Seekonk Selectmen Chair Responds to Critic

Local activist David Saad wrote a statement in a blog entry recently posted on Seekonk Patch that implies Board of Selectmen Chair Francis Cavaco does not show respect toward Seekonk Veterans Agent Set Bai. Cavaco contacted Patch late Thursday to say this is not accurate.

"Seekonk Veterans Agent Seth Bai has done an outstanding job for the veterans in our community," wrote Cavaco in an email. "I have the utmost respect for our town's veterans agent and have stated such many times at numerous Board of Selectmen meetings."

Saad, a critic of Cavaco and others in local government, praised the selectmen chair in his blog for his speech during this week's Town Meeting that advocated putting $10,000 of town money toward the planned Veterans Memorial Garden.

"It was a wonderful speech thanking our veterans for their service given by Mr. Cavaco," Saad wrote.

But the sentences that followed took a critical turn.

"I would only ask that he accord our current veterans agent with the respect he deserves," Saad wrote. "He has served Seekonk and its veterans well. As such our town administrator and Mr. Cavaco ought to practice what he so eloquently stated regarding veterans."