Up for the second time tonight as a new selectboard; a board of 4, since Selectman Young officially resigned tonight, and the board agreed not to hold a special election to fill the seat 6 weeks before the June town meeting.
New dynamics emerging on this board: interactive; information seeking; disagreeing with each other sometimes, without shutting the other down. And the doing of homework before class begins. Not to say that sometimes last minute items don't come up; but when a topic has been around a while - an ordinance, a law suit, a policy - it is refreshing to hear "I have been reading that statute..." from the front table. Even more refreshing would be "..and I have a copy with me."
Several items on the manager's report were actually main agenda items:
* We need a new street sweeper - case presented by Road Foreman Frank Danforth;
*The town is looking toward computerizing the town report to save paper and mailing. Do they really know how many non-computer folks there are in this town? Selectman Herrick made the point that come town meeting people will want to have something to hold in their hands to refer to; the speaker responded that that information would be on the computer and they could print it out..... missed the point....
Main agenda:
*Finally, just one year late, a hearing scheduled for the repairs to the petitioned replacement subdivision ordinance voted in last June. The impediments have been corrected, and these corrections will appear on the June 2010 warrant. For real.
*Our acting town clerk, Liz Knox, became official until June 30, when she will then be reappointed for another term. Paris is grateful for her continued dedication and efforts.
LEVEL TWO
Item 11. This law suit. Selectman Herrick said "This item is a very emotional topic for many people...many people." He went on to point out that it's necessary to separate the emotion from the cost of the law suit; that a decision needs to be made that is good for the town.
He is right on all counts, absolutely right. Working backwards on the points above, what works for the whole town must be the focus of our selectmen. And, of course, in order to run any machine, mechanical or municipal, the operators have to be able to manage the costs.
But, now, this emotional part. Why is this item so emotional? And, is emotion a nonessential component to the machine? Or is there more to it?
The situation has become so complex that it is almost impossible to boil things down to one, or even two, issue(s) of merit. We had a groundless firing; we had bullies; we had deceit after deceit. We - staff, elected officials, hired personnel, citizens - were all mocked, misled, lied to, cheated. People. All of us people. We were sold down the river. How does that feel?
And then a law suit. Wanted her job back. Couldn't get anyone to listen. Twice. How does that feel? Not only to the jobless person, but to us watching? Helpless and watching? Can you look away? Is the action right? wrong? How does that quandary itself feel?
Still the turmoil continued. Two of our elected officials trapped in the turmoil of the civil war brought on by the 3 other elected officials. How does that feel? To the 2? To the angry citizens watching?
Nine long, ridiculous, awful months.
We cannot disregard the emotion. It should not run the show; but it is part of who we are as people, all of us - elected officials, hired staff, citizens - our values, our vision, our hopes are built around our emotions.
And that includes our anger. We cannot sustain this anger any longer. Until there is a resolution to this lawsuit that has been blown into global proportions and looms over this town like a toxic cloud, we cannot rebuild, no matter how many street sweepers, fire tankers, and neat & tidy budgets we manage to whip up. Our former manager must be able to get on with her life - we owe her that - and we must be able to get on with Paris.
