>>Valley Patriot>> |
The Tribune knew well beforehand that the search committee intended to interview its first candidates in executive session. But it waited until three candidates were interviewed before it threatened court action to “open” the process. Why did it wait? The answer can only be that it thought it could win by intimidation a point it would probably lose in court. It lost the same point several years back, and it lost a similar one the week before against the Haverhill Police. Rather than risk humiliation in open court, the Tribune twisted the mayor’s arm. Did anyone hear or read about the threatened court action prior to the search committee capitulating to it on August 16th? No! The reason is that the Tribune demanded to open the search behind closed doors. The result was that, in his effort to please the press, the mayor strong-armed the committee to allow a reporter into the August 16th meeting. But the public never thought it could go to that meeting; it had been posted as an “executive session.” So to conduct the meeting and allow only the press in was illegal. If the Tribune really wanted open government, it should have instructed its lawyer to insist that the meeting be rescheduled rather than force a reporter through the door. So we have a paper from Lawrence that fights for open government by twisting arms behind closed doors in Haverhill, a Haverhill mayor whose arm is easily twisted by a paper from Lawrence, and a meeting which was illegal because it was opened for the Tribune only. Who is running our city? I am grateful for the candidates who survived, but it’s more a testimony to their tolerance for confusion, pandering and bullying than it is to how the paper and the mayor behaved. That’s good because the next superintendent is going to need a full measure of such tolerance if the nonsense shown during this most recent search continues. In the future, search committees should base their processes on sound legal principles then stick by their guns. If the paper disagrees, it should take its case to open court rather than issue threats behind closed doors. That would send the message that our press and school officials play by the rules. In the long run, that’s a good way to present ourselves to potential employees and even a better thing to teach our children. *Send your questions
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Congratulations
to the Haverhill Superintendent Search Committee for
identi-fying five excellent finalists. I hope all
interview well in the final round and that we get an
outstanding superintendent. But the ends do not justify
the means. For, even though the Tribune stroked itself
for “opening up” the process, the process was
not open, and, further, the mayor abdicated his
responsibilities for the sake of good press.