Now, back to Western Mass.

I had to skip the whole primary election campaign "fodder". The three candidates had all summer to get their name and message to the people but only one public forum was set up; the day before the primary. Of course, Swan won; no one knows who Chelan Brown is and no one knows Lorenzo Gaines (both in a political aspect). The other races were comical at best especially O'Reilly taking on Yale grad' John Kerry.

As soon as the primary is over, here comes more "controversy". "State Rep. Benjamin Swan comes to defense of Springfield Towing Alliance" (Masslive.com). All Ben Swan is asking for is an "independent" auditor (even though the auditor is probably from the state which doesn't make it all that independent). Is it a crime to ask a favor? Or is it because 5 "people of color" are making their claims known and not just taking the City "Auditor's" word that they owe this money? Would I be going out on a limb by saying that the city and its staff could be wrong or at least not 100% correct?

The Flip-Flop Administration doesn't stop (see http://therealwesternmass.blogspot.com/2008/09/change-for-springfield.html). This audit of the Springfield Towing Alliance started in March. It took the city 6 months or 180 days to come up with this report. One of the early figures was that the STA owed $81,000 but, of course, after "further investigation" the fees total up to about a quarter of a million dollars. This flip-flop didn't take as long as the others, so progress is being made in this administration. Sarno, head of the FFA, has not answered any questions about his flip-flops. It's OK to flip-flop, everyone does, but at least get out in front of the issue and say, "this is why I changed my opinion and here is what I'm changing it to and for these reasons."

To add insult to flip-flop, a letter was sent by Mayor Sarno, Police Commissioner Fitchet and Stephen P. Lisauskas from the Finance Control Board to note the violations. The Springfield Towing Alliance has had the contract for 18 months. If all these charges were so egregious and atrocious, why wasn't a word spoken until March? When tows and money started to come up missing in the first 12 months, where was the city? I know where Sarno was; making appearances and publicity stunts.

He had a pep talk with the High School of Commerce football team before their game last Friday. The team lost.