Apart from the news that corporate warmonger/murderer General Dynamics - 4th on POGO's Federal Contractor Misconduct Database - is moving its Burlington offices to suburban Williston (not far enough!), the recent political bombshells about the city administrations in Burlington and Montpelier have been the talk around the water coolers and in coffee-bars since last week. Shay Totten's Fair Game column in today's Seven Days newspaper brings us up to date on the City Hall shenanigans around the state:

The financial scandals embroiling Montpelier and Burlington have some striking similarities. No, it’s not just that the administrations of both cities are liberal — if not downright progressive.

Rather, key administrators opted to keep their money troubles — and the strategy to get out of those fiscal pickles — a secret from citizens.

In Montpelier, Mayor Mary Hooper and City Manager William Fraser, in collusion with city councilors, kept hidden from the public an overpayment to a contractor that will cost taxpayers $400,000 to remedy. It may have already caused water rates to rise. They kept the information to themselves for three years.

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