Seven Villages, Janet Joakim

hypocrite. Main Entry: hyp·o·crite Pronunciation: 'hi-p&-"krit
Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English ypocrite, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin hypocrita, from Greek hypokritEs actor, hypocrite, from hypokrinesthai
1 : a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
2 : a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings
- hypocrite adjective

These days I don’t often find myself agreeing with Paul Gauvin.    For example, the field of candidates for our local elections is wider than it has been in the past few years – did the pay increase have anything do with it? Who knows?  But the latter half of that recent column was one of those times when I thank him for hitting the nail on the head.

This fellow – Eric Schwaab, who until recently dwelled primarily in Brighton, MA where is wife is still a registered voter, has now registered to vote here where his summer home sits empty for most of the off-season.  Furthermore, after using his own “hate blog” (where he writes in the “voice” of his pug dog) to cheerlead the local king of pajamas and his hateblogging buddies as they ranted and raved about the need to institute the residential exemption and shift 20% of the property tax burden to the second home owner….. Schwaab is clearly a second home-owner in Barnstable, he never paid that extra tax himself!

The only method our own assessing department has had to determine second home ownership thus far is to go by the address used to mail tax bills and or the honesty of the homeowner….. this guy lists his second home address as the address for his second home property tax bills, and he clearly wasn’t honest enough to clear any errors, and bingo, the red flags didn’t go up, he was considered a resident, and was given the 20% exemption.

Clever. 

Despite opportunities, he never pointed out the error, never confessed this was his second home, and he never paid that “shifted” 20% property tax,  thereby “shafting” the local residents….

 Is the the behavior of a resident who cares about this town?

Now, he has registered to vote here and has pulled papers and is running for town council… he wants to participate in making decisions about whether we should continue to shift this tax burden to second home owners, and is railing against our struggling local YEAR ROUND businesses, insisting they should also pay a higher tax rate!

His blog is full of lies and often elicits a chuckle for its total lack of understanding and ignorance of local issues……

 This guy has a primary race coming up in September – hopefully the other two will knock him out in time for him to go home to his wife in the city…..

From Paul Gauvin’s column from July 27th:

( seen here in its entirety   http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/archives.php?47,12724,bp46b93fb533b48,bpbp4526e78680ac4,7,2007,Doc,doc.html )

Candidate’s Ethics Questioned

Another curiosity is the case of Eric Schwaab, one of the area’s faultfinding bloggers. He recently referred to the Patriot editor David Still as a “wiener dog” because Still dared question Schwaab’s residency and moral rectitude.

Schwaab thrust himself into question by taking out papers for charter commission and expressing interest in a Precinct 3 challenge to Munafo when in fact his residency was in doubt – as well as his principles.

It seems Schwaab took out papers before registering as a local voter – yet took advantage of the residential tax exemption for several years that saved him around $1,300, when according to record, he was a Boston voter.

Like a true politician who stands corrected after getting caught, he registered as a voter here on July 7.

Congratulations.

But where does he actually live and for how long?

In his own posted resume, Schwaab says he bought a house here in 2003 and spends “a good deal of my time here now.”  What is a “good deal” of time?

And about principles: Schwaab didn’t file for the tax exemption while a Boston voter.  He received it by tax department error.  However, he didn’t bother to correct the error, as might a man of honor returning a lost wallet to its rightful owner with the cash still in it. Instead, Schwaab said: “I was underbilled by a tax department which screwed up their accounting (sic). And this is my fault?”

Yes it is.  Schwaab could have chosen to point out the error. Had he been overtaxed $1,300, is it your guess as it is mine that he would have reported it promptly?

And, referring to a working journalist as a “wiener” is about as sophomoric as one can get.  An unlikely remark for someone with an MBA. Remember that the former police chief boasted a doctorate – and was asked to leave by the town manager for poor performance. A hotshot resume is worthless if one doesn’t have the ethics and real-world savvy to go with it.

David Still deserves kudos for baring this candidate’s personality traits. There’s a lesson here. Name-calling is not for one who lives in a glass house.

From this corner, Schwaab is not the kind of person I want determining the future government of the town I live in full-time, vote in, and pay my rightful taxes in.
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Publication Date:  07/27/07