Six years ago, in the late afternoon of a wintery day, a group of us sat around my living room and talked about what Stockbridge Updates could be. We agreed its goal was to inform the public and increase government transparency.
The 2015 Select Board election exposed the need for transparency. The winner, Chuck Cardillo, told The Eagle he won because “the voters wanted a more open government.”
The loser, Deb McMenamy, told The Eagle she lost because the voters thought the Select Board (Chuck Gillett, Steve Shatz, and McMenamy) had been acting without transparency.
Then followed what The Eagle termed a “self-imposed legal wonderland” during which Fred Rutberg, a judge and not yet a publisher, said, “I think a real communication problem has surfaced between the [select] board and the town.”
In the last decade, like a bad penny, the issue of transparency, keeps turning up. Stockbridge Updates said we would inform Stockbridge; we did what we said we would do. So, SU started small and grew.
It is easy to inform when the news is good. It gets much harder when the news is bad. We all prefer good news, but we are a smart bunch, and we know, sometimes stuff goes wrong. It is better to know, and good news or bad, it’s Stockbridge Updates‘ job to deliver it to you. So here goes…
Did you know Stockbridge Highway Superintendent, Hugh Page, was placed on administrative leave, and could be fired? Did you know the Highway Superintendent before Hugh, Len Tisdale, was placed on administrative leave and then fired? Do we have a personnel problem or a management problem? Are there other indicators in Town Offices?
Personnel matters are confidential and only the employee is free to share the information. So, we are not privy to the specifics. However, it is our right to know: Who placed him on leave, by what process, and overseen by whom? Who exactly has the authority to hire and fire? Who does performance evaluations and how often? If the Town Administrator, then who evaluates him? Next question: how do we find out?
In 2025, at the June 6th Select Board (SB) meeting, ironically, Cardillo said he did not want to hear from the public “because this is a SB decision.” In the same meeting, Chair Minacci asked the Town Administrator to turn off the mics of those attending via Zoom.
In prior meetings, when he was Chair, Cardillo removed the time for public comment and questions from the agenda. In public hearings, as Chair, Minacci limited all public comment to 2 minutes per person at the very end of the hearing. That is now an element in a lawsuit against the Town. (See SU FYI below).
Even without anywhere to ask them, the questions multiply: why is the relatively new Highway Department Building located at the Transfer Station already in need of repair? Why are we pursuing shared services when other towns, such as West Stockbridge, are saying shared services cost more? When West Stockbridge declined to share building inspector services with us because it would cost $31,000 more annually, will the multimillion-dollar shared fire services cost more? What happened to those fun summer Saturdays when we met on Town beach with the second homeowners — as if welcoming them back? Fun — friendly — where did they go?
SU will continue to ask the questions and report. Join us — we can all ask for and deserve — accountability.
Carole Owens
Executive Editor
