I think that one of the most important, and easily solvable, problems we have here is the failure of the Commission to communicate with the public.
Probably the most blatant example of that failure was with respect to the termination of our former police chief Patrick Maxwell. I can’t speak to the merits of that decision, because I don’t know what they were. And it may well be that the terms under which his termination was resolved prevented any disclosure of the underlying facts, whatever they were. But for the then-Commissioners (including my opponent) to have called a meeting at which dozens of angry voters demanded information and then literally not to have said a word, then or thereafter, in response to those complaints was unwise, to say the least, and it did nothing to provide any confidence to the many dozens (hundreds?) of citizens that the dispute, whatever its merits, had been handled fairly.
Instead of sitting silent, our Commissioners, with the advice of counsel, needed to explain what they could explain and articulate why that was as far as they could go. This was not a private employment dispute. The resolution the Town negotiated with Chief Maxwell needed to give room for the Town to either justify to our citizens what the Commissioners had done or articulate exactly why the circumstances required that no further information could be provided. Here, none of that happened, and the wound has been festering ever since.
But that was not the last time questions about conduct of the Commissioners has been met by silence.
Most recently, legitimate questions have been raised about the Strand project, including why the Town signed off on its completion when it was neither completed correctly and in significant part not completed at all. The response to those questions has been silence.
And anyone who has attended Commissioner meetings (or watched them remotely) has seen numerous other instances in which questions have been raised in letters submitted to the Commissioners or during public comment sessions for which no answers were ever given. I personally have posed questions to the Commissioners both orally and in writing to which no response has ever been provided.
All this is especially surprising in the face of assurances that sometimes have been made that answers
will be forthcoming.
Simply put, the Commissioners each need to be willing and prepared to offer their views in response to matters before the Commission and to answer questions asked by the public. That does not mean a mini-debate need occur. It just means that someone must answer questions that are posed. Stonewalling the public breeds distrust. It drives wedges both between voters and between voters and their elected officials. If a question can’t be answered, say why. If it can be answered later after further inquiry, then make sure that occurs.
