Paris voters cannot sit in on the executive session Thursday at 6 pm when our new selectboard gathers at a special meeting with town attorney Geoff Hole. But we all have a stake in that discussion, and we need to make our expectations clear.
We expect the facts to be presented to each of our elected officials (to date that has not happened), not only about the costs, but about the reasons and the methods and the options.
We expect there to be some resolution besides going to court because we're stuck with it.
We expect there to be good strong intelligent questions, serious discourse, and thinking outside of the box. We want a solution that deals with the rightness of things - not just a check list. We are sick of hearing about things that won't work - can't work - might not work.
We have had 9 months of things that did not work and we put a stop to that. We did - the 612 in the letter June 2009, the 354 for the recall ordinance petition in July, the 338 for individujal selectmen recalls in November , the 279 to request a notary public in December to set a town meeting, the 437 at the January town meeting, the 600 plus at 2 recall elections in February. We, the voters, worked together in our community and made that happen.
Our elected officials should look back at what we did, and recognize that it was the wrongness of things that motivated us. They need to keep that in mind as they work through their discussion Thursday night.
And, they need to consider:
No one asked for that firing in June, nor any of the poorly-orchestrated, costly, and destructive decisions made between then and the recall election in February. Our town almost capsized.
We can, all of us together, right the ship; but now we need the specific help of our elected officials in taking the appropriate, necessary legal steps to continue what we started.
The voters expect our selectboard to come up with a solution that will work for this town, that will make this town right again. Not right because it's quicker or cheaper or easier... but because it's right.
