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The Predicament We Are In

The regulation that Jean Fitzgerald so proudly acknowledges in her Feb. 20 letter [“Consistency and Predictability”] in my opinion, goes against the Town Charter.

During the December meeting of the Board of Finance (BOF), it was brought up by Democrats on the board that the proposed draft regulation was circulated only 1 ½ hours prior to the meeting (during the evening commute), leaving only minutes to look it over. There were several detailed questions brought up by Jude Friedman, not the least of which was to the questionable legality of the regulation on several points (it had not been reviewed by town counsel), and to the lack of public input. John Picard asked that the vote be tabled for just one month so that he could do more research on what other towns are doing and to get input from the public and town counsel. That request was voted down without response by the Republicans and the regulation passed on party lines.

There was one point of agreement. One reason that some of the town’s assets are in such a state of disrepair is because of the lack of capital funding over the last several decades. Three of the four current Republican BOF members (Fitzgerald, Kenneth Kaminsky, and Fillmore McPherson) served on a prior BOF; they did not need a regulation to save, they chose not to. Now they want to cap the amount available for needed capital projects. This regulation artificially limits spending on capital improvement, which is what got Madison into the predicament that we are in. Moreover, this regulation can be used as an excuse to not bring capital projects to the voters for approval, removing our say in how the town spends our tax dollars. Enough is enough—let the people of the town decide.

Joan Walker

Madison

Joan Walker chairs the Democratic Town Committee.