I have been reading the Plymouth Independent from its inception and truly appreciate the in-depth reporting and news updates that give me a behind the scenes look at issues. I was not aware of the recent “brouhaha”, surrounding the town manager’s edict to silence town employees from speaking to the PI. I reread the articles that seemed to bother Mr. Brindisi to cause this kerfuffle and honestly do not understand the responses. As a causal reader of the PI, I thought Mr. Brindisi’s comments about the Copper Village noise complaints were very well spoken and made great sense. Noise complaints are very tricky to deal with, and he sounded very thoughtful in his responses, recognizing the frustrations of the residents. It was the police response that was in question, and that too involves a delicate balance between individual rights and resident complaints. Nothing in the reporting of this article would have triggered any concern on my part that the newspaper was unfairly targeting or accusing anyone person of negligence or anything else untoward. The information reported was clearly using quotes from other residents and police officers, and Mr. Brindisi. This all falls under the category of factual reporting of other people’s feelings and attitudes. This is what I like about the PI and is needed to find out more information about what is happening in our town.
I felt the same way after rereading the article about the grease traps. The article was very factual and well balanced, providing quotes from several local business owners. Yes, there was one line reported at the very end of the article that mentioned concern from someone not wanting to speak out for fear of retribution from the town. This is to be expected and is quite common (unfortunately) in our hypersensitive social media culture. We see this pattern in many other areas of local, state, and federal government and in private business. I do not see this one comment overwhelming the factual reporting of the rest of the article.
None of the “reporting” from the PI should ever be used as an excuse for a public agency to attempt to silence their employees from speaking out or communicating with any individual (s). It is quite ironic to see a town manager turn the one comment at the end of an article on its head and now try to use this as leverage to silence his own employees.
These are issues that should not have become such a lightning rod for the responses from the town manager and the public. Let’s not pile on in a blame game. I am so proud of our Town and all the great services provided by the town, private businesses, local arts and culture, educational institutions, and yes, our newest local newspaper the Plymouth Independent. Let’s work together to solve our differences and move on.
With respect to all parties involved,
– Robert Eisenstein