LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Perplexed Over the Town I Live In

(Disclosure: Bob Stein is a member of the Finance Committee but is speaking as a resident and taxpayer only.)

I'm perplexed by Mark Kablack's letter. He says he supports goals but his buddy, Larry O'Brien, has developed zero town goals for the last two years.  He says he supports swimming pools but he shut down the Northwoods Pool so he could build and sell two 3-bedroom family townhouses on top of it.  

I'm perplexed why O'Brien and (John) Drobinski rejected (Bob) Haarde's goal to solve the 40B problem. I'm perplexed why Larry O'Brien said he was neutral on Johnson Farm. I'm perplexed why Jody Kablack was allowed to hire such a pro-40B attorney to represent the town versus Johnson Farm.  

I'm perplexed that Mark Kablack is allowed to wield so much unchecked power in the town where his wife serves as the Town Planner, like getting on the Selectmen's agenda whenever he wants while regular taxpayers have been waiting months. 

I'm perplexed how many things have gone wrong in Sudbury under current leadership. 

I'm perplexed how we passed all those overrides based on budgets being cut to the bone but then we find over $400,000 in postage meters and dormant funds. 

I'm perplexed that all of a sudden we have an education staff worthy of all these unexplained 51A reports. I'm perplexed why a school committee member votes against allowing Sudbury parents to ask questions for 15 minutes but eagerly agrees to answer a question from a blogger from Wellesley. 

I'm perplexed as to why Jody Kablack, our town planner, is allowed to use her office and town resources to create and distribute pro-40B campaign propaganda during business hours while being paid as our Town Planner.  I'm perplexed as to why, after 25 years as Town Planner, Jody Kablack files our Housing Production Plan one day after the Johnson Farm 40B permit application was filed. 

I'm perplexed how Larry O'Brien could negotiate sweetheart contracts for the town manager and town counsel in secret with no surviving records or minutes of the negotiations and sign it in secret just three days before Bob Haarde was elected. 

I'm perplexed how Haarde's suggestion for developing a long-term use plan for the Faibanks building was ignored by O'Brien and Drobinski. 

I'm perplexed as to how the Board of Selectmen could approve changing the town's healthcare coverage to include the 26-year-old adult children of town employees (such as Kablack and Town Manager Maureen Valente) without even mentioning that vote would be on the agenda.

Bob Stein

Thompson Drive