In the last two weeks there have been two special Town Board Meetings. Theses have dealt with important issues, so that is good, but the need for these meetings does seem to call into question how efficient it is to have dropped the second monthly meeting that citizens could expect on a regular basis as a way to ask questions and get clarification from the Board. Ms. Maas  has invited me to come sit with her in the Town Hall and discuss matters, but my belief is that Town business is best discussed in the presence of those constituents who need to see how business is conducted and what business is done.

For example, having attended the 10.11. 18 meeting I found out from Ms.Maas  there had been a meeting with residents who live near the Gay holiday lights. This was news to me ( I live near them).  Such a meeting should have been promulgated through a town posting and held at a regularly scheduled Town Meeting, so that all interested parties could have attended. Of course, in doing that everyone would know what was said, and that would make it difficult for anyone on the Board to use that limited meeting as a source of what all the residents near the lights really think. The meeting at which the final discussion of the Library issue by the Town Board took place was posted on a Saturday for two days later, and no one who did go was allowed to speak.  This is not good management practice.

At these last two add- on, non- agenda meetings, one held on 10.11. 18 and one held on 9.26.18, issues about the resignation of the Town Recreation manager, the paving of the parking lot, and decision whether to start on the handicapped parking project were discussed ( 9.26.18 ) as well as pay raises for staff, need to hire more staff, and need to increase hours for Constables at the site of the Gay lights, which run for five weeks (10.11.18) .  These topics might have been of interest to a wider audience, one which could not make a meeting on a week’s notice.

The Town Board has been eminently negligent in its transparency as conducted through television and YouTube. If the taxpayers are comfortable with this, nothing will change. If constituents demand a return to two televised and YouTube taped meetings a month at which constituents can clarify and question, then such a change will happen. This Board will be up for change next year. What do you think?