Google is a wonderful thing. There are all sorts of interesting tidbits you can find on the World Wide Web just by typing in someone's name. No, I'm not talking about porn sites no one outside of Town Government can seem to find. I'm referring to things more along the lines of an interview with Rochester Town Supervisor Pam Duke found on the Ulster County Democrats' website (http://www.ulstercountydemocrats.com/Archives-2006.htm#Duke). I'm not going to reproduce the whole interview here, but there are some salient remarks that I, personally, find intriguing. For instance:
"One thing that people in local governments sometimes forget is that town officials are public servants, with a duty to provide service to their respective electorates. The residents of our towns are our customers and we have an obligation to manage the affairs of town government in like a business, with accountability at all levels, systems to track spending and revenues, and a clear set of objectives."
Or:
"I thought that I would be able to bring a new, more inclusive outlook to government and decided to run for supervisor."
That's such a wonderful philosophy on the role of government! Almost makes me want to sing Kumbaya. The problem is, it's another example of "Do as I say, not as I do."
She tells us that town officials are public servants but leads a Town Board which has consistently looked down upon any segment of the population that disagrees with them. What was done to Jon Dogar-Marinesco and Manuela Mihailescu in the past several months is just the tip of the iceberg. The political purges began in January of 2006 and have yet to stop. These "public servants" locked about 100 people out of the Town Hall on February 1, shut down public comment (indeed, the entire meeting), ran one meeting complete devoid of public comment and eliminated the first public comment segment from the next meeting. As a result, we were left to make our opinions known only AFTER the Board voted on the subjects at hand. An "inclusive outlook," my left big toe!
She wants to implement systems to track revenues and spending. How nice. How about systems to reduce both? This Town doesn't need more tax money coming into its coffers, it needs to reduce its budget. We certainly don't need a full time Supervisor at full time pay, especially if "full time" means more time to divide our community. The next Supervisor, however, probably will need to be "full time" for several years just to undo the harm done to our little Town.
What we need are public officials who actually take the idea of service to heart, people who did not come here from elsewhere thinking they were better, smarter and wiser than the existing townsfolk. Don't get me wrong, my family and I came from outside Rochester, too. The difference, however, is we did our best to become part of the existing community, embracing all that made it a wonderful place to live. These new Lib-Dems have far too much contempt for what made Rochester great for 300 years. They are neither more intelligent nor better than anyone else in Town. Just more arrogant.
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