2015 Annual Town Election Results, Congratulations Mr. Gillen!
A total of 465 voters made the annual trip to the Holland Community Center to exercise their constitutional right to participate in forming the government of their community. (Last year the count was 437.)The annual town election took place at the Community Center for the first time, read more»
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Town elections this comming Monday, June 8
Please make the time to vote, for the first time the elections will take place at the Community Center by the cemetery.It is important that those who don't really care get out there because the selfserving individuals who profit from corruption for sure will make the effort.
A special message to Kristin LaPlante; your notion that informatative election fliers based on facts are hate mail is missconceived and shows an utter disrespect of the democratic process on your part. This is the reason why you and those close to you are a danger in any position you are holding in our community.
We go back a long time; not many remember town clerk Robert Ford which you replaced in 2004. I remember Kristin Grant, your maiden name, as an innocent single women with a strong need to belong. You do belong now and there is not much we still have in common.
As always, I make up my own mind about a newcomer. Sharon Ashleigh was a newcomer. However, lately I was forced to realize that she already belongs too... she belongs to the point where she is unable to do her job. If the town clerk refuses to comply with Public Information Requests and witholds the information for more than 40 days when the law mandates her to comply with such a request within 10 days, she becomes a danger to our community as well. The information I requested will be useless by then.. The right to file Public Information Requests is one of the strong pillars a free society is based on. Public Information Requests are enabeling and ensuring public involvement and participation by providing a mechanism for holding governmental actors accountable for their decisions and actions.
Kristin, you obviously are a strong leader and mentor and had a chance to intorduce Sharon into the many responsibilities a town clerk has. Unfortunatelly that strong lead was pointing in the wrong direction!
Experience in the hands of a person with a strong moral compass is a good thing; in the wrong hands, it will spell disaster (unnecessary costly lawsuits.) Sharon Ashleigh seems to have that experience already (pushing the limits to see with what she can get away with, and in this town it seems to be endless), at least that is what she is claiming on her campaign signs.
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Please attend the Annual Town Meeting next Tuesday, May 26, at 7:00 pm at the Holland Elementary School
It is a good idea to read the warrant before hand. For your convenience, I have it posted here. To read the warrant, click here!Comments - Edit - Delete
Consider the Source!
It seems to be unclear whom to believe, Dana Manning or Brian Johnson, read more»Comments - Edit - Delete
The Plot deepens, Selectman Michael Kennedy resigns.
The Holland Blog just learned that member of the Board of Selectmen, Michael Kennedy, in a surprise move resigned from his position.Is this a tactical move to help his buddy James Wettlaufer to get back into the race?
Will the voters at the caucus next Tuesday, now nominate two candidates to serve on the Board of Selectmen?
There will be no meeting tonight for lack of a quorum. Larry Mandell is unable to attend for personal reasons.
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Zoning Board of Appeals lack of integrity indirectly responsible for recall initiated by David Kowalski, Brian Johnson, and James Wettlaufer
In their mailer David Kowalski, Brian Johnson, and James Wettlaufer sent to all registered voters, they claim, “read the full story of their alleged abuse of power and attempt to deprive a Holland Resident of fair treatment by the Zoning Board of Appeals.” The “resident” who “allegedly” was “deprived” is no other then Brian Johnson, our elected Highway Surveyor! I hope that I do not have to explain the definition of the word “deprived,” nothing could be further from the truth.The Johnson family has a history of illegal land conveyance and illegal land-use and Dana did what the members of the ZBA where unwilling to do; end the preferential treatment of the Johnson's and others and ensure that everybody is treated the same. Dana Manning was informed by the ZBA in the course of “ official business” as required by M.G.L. and local bylaws of an attempt by Brian Johnson to procure another permit which is outside the law. In her answer, as a member of the BOH, Ms. Manning did not “attempt to deprive” Johnson of a permit; she made the ZBA aware of the fact that issuing the permit would be illegal! Ms. Manning just did the right thing, nothing more or less. Manning serves the community with integrity by following the law and by ensuring that everybody stays within the law; including members of the Johnson clan.
Many corrupt individuals (including members of the ZBA) are not willing to change, hence, Dana Manning, one of the very few town officials who serves with integrity had to be smeared and a recall effort based on deception and lies had to be launched.
Kowalski, who owed property taxes and has a hard time paying his taxes over the last years in a timely fashion, to this day, refuses to turn over his personal flash-drive (a digital memory attached to his personal computer) to the Board of Health so all members of the board would have access to the official record and would have an opportunity to engage in healthy “checks and balances” and check what kind of moneys Kowalski collected for permits he issued or which permits he not issued over the last 12 years. Thousands of Dollars in revenue to the town were not collected over many years or are missing! Ference and Manning have no way of knowing what was collected and what was not. An utter lack of leadership allowed this situation to go on for more than a decade! Repeated requests to the Board of Selectmen, the Holland Police, the State Police, the Attorney General's office, and the Secretary of State did not resolve this serious issue. To read Dana Manning's letter to the Secretary of State click here! Access to town counsel was also not allowed and the request to the Secretary of State only persuaded Kowalski to quietly deposit hard copies of minutes at the BOH office, and still retained private control over electronic copies of minutes and all the rest of the record. Dave Kowalski's action holding all the records hostage is unlawful; what does Kowalski have to hide? What does he lose with Ference and Manning on the BOH?
For the last decade Kowalski was running a “one man show” without any possible checks and balances. Why is nobody forcing him to turn over the flash drive? And Kenneth Ference and Dana Manning are the ones that are recalled?? Sometimes I do get the impression that most town officials are afraid to do the right thing as they risk of getting exposed themselves if they do by other town officials.
The ZBA's unwillingness to follow the law and to refuse to grant preferential treatment to Brian Johnson is indirectly responsible for the situation, read more»
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Rebuttal to Dave Kowalski's recall by Board of Health chairman Kenneth Ference.
Please read the account of events that forced Kenneth Ference to take over as the chair person and angered Dave Kowalski to the point where Kowalski, together with former chairman of the Board of Selectmen and angry Brian Johnson teamed up and fabricated a libelous recall affidavit to mislead the community into supporting the baseless effort, read more»Comments - Edit - Delete
Johnson, Kowalski, Wettlaufer recall; please don't be fooled!
Two disgruntled former chairmen, James Wettlaufer and Dave Kowalski, joined angry Brian Johnson, to put Kenneth Ference, member and chair of the Board of Health (“BOH”), and Dana Manning, member of the BOH, into their place.The two members of the BOH voted for a change by ending Dave Kowalski´s “one man show” by approving a motion to elect Kenneth Ference to the position of the chair.
Kenneth Ference and Dana Manning had no other choice, as the Board of Health was dysfunctional to the point were conducting official business became impossible.
Shortly thereafter, Brian Johnson walked into a public meeting by the BOH and was not very happy when he, instead as the usual sign-off by the “god ol' boys” system, had to answer some questions.
The exemplary conduct by the two members, Ference and Manning, who refused to engage in the preferential treatment Brian Johnson expected, was answered with a frivolous open meeting law complaint by Johnson against Manning.
Despite a letter from the Attorney General's office that the case is dismissed without finding any open meting law violation on the side of Dana Manning, the disgruntled trio Johnson Kowalski and Wettlaufer started a recall against Ference and Manning.
The recall is based on lies, Kenneth Ference's and Dana Manning's conduct towards the three men, all weathered members of the “god ol' boys” network in town, was not “official misconduct,” it was threatening their self-serving corrupt ways. The recall of the two members of the BOH is an affront on our community and in particular, on every resident of our town who believes in a free civilized society, read more»
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2014 Annual Town Election Results, Congratulations Mr. Mandell!
A total of 437 voters made the annual trip to the town hall to exercise their constitutional right to participate in forming the government of their community.
The big surprise this year is the failed attempt by incumbent chairman of the Board of Selectmen, James Wettlaufer, to keep his seat on the Board of Selectmen. Wettlaufer was defeated by a large margin by newcomer Larry Mandell, read more»
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To be..... or not to be..... INFORMED! Thoughts about the Special Town meeting of Wednesday November 20, 2013.
There is a Special Town Meeting for the voters of Holland on November 20th at 7:00 PM at the Elementary School. The warrant for this Special Town Meeting is 28 pages long! I hope people aren’t thinking there will be time to read each article before it is voted on. First, there is way too much information in some of these articles to be able to do that, and second, don’t lose sight of the fact that Special Town Meetings are all too often used by the town officials to slide things past the voters. It is easy to do when attendance is low, the audience is stacked, and no one has taken the requisite time to read and understand what they are actually being asked to vote on. Read more»Comments - Edit - Delete
2013 Annual Town Election Results, Congratulations Mr. Kennedy!
A total of 572 voters made the annual trip to the town hall to exercise their constitutional right to participate in forming the government of their community. Re-elected Town Clerk Kristin LaPlante is the most popular town official with 484 votes this year; Dori-Anne Ference is the most unpopular elected town official this year with 396 votes. Only the two positions where there was an actual contest attracted less votes because the votes were divided among the opposing candidates. read more»Comments - Edit - Delete