"Council Must Address Concerns Today"

Good morning, 

The attention of the ethics claim and the counting of signatures on the Dollar Tree petition brings light to the towns need to have better procedures to handle sensitive matters. The fact the current practice by state law to have the town clerk validate signatures without an unbiased third party for oversight on a close count on the Dollar Tree petition I believe is unwise. The town has a budget of nearly $100 million dollars and there isn’t a procedure for a third party to be oversight on sensitive matters like the petition and an ethics claim of a town council member??? The cost of a law suit against the town is far more expensive than to have an unbiased third party take over or be oversight on sensitive matters and hard to believe it’s not already a practice and in place. 

The town council needs to address this and address it TODAY where they look at removing the town from accusation of corruption and liability. Recently I read the mayor suggest the ethics claim against the deputy mayor could be handled within, this just furthers the towns liability to a law suit. Trying to let this blow over is a poor idea. Also very important a third party should not be selected by those inside town hall or the town council it should be a system that cannot be influenced by others. Example of the town making questionable selections of third parties was recently the town had the president of BOE as the chair for tax assessment appeals. This is a good example of the town not understanding how to select an unbiased third party that doesn’t have a conflict of interest.

Regardless of the validity of a claim against a council member its important the members of the town council understand they represent the entire town not just those that voted for them and should handle things with the utmost of integrity. A system of how a third party is selected and what is considered a sensitive matter should be addressed TODAY and certainly an ethics claim should be on the list of sensitive matters.

Regards, 

James Walsh