after accepting funds from a 290K “Shared Streets” grant from the State for a “History Walk”—a plan they never intended to implement, as was later admitted. In the process, Galligan and the BOS came close to destroying, if not destroying, a potential burial site for Native American and early colonial settlers. The State investigation against Ms Galligan, Purple and Co. is seemingly ongoing, along with a stew pot of past allegations against Ms. Galligan, ranging from potential graft to gross mismanagement to spraying illegal pesticides on wetlands.
(You can watch a short video shown at Town Meeting on this HERE. BOS proposals for St. Mark’s site were rejected almost unanimously by the voters with numerous rate payers of all political stripes standing up to call out the BOS for their duplicity.)
Still, it seems from tonight’s performance, that the lessons about the dangers stemming from BOS arrogance were not fully absorbed, especially by Mr. Dennington.
Dozens of people were in fact waiting in the wings to speak against Galligan’s renewal when Dennington, who is a law partner at Conn Kavanaugh, decided to wield his litigation skills to silence his fellow citizens. In particular, one of our most active members, who had spent the better part of two days cataloguing complaints against Ms. Galligan, was completely shut down and no discussion occurred.
Dennington’s abrupt and uncalled for move to cut off debate was legal, but, to use a not so gentle yet accurate term—incredibly sleazy—especially when it violated the rights of so many waiting to weigh in on Galligan’s poor record and the damage she has done to the historic fabric of Southborough.
You can watch Dennington’s sad performance HERE.
It’s obvious from Dennington’s demeanor he was very anxious to cut off any further discussion. And in one slice, he kneecapped democracy in Southborough.
So why would Mr. Dennington, along with three other board members, rush to approve the reemployment of a DPW director (with a raise) who is under active investigation by the State for solliciting a “History Walk Grant”, who has been proved to be incompetent on numerous occasions, and who is roundly reviled by a large number of citizens who petitioned to have her replaced? Is there something MORE to hide? Their action defies reason, unless there are other reasons…
There is obviously more to this story to come. Maybe what’s needed is a citizens’ petition to recall Karen Galligan. It would have no binding effect, but perhaps another public humiliation is what’s needed to get the BOS to act in our interests.
In the meantime, shame on you Andrew Dennington for using your legal skills against your fellow citizens, denying them a voice in their government. And woe to the historic fabric of Southborough under your tenure.
(Full disclosure: I ran against Andrew Dennington two years ago, and was one of several whistleblowers in the recent disclosures about the St. Mark’s Triangle.)
** This post has been edited from the original to further detail Galligan’s role in harming historical assets & and SHS response, in answer to a private letter sent to the SHS Board from Andrew Dennington claiming: ‘Frankly, I think that topic [Galligan] has only a tangential relationship to an actual historical preservation topic.”
We’ll let you decide that, readers. Godspeed!