Breaking Down Bourne-Gate - Editorial
The local news cycle in Bourne lately has been quite the whirlwind. There is a lot to be said, but doing our best to summarize left us with three simple words: what a mess.
With allegations of wiretapping, rumors of hidden cameras and a police investigation into what was a hair too close to extortion for our liking, Bourne Town Hall is starting to sound a lot more like Nixon-era DC than 21st-century Cape Cod.
There seems to be a number of different issues happening concurrently, which has created quite a brouhaha for the town’s administrative leads. It is a complicated web, but one we feel is worth outlining for our readers.
One situation involves Stanley Andrews, the former board of health chairman, who is now suing the town administrator, human resources director and former select board chairman for allegedly violating his rights by recording a private meeting.
Similar but somewhat separate is the allegation from town hall custodian Mat Rose, who reported seeing what looked like a recording being made of that meeting. Mr. Rose was recently suspended for 15 days. The letter of suspension from the assistant town administrator was shared with the Enterprise; however, additional questions were left unanswered when our attempts to contact the assistant town administrator were unsuccessful. We did, however, see value in publishing the letter and additional comments from Mr. Rose’s attorney, who also represents Mr. Andrews.
There is also the still-separate-but-somewhat-related issue of DPW Director Shawn Patterson and his sour relations with Town Administrator Marlene McCollem. This situation was our first indication that things at town hall had gone amok, dating back a few months, but the revelation of the meeting with Mr. Andrews may predate even that.
The problem is, everything is still very murky and there is a ton of unknown gray areas, to our dismay. The town has been—to its credit—as transparent as it can be, legally speaking, but it is important to note that the transparency from the town thus far is actually rather opaque.
Mr. Patterson’s current leave of absence is set to expire at the end of August, with a return date of August 28, and he has said that if Ms. McCollem has not been removed by the time he returns, he will seek employment elsewhere. This was a strong line to draw in the sand and contradicted starkly with Ms. McCollem’s statement that her working relationship with Mr. Patterson was not “acrimonious in any way.”
Still, we have seen no indications that Ms. McCollem is leaving now or in the imminent future. So what will happen on that front? That remains to be seen, but however it does end up playing out, our hope is that it at least will be a civil and amicable departure.
At this point, the denigration of one party’s character at the hand of another will benefit no one, and that can be applied to all of the above-referenced situations. Bourne is a small place, and though small communities are no strangers to conflict and scandal, we would regret to see this time period leave a dark mark on Bourne’s recent history for no real reason aside from personal grudges and misgivings.