Betty Cavacco/Photo Credit: Bobbi Clark
In Plymouth, Selectman Betty Cavacco reveals that Town Manager Melissa Arrighi has been secretly monitoring her incoming and outgoing emails since last summer.
Bobbi Clark has the story:
Selectman Cavacco says none of the other selectmen were targeted in this way:
“Only my emails, not the rest of the Board, are being forwarded to her directly. One of the examples is, I had sent something to one of the engineers and she was out of the office and when the email “sent” I automatically got her out-of-office reply. That’s how this whole thing was figured out.”
Town Manager Melissa Arrighi admits she has been reviewing Selectman Cavacco’s email correspondence undercover for the last four months:
“It’s a useful tool. It’s helped me really be able to reach out to employees when an individual Selectman, in this case Selectman Cavacco had requests or things they wanted to take care of.”
So, why not simply tell Selectman Cavacco you were using this tool?
“I felt that just to monitor it—never to bring it up—but be able to intercede and talk to the employees would have a better effect—and also wouldn’t make her angry.”
Selectman Chair Ken Tavares was not available for an in person interview but stated that all emails are public information and no law was broken.
Selectman Cavacco:
“People have a certain amount of faith in the people that they elect and I think that the trust has been, really, destroyed.”
At the Select Board meeting on November 24th, an executive session is planned to review this matter, but Selectman Cavacco says:
“I started this in open session and I want to end it in open session.”
