To the editor:
Today, we live in a world that is not for the trusting type. The phone rings and the local number is a telemarketer or the IRS ready to haul you off to jail for not paying your taxes. You receive an email from someone pretending to be a friend but instead it’s a scammer with an embedded computer virus. Today, you have to be careful about who you are communicating with and what the consequences would be if you were fooled or victimized. This is something that is not uncommon today and could happen to anyone.
This time it has happened to the town of Stockbridge and an unsuspecting Fire Chief Ernest “Chuckie” Cardillo, the Stockbridge Fire Chief, who also is one of the town’s three Selectman, has been placed on partial administrative leave from his job after he was a victim of a vendor scam. The chief purchased material for the town’s Fire Department and later discovered that two vendors had targeted the Fire Department and its Chief in a buying scam.
While details of these transactions are being reviewed the chief has been removed from his position. If this is something that could happen to anyone of us, why would an upstanding and valued town employee be treated like the criminals that pulled off this scam? There is a very strong rumor that Chief Cardillo could be removed from his position as Fire Chief permanently. An even bigger reality is that a large number of volunteers of the Fire Department have threatened to leave the department in support of the chief.
Punishing Chief Cardillo with the loss of his job does not seem to be the right action in my opinion. The town of Stockbridge surely needs to have stricter guidelines on future purchases made by its department heads. They should also learn from this scam so this does not happen to anyone else. Chief Cardillo was a victim of a scam. Nothing more than that.
Ray Gardino
South Lee
