Bee Editorial
Mohan has no excuse for actions
If Council Member Guy Marlette hadn't stepped up to the plate, the Town and the Amherst Police Club Inc. would be going before an arbitrator on July 15. And in Personnel Director Bob McCarthy's professional opinion - that would have cost the town more.

But the contract is settled and new officers hired as of yesterday, July 1, are paying more towards their insurance, receiving less time off and will not see their first pay increase for 18 months.

It now seems the only sensible thing Supervisor Satish Mohan did in regard to this contract was allow Marlette to proceed - after two stagnant years. In December 2005 the contract ended. Since then, the contract negotiations went nowhere and it appeared both sides had given up, awaiting their day in arbitration.

It came as a surprise to us when it was announced the contract was settled. But it should not have come to a surprise to the supervisor.

He claims that he was not included, that Marlette did not come back to him with updates. Even Mohan pointed out that any agreement on follow up procedures would be "he said, he said."

But that aside, Mohan knew that the contract was being negotiated by Marlette. He had to sign off allowing him to move forward as the representative for the Town.

So he can't claim he didn't know anything. He knew.

Within two months the contract was settled and Marlette presented it on June 16 to the board. Mohan said the presentation lacked details - details he said he was going to wait to find out about in the final contract.

The contract arrived on his desk on June 19, he said. Is a few days enough time to review a contract and be ready to vote?

Council Member Dr. Barry Weinstein said it is. He said the timeline was the same as described by Mohan but he was ready to vote on June 23. As were the other board members. It is very hard to believe that at 3 p.m. Monday, June 23 that Mohan blasted the topic of the meeting because he simply was not ready. Especially when everyone else involved claimed to know of the memorandum of understanding and the details of the contract.

When dealing with such an important and "hot" topic as contract negotiations the leader of this town should be watchful. He knew negotiations were taking place and he knew the memorandum of understanding had been signed, and heard the details on June 16.

He knew who had the answers to his questions but never bothered to ask.