Letter to the Editor: Don't Accept myGrapevine Gift

To the Editor:

On Friday, March 23, the day after my guest column "Sever ties to myGrapevine" appeared in the Weston Town Crier, the agenda of the Weston Board of Selectmen was posted and included the following:

• 7:10pm  2.  Accept Gift of myGrapevine Service from Jonathan Spector (vote anticipated)

Mr. Spector, to the best of my knowledge, is the webmaster of myGrapevine and the husband of its president, Wendy Spector. My complaint was that Wendy Spector, who is also presently our moderator, has used her position as an elected town official to promote her business enterprise, myGrapevine.

Since the publication of my article on March 22, I have heard from several parents of children in the Weston school system who were most unhappy when myGrapevine replaced ListServe. From the poor quality of the website, to the insufficient information provided, to the one-sided messages they received via myGrapevine to vote yes on Article 1 at the November, 2011 town meeting, they expressed their unhappiness with myGrapevine.      

Article 1 was a $30.8 million debt authorization, the largest in Weston's history, for a new Field School. It is now obvious that the moderator also used her business enterprise, myGrapevine, to influence the vote on a matter over which she was about to preside at town meeting as moderator.

The moderator's electioneering for the Field School proposal through her business enterprise myGrapevine was not known to me and to others who complained publicly about the way that the Field School vote was handled by the moderator. Ms. Spector declared that she had "heard" the 2/3 vote required for this bond issue and failed to call for a standing vote count. 

As one parent said about the newly-proposed offer to the town of the myGrapevine service, "There are so many reasons not to accept this gift." If you feel as we do, please let the selectmen know by Wednesday, March 28, by e-mailing selectmen@westonmass.org, and/or come to the Town Hall before 7 p.m. that evening to make your views known.

Voting to accept this tainted gift would not be a good thing for the selectmen to do on behalf of the town of Weston. 

Isabella Jancourtz,
Gun Club Lane