Conflicts of Interest

Last year members of the finance committee - and others - pointed out the potential conflicts that would arise if we elected a selectman (Charlie Flynn) who was on the school committee when one of our sitting selectmen (Bruce Turner) was the business manager of our school district. For that sin, Flynn and Turner engaged in a vendetta to force those finance committee members to resign, which they eventually did out of disgust. (See other entries on this blog for details.) Both Flynn and Turner are on record saying the finance committee members were wrong in raising the potential conflict issue.

While I like the new members of the finance committee, their collective experience is significantly less than the previous ones. I expect and hope that they will perform well. But the town was not well served by the actions of Flynn and Turner.

So is the conflict of interest issue real? There certainly was and is the potential for conflict. But what are the chances that potential becomes reality?

Flynn - in his role as selectman - was outspokingly instrumental in successfully fighting the recent attempt to close the three satellite schools. That opposition led to the school committee formally censuring him last Thursday for his "commingling of interests." (See the Berkshire Eagle for Saturday, March 3.) But Flynn apparently sees nothing wrong with what he did. The paper quotes him as saying "I don't have a loyalty to the school committee. I have a loyalty to the people who voted for me." Come again? You have no loyalty to the committee on which you serve? And which voters are you loyal to, Charlie?