Town of Kent Public Hearing of 23 March re a Proposal to Change the Term of Office of the Supervisor from Two to Four Years
Submitted by joyce.mitchell1 on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 8:10am
The comments from the well-attended meeting were mostly against the proposal from all political parties, as our poll indicated. Councilman Rohde opened with a well prepared statement against and was followed by many others. The most complete and stirring statement against, one that drew a loud round of applause from the audience, came from Bill Noel, a prominent member of the Republican Committee. Quotes from his speech will be posted to this website later today. Supervisor Doherty announced that "because many people could not be here tonight, the public meeting will be continued on August 17." A most cogent point was made that, if the referendum were to be put on the ballot for the election this November, voters will not know until after the votes are counted if they voted for a two or four year term for their choice of Supervisor.
Joyce
Referendum - Term Extension
Well, it probably was a slightly larger attendance than usual, but I only counted 38 persons (not including Town Board, Town employees, code lawyers, etc.). Ten of the attendees were members of Kent Fiscal Watch.
I am always disappointed at the lack of interest in local government displayed by my fellow constituents.
That being said, it was a useful Public Hearing and perhaps a large number of our fellow citizens will watch the CH. 8 broadcast .... Otherwise, the resumption of the Public Hearing on August 17 will have to be heavily publicised, or many voters will get a surprise when they fill in their ballot.