Setting the Record Straight

          My letter to the editor of the Record about Charlie Flynn's accusations against me and Laura was published in today's paper.  It's set forth below.  Mary Brazie didn't like the implication in the letter that she was the one "burying" the anonymous letter about Pilone.  She says she did make copies of the letter, gave copies to the selectmen and left copies on the table for the Finance Committee meeting that took place later that day.  But she was told that Flynn took them off the table after she had left the building! 

         Charlie, want to respond?

"To the editor-

          "The Record of two weeks ago quoted Egremont Selectman Charlie Flynn castigating me for “imposing” on the Egremont town hall staff and castigating my wife Laura for not “having good judgment,” presumably because she married me.   The quotes were so off the wall that I thought your reporter had misquoted Flynn, but he didn’t respond to an email inquiry from me asking what he really said, so I assume the quotes were accurate.

"The Egremont Finance Committee, chaired by my wife, prepares a detailed report and recommendations on the financial items in the warrant for each town meeting (and this year a separate report on the water department) and tries to get it into the hands of the voters at least a week before the meeting.  This year the Selectboard  kept changing its numbers after the warrant had been issued, so the report had to be changed to keep up with that, and it therefore was going to be late.  During the last week before the town meeting, almost all the Finance Committee members – including Laura - were out of town, so I was enlisted as essentially a secretary – not something I was terribly happy about - to put the reports together and get them to town hall for copying, which I dutifully did.  Flynn characterized this as “the husband of the chairman of the Finance Committee going to Town Hall to make copies of the 47-page report for the Finance Committee,” which was “not fair” to the staff because it was “an inordinate amount of paper.”  I guess he thinks the citizenry should do with shorter, less informative reports. 

"Either Flynn or your reporter are confused about another document, a multi-page anonymous letter to Egremont Police Officer Jeremy Pilone, a copy of which was attached to an April 30 email from an Egremont voter addressed to the Selectboard, the Finance Committee and two members of the organizing committee of One Egremont. Sending it to the town makes it a public document, of course, but someone at town hall apparently decided to bury it (and somebody ought to ask why) because Mary Brazie never made a copy for the Finance Committee, whether or not she distributed it to anyone else.  Flynn somehow thinks I included the letter in the reports I delivered to town hall for copying, which, if true, would make me really, really stupid, but even Flynn can’t go that far in his wild and misguided accusations.

"Your reporter told me after the Kevin Zurrin removal proceeding that he thought Kevin should have checked his sources.  The Record should start following its own advice."