Government of, by, and for whom.

ALERT!  All Kent residents should be advised that a serious abuse of electoral position has just been perpetrated by our Town Superisor.  The Assessor's data base has been used inappropriately to send out a blatant piece of political propaganda under the guise of correcting false rumors, and a little birdie told me that overtime pay was incurred to get it into the mail.

Yesterday and today most homeowners received a letter, signed by the Supervisor, on official town stationary, and mailed at the cost of the
taxpayer at $0.44 each.  And for what purpose but to correct rumors so that Doherty's chosen "team" of candidates will not be hurt in the election on Tuesday.   Now if she had sent out the same copy on personal stationary and at her own expense, I would not have bothered to comment, but would have accepted it as a Hallowe'en prank.

She writes with the word "we" but I happen to know that not all Board members were contacted before this  so called "explanation" was sent out, although all of their names appear on this official stationary.  She attempts to describe the budget process, but falls short of truth when she fails to tell you that first draft (called a Tentative Budget) is issued by the Financial Officer, one of the duties of the Supervisor.  So she is the author of this draft.  Other Board members have not had a chance to formally input their suggestions, but as I say that I am reminded that the Gang of Four always votes the same.

She claims that "we" are not cutting any Recreation Programs.  But the public was informed by Lou Tartaro at the Candidate's Forum just this past Wednesday that they had taken the entire Capital Account of Recreation (used to expand programs) to be used to decrease debt incurred by the building of the Town Hall, that oasis of mediocre architecture, poor planning, and worse execution and unacceptable cost overruns.

She states "no one is going to lose their jobs" but she is planning to cut down to part time from full time on some jobs...from what I hear only those who do not kiss her ring.

Since I am a proponent of "Shared Services," the third item in her cynical piece of political propaganda, let me reassure those who see it as job loss that this administrtion will never do anything that can hurt it politically if they can avoid it.  Job creation and vote creation are inextricably tied together.  That is why this government avoids an open dialogue on shared services that is fair to both the taxpayers and the employees.

There will be a Preliminary Budget Hearing (as the law requires every year)on November 5th at Town Hall and I truly hope that all voters will be there. But if events pass as usual with the majority governing group, public input will be but a pretense and they will go ahead exactly as they see fit because they are "the elected" as they discard the notion that the one dissenting member is also elected.

Please remember that under the previous Supervisor we had started to
establish a precedent of regular budget reviews, but this group has only provided one so far.  What can we do to make our town a "government of, by and for the people?"