By Tom Rue
In a newsletter which twice-fired former Monticello manager JOHN BARBARITE dated March 28, 2009, he published what he claims is an e-mail from a year ago. Without saying why he admits, "recipients [sic] name has been removed by The People's Voice".
Could this be because the only recipient (if there actually were any) was him?
The alleged e-mail summarized data published 10 years earlier by JOHN BARBARITE himself in the same newsletter (click to enlarge the image at right), which even then was ancient history.
What does BARBARITE stand to gain by rehashing this old information and by accusing someone of e-mailing it to him a year ago?
JOHN BARBARITE has always been behind "The People's Voice", but has rarely had courage to sign it. An exception was the masthead* in an edition which he personally delivered door-to-door to every residence in Monticello in March 2008. (The bulk of BARBARITE's experience in government are the years that he worked as a letter carrier for the Postal Service.)
BARBARITE prefers to publish anonymously, pretending that someone other than himself, perhaps a vast imaginary "taxpayer watchdog group" which gives him great credence, is behind this scandal sheet.
The original context shows that the political beneficiary of BARBARITE's pre-election 1998 attack was "former Monticello police officer" and failed Village Trustee candidate THOMAS MACK.
Might a former police officer have leaked the information for BARBARITE to publish in 1998 to damage a political opponent? Awareness of this old history obviously came from someone with inside knowledge of local legal proceedings during the late 1980s.
MACK, the brother-in-law of the Mayor, remains a solid supporter of and apologist for BARBARITE. Anyone would be well advised to distance himself from BARBARITE's smelly rag, the sole aim of which is to harm people and attack the Village.
In the spring of 2008, Trustee candidate Carmen Rue ordered her name be kept out of this "negative" newsletter. At the time, BARBARITE was mayoral candidate Jenkins' campaign manager, but not hers. Jenkins repaid him with the job of Village Manager, though he had been fired weeks earlier as Deputy Village Manager for calling his neighbors "Spicks", among other reasons.
One year later, disgruntled and again unemployed, BARBARITE seems to have one single purpose remaining in life - to obsessively attack innocent Village employees and elected officials who stood up to his wrongful conduct during his mercifully short tenure. Since his most recent firing, BARBARITE has published close to a dozen unsigned editions of "The People's Voice" -- nearly all primarily targeting the lone Hispanic member of the Board of Trustees for special attention, also branding two male members of the board who voted to dump him as "PANSIES" in one headline. Lowest of all, he targets identifiable rank-and-file career Village workers with unjust gutter-level attacks.
If a DPW employee was recently arrested for an alleged off-duty fight, who does JOHN BARBARITE think he is to make it into a public political spectacle in "The People's Voice"?
Americans are innocent until proven guilty, except in the mind of BARBARITE.
If a Trustee feels that an account clerk has done extra and especially good work and deserves public recognition for going above and beyond the call of duty, what kind of man is BARBARITE to attack this worker in public simply because he hates the Trustee? Or worse yet, to publicly assert that still a different worker (also not a public figure) isn't qualified and should be fired because he says so!
One edition, headlined "FILTHY!", features undated photos of curbside trash, implying they were taken recently and suggesting the Building Inspector isn't doing her job because he (BARBARITE) isn't around to manage her. A property owner, who says he recognizes his building, claims the dog in one photo was his; but the dog has been dead two years!
These are the acts of a "professional manager"? Monticello needs and deserves better.
BARBARITE has done a favor to the board's majority by demonstrating to the world by his words and behavior that he is not and never has been up to the job of municipal management. His frenetic and obsessive production of false and defamatory hate literature eliminates any doubt that the board moved wisely, even if it seemed a hard choice for some, when they canned him.
BARBARITE has made himself into a caricature - a cartoon. He appears irrational and out of control. He seems out of touch with commonly accepted professional boundaries. On a human level, BARBARITE might need help and may deserve some pity or compassion. But as a municipal manager, all credibility he may have ever had in the minds of intelligent people is gone.
The man has no shame, no sense of decency. He is a self-serving coward who, despite all pretenses, proves himself devoid of honor, ethics, integrity, or dignity. Even former supporters admit disappointment. Shame on anyone who still pays heed to this charlatan.
BARBARITE names his publication for the Latin, "Vox populi vox Dei"; meaning "The people's voice is the voice of God."
In reality, "The People's Voice" is the voice of JOHN BARBARITE, not the great and powerful Oz. BARBARITE does not speak for "the people" or some non-existent "taxpayer watchdog group". And he certainly does not speak with the voice of God, as his self-proclaimed title might pretend.
It's time for a fresh start in Monticello. Growth will only come by working together, learning from mistakes of the past and putting them behind us. Reasonable people can disagree on issues. Progress can only be made by listening to and respecting each other.
* The above masthead, dated April 2008, is from the only edition which identified the newsletter's true publisher.