05/14
Last month, The Valley Patriot published an exclusive report showing Salisbury Planning Director Lisa Pearson falsely accused Salisbury resident Ron Tony Giordano of being a registered sex offender to keep him off the town’s planning board.
She did this simply because he threatened her stranglehold on power over local developers and private property rights.
Lisa Pearson not only slandered Giordano, but she recruited others to validate that slander, and then threatened to personally sue the Town Manager and bobble-head Board of Selectmen members if Giordano was appointed anyway, meaning she would attach their property, and make their lives a living hell for daring not to comply with her demands.
Since our report was published on March 5th, nobody in the Town of Salisbury has done a damn thing to hold Pearson accountable for her disgraceful and highly illegal behavior.
That means these cowards are perfectly OK with the kind of extortion tactics Pearson employed to stop a private citizen of Salisbury from serving on a volunteer public board for the town.
Whatever you may think of Ron Tony Giordano, or what kind of indiscretions might be in his background, it is never acceptable to falsely accuse someone of a sexual crime in today’s climate, especially when it is provably untrue.
Yet, not only did the Town of Salisbury’s elected and appointed officials do nothing about this disgusting behavior by a city employee, the Newburyport Daily News, (owned by the Eagle~Tribune) actually took Pearson’s side by staying silent on the issue and refusing to investigate, report on, or condemn the sexualize bullying of a town resident by someone with immense power in local government.
That sends a very dangerous message to the tyrants and bullies who work in government at every level.
It also creates a chilling effect on free speech, discouraging average citizens with no real power from participating in local government, for fear that some powerful political hack will destroy their life with the full support of elected officials, and the local daily newspaper.
The Valley Patriot editorial board is rarely unanimous when it comes to the stands we take on this editorial page but, it was 100% this month when it was proposed that we demand the firing of Salisbury Planning Director Lisa Pearson.
If she is not fired, every member of the Board of Selectmen should be thrown out of office when they come up for re-election. ◊