Councilor Wheeler:
Even though you have never answered any of my previous emails, which include pleas to reject the federal money that nine people were arrested over on 10/13/21 and the bad judge appointments of Gordon MacDonald and Anne Edwards, I am emailing you once again to go on record that I oppose the appointment of DJ Bettencourt, someone who doesn’t even come from the insurance business.
Bettencourt was in the news last year for a domestic violence arrest that you can read about here. The charges were later dropped after he was placed on “administrative leave” for about seven weeks. It’s unclear if such time was paid (at our expense, mind you) or not, and it is unclear what caused the charges to be dropped, but I want to focus on an issue that I find even more important regarding public servants, and that’s dishonesty.
Admittedly, I was a low-information voter in 2012 and did not know who Bettencourt was at the time. Nine years later, and while receiving a campground firewood delivery, I had an interesting conversation with the owner, Senator Giuda’s brother Brandon. Brandon had served as a representative at the time of the scandal involving Bettencourt lying about his law school work. I won’t get into the minutia of the story, so I’ll refer you to this link, and encourage you to contact Brandon with any follow-up questions you might have.
I would have otherwise not noticed this appointment had I not been on the executive council page looking for something else. When I saw his name, I vividly recalled my talk with Brandon and how he said he took a lot of crap from the “establishment elite,” including Old Man Sununu, for speaking up as a whistleblower. “Nothing to see here; don’t make such a big deal,” was their message.
Last night, I emailed Brandon at his campground in Lancaster to point out the upcoming hearing on September 6 just in case he’s enjoying his post-Concord life too much to be on top of such things. He answered within the hour, thanking me for reaching out and reiterating what he had said to me two years ago, among other stuff, and that he would not be at the hearing.
What I also learned was that Bettencourt has never had an ordinary private-sector job. While being a “Republican Ed Markey,” or as Howie Carr would say, “Mr Frosty,” does not make one a criminal, public distrust in government is at an all-time high. Dishonesty should never be tolerated in public servants, elected or appointed, on either side of the aisle.
Please do the right thing and put an end to this bureaucrat’s career that has no relevance to what’s on his resume that can be verified. It would be a good effort to right the ship and work towards redemption.
