Dear Readers, there are moments in every small town when someone does something that makes everyone else wonder, “Wait…don’t we have a policy for this?”
Congratulations, Berkley. We have reached that moment. And special thanks to the concerned citizen who dropped the receipts in our inbox and sent the Editorial Board down another “only in Berkley” rabbit hole.
After years of watching elected officials, appointed officials and Town employees occasionally lose all sense of restraint on Facebook, a Highway Department employee publicly discussing his desire to “curb stomp” a former Selectman finally sent us searching through the municipal archives.
And wouldn’t you know it: Berkley has a Social Media Policy.
Before anyone gets their political panties in a bunch, let’s establish something right up front: bad Facebook behavior is a bipartisan Berkley tradition, and we aren’t pretending otherwise.
This spring, then-Selectman Mark Horsfall had what we’ll generously call an unfortunate social-media season. He argued. He lashed out. He posted things an elected official probably should have reconsidered before hitting reply. Tabitha McCrohan had a few zingers related to anatomy and physiology. Even the normally buttoned-up Jennifer Vincent managed a Facebook meltdown of her own, finally establishing that she is, in fact, a carbon-based life form. Turns out she’s human.
But there is an important difference. Mark, Tabitha and Jennifer were elected. Voters put them in those chairs and ultimately hold the remedy when they don’t like their conduct: elections and, now, Berkley’s shiny new recall process.
Town employees have something elected officials don’t: bosses, personnel rules and, as we recently discovered while wandering through the sacred municipal archives, an actual Social Media Policy.
Uh-oh.
Wait. We Have a Policy for This?
Indeed we do, Dear Readers. Four whole pages.
Someone wrote it. Someone reviewed it. Someone presumably sat through a meeting about it. Young Town Administrator Matt Chabot can recite it like it’s the alphabet. Eventually it entered that great municipal afterlife known as The Policy Binder.
The policy applies to Town employees as well as elected and appointed boards, committees and commission members and addresses personal social-media activity on and off duty. Among its stated purposes is avoiding social-media conduct that may be false, deceptive, offensive, malicious, misleading or cause harm to others.
We have absolutely no idea who or what could have inspired such foresight.
And Then Bob Entered the Chat
Here’s where Berkley’s Facebook Cinematic Universe delivers the crossover episode nobody asked for. Remember Mark Horsfall and his experiences with Berkley’s version of Thunderdome online? The former Selectman on the receiving end of the comments we’re about to show you is… Mark Horsfall.
You really can’t make Berkley up.
Town Highway Department employee Bob Avilla apparently had some thoughts that he needed to get off his chest. During one Facebook discussion, Avilla contributed this little nugget to the marketplace of ideas:
Well. Horsfall’s approach this spring may not have been a Norman Rockwell portrait of statesmanship, but so far as we can see he never came close to physically threatening anyone. If you have something that says otherwise, send it in. It also looks like he’s down a few lbs. this summer, but we digress. Bob Avilla, by contrast, apparently decided the appropriate response was to audition for Berkley’s version of Gladiator.
Ah yes, the good old days. Neighbors gathering in the center of town. Children riding bicycles. Church bells ringing. Highway Department employees yearning to curb-stomp anyone else who doesn’t get in line with their view of the world. Someone alert the 250th Anniversary Committee. We may have overlooked a historical re-enactment opportunity.
In another exchange concerning Horsfall, Avilla wrote that he wanted to “dance with this so called man,” called him a “BITCH,” and finished with: “LETS MEET Name the place.”
Apparently Dancing with the Stars: Berkley Edition has a substantially different format than the one we remember. And this is where the distinction matters. Mark was accountable to voters. In fact, the voters reviewed the season finale and replaced him with a write-in candidate, albeit for 47 days. Good job voting everyone! Avilla, by contrast, is a Town employee and is subject to the Town’s personnel policies and whatever disciplinary process applies. Bob will be held accountable through the employment policies of the Town whose taxpayers pay his salary.
The Binder Has Teeth
We actually read Berkley’s Social Media Policy so you don’t have to. You’re welcome. For most of it, you get exactly what you’d expect: employees and officials should comply with Town policies and standards of conduct, use good judgment and remember that Facebook is public and screenshots live forever. Then we reached Page Four and guess what?
Plot twist
The policy says violations can result in “appropriate discipline,” potentially including termination or removal, subject to applicable collective-bargaining agreements and personnel policies. It also encourages employees and officials who become aware of possible violations to report them to the Town Administrator and/or Board of Selectmen.
Apparently the binder wasn’t decorative after all.
We can already hear Berkley’s Facebook constitutional scholars reaching for the Caps Lock key: FREE SPEECH! Nobody is suggesting Avilla can’t criticize elected officials, parents who live at the end of Bayview Ave, or anyone else. Bob can think Mark was a terrible Selectman. He can dislike his politics, his posts, his personality and presumably his choice of breakfast cereal. The question for Town administration is whether a Town employee publicly writing that he would ‘love to curb stomp that slug’ is consistent with Berkley’s standards for its employees.
We don’t decide that. Town Hall does. Will they get it right?
Although if “curb-stomping” someone else falls comfortably within the acceptable range, we’d genuinely like to see what a Town of Berkley employee has to do in order to earn a “Needs Improvement.”
And if Board of Selectmen agendas are any clue, it looks like Mr. Avilla may have made it to the big stage. The revised Board of Selectmen agenda added this executive session agenda item:
We will have to wait and see what comes to pass with the entanglements of collective bargaining agreements, a Highway Department that is continually at odds other departments over its perceived stature in Town government hierarchy, and a Town Administrator who sometimes gives the appearance that he would prefer to not be bothered with anything that can’t be addressed with a pivot table or a Powerpoint slide.
Accountability Is Inconvenient
And that’s the larger point. Accountability has an annoying habit of applying to people you like, too.
Planning Board member Greg Unger repeatedly calls people losers and scumbags while remaining committed to making sexually aggressive comments toward other men’s wives. Based on word choice it looks like he’s determined to keep the thesaurus permanently closed and long time Readers already know that recurring storyline. Previously, on As Berkley Turns…
Sadly, that’s what passes for an elected official in Berkley, Massachusetts.
But just look at the current leader of the supposed free world: winning an election clearly doesn’t come with a social-media etiquette course.
Which raises an awkward question: how many people wanting to be outraged by the online behavior of Berkley officials excuse the same or worse from elected officials they support? Apparently it’s “telling it like it is” until the tables turn and the target is someone you like. Funny how quickly everyone discovers civility then. That doesn’t give them permission to behave badly; it means voters ultimately determine their fate. Town employees operate within a professional structure with supervisors, personnel policies and disciplinary procedures.
What we are saying is simpler: you don’t get to demand accountability from political opponents and suddenly discover nuance when someone from your own corner starts typing. Berkley already wrote the rules. Someone approved them and filed them in the sacred municipal binder where policies patiently await the glorious day somebody actually needs them.
Well, Dear Readers, somebody may want to dust off the binder.
The wildlife doesn’t become domesticated simply because it receives a Town paycheck. And somewhere inside Town Hall, Chabot just discovered another binder on top of the pile.
Sorry, young fella.
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