TOM O’BRIEN

There is little doubt that former State Representative Town O’Brien of Kingston will carry his home town on Primary Day, September 16 when he vies to maintain his seat as Plymouth County Treasurer. But, has some of the luster gone out on the O’Brien mystique. The Observer wishes to point out two issues which should give pause to O’Brien’s actions.

The Plymouth River Eels: Three years ago, amid sound and fury that, as it turns out, signified nothing, we learned that O’Brien was involved in what was considered a major land deal in the vicinity of Old Colony Place near the Plymouth-Kingston town line. The hype, still posted on the Plymouth River Eels website, boasted a 6,000 seat capacity baseball complex referred to as “The crown jewel of the project.” The Eels would be the name of the semi-pro baseball team that would be established to occupy the stadium.

Other amenities included a 10,000 square foot convention center, a 300 capacity picnic pavilion and a three story 30,000 square foot office building affording tenants a spectacular view of the stadium’s interior. O’Brien emerged as the President and CEO of the entire undertaking, followed by Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer Michael Rothberg, who is now the new campaign manager for the O’Brien for County Treasurer effort.

We found the O’Brien Eels venture somewhat unusual because Tom had always boasted of being a full-time State Representative. His response for his CEO connection was that the powers to be must have wanted him aboard because of his love for baseball. The fact was, he is the president, he is the Chief Operating Officer, the buck stopped with O’Brien yet he made it sound like a couple of buddies had just submitted his name for chairman of a beach association because of his love of swimming. The Observer, at the time, questioned that fact that you could now never be certain of where his interests in his Rep’s district lie, with the people or with the venture. Truth be known, the River Eels venture is about as dead as things get. The website has not had an update in at least six months and the only function appears to be selling clothing merchandise for upwards to $80.00 for an embroidered jersey.

There is no question that this economy is reaching landmark low water marks. It would be easy to understand that a deal can go south. What we can’t accept is O’Brien has shuffled the responsibility of what’s going on to Rothberg. With the Ledger and Boston Globe breathing down their backs a few months ago, Rothberg got the major deflection assignment. Both he and O’Brien continued to assert that the land for the complex was under a purchase and sale agreement. The property owner of the 28 acre site, Pierre Coll, told the Observer that he wishes them well but that the deal is dead, having expired back in May. O’Brien should have taken the bull by the horn and fessed up that the deal is no more. We were disappointed with O’Brien when his role was announced and remain disappointed that he won’t hold a press conference and clear the air. We are of the opinion that O’Brien is trying to hold back the dogs until after the election.

New York City Patronage Money Stuffs Campaign Coffer: Apparently running for Plymouth County Treasurer is more lucrative then launching a baseball team. When looking through O’Brien’s campaign finance reports we couldn’t understand why a New York City law firm, Labaton, Sucharow & Rudoff would have 25 of its law partners and numerous wives contribute about $25,000 to a County race in Plymouth. We called the O’Brien designated hitter once again, and asked Campaign Manager Rothberg for an explanation. He opined that when Tom was a paralegal at Goodwin, Proctor and Hoar in Boston, he met folks who were lawyers and who he became friendly with. He pointed out that as he had ultimately left the firm, so too had any numbers of lawyers. He said that Tom stayed in contact with these people who had a great deal of respect for O’Brien and that they contributed to the campaign in deference to the great job Tom has done. So there was the explanation, feeble as it was. First of all it is inconceivable that all these lawyers all left Boston and all landed at the same NYC firm. Second, these good friends had never contributed to O’Brien as a Rep, only since being appointed Treasurer.

These city lawyers made contributions toward the end of 2006, throughout 2007 and at the front end of 2008. All contributions were of $500 per and only partners in the firm were tapped.

It took some time, but the linkage between the lawyers and Tom finally popped up. Over the past several years, the Plymouth County Retirement Board had lost investment money with a couple of publicly traded companies, one called SafeNet, Inc. and another named HCC Insurance Holdings. The Retirement Board lost money on these investments as the result of fraud perpetrated by officers of the two stocks. Labaton, Sucharow served a lead counsel in one case and co-lead in the other. Because these are Class Action suits, they were filed out of state with nothing to read about locally, that despite the fraud effected the coffers of not only Plymouth County, but also the Bristol County Retirement Board and the City of Boston Retirement System. As far as our research goes, we find that actions were filed in Detroit, Houston and Upstate New York.

The HCC case has been recently settled for $10 million dollars. The lawyers will receive over $3 million on that particular case. In the matter of HCC, Plymouth County Retirement experienced a $37,831.98 loss on that case between May 3 of 2005 and November 17 of 2006, this from information supplied by Plymouth County Retirement Board Administrator William Farmer who explained that the settlement will be divided amongst the parties involved in the class action. The County can receive the total investment loss or anything below that amount in relationship to a percentage received by all situated for a return. Farmer stated that overall the County’s exposure was minimal, because of the time frame and the earnings that followed with HCC. Farmer said he believed that Labaton, Sucharow was appointed by a Federal Judge. We asked who within L/S  could answer any questions we may have. He explained that L/S had designated a local Massachusetts firm to handle local matters and stated that the local firm was Thornton & Naumes. The Summer Street, Boston firm also appears on the O’Brien contributor’s list with 10 attorneys contributing $500.00 each for a $5,000 total. In essence, $30,000 in campaign contributions came from law firms handling cases for the Retirement Board. By virtue of being County Treasurer O’Brien serves as Chairman and member ex officio of the Retirement Board.

When contacted, O’Brien said Farmer had to be confused, stating it was Farmer and himself that selected the firms. O’Brien pointed out that these lawyers operate on a contingency bases and only get paid if they win and that the firms call either he or Farmer when shopping around to be selected. O’Brien said the contributions are a direct result of the various partners in a law firm respecting the job he is doing. Why does this explanation ring hollow with us?

The SafeNet case remains in litigation and most recently another four lawyers in another firm have provided the bulging O’Brien money pool another $500.00 each.

We are not suggesting O’Brien has broken any law other then a moral issue. His modus operandi is not even close to what we saw in those humble years when he first became a State Representative. He relied on a solid grass roots initiative. He called his supporters “Team O’Brien” and was a humble guy who appeared to be the ‘real thing.’ By today’s standards we are simply greatly disappointed. We don’t pretend to know all the ins and outs of all this legal stuff, but all these lawyers have to be getting consideration from these class action cases. Generosity at this level doesn’t materialize out of nowhere - there has got to be a strategic reason…it reeks of sleaziness and  fails the sniff test. Tom is taking PAC money, money from developers, from grateful lawyers, et al. His war chest currently stands at $75,000, $73,000 more then his competitor. Money has come from G. Lopes (six members of the family for $3,000). Lopes is the company hauling out of the O’Donnell property, future site of a huge 40-R complex that O’Brien ardently supported. Another $1,500 came from three $500.00 contributions from the 40-R developer, Thorndike Development, with other money coming from Cordage and The Pinehills.

Meanwhile O’Brien operates above the issue with the explanation of all that windfall being the result of eight years with Goodwin, Proctor & Hoar, ten years as a State Rep, and six years as an insurance salesman for Met Life, and now County Treasurer. We liked the old Tom O’Brien, the one whose laugh was infectious, who was a regular at numerous Kingston social events, whose waistline was probably 36, who relied on the little guys to grace his campaign account and devoted himself to one thing at a time. Those were the days when Tom knew all of his contributors and could feel cleaner in accepting their funds.