They Still Can't Play Nice

Well, they did it again. Between the close of the Election Day polls and the Public Hearing on the 2008 Town Budget, Supervisor Duke and her Board reduced the Supervisor’s salary for 2008 by roughly $8,000 and the Budget Officer’s salary (which also goes to the Supervisor) by $3,000. Note that this isn’t Pam Duke’s salary, it’s Carl Chipman’s. At the Hearing, she claimed that this was done at Carl’s request, in a letter he wrote to the Board. Several people who were there heard that claim. When Carl arrived and it was pointed out that he denied writing any such letter, the story changed to the letter having been written to a newspaper.

When those present became outraged that she would change her story, the Supervisor became indignant, even threatening to throw me out after I pointed out the fact that for the next two months or so, she still works for us. Of course, I was wrong about that. She never worked for the people of this Town, so why should she start now?

Naturally, the supporters of the current Board will start up the spin machine, saying that Carl should take the pay cut because he criticized Supervisor Duke’s pay raise when she took it. Just as naturally, that is completely beside the point.

Carl had made it clear that he was interested in giving back a portion of the Supervisor’s salary, preferably to the First Aid Squad. Supervisor Duke took that option away from him. By doing what she did, she literally took money away from the First Aid Squad, not just from Carl. She also took away the prerogatives of the man the Town voted, by a historical margin, to replace her and clean up her messes.

You see, we elected Carl to run our Town the way we want him to. Pam Duke decided that she was going to have one last spin at making us dance to her tune. This is not a question of salary or budget. It is a question of principle. This is exactly why Pam Duke was defeated this Tuesday, because she simply doesn’t understand what the Town wants.

Carl is going to have the most difficult job of any Supervisor in the Town’s history. Like all good Supervisors, he has to manage the Town in accordance with the will of the people of Rochester. However, he also has to rebuild all that Duke and Company have destroyed. He has to build good will and tear down the stone walls of divisiveness intentionally erected by his predecessor. He has to make sure that Town institutions such as the Youth Commission (among many others) are re-established not as political wings of the Town Board but as organizations which serve the needs and desires of the people. He has to make sure that Town employees and volunteers who had been subjugated by the Supervisor and Board and subjected to constant micro-management will be able to function with the autonomy necessary to actually do the work they were meant to do. He has to fix everything Pam Duke broke.

To deny Carl Chipman the right to decide how much to give back and which of our service organizations to give it to is not just unacceptable, it is petty and mean spirited. Even after being given her Pink Slip by the people, Pam Duke is still rewriting the rules. This time, she decided that spitefulness and vindictiveness is an appropriate tool for forming a Town Budget.

It is just this sort of uncivilized, primitive behavior that the people of this Town rejected on Election Day. This would be unacceptable from a child, never mind a Town Supervisor. Apparently being fired is not enough to teach her to play nice. Perhaps being sent to her room without supper would be more effective.