There are always back stories in politics, and good journalists are usually able to sniff them out fairly easily. But I’m just dying to find out how Northampton City Councilor Michael Bardsley wound up acting as a pallbearer for recently departed fellow Councilor Ray LaBarge.

It may not be anything more than a request from the LaBarge family. After all, he and Marianne LaBarge–two people Ray LaBarge didn’t always see eye-to-eye with–were there at the end, and I can tell you from personal experience what that means to a family member. But there are going to be people who will say that this was nothing more than a politically motivated move to grab some publicity in advance of what will be a hard-fought race for mayor.

I don’t know if that’s true, but I don’t want to believe it. I want to believe that Bardsley was there to honor a man who gave selflessly to the city they both love and have served for many years. I want to believe that he didn’t try to steal the spotlight and one-up Mayor Clare Higgins, who stood in the honor guard as a representative of the city. I want to believe he did it for all the right reasons, because even though I’m a pretty cynical person at times, I still hold out hope that there is still a sense of humanity in politics.

I want to believe all of that. The problem is, I’m not sure I do.

**

Speaking of the LaBarge services, if you want to read a shining example of great local journalism, check out Bob Flaherty’s column on the front page of today’s Gazette. It doesn’t get much better than that–except maybe on Fridays on the Recorders op-ed page (just kidding Bob).

**

Next week on the big morning show we’re going to be talking a lot about local food. It’s CISA Restaurant Week, and we’re going to be spotlighting some local hero restaurateurs who have been known to tap into the valley’s bounty on a regular basis. And then on Thursday at 8am, local food will be the subject of our latest edition of Eggs and Issues, live from River Valley Market.

More to follow…keep listening…

Collins

Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins, take heed–because you could be next!

Was that an omimous enough opening for you? I must admit to having a flair for the dramatic at times, but Ii’m halfway serious this time, because Higgins could learn a lot from what happened this week to her compadre to the north, Greenfield Mayor Christine Forgey.

As you may know by now, Forgey’s bid for a third term was derailed this week with a third place finish in a mayoral primary won by Greenfield Town Councilors Alfie Siano and Bill Martin. Adding insult to injury was Martin’s second-place finish, which came from a write-in effort launched less than two weeks ago–not to mention that Martin was partially responsible for putting Forgey in office, having been a driving force in her first insurgent mayoral campaign back in 2003.

I will break down some of the subtleties of that race in my Recorder column. My purpose here today is to send a warning shot across the bow of Northampton’s current chief executive, who’s facing a re-election challenge of her own from a former ally, City Councilor Mike Bardsley.

At this point, Higgins is taking Bardsley very seriously, which is good–because that was one of Forgey’s major errors. Granted, she never expected to get blindsided by Martin, but she should have been prepared for it. She should have been prepared for anything, and she wasn’t. Forgey, like a lot of people, took a look at the field and just assumed it would be her and Siano in the final. That was the fatal mistake. And even when Martin jumped in the race, Forgey still didn’t seem to take the threat seriously. If she did, she wouldn’t have waited until the Thursday before the campaign to launch her re-election bid. A more adroit politician would have been in the news cycle the very next day after Martin announced, but Forgey didn’t even go that far. Meanwhile, Martin became the flavor of the week, and rode that momentum all the way to a victory that, though surprising, wasn’t exactly a shock.

In fact, Forgey’s lack of performance and response to Martin, actually had me wondering if she even wanted the job anymore. She assured me that she did, but you’d never know it by her response, or, should I say, lack of response.

I should stop for a moment and say that my intent today was not to come here and bash Forgey. But I can’t help but question her re-election strategy, assuming there was one, and submit to anyone reading this that it is an abject lesson in one of the cardinal rules of politics–namely, that incumbent that make assumptions about any re-election bid usually wind up watching someone else take the oath on Inauguration Day.

This is the lesson that Higgins needs to heed. The fall of Forgey may have been the result of a variety of factors directly related to Greenfield’s toxic political climate. But Northampton’s political toxicity levels aren’t getting any lower either, and it won’t surprise me if the Higgins-haters go looking for a primary candidate to do a similar job on her this fall.

If that happens, Her Honor will do well to remember the lessons of the Forgey implosion, and take nothing for granted because it never is–especially in a climate where people are hurting, pissed, and looking for someone to blame it on…

Collins

April 3, 2009

Compare the cities of Greenfield and Northampton to people in either of those towns and you are likely to get a varied response–and most often it’s negative.

A lot of Greenfield people, especially natives, think Northampton is a stuffy, elitist berg of beautiful people, and I’ve met more than a few Paradise City residents who think Greenfield might be a location choice should anyone decide to do a remake of the movie “Deliverance.”

So, there’s not a lot of love there. But I have to exist in both worlds, so, as you might expect, I never miss an opportunity to compare and contrast those two wonderful municipalities–and one area where I’m starting to see a lot of similarities is in their respective mayoral elections.

Northampton Mayor Claire Higgins and Greenfield Mayor Christine Forgey are both up for re-election this year, and both are being challenged by At-Large members of their respective city councils. Greenfield Councilor Alfie Siano has been running for mayor since long before he actually issued a formal challenge to Forgey, and the same can probably be said for Northampton Councilor Mike Bardsley, who last night made it official when he pulled nomination papers to challenge Higgins’ claim to a fifth, two-year term.

Bardsley and Siano share some similarities as well. Both are very liberal councilors who both seem to enjoy wide at-large support in their respective communities. Both seem to be carrying pretty positive messages of change, as well. My sense is that Bardsley is the more overtly political of the two, but Alfie isn’t afraid to mix it up and, if necessary, take both sides of an issue, which has become a bit of a Bardsley hallmark in recent years.

But perhaps the most important similarty between these two guys is that they are both going up against mayors who are somewhat wounded politically. There seems to be a growing anti-Forgey sentiment in Greenfield, although there’s been no specific polling to indicate that it’s become a factor. That will become more apparently in this month’s primary. And Higgins seems to have about 35 percent of the population that won’t vote for her, which won’t be enough to beat her unless Bardsley can find away to convince the other 65 percent that he’s a better choice to move the city forward.

Both mayors are somewhat fortunate in that they both are facing devastating budget years. The reason I say they are fortunate is because (1) everyone else is in the same boat, so the chances of a challenger being able to level a charge of imcompetence is virtually nil and (2) voters are often less likeky to change horses in time of great economic and fiscal stress UNLESS that stress is a direct result of mayoral mismanagement–which I don’t think is a makeable case at this point.

The other similarity I see between Bardsley and Siano–and this is the “biggie”–is the question of whether they are really up to doing this job.

It’s not that they aren’t intellgent, capable, interested guys. They are. But you need more than just those three traits to be a successful leader. There’s an intangible element that’s missing, not to mention the presence of certain shortcomings that don’t exactly foster a lot of confidence with the electorate.

Siano’s main Achilles Heel seems to be his inability to focus, while Bardsley’s is his at times shameless attempts to be on both sides of every issue. And while those are style issues that can be addressed, the fact is that to address them requires the candidate to be aware of them–which I’m not sure is the case with either of these guys.

There are some that will say that I am trying to simply derail these two campaigns on behalf of the incumbents. But, the truth is, I don’t really care who wins these elections. My interest is in seeing effective government leadership, and if Siano and Bardsley can provide that, they should be elected. Certainly, there are strong arguments that can be made to replace both of these women, and I’m guessing we’ll hear a lot of those arguments advanced before too much longer.

The question that remains, however, is whether these respective communities will be better off replacing their current mayors with these two men. To date, I haven’t seen a compelling case made either way, but I hope to hear one sooner rather than later.

 Collins

I certainly hope Jimmy Breslin doesn’t mind me swiping the title of his fine, behind-the-scenes book on Watergate, but I can’t think of a better line to sum up the events of this past week regarding embattled Director David Marks and the Hampshire Regional YMCA.

For those of you who haven’t been following closely, here’s what happened (at least from my perspective).

A story broke a few months back that Marks was leaving the Y and Camp Norwich to “pursue other opportunities.” That didn’t smell right to me, but I let it go at that point because I had no reason to believe it wasn’t true.

It wasn’t until a few months later, after I had joined the Y in an effort to get in shape, that I found out, from David, that his departure wasn’t voluntary. He was, in point of fact, being forced out because of a dispute with certain board members who didn’t like his “style.” It was obvious he was tormented by this, and I was more than tormented–I was pissed (1) because it looked like a good guy was going to get run out of a job he was good at because of dirty politics and (2) the cover story that had been put out there was an obvious attempt by someone to cover the board’s ass and make it look like this something other than the slimy move it obviously was.

So, I did what I–and what all good journalists should do–I went after the real story. And lookee, Ma, what I found!

First, it should be made clear that David did NOT ask me to save him or to go after this story, In fact, I think he was nervous that I was going to make waves and they’d force him to leave even earlier. Clearly, this was a scared guy and who could blame him? He needs to work and provide for his family just like anyone else. I assured him I wouldn’t go out of my way to hurt him, but there was no way I was letting this happen without trying to tell the world what was really going on.

As the story began to unfold, I learned that two women–the real heroes of this story, Kara Harper and Margot Zalkind–we’re organizing a grassroots campaign to save David’s job. I set up a time to interview them this past Tuesday, one day after they and their posse were set to appear before the board and plead David’s case. But as I started to think about it more and more, it seemed like the thing to do was to go to that meeting and see for myself what (1) David’s supporters had to say and (2) what was the “real” agenda of some of these board members. I wish I could tell you I came away with a whole lot of insight on the latter, but here’s what I was able to surmise based on that one meeting.

The board president, Kevin Jordan, struck me as a guy who didn’t really seem to have a dog in this fight. I’d heard that he was the mastermind behind this move, but that wasn’t the hit I got off of him. The guy who was the most vocal on this night was former Gazette Publisher Charlie DeRose, who was the most vocal about Marks’ shortcomings and the “style” issues that fueled the board’s efforts to seek a change in directors.

I didn’t speak during the meeting, deciding instead to sit back and listen. I was struck by how concilatory and civilized Marks’ supporters were, even though they clearly felt he was getting a raw deal. The board was equally polite, but I walked out of there with the dominant impression that they weren’t going to be swayed by this 11th hour mobilization–or, at least not enough to reverse their position that Marks needed to go.

Outside the meeting, I interview Harper and Zalkind, as well as a woman from Hadley with a truly touching story about how Marks and the Camp Norwich staff basically saved her son after his father had died of cancer. I took the audio back to WHMP and crafted two short features which I ran the next day on my morning show.

Needless to say, the reaction the next day was somewhat visceral, mainly because people didn’t have the whole story and now they did–and they weren’t happy. By the end of that first day, Jordan made it clear to Marks that the board was reconsidering. The president sent out an e-mail to everyone who was at the meeting saying they would make a decision within 72 hours, but it was pretty clear that they were going to keep Marks, but they needed to do it in such a way that allowed them to save at least a little bit of face.

Flash forward to today, when Marks met with a four-member board subcommittee and worked out the terms of an agreement that allows him to stay both as CEO and Camp Norwich director. When I met him about an hour later, David looked relieved and drained–but still very much employed and looking forward to the future.

He was also incredibly gracious, much more so than, I’m sure, a lot of people would have been. He talked about the opportunity this presented for the Y and the board to make the organization an even bigger part of the community than it already is. 

I tried to explain to him how unusual this is to have a resolution like this so quickly, but I’m not sure he cared too much about that. He was just happy to have a job, and thrilled that the board was willing to reposition itself the way it did. And that, to me, is another big part of the story that needs to be told. It’s not often that a board–any board–is willing to recognize when they’ve made a mistake and correct it. More often than not, they’ll dig their heels when challenged by outside forces, but this board was prigressive and smart enough not to go there, and for that they should be congratulated.

David was also effusive in his thanks to me and to our radio station for telling his story, and while I appreciate the props, the truth of the matter is that the real reason he still has a job is because the community stepped up on his behalf. All we did was give that community a voice, which is what we do best, and they took it from there.

Still, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I feel a tremendous sense of satisfaction today. A lot of reporters go their whole careers with no tangible evidence that they’ve done anything to “move the needle” of public opinion in their own community. I no longer have to worry about feeling that way because we did make a difference in the lives not just of one health club director, but an entire community that loves the Hampshire Regional YMCA.

The next time anyone tells me that radio “doesn’t work,” or can’t force real change, I’ll be happy to sit them down and tell the story of how WHMP helped the community save a good guy from a terrible injustice–and left a situation better than we found it, which is what doing this is all about.

Collins 

March 20, 2009

Sorry I haven’t written in a while, but I’ve been busier than a one-armed paperhanger around here…..oops…..maybe I shouldn’t have gone there….I don’t want to have to issue an apology like Barry (a.k.a. the president) had to today for making that Special Olympics comment on Leno.

As cool as I thought it was for him to go on that show, something told me it was going to end badly for Barry on some level. I just can’t help but wonder what the reaction would have been had his predecessor said something similar. I’m guessing it would have gotten a whole lot more play than it did, but I’m just speculating.

The reason I’ve been busy is I’ve been chasing a couple of stories that are developing on almost a daily basis. The one that’s gotten the most play is the Greenfield-Mohawk School Superintendent flap. You can read more about that in my column in today’s Greenfield Recorder, but suffice it say, anything that gets Dalton Athey and Chris Forgey sniping at each other is always worth tracking.

The other story which is not gotten even a lick of traction is what’s going on at the Hampshire Regional YMCA. As you may know if you’ve been listening, I recently joined the Y and am embarking on a new exercise program designed to both save my life, and raise money for a good cause (more on that to follow later).

During my travels between the locker room, pool and exercise room, I stumbled upon a story that NO ONE, including my friends in the print media, is talking about. As you may or may not know, YMCA Executive Director David Marks is leaving later this summer. When the story broke this past fall, I (and apparently a lot of other people) was under the impression that Marks was leaving to pursue other opportunities.

That is apparently not the case. To put not too fine a point on it, Marks is being forced out of his position by the new president of the YMCA’s Board of Directors. Apparently, Peter Jordan is not down with Marks’ and has acquired the votes to replace him, and they are actively seeking replacements for both the CEO and Camp Norwich Director’s position.

Now, keep in mind, this is a guy (Marks) who took an organization that was around $230,000 in the red and in one year created an over $130,000 surplue. Not to mention, he has created a pretty damn good camp facility in Huntington, while totally changing the mood and feel of an organization that wasn’t exactly the most welcoming place in the world before he showed up.

Let me give you an idea of what kind of guy David Marks is. One day, before my summer kidney odyssey, I mentioned on the air that I was interested in changing my life and getting healthier. It’s time, I said, to make the change–or start thinking about ordering the casket. Now, up until then, my connection to Marks was ansullary at best. I’d interviewed him a couple of times, so it wasn’t like we were tight. But that didn’t stop the guy from coming over to the radio station one day, unsolicited, and offer to help me in my quest.

Now, keep in mind, this is a guy who is running a multi-million dollar operation and organizing a summer camp program (in itself a full-time job) and he’s taking time out of his day to come all the way across town out of concern for a guy he hardly knows. That absolutely blew me away. It was one of the single nicest gestures anyone has ever made to me, and it meant more than he will ever know. In fact, I’m not sure I’d be working out today if that conservation had never happened, so I owe the guy a lot–and so does the rest of the community. And now it is payback time.

A pair of Y members, both big David Marks supporters, have launched a drive to save his job. Kara Harper and Margot Zalkind will go before the Y board this coming Monday. I’m guessing they aren’t going to have much success convincing them to change their mind, but they are going to give it their best shot–and we are going to help them.

Harper and Zalkind will be stopping by here on Tuesday and will be giving me the exclusive on their plans, and from there, it’s going to BE ON! I’m taking this thing as wide as it will go, and while we may not ultimately win the battle to save David Marks, we’re, at the very least, going to expose the dirty politics and back-room double-dealing going on in this supposedly-above board, “community organization.”

I’m guessing there may be a few well-heeled donors who might be interested to know that a successful and popular director is being forced out of office to advance someone’s political agenda. And my hope is enough of those donors get as pissed off as I am and start “rethinking” their support for the Y–because that’s the only way we’re going to be able to save this guy.

This is a real chance for you, the community, to really make a difference, and show these people where the REAL power lies in this community.

More to follow. Bank on it.

Time to hit the treadmill

Collins

March 9, 2009

Does anyone else think this weather absolutely sucks!

I’m sorry to use such graphic terms, but I’m not sure I can stand another minute of winter right now. It didn’t used to be like that. When I was a kid, I always looked forward to the winter months, mainly because of hockey season. But I haven’t laced up a pair of skates since Mike Dukakis was a viable candidate for the presidency, so let’s just say winter is no longer a season to be embraced as much as endured.

This is especially true if you happen to work in morning radio, as I do, at least one half-hour away from home. In that context, winter create on an entirely different and bizarre torment, one that can only be experience driving on icy roads at three in the morning.

I’m a pretty confident driver, but the most scared I’ve ever been in a car was this winter when we got hit with a surprise ice storm. It was a couple of months back on a Sunday into Monday commute, and it literally took me 30 minutes to get from my house to the lights on Route 2 in Gill, which is a grand total of 1.7 miles. I literally was afraid to drive home that night for fear that the ice would still be there. Now, if things are really bad, I just stay over on my air mattress in the office rather than risk a repeat of that performance.

The one good thing about this weather is that it gives me an excuse not to drive by the photo op, errrr, the big joint House-Senate Ways and Means Committee hearing going on at Turners Falls High School. Not to denigrate the guy who set it up, First Franklin District State Rep. Steve Kulik (D-Worthington), but the next time one of these hearings actually results in a change in state policy will be the first time.

The sad part is, there are actually people who care about the state of education in Western Mass. who are going to sit through hours of political bloviating waiting for their chance to tell their elected “leaders” about how the state’s pathetic system of funding education is damaging the children of this area…only to have it go in one ear and out the other. Because let’s face it–if these clowns were really interested in fixing the problem, they would have deep-sixed this ridiculous excuse for a funding formula years ago, they wouldn’t allow charter schools to compete on unequal footing with conventional public schools, and they wouldn’t have set up a school choice system that effectively penalizes school districts who are unable to keep students because they don’t have enough money to fund the programs to keep them there in the first place–because of that same dysfunctional funding formula.

You watch how it plays in tomorrow’s paper. I’m betting you’ll see big pictures and headlines about how the area got their chance to have their say in front of the most powerful people on Beacon Hill, conveniently leaving out the fact that exactly nothing that was said in the course of that hearing will have even the remotest impact on how this state funds (or doesn’t fund) education in fiscal year 2010.

Maybe I’m just being bitter, but I’ve seen too many of these political pranks to every be wide-eyed again where this state government is concerned–especially when it comes to its “commitment” to education.

I guess that’s life in Deval Patrick’s Massachusetts, where the governing never quite begins, but the campaign never quite ends.

March 6, 2009

The unthinkable has happened.  I, Chris Collins, long-time denizen of terrestrial radio and award-winning newspaper columnist, has blogger nation.

There goes the neighborhood.

I have no idea what the hell to do with this space, so I thought to get the ball rolling, I’d share some of the colorful stories about life “behind the scenes” on my radio show, “the WHMP Morning News.” And have I got a doozy to get things started.

If you heard the show today, you might not have noticed much difference. We still did the news, mixed in with weather, sports, a variety of timely features intersperced with cutting edge commentary provided by your faithful reporter. But what you don’t (and couldn’t possibly know) is the level of health-related drama that accompanied today’s show.

As you may or may not know, I was hospitalized this summer with a relatively heinous condition related to an ongoing battle with kidney stones, which I guess is God’s of helping make my acension into middle-age a little more interesting. Since my release from Cooley Dickinson Hospital, recurrent attacks have been few and far between (knock wood).

That all came to an end this morning.

It started with a throbbing in my right side that grew progressively worse on my drive in to the station. By the time we got to the 6am news, I was basically doubled over. I couldn’t sit, I could barely stand, and it took everything I had just to get through the hour.

I was just about to bust into my stash of painkillers when the throbbing subsided, and the pain began to migrate south, which meant the stone (or in this case stones) in question was (were) on the move. A burning sensation began to be felt ni an area of the body where you’d rather not have a burning senation, and in between Scott Coen’s sports and the 6:45 feature, I went into the bathroom and blasted out what is, to date, the largest pair of passed kidney stones I have seen since this little odyssey began.

(Quick editors note: ordinarily, this would be the point where I’d post some pictures of these bad boys, but I’m still learning how to work this technology, and I don’t have access to a computer camera. Plus, these things are flat-out gross, and I really don’t want to leave you gagging during my first blog post. There will be plenty of time to gag later.)

Needless to say, I felt much better once the offending presence had been expelled. I wish I could say the same for my “morning alliance” brother Monte, who damn near barfed when I showed him my new creations. Sorry, dude, but you asked for it.

One of the strangest parts of this whole thing is that this isn’t the first time this has happened. In fact, this is the FOURTH time I have passed one or more kidney stones during an air shift. It must be something about this building that draws them out. Hopfeully, my doctor’s will figure out what’s causing these things, but I’m convinced there are three main culprits–chocolate, red meat, and soda, three things that I swore off following my convalesence and have since been eating in more than moderate quanities.

So it’s back on the wagon for me. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. But for now, try and suppress the image and idea that while you are driving to work or school on any given morning, your faithful radio host may just be doubled over in the bathroom trying to figure out who I managed to piss off to wind up with what is believed to be the most painful medical condition a human can experience outside of childbirth.

Feel free to go back to enjoying that breakfast.

Collins