After unsuccessfully failing to use a parliamentary procedure to suppress voter participation in a referendum over the Northland project, Right Size Newton is trying again; this time alleging that the Newton City Council bypassed “the open meeting law thereby preventing residents from providing input into the largest development project in the history of Newton,” the Newton TAB reports.
Asked if the complaint would impact Tuesday’s City Council vote on a date for the special election, City Clerk David Olson said, “The vote can go forward tonight. In the unlikely event that [the attorney general finds] a violation, they have a number of options including the vote be retaken.”
What is Right Size afraid of? We’ve been hearing for a year that the city council is ignoring the will of the voters.
So rather delay tactics and lodging complaints with the state, why not focus on finding out what the will of the voters is?
Disclosure: Greg Reibman is the President of the Newton-Needham Chamber of Commerce of which Northland Investment Corporation is a financial sponsor.
Greg,
The focus on “fear” seems somewhat misplaced. RightSize wants a moderately reduced project scope in terms of density, as was achieved at Riverside. And they would seem entitled to pursue all lawful avenues.
Jim: Are you now a spokesman for Right Size? If not, you should stop trying to speak for them.
The truth is Right Size has never said specifically what they want at Northland. And over nearly three years, they’ve consistently refused invitations from Northland to meet. It’s time to stop the shenanigans and vote.
How does one “unsuccessfully” fail?
@Dave Brigham: Ha. I guess that’s kind of exaggerated hyperbole, eh?
@David M: Northland is also the chamber’s landlord. We give them more money than they give us.
Full Disclosure: Platinum and Gold sponsors of the Newton Needham Regional Chamber include: The Village Bank; Needham Bank; Beth Israel Deaconness Hospital Needham; Century Bank; Direct Federal Credit Union; Newton-Wellesley Hospital and Wellesley Bank. You can find a full sponsor list on the Chamber site.
Northland Development is not listed as an annual sponsor.
Gerg,
I’m not an official member of RightSize nor do I think there were any serious negotiations specifically among the city, the developer, and RightSize — as was done successfully at Riverside.
Moreover, I don’t feel that pursuing potential lawful avenues are “shenanigans”.
Greg, your tenant-landlord relationship with Northland Investment Corp. is yet another conflict of interest you would want to disclose. For instance, most people would not speak ill of their landlord out of concern for retaliation. Secondly, the landlord might offer a sweetheart deal in the form of discounted rent to a tenant that does their bidding.
David M., Greg can’t have a conflict of interest whatever relationship Northland has with the chamber because he has no decision making powers that could change the outcome in this situation. Generally a chamber of commerce is supportive of business whatever size it is. But that still doesn’t matter because Greg, himself – the person – has the same as any resident – his one vote.
He expresses his opinion on this blog just like the rest of us. How would anyone know if you are a representative of any entity involved in this proposal or if you even have a voter registration in Newton? No one knows who you are?
And Right Size read the instructions to the game, and the game allows for this referendum. It is allowed by law.
Greg posts under his own name. His affiliation with the Chamber is well known. Greg is not hiding anything. He is as entitled to an opinion as anyone else on Village 14. Attacks on his integrity are just cheap shots, and a distraction from the real debate.
The focus here should be on the March 3rd election. Let’s be civil and kind and end the name calling on this blog.
Newton voters will have an opportunity on March 3rd to say No to the Northland project. Greg can advocate for this project but he owes to the rest of us to keep the conversation civil.
Peter Karg, yes the focus should be on the March 3 vote but it’s the Committee for Responsible Development – Right Size – through its member, resident Alan Kovacs, who filed the Open Meeting Law complaint attempting to stop the March 3 vote. Greg and the rest of us volunteer moderators owe you nothing but to keep the blog going – and really not even that.
It would be great if the conversation stayed civil, without bogus attempts to take pot shots at commenters, including Greg, or unfounded statements of what Right Size wants. But without deleting most comments on this thread, that clearly isn’t happening.
The article in the Tab has quotes from David Olson and a copy of the PR release about the complaint which clearly articulate why the complaint is just another attempt to mess with voters rights. The complaint misrepresents the truth of the situation.
David Olson
Jan 6 meeting posted Jan 2
Jan 3 agenda revised to say the referendum docketed for Jan 8
Jan 8 meeting posted Jan 3
The Complaint
Jan 6 revised agenda posted on Jan 3
Completely leaving out that the revised agenda does nothing but add the referendum to a special city council meeting on Jan 8 which was posted on time.
Why would Right Size want fewer voters if they speak for the voters in Newton?
Is there a committee to “get out the vote” for upholding the city council’s 2/3 majority decision to give Northland its already negotiated and earned special permit?
Marti, if Greg is going to write headlining opinions about a financial supporter of his organization then he has an ethical duty to disclose the relationship in the article itself. Note that I’m not writing articles here but merely commenting on what gets posted. To your point though, readers should be skeptical of anonymous comments.
So don’t take MY word for it–learn about the ethical duties of authors and paid advocates here:
https://journalismethics.uark.edu/lesson-plans/conflict-of-interest/
>Introduction to Conflict of Interest: The best way for journalists and ad/pr professionals to maintain trust with their audience is by declaring conflicts of interests. There are many different kinds of conflicts of interest, from reporting on close friends or family to receiving free copies of books, films and games to review. Conflicts also arise when reporters take positions on political or social issues. Without disclosing the competing interests a media professional may have, the public will be unable to trust the truthfulness of the reporting or advertising.
Let’s ALL strive to be ethical and civil. Thank you.
David,
The disclosure issues has been brought up. Since this is a private blog and not a news site, there are no standards to meet
However, since Greg is a former journalist I’m surprised he wouldn’t want to disclose this to the casual reader and expect them to cross reference his bio link.
.. but again, private blog, readers can choose not to read if they find extreme bias.
Village 14 is an opinion blog, not a news site. I’ve been posting on this site far longer than I’ve been employed as president of the Newton Needham Regional Chamber. In that time, I’ve started 2677 threads (perhaps more since some content was lost a few years back). I’ve probably commented tens of thousands of times, maybe more.
I’ve never made a secret of what I do for a living but it would be tedious, redundant and impractical for me to disclose this each time. I’m not going to inflict that on readers or myself just to satisfy one anonymous participant.
So David M, you can choose to accept that or not. Like it or don’t. Not changing for you.
I will also remind you that if you don’t like this blog or agree with our ethics or the way it is managed, no one is requiring you to participate. You are always free to start your own blog and impose your own standards. In fact I hope you do.
Bugek, ethical standards certainly exist (see my previous link) and apply to online, social media publications like V14. However, ethical standards by there very nature are not typically enforceable by law–even if the medium is newspaper print.
It was my hope, and expectation really, that my fellow Newtonites would want to act ethically here.
Also, it may further interest you to learn that the FCC has taken an interest in social media influencers, which this may not legally apply to this particular issue, but this is something to keep in mind: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/11/ftc-releases-advertising-disclosures-guidance-online-influencers
Greg’s very clear about his current job on the “About” page of this blog. No need for him to repeat it on particular posts.
@David be the change you want to see. In the vein of having an ethics discussion, can you identify your biases? Who are you? Who pays you? Are you a competing developer? Maybe you’re involved in an organization that competes with the Chamber? Perhaps you have a personal disagreement with Greg or something else.
Until you have identified yourself, this is not a discussion worth having.
@Greg wrote: “I’ve started 2677 threads”
@Mike S. wrote: “Greg posts under his own name.”
Is that true Greg?
I count only 1853 posts by Greg Reibman on Village14. Is it possible you’ve started another 824 anonymously? If so, what is the rationale for that?
@Jack: Really? You counted?
Have you considered finding a hobby?
OMG, Jack! You need a hobby!
(just wrote that before reading Greg’s reply)
I’ve got a few hobbies, although with 2677 posts, perhaps you should be asking yourself the same question as well as answering the one I posed…
This is the second recent thread about the Northland project: the other was about the city council’s vote to hold the referendum on March 3 and this one concerns Right Size’s ballot committee filing a bogus Open Meeting law complaint – both attempting to infringe on the right of as many voters as possible to weigh in on the veto referendum that RightSize obtained by gathering signatures.
Both threads have been hijacked by David M, whoever that is, to complain about Greg supposedly having an ethical conflict of interest. Having just reread the comments on both threads, it’s become obvious that David M is purposely creating a distraction to avoid having a real discussion about RightSize’s unethical tactics to compromise voters’ rights and have as few voters as possible decide the veto referendum. Those tactics have worked so far.
David M, disclose who you are and who you represent because it surely looks like you represent RightSize and their ballot committee.
I’ve seen a million faces and I’ve rocked them all.