Community Corner

Abusing Town Employees? There Ought To Be A Law Against That (With Video)

So Says Tom Banisch, Madison Beach & Recreation Chairman; Selectmen Will Consider It; Behavior By Beach-goers Last Summer Prompts Concern; Video Monitors To Be Installed At Surf Club

Tom Banisch, the chairman of the Beach & Recreation Commission, has asked the Board of Selectman to consider creating and passing a town ordinance that would make it illegal to abuse municipal employees.

 During the public comment portion of the Board of Selectmen meeting Monday evening, Banisch first urged town residents to get their beach passes soon. They are currently on sale at town hall. “Get your beach passes soon,” Banisch said. “If you wait until Memorial Day, there will be a crowd at the gate.”

Banish then added that, “speaking as the chairman, but without the permission of the commission,” he wanted the selectmen to consider passing an ordinance that would “protect municipal employees from abuse from anyone.”

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“During the busiest part of the season, people come into the office, they become upset and they take their upset behavior out on employees … I know what goes on down at the Surf Club and other places, when they don’t agree with the pass policy, they take it out on the gate guard,” he said. He added that the same thing sometimes happens with employees who work on the Board of Assessment appeals, the tax collector, the building department, and the facilities department.

“All of these people, to one extent or another, receive abuse from people who think they’re owed something that they’re not,” he said.

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The first question from the Board of Selectmen?

“Would you include the Board of Selectmen in that?”

“No, no,” Banisch replied quickly, to laughter. "No."

The selectmen then asked, seriously this time, whether Banish knew of any other towns that had ordinances similar to the one he was proposing.

Banisch said he did not know of any municipalities that did, but that it was his impression that the state Department of Motor Vehicles have some sort of similar protection.

“The DMV has a state law, no abuse, tirades, touching,” he said. He said there have been instances of irate beachgoers touching gate keepers at the Surf Club.

“That becomes very scary,” he said. “This year we are going to install cameras at the gate, so we’ll have some record of that. We’re big into enforcement, so an ordinance passed by the town would go a long way to helping that out.”

First Selectman Fillmore McPherson said he had heard stories about such problems last year, and that the board would consider Banisch’s request.

 


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