The following letter to the editor was originally submitted by Andover resident Steve Walther (photo, above). The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Andover News. You can learn more about our policy on opinion and commentary on our Mission and Policies page.
The Ethics commission says ‘conflict of interest’?
It is interesting to explore exactly who has a conflict of interest here. The Andover Youth Services (AYS) staff has always operated on a shoestring budget from the Town. For years, AYS has operated various fundraisers and worked with local charities such as Andover Youth Foundation to fill in the gap. With a small budget from the Town, there have always been many unpaid hours of labor by AYS staff, particularly for fundraising activities, such as the Christmas Tree sales.
When Andover Youth Foundation supported more hours for AYS staff, this was a win-win-win scenario for youth, AYS and Andover Youth Foundation.
Leave it to the Andover Town Government to be conflicted by this, and turn a winning public-private partnership into losing. In so doing, Town Government has demonized both AYS staff and local charitable giving that used to support our kids. I’m not affiliated with anyone at AYS/Andover Youth Foundation etc., but my kids benefitted from AYS. I’m glad they were out of there prior to this Town Government-created debacle.
For those interested, please do read the Town funded “Nixon-Peabody report”, which is literally the Town’s hired lawyer making a case against charity support of AYS. Nixon-Peabody is a legal firm, not accountants or auditors, and you will find nothing in the ‘report’ about the number hours of work performed by AYS staff for the Andover Youth Foundation. Those extra hours of youth services were compensated at a fraction of minimum wage, hardly the ‘big payout’ the Town implies.
The absence of any real accounting is because Nixon-Peabody is paid to make the Town Government’s case and carefully select facts to serve the Town’s interest. The Town spends very freely on lawyers ($645/hour!), and the cost to any individual they target (such as Mr. Wilson) is astronomical if they do not quickly capitulate. Even if they fight and ‘win,’ they lose financially on legal fees.
Unless we change the players in Town Government, there is more ‘losing’ ahead for citizens of Andover.
Andover
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