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not have affected job performance.
Fall River City Councilor Brian Bigelow
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By Michael Holtzman
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Aug 31, 2010 @ 08:38 PM
FALL RIVER — City Councilor Brian Bigelow said he “respects” Sheriff Thomas Hodgson’s decision to fire him from his county auditing job “but I really disagree with his finding.”
The Bristol County sheriff said he took that recommendation by the hearing officer Friday because Bigelow’s arrest on a charge of soliciting a prostitute early last month “makes it almost impossible for him to perform his duties.”
Hodgson said Bigelow, an 11-year employee, audited and helped ensure the 560 workers followed department rules and regulations.
“I never told people how to do their jobs. I helped people do their jobs. I feel people respect me. I don’t think there would be a problem,” Bigelow said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Bigelow said he became a policy auditor four or five years ago implementing the department’s strategic accountability management system. Before that he was coordinator of volunteers for six years at the department.
“I really liked what I was doing. You can really work with people,” said Bigelow, who is now searching for new employment.
Bigelow said the sheriff department’s hearing officer, attorney Robert Novak, listened to what he and his lawyer, Michael Sousa, presented at what Hodgson described as a “disciplinary termination hearing.”
“I can’t tell if they had it predetermined. I hope they didn’t,” said Bigelow.
He faces misdemeanor criminal charges from his arrest that will next be heard on Oct. 22.
Both Bigelow and Sousa said they had an opportunity to present their case during a hearing that lasted about a half hour.
Bigelow said he worked with one other auditor in his role and did not have a job with union protection.
Bigelow, who “emphatically” stated his innocence to the single charge, said he had an explanation for what he was doing in the early morning of Aug. 7 when he was arrested about 1:15 a.m. on Morgan Street near South Main Street.
“Ever since I was younger — I’ve played music my whole life — I’ve had trouble sleeping, and that’s when I’d go out and drive around the whole city,” said Bigelow, a drummer.
He said he often “can’t sleep after playing gigs,” and played that Friday night with his pop trio until about 11 p.m. at one of the area country clubs.
“Yes, I was driving around that night,” he said of the night he and 22 others were arrested in a prostitution sting set by Mayor Will Flanagan and police Chief Daniel Racine.
Bigelow, 49, declined to give particulars of what happened that night except to say it would be typical for him to take an hour or so after completing the night’s music to pack up and leave the venue.
Does the lifelong city resident think people will believe that explanation?
“People are going to believe what they’re going to believe,” he said.
“I’m taking it a day at a time. I feel that I’m innocent. I really believe I’m innocent on this,” Bigelow said.
But when asked why, he cited the pending criminal case against him and said, “I really can’t say anything because I can’t jeopardize anything.”
A married father of two young children, 7 and 9, and two stepchildren, one married and the other whom he drove to begin college on Friday, Bigelow said he is “relying on friends and family to guide and help me and my family through all of this.”
Of his wife, he said, “We’re working on things together. We’re talking with each other.” He said the family is “trying to heal.”
He acknowledged the difficulty of addressing the arrest personally because of several political hats he’s worn. In addition to his 1½ years serving on the City Council, he’s an appointed member of the Diman Regional School Committee and a former 10-year member of the city School Committee, including a tenure as its vice chairman.
“Because of being in politics it keeps coming up,” Bigelow said of the publicity.
While Corporation Counsel Steven Torres has not rendered an opinion on whether he believes Flanagan can and should remove him from the appointed Diman board, Bigelow said he believes he should continue in that leadership role.
“I’ve always been in education. I love education,” he said.
Asked about his credibility to serve, he said, “It’s two different things. I didn’t take money from anybody. I didn’t hurt anyone. What is happening to me is family oriented.”
Bigelow, who did not ask one question or render one opinion at his first City Council meeting a few days after the arrest, explained why he stayed mum during the lengthy discussion over the raise for School Committee legal counsel Bruce Assad.
“I just felt at that time this was a school issue. The people who are in charge of giving him that raise are the School Committee,” he said. “I didn’t say anything because that’s the School Committee’s job.”
He did not speak on other topics either.
Bigelow said he has not had any city councilor suggest he should resign from his elected seat. “They’ve been very supportive of my family and myself,” he said, adding, “They might not agree with everything.”
E-mail Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com.Michael
Yet another chapter of the Bigelow as selfish schmuck of the year is being reported by the Herald News (HN). And the villain in this dead story is the perp himself, Brian Bigelow, male gigolo.
No, Bri (I hope you don't mind me calling you Bri?), you are not leader material, or a power of example, or even, now it seems, very dependable. You are an over exposed (excuse the pun) bad politician (and please excuse the oxymoron), who had a patronage job with the local county sheriff who has a tough reelection campaign staring him in the face. The very last thing he needs right now is a disposable hack employee who got himself arrested for a sex crime. As soon as your name came up on the police blotter, you were gone, and you knew it. If you didn't, you must have been, and by all I can gather from your statements to the HN, still are, in shock from the events of that post-gig episode.
Now it makes all the sense in the world for Mayor "Bag-Boy Deluxe" Sylvanagan, he of the utter failure everyday in office so far, to pound on your rotting political carcass because It will make him look like he's trying to clean up the City's reputation by bringing about your quick exit from the Diman School Committee. Yes, I know, how unfair! But YOU set yourself up for being a punching bag for the wavering political fortunes of the great hypocrite Sylvanagan. It couldn't possible get any uglier, could it?
But hold on a minute....I think it might!
Look Bri, it's just the way it's going to be. There is no coming back from this one. You aren't Marion Barry with a history of accomplishment prior to legal entanglements, this isn't Washington D.C with a predominantly Afro-American population, and unless there's a real surprise coming that would rock Fall River and make me go by ambulance to the ER from laughter, you are not an African American! But nothing would surprise me about political goings on in Fall River these days. Nothing!
Just say the music made you do it Bri....blame the power of music. It's about as good an excuse as you can muster at the moment. Just rat-a-tat a bit on your snare, maybe a drum roll or two, or SWAK the tom-toms ala Ginger Baker and claim you had an acid flashback while playing "White Room" that night.
After all, after your family.....what have you got to loose!
Get out of politics and heal yourself and your family....NOW!
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Post Script:
While reading the comments attached to the original article on the pages of the HN, I found this rather curious entry....I say curious because it has the familiar tortured syntax of a certain "legend in his own mind" media "moe-ghoul"....one where you can almost smell the crayons used to write the comments on construction paper before being typed by a young woman wearing two casts on her legs...hmmmmmm.....And if anyone can understand this gibberish on a first read....condolences!
HilltopperCEO 1 hour agoReport Abuse
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WELL MOST HERE HAVE NOT RUN A FOWL OF THE LAW AND NO NOT THE LIES AND SCANDALS OF THE CHOSEN ELITE WHEN THEY MAKE A MISTAKE. BE THEM TITLES OF RICHES AND HISTORY OF ELECTED OFFICE.
CERTAINLY MR BIGALOW MAKE A MISTAKE BY TALKING TO THE LADY BUT WHO IN THE FIGHTING CITY OF FALL RIVER MASSACHUSETTS HAVE NEVER DONE THAT?
WE ARE PROUD. WE NEED TWO FOCUS ON THE FUTURE OF NEW JOB CREATION AND ECONOMY SITES THEN THIS STUFF.
CERTAINLY THIS IS TRUE BUT WHO WITHOUT SIN CAST THE FIRST STONE.
ONLY QUESTTON I AM GONNA ASK MR BIGALOW IS WHY IF HE WAS COMING HOME DID HE WHERE LADIES PANTIES? IF HE IS INTO IT OK, CERTAINLY NOT MY PERSUATION BUT NOT A CRIME BUT IT DOES NOT LOOK GOOD.
GIVE HIM A BREAK.
TO THE SHERIF HODGESTON HAS HE EVER GIVEN BIGALOW A POLITICAL FAVOR OF A JOB? CERTAINLY IS A INTERESTING QUESTION IS IT NOT SHERIFF???
HilltopperCEO...sur-tin-ly our own stuttering fool!
ReplyDeleteDon't look for Mayor Sylvia to jump on the bash "Soul Patch" bandwagon too quickly. A solid vote of support on anything Sylvia sends to the council chambers in this environment cannot be underestimated.
He might not...but that would be the only reason why he might not! The guy has to be political radioactivity right now...I think it all depends on what is included on that police report...and how they will cover up hid undie situation, if indeed he was wearing some kind of perverted undergarments as rumor has it.
ReplyDeleteJust goes to show you shouldn't wear butt cleaners with drum sticks on the front if you are going to approach an undercover officer and ask for "directions".
The undie rumor is just that.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think of your union boy Coogan now?
http://hummelreport.com/9.1.2010_coogan.html
Just absolutely love your blog. Can't let a day go without visiting.
ReplyDeletePlease google Hummel report regarding Coogan. Can't wait to read your article on it.
Dear Anonymous...
ReplyDeleteI am never surprised by the actions of people in public life. We often get to see individuals in the worst light, when they have their own momentary feet of clay. It's never pretty, and as in this instance, can be a meaningful disappointment to someone like me who believes in Mike Coogan.
The issue is clear, the information and circumstances cannot be fully refuted, so the verdict is in. He screwed up. Period. Thus he opens his intergrity and honor up for questioning at a cricial time.
Yet....the timing of these "expose's" are also to be expected. Such forced disclosures are far too commonplace during the election silly season.
Since this work/no work was performed in 2008 for an attorney Coogan knew and for whom he had previously successfully completed a project, I would have thought the issue would have been solved well before the election primary, not immediately preceeding it. So, yes, while I think you have sufficient evidence to question Coogan's integrity, you also have to suspect the impetus for the leaking and weeping about the issue, and the very timing of the investigation and results. It has all the earmarks of a bag job, which I truly believes it is!
Bad form on both parties, Coogan and the "investigation". Coogan screwed up and danced around the confrontation in a way that the only conclusion any reasonable person could reach is that he knows he did wrong, he got caught, and evaded responsibility for it! On the other hand, this "investigation" was sprung on him during a campaign event just prior to the primary election, and thus, to me at least, it sparks of a planned bushwacking.
If these questions had been asked of him 4 or 5 months ago, in the privacy of his campaign office, and not sprung on him ambush style at a campaign event, he might have been more forth coming.
The bottom line, however, is this - Mike Coogan screwed up, left himself open to serious questions of personal integrity, and stmbled and fumbled a response that seems far less than straightforward. Also, the timing and manner of the"investigation" were extremely questionable.
When compared to the other two candidates for the seat, Mike "DiMasi's Butt Boy" Rodrigues and John "I can get you cash for that" Mitchell, I still support Mike Coogan for the Senate seat!
Dear Anonymous...
ReplyDeleteI am never surprised by the actions of people in public life. We often get to see individuals in the worst light, when they have their own momentary feet of clay. It's never pretty, and as in this instance, can be a meaningful disappointment to someone like me who believes in Mike Coogan.
The issue is clear, the information and circumstances cannot be fully refuted, so the verdict is in. He screwed up. Period. Thus he opens his intergrity and honor up for questioning at a cricial time.
Yet....the timing of these "expose's" are also to be expected. Such forced disclosures are far too commonplace during the election silly season.
Since this work/no work was performed in 2008 for an attorney Coogan knew and for whom he had previously successfully completed a project, I would have thought the issue would have been solved well before the election primary, not immediately preceeding it. So, yes, while I think you have sufficient evidence to question Coogan's integrity, you also have to suspect the impetus for the leaking and weeping about the issue, and the very timing of the investigation and results. It has all the earmarks of a bag job, which I truly believes it is!
Bad form on both parties, Coogan and the "investigation". Coogan screwed up and danced around the confrontation in a way that the only conclusion any reasonable person could reach is that he knows he did wrong, he got caught, and evaded responsibility for it! On the other hand, this "investigation" was sprung on him during a campaign event just prior to the primary election, and thus, to me at least, it sparks of a planned bushwacking.
If these questions had been asked of him 4 or 5 months ago, in the privacy of his campaign office, and not sprung on him ambush style at a campaign event, he might have been more forth coming.
The bottom line, however, is this - Mike Coogan screwed up, left himself open to serious questions of personal integrity, and stmbled and fumbled a response that seems far less than straightforward. Also, the timing and manner of the"investigation" were extremely questionable.
When compared to the other two candidates for the seat, Mike "DiMasi's Butt Boy" Rodrigues and John "I can get you cash for that" Mitchell, I still support Mike Coogan for the Senate seat!
"... left himself open to serious questions of personal integrity..."??? Ummm, you think? He didn't just leave himself open to "serious questions." He made it perfectly clear what kind of personal integrity he possesses.
ReplyDeleteGood God, Laz! Coogan billed the client $800 for a permit he never pulled! I know you know what that's called in legal terms!
Let me ask you this, Laz. What strong adjective would you use to characterize Coogan's responses on the video?
And you STILL SUPPORT Coogan? Why not just sit this one out and not support any of the candidates?
But, no. You're supporting a candidate for a high elected office who billed a client to be reimbursed for $800 that he never spent in the first place? That speaks volumes about who YOU are, Laz. Unbelievable!
Hey...whaddaya want fer cripessake...lol....read between the lines will you!....who do you think I am, the "Urinecane"?
ReplyDeleteaLSO...LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING ELSE....THERE WILL NEVER...NEVER...BE A DAY I SUPPORT EITHER RODRIGUES OR MITCHELL FOR STATE SENATE. AND THAT'S FOR FAR MORE OBVIOUS REASONS THAN WHATEVER SKULLDUGERRY COOGAN WAS INVOLVED WITH.
ReplyDelete