What a shocker. Our Board of Selectmen announced last night that they had voted unanimously (in executive session) to sue Harvard over the Case Estates, to try to make them sell us the land.
What are the odds that any court in tha land would order specific performance of a 9 year old Purchase and Sale Agreement? I'd say the proverbial snowball has a better chance of making it, but our selectmen are gong to file a claim in Superior Court next week. I wonder if it will be date-stamped April 1?
When I asked if they had considered the possibility of failure, chairman Ed Coburn stated that our town counsel, Kopelman & Paige, had assured the Board that we had a good case. Good for K&P, perhaps, but certainly not for Weston.
The Board claims to be acting on the mandate of the 2006 town meeting vote authorizing this purchase, but we voted for open space, not for a lawsuit.
This unfortunate development makes my point that we are being governed with the most extravagant incompetence, which is of course the reason I am running for selectman in the May 10 election.
A big part of the current problem is that the selectmen are being advised by a bevy of lawyers from K&P, whose advice, in my view, leaves a lot to be desired.
My very first job as a lawyer was with town counsel Florence Freeman, who had been Weston's first woman selectman. Florence had an office upstairs from Jim Clark's barber shop and her door was always open to everyone, including town officials. Selectman Whit Smith had an office down the hall.
Things got done. There were no endless, expensive sagas like the Case Estates or the Josiah Smith Tavern & Old Library.
I believe we could do much better with local town counsel. I also think the old Fiske Law Office would be the perfect place for him or her.
If, like me, you feel that our selectmen are making a big and very expensive mistake (think countless motions, discovery by the boatload and endless appeals, in addition to pre-trial and trial), you can e-mail them at coburn.e@westonmass.org, gillespie.d@westonmass.org and harrity.m@westonmass.org.
If they hear from enough of us, perhaps they will re-think their vote to sue Harvard, rescind that vote and vote instead to take Michael Harrity off the case and ask (even beg) former selectman Harold Hestnes, an accomplished attorney with strong ties to Harvard, to take over the negotiations.
My guess is that Harold could easily wrap this up in time for the May 12 town meeting.
Wouldn't that be ever so much better?
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