My first time as a fully fledged councilwoman attending the meetings was pretty awesome. The Listening Post had a number of new people attending who raised some good questions. NOTE TO SELF: Need to follow up with an attorney to find out if documentation required to be disseminated to the public can be sent via email instead of 'snail' mail. That's the first step. If yes, then we need to start looking at giving people the option to get all Town correspondence through email instead of killing trees and wasting postage....
We had very little time before the Regular meeting to discuss the agenda items. I was extremely concerned over the transfer of $85K to the Police Department budget to cover the replacement of three patrol cars. While it sounded reasonable on the face of it - after all, who would deny the police cars to get around in? - why are we getting such a last minute transfer of funds without any opportunity to discuss it? Some questions about this are a) why did we not know about this earlier? b) why is there not a plan to replace cars in an organized fashion? c) did three cars really break down at the end of the year or was it an issue of "Hey, we have funds available - let's use them!" I questioned what was being done with the cars that are being replaced and was told that they would be cannibalized for parts - so, in case you wanted to know, we do have our own legal 'chop shop'! Another question - when this comes up again - is how many police cars do we need?
One other issue that arose at the Listening Post and which has been an ongoing problem is my perception - which has been expressed by many others - of how the citizenry is treated by the Town Council. Quite often I have seen members of the Town Council be condescending and/or downright nasty to people who ask questions or challenge the stance of the councilperson. I can only state that I have a tremendous appreciation of the fact that I am the servant of the people and that I will endeavor to always listen with an open mind and open heart. In fact, on the back of my nameplate I am putting a label "BE COURTEOUS" as a constant reminder when I am facing our constituents. [But it may not necessarily be in the forefront when I look at my fellow council members ;o)]
An example of this arose when someone got up who wanted to express some concern about the salary of the Town Manager and the perception of a huge increase in her pay in the 5 years she has been employed by the town. Unfortunately, the questioner did not have all the facts at his fingertips. Again, he was belittled and made fun of instead of encouraged in a nice way to clarify his concern. It doesn't take a great deal to just say "Thank you for your concerns".
Part 2 on the way shortly... Tell your friends to tune in - and all comments welcome!
One other issue that arose at the Listening Post and which has been an ongoing problem is my perception - which has been expressed by many others - of how the citizenry is treated by the Town Council. Quite often I have seen members of the Town Council be condescending and/or downright nasty to people who ask questions or challenge the stance of the councilperson. I can only state that I have a tremendous appreciation of the fact that I am the servant of the people and that I will endeavor to always listen with an open mind and open heart. In fact, on the back of my nameplate I am putting a label "BE COURTEOUS" as a constant reminder when I am facing our constituents. [But it may not necessarily be in the forefront when I look at my fellow council members ;o)]
An example of this arose when someone got up who wanted to express some concern about the salary of the Town Manager and the perception of a huge increase in her pay in the 5 years she has been employed by the town. Unfortunately, the questioner did not have all the facts at his fingertips. Again, he was belittled and made fun of instead of encouraged in a nice way to clarify his concern. It doesn't take a great deal to just say "Thank you for your concerns".
Part 2 on the way shortly... Tell your friends to tune in - and all comments welcome!
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