December 20, 2004
In May 2004, Mr. Don DeLutis was chosen as one of four delegates to the Negotiating Committee for the Bridgewater-Raynham School Committee. (Appointment made by former Chair Patti Roland).
As I was not a member of this group, I cannot say how often or to what extent Mr. DeLutis participated in the negotiations. He did tell me, as he has said to the printed press, that he missed some of the more recent meetings. It is also known that he participated in School Committee Executive Sessions, and that on November 17, 2004, he did vote in favor of the proposed Teacher Contract.
There are several concerns with this situation:
(1) Either Mr. DeLutis knew that the contract he was negotiating provided health insurance to him, or he was not familiar with the contract he was negotiating. If he understood that he was covered, then it is a blatant conflict of interest. If he did not know that he was covered by this contract, then how closely did he study the contract, and REPRESENT the people who elected him?
(2) How many meetings did Mr. DeLutis miss? These would have put the School Committee (representing the 40,000 citizens of Bridgewater and Raynham) at a disadvantage. If he could not complete his duties, why did he not ask to be replaced for that function?
(3) Exactly what conversations took place among Mr. DeLutis, Mr. Roland and Mr. McIntyre on the night on the November 17th School Committee Meeting, AFTER I asked Mr. DeLutis about his role in the contract? Who made the decision to change the recorded roll call vote from Executive Session? The vote was 5-1, announced as 4-1 (with 1 abstain); but then corrected at the last School Committee Meeting back to the recorded 5-1. Why was there an attempt to announce a different vote?
Some questions from townspeople, and my responses:
(a) Why I did not immediately question the announced vote at that November 17 Meeting? At that point, it was unclear to me if I could repeat anything said in Executive Session. It had been stressed to me that Executive Session discussions were supposed to stay confidential. After the Meeting, I consulted with Roberts Rules for guidance, as well as to ask someone familiar with Executive Sessions. (I had only been on an elected board with Exec Sessions for a short time, so I did not remember the exact rules on discussions.) From Roberts Rules (2nd Ed, pg. 169): "If the board goes into executive sessions, it shoudl be for discussion only. Any action a board wants to take should be done when the board members return to the open portion of the meeting. This way the action is recorded in the minutes for all to read." I therefore stated publicly the next day - in both Enterprise and Gazette - that a different vote was announced from what was recorded. I did not detail any discussions, I only questioned the announced vote.
(b) Did I file a report with the Mass Ethics Commission? Yes I did. I wrote up four pages and submitted it to the State Ethics Commission detailing the problems I was concerned with about the process, the vote and the different announced vote. I believe that it is my legal responsibility to the citizens of Bridgewater and Raynham to bring a problem that strikes at the heart of integrity to authorities.
(c) Why not talk to Mr. DeLutis or Mr. McIntyre about the situation? It was unclear to me what role Mr. McIntyre played in the changed announced vote; so why speak to someone who it appeared was part of the problem.. As far as speaking with Mr. DeLutis, I do not have his telephone number, have never spoken to him outside of normal conversation at School Committee Meetings. I am expected to go out of my way to "spin a bad situation" better for someone whom I would not even consider to be a friend? Mr. DeLutis has never done anything to welcome me to the Board; in fact, many of his actions and words have been to ostracize me from the School Committee.
In conclusion, this whole situation was the result of Mr. DeLutis - his words and actions leading up to the vote, including the vote, and after the vote. Agree with my actions or not. However, the fact remains that what Mr. DeLutis did broke the trust between the citizens of Bridgewater & Raynham and a School Committee member.
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Joseph Gillis Jr.
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