Date: 11/18/2021
In a Town Council meeting on Nov. 9, East Longmeadow Town Manager Mary McNally repeated the allegations she made in her Oct. 4 letter of resignation that she was resigning “solely due to one councilor’s actions” creating a “toxic work environment” and “negativity” that she could no longer bear. A few councilors present in the meeting offered her sympathy, and excoriated the unnamed councilor.
None of this makes any sense. Ms. McNally had just received a favorable job performance review and a raise from the council. All council meetings are public, and the Town Hall is a pretty small space. Someone, somewhere would have said something. But no formal complaints were ever raised by Ms. McNally or anyone else of any councilor’s saying anything racist, sexist, misogynistic, threatening, off-color, illegal or inappropriate before she abruptly resigned. As far as I know, no complaint was ever filed with the town’s human resouces director, with the council or with the state. As a town councilor for the last two years, leaving the month before she did, I never saw any cause for such allegations.
No one can ever know what Ms. McNally’s reasons really were, but even if they are sincere, they certainly appear to be an overreaction. A mature professional would never allow pride to throw away the support and praises of six out of seven councilors and a “wonderful group” of department heads just to destroy one person’s reputation and hurt the town in the process. And “negativity” is what you experience when you don’t like being questioned or criticized by your boss. But that is the council’s job, since Ms. McNally reports to the council. It’s curious, too, that Ms. McNally reportedly abruptly quit her two previous jobs with the Springfield Parking Authority and the town of Hampden, over disagreements.
The videotape of the Sept. 14 meeting of the council illustrates Ms. McNally’s contempt for the council, when she waved the charter in the council’s face, told them she could do what she wanted whether they liked it or not, and threatened to walk out of the meeting if the president did not immediately stop an ongoing discussion among the councilors. Which he immediately did. Blind hatred, even if it has no basis, can overpower reason sometimes, leaving an innocent councilor publicly defamed in the process. The whole scenario is tragic and regrettable.
R. Patrick Henry, Jr.
East Longmeadow
