Paris citizens are in the midst of figuring out what happened; what brought us to this, elected officials recalled and a law suit against the town? These are not little nothing pieces, normally expected incidents of every day life for the average Paris tax payer, citizen, resident.
We need to be asking questions, uncovering information, learning the truth of activities not presented to the public honestly for 7 months; we need to understand what has happened, where our town government's system went wrong, and what we can do to repair it. We need to know how to make the mechanical operation of our town stronger and we need to rebuild the trust that greases the skids and fuels that operation for all citizens.
We need to be very wary of the blaming and finger pointing that inevitably crops up when some folks look for handy quick solutions, especially if that blaming and finger pointing can act as a diversion from something somebody doesn't wish to have discovered; or, if discovered, certainly not considered valid. Or if, perhaps, blaming, finger pointing, and making excuses might deflect focusing on something overlooked, or something that could have been changed if caught earlier.
On the topic of law suits, we need to ask:
*There have clearly been two offers to settle out of court. Why was the first one not picked up on? Phone bills are an excellent source of information, and they are public record. TPR has published several, including the October bill in question. posting
*Unfortunately Paris is only now becoming savvy to uncovering tricky maneuvers, like not making legal offers known to the proper people. Would that offer have made clear what the original intent was for the lawsuit (instead of the behemoth that issue has become since) ?
As a citizen asked at the selectmen's meeting 2-08, "Might one of those offers still be good?" Did anyone call either lawyer to find out? Are they going to? Why not? It's a good question.
*If the ball was dropped on the town's side, whether because of tricky maneuvers or simply not paying attention, is there not some responsibility to look more closely, examine options more carefully now? As opposed to slamming the door shut and announcing in a loud voice "Too late" ?
On the topic of officials recalled, we need to ask:
*In order to understand how to prevent every citizen who chooses to run for office to fear for that dreaded R-word, what happened to cause over 330 Paris Voters to sign petitions in November 2009 for recall of two elected officials? The petition, even though bullied this way and that, that achieved the recall, in February 2010, of those two officials who had, at one time, been duly elected?
On the topic of who's paying the bill for all this, we need to ask:
*As the Checkbook for who pays for what goes on in this town, how do we tax payers get a handle on
(1) what we owe because of this circus;
(2) where is the money going to come from;
(3) what can we demand be put in place to make sure the tax payers have easy access to information, on a regular basis, explaining in full what we owe? Now, and in the future.
This is only the beginning of what we need to ask. This town is run at the behest of the voters in this town. There are times when nobody agrees on how; times when some agree on one thing, and some on another; and, fortunately, there are times when a majority agrees on a thing.
Then, there are times when a small minority wants its own way, at the expense of the rest of us; and that is not a good thing.
Then we need to talk.
