Vendetta (Part 3)

If you think there's been a violation of the MA open meeting law, you file a complaint with the board or committee that you think violated it, and that board or committee must send you a response explaining why they did or didn't violate it. Charlie Flynn filed a complaint with the finance committee alleging that the endorsement of Laura Allen's candidacy by its members must have violated the law, because how could they have done that without a meeting. In accordance with the law, and with the advice of counsel, the finance committee responded that the members had individually signed on to the endorsement and no meeting took place. End of story, right?

Not if you're Charlie Flynn on a vendetta. If the complainant doesn't like the response, he can file an appeal with the folks in Boston who police these things. And that's what Charlie did. Anyone with the slightest experience in these matters - and I have to assume that includes Charlie - knows that that appeal disappears into some obscure file some place, never to be seen again. The Boston policing folks (I'm told there are a grand total of two of them) have better things to do with their time than investigating alleged violations of the open meeting law. They're too busy going after officials with their hands in the public till, or who have been taking bribes, etc., things that too many MA politicians commit all too often. So it's extremely unlikely that anything will ever be heard again concerning Charlie's appeal. It will just sit there.

The explanation given by the finance committee to Charlie makes eminent sense (and since I'm the one who prepared the endorsement and got the members to sign it, I know it's true). He can't possibly think there will be some sort of righteous punishment inflicted on the members of the finance committee by the powers-that-be in Boston. So why would Charlie file an appeal? To continue his vindictive harassment of the members of the finance committee for daring to endorse his opponent. If he can cobble up some other explanation, he can post it by comment on this entry. He knows how to do that.