Attorney Charles Boddy Refuses to Comply, Refuses to Take their Calls In a letter dated October 3, 2012 Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s Supervisor of Records, Attorney Shawn Williams issued an administrative order against Lawrence City Attorney Charles Boddy to turn over public records requested by The Valley Patriot back in February. The documents Boddy is refusing […]
Jan, 20204 WILL CASTRO BE PERMANENT? Lawrence Mayor Brian DePena is expected to send down William Castro’s name to the city council for approval to be the permanent Lawrence Police Chief. Castro is currently the Acting Police Chief after former Chief Roy Vasque was pushed out over politics. Castro was appointed as DePena’s Chief of […]
Jan. 2024 Last November the Town of Salisbury finally responded to multiple public records requests showing that the town misled several courts when their lawyers claimed that the town was court ordered to abate water pollution, (mandated to construct the U.S. EPA/State sewer project) and that this “one project” included contracts one to five as […]
04-23 Conservative fiscal watchdog group MassFiscal Alliance has not been kind to Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio. They opposed her election to the legislature and the senate, as well as her successful state-wide run for Auditor last year. We have been trying to convince the partisans at MassFiscal for years that Diana DiZoglio is the […]
03-23 It is clear that Salisbury Town Manager Neil Harrington has completely checked out on the people of Salisbury as he trapses all over the City of Salem, Massachusetts running for mayor. And that may be a good thing for the people of Salisbury. The man who approved and pushed a tax-payer funded “boardwalk to […]
Board of Selectmen Gave Positive Evaluations for Each of Those Years 03-23 Town records show that Salisbury Town Manager Neil Harrington has not filed state-mandated annual town reports from fiscal years 2002 through 2007, and also failed to file annual town reports from fiscal years 2016 to 2022. The Valley Patriot also confirmed the fact […]
1-26-23 FULL REPORT The Massachusetts Civil Service Commission has issued a scathing report on the hiring of former Methun City Councilor Sean Fountain as a permanent intermittent police officer without the proper certification. Fountain, while chairman of the Methuen City Council, was hired as an interim police officer due to a special piece of legislation […]
By: Brian Genest – July, 2022 Try not to let Selectman Tony Archinski’s failed political stunt ruin your faith in local government. In epic, progressive fashion, the chairman of the Dracut Democrat Town Committee tried to pull a fast one. His so-called code of conduct was a bad, political idea that would have polluted town […]
By: Duncan Burns – Feb. 2020. There are now only 12 states with school mask mandates, 13 if New York appeals court ruling stands. Of course, all of these states are run by Democrats who apparently never want mandates to end. This is in light of traditionally Democrat publications (i.e., The Atlantic, NPR) calling for […]
March, 2021 Seventeen years ago, this month, the very first Valley Patriot rolled off the printing press at Graphic Development in Hanover, Massachusetts. We remember the predictions of local politicians who said we would be out of business in 3 months, laughing at the idea that anyone would take this monthly publication seriously. We also […]
February, 2020 After the last election, it’s somewhat surprising to learn that some members of the Methuen City Council either do not understand their roles and responsibilities as elected officials, or purposely overstep their authority as councilors Under the city charter, city councilors represent the legislative branch of city government. They have no say over […]
If you enjoy our news coverage please consider making a $1 donation As part of the ongoing arbitration between the Methuen Superior Officer’s Union and the City of Methuen, the union is asking for a financial award of damages for what they say is retaliation. The superior officers says that there is a pattern of actionable claims […]
Class Action Grievance.NEPBA Local 17 The Methuen Superior Officers Union has filed a wage violation grievance against the city saying that; “The City of Methuen has, on an ongoing and continuous basis, and in an arbitrary manner violated the provisions of the parties’ CBA (contract) in effect from July 1, 2017 through June 20, 2020 as […]
IG REPORT HAS TONS OF ERRORS…. LIKELY, MAYBE, KIND OF One thing that popped out at me while digesting the IG report on corruption in Methuen was the fact that it never actually concluded anything. It didn’t really rule anything and contained words like “Likely illegal” and “may be” against the law. People who are […]
By: Aliana Brodmann E. von Richthofen, Feb. 2019 Whoever held out hope that Massachusetts would ultimately come through as a constitutional state had to finally give in. After a three year effort to create better accessibility to and transparency in the handling of public records, the proposed expansion of the public records law to cover the […]