Last modified: Thursday, May 31, 2007 9:32 PM EDT GUEST COLUMN: Cost of failed leadership rising BY RICHARD DION Maureen Osolnik is opinionated and stubborn. I'm sure that she ruffled the feathers of more than a few folks in her capacity as a member of numerous committees on which she served during her 30 years of service. But she is also one of the most effective committee members I have seen over the past 15 years that I've lived in Wrentham. Like all of us, she has her downside, and it was this downside that Selectmen Mary Dunn, Jennifer Firth and John Zizza used as a basis for not re-appointing her to the Conservation Commission. The Town of Wrentham is worse off as a result. The firing of Maureen Osolnik is the latest example of Dunn, Firth and Zizza losing sight of what is important and demonstrating their inability to work with others. Given the value that Osolnik delivers, it is the board's responsibility to find a way to keep her in place while addressing any concerns raised by residents about her behavior. Instead, Dunn, Firth and Zizza listen only to a few vocal malcontents and ignore the silent majority of residents who expect their elected officials to thoughtfully evaluate all sides of a given issue before taking action. Had Dunn, Firth and Zizza done that, they would have recognized that Osolnik's contribution far outweighed the price. This is what leadership is expected to do. The Osolnik travesty isn't the first time that the Wrentham suffered as a result of obsession with authority. These same selectmen ignored the advice of the town moderator and town clerk when they changed the location of the recent town meeting from King Philip Middle School in Norfolk to Wrentham elementary school. They did this solely to curry favor with a handful of vocal residents who complained about driving the two miles to Norfolk. Oddly enough, these same residents had no problem driving to Norfolk when they wanted to vote down a series of zoning changes in late 2005. (I suppose the drive got longer and the road darker over the past 18 months!) Not only did the board ignore the concerns of the moderator and clerk regarding the school's ability to comfortably accommodate a large turnout, they (Dunn, Firth and Zizza) then blamed the town moderator for rescheduling the meeting when he was forced to take the action he predicted he would if faced with a seating problem. If you also consider the behavior of these same board members as they furiously back-pedaled during the dispute with local police concerning alleged Internet threats, you would probably reach the same conclusion I have; we are witnessing nothing short of a complete failure of leadership. The problems that we will face in Wrentham in the coming years will be infinitely more difficult to manage than those of today. If the current selectmen are not capable of adapting to retain the services of a highly-valued and effective volunteer or listening to the advice of other elected officials, how could we reasonably expect them to manage serious issues such as a deteriorating economic environment? The short answer is: we can't. The cost of failed leadership is rising in Wrentham. Hopefully the silent majority of Wrentham residents will take action before the town's service infrastructure and property values are irreparably damaged. RICHARD DION is a former Wrentham selectman.