Home Page	Letter of Complaint
Subject:	Reimbursement for Legal Fees
To:	Board of Selectmen
From:	Joseph M. Dougherty
Address:	52 Mount Pleasant Street
Date:	September 18, 1997
Location:	Town of Billerica, Massachusetts

IN HAND:

Dear Board Members:

I have a copy of the September 10, 1997 letter that was sent to Mr. Kevin Feeley and the law firm of Murphy, Hesse, Toomey and Lehane in the case of Dougherty v. the Billerica Board of Appeal. In spite of the ADVICE of Town Counsel, the Town Meeting did, in fact, legally vote to appropriate funds under Article 54 and bind the Town to payment. The question of legality has been asked and answered by the highest authority in the Town of Billerica that has both legislative and appropriation authorities. Getting more OPINIONS is an interesting exercise, but surely a further waste of the taxpayers money. It is my OPINION that nobody, except a court of law under due process, is going to come along and upset a lawful Town Meeting vote by substituting a mere OPINION of a lawyer(s).

Some of the more compelling questions in this case have been missed entirely: (1) Is the Board of Selectmen in favor of this payment, regardless of the OPINIONS of a bunch of lawyers? (2) Is the Board of Selectmen going to vote to make their own decision in this case or is the Board going to let the Town Manager and a bunch of lawyers bully them with more OPINIONS? (3) Has the Board of Selectmen given the power to the Board of Appeal to ignore legal OPINIONS, which in turn, caused all this trouble? (4) What actions has the Board of Selectmen taken against the corruption on the Board of Appeal that caused all of this trouble? (5) Will the Board of Selectmen remove Board of Appeal members that fail to follow the law and legal OPINIONS? (6) If the Board of Appeal can ignore OPINIONS, then why can't the Board of Selectmen ignore OPINIONS too? (7) Why is the Board of Selectmen allowing the Town Manager to continue to meddle in this case AND allow him to cover up for his lack of due diligence in obtaining an opinion BEFORE the Town Meeting vote? (8) Why didn't the Town Manager get the needed opinion on time? (9) Why didn't the Town Manager attend the Town Meeting and speak when this was voted as the Town Charter requires? (10) The Town Manager said that he didn't want to set a bad precedent, but isn't the bad precedent carrying on with a vendetta against real victims and supporting the corrupt Board of Appeal that did in fact break the law? (11) If the Town Manager wants to prove he's right, why doesn't he go to court, as I did, and get a court to block the Town Meeting vote? (12) Even though he has no power to interfere in the process, why has the Board of Selectmen allowed the Town Manager to prevent the disbursements authorized by Town Meeting by blocking the lawful preparation of the Town Warrant payments? (13) Doesn't the Board of Selectmen have the discretionary power to authorize the disbursement of the funds VOTED by the Town Meeting? (14) Why is this payment Warrant being challenged when numerous other similar Warrants are paid routinely? (15) Why is the Board of Selectmen backing and protecting the Appeal Board's corrupt behavior of consistently and regularly abusing their positions by ignoring the law and legal OPINIONS? (16) Is it morally right to block this disbursement when the Board of Appeal cause the expenses by ignoring the law and the opinions of Town Counsel? (17) Why is the Board of Selectmen retrying this case in court of legal OPINIONS for a third time when the Town Meeting voted to disburse the funds and second highest court in the state (and others) attested to the corrupt actions and abuse of authority of the Board of Appeal?

I would appreciate answers to the above 17 questions at the Board of Selectmen's earliest opportunity. Please stay focused on the real precedent: whether or not the Board of Selectmen will complete the process to compensate bona fide victims of corruption, or will the Board of Selectmen protect the corruption? Thanks.

Joseph Dougherty

 

Home Page	Response to Letter of Complaint
Subject:	Reimbursement for Legal Fees
To:	Joseph M. Dougherty
Address:	52 Mount Pleasant Street
From:	Board of Selectmen
Date:	No Response Provided
Location:	Town of Billerica, Massachusetts