Monday Selectmen's meeting, 2-8-10. A different feel in the room. The town has the same people in it; there are people who are content with their lot and those who want something else; people with needs and people who don't need anything right now; people who have grievances and people who don't.
In short, no matter how described, the Town of Paris is full of the same people as before the recall elections of Feb. 1st and Feb. 5th.
This meeting of the selectmen felt different because a majority of voters have chosen to try to do a better job of paying attention to what is going on in the leadership they elect to run their company - this town. The people in the room tonight reflected that choice and the feelings that come with it.
Because of the recall, there are now 2 positions open, and there will be an election to fill those positions.
Position #1 - a 2 1/2 year position;
Position #2 - a 3 1/2 month position, and then re-file end of May to fill a 3 year position.
Petition papers to run for the office of either position may be picked up at the Town Office Tuesday AM 2-9-10. Be sure to specify which position running for. Petitions must be returned by February 19.
Absentee ballots will be available 2-22-10.
March 9 - Election Day, 8AM -8PM.
This is a short time to get everything in place. This town needs to hustle. Business has been stacking up, and we have much to do.
It is critical, however, that the important pieces of our town that have been thrown helter-skelter in the last 7 months are not just swept into a pile and randomly pasted back together. As much as we all crave "regular life" and good feelings, consider: when a surgeon finishes a piece of surgery, he or she doesn't just stitch the patient back up without first looking to see if everything is back in the right place and that there isn't a box of bandages or pair of scissors left inside.
We need to understand what has happened and we need to know where we are headed next. We need to understand the extra financial obligations that we now face as a result of poor management; we need to be clear on what we have been obligated to as a result of decisions made because of personal agendas, decisions we did not authorize.
We are ready to move on, and we can move on. But we have to know where we are going, and we look to our elected officials to not only be honest with us about that, but to let us be a part of that decision. This town belongs to all of us.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
The clock cannot be turned back
Selectmen meet in the Paris Town Office 2-8-10, 7PM.
Monday the Town of Paris starts over again. Right? New plan, some new people - or arrangements to be made for new people? A little shake up, straighten things a bit here, set a couple of things in order there? Pay a few back bills, reset some gears put in motion in a less than desirable way?
Except:
the clock cannot be turned back. It is not just a matter of cleaning house and then putting the furniture all back where it was. The house is our town, and it is not shaped the same as it was 7 months ago.
Recalling an elected official, or two in our case, means that the situation was seriously, dangerously wrong. It means that while those individuals were in office, real damage was inflicted; by their decisions, their actions, and the continuing, unfolding results of those decisions and actions.
The Paris Reporter has pointed out some of the financial burdens of the impetuous actions and self-serving agendas over the 7 months: legal costs, law suits, new hirings. Items not in any budget approved by Paris voters last June 2009.
But consider the audacity of individuals coming into office, and, at their very first meeting as a majority:
*taking action, the consequence of which saddled the town - all of us, tax payers, citizens, residents - with a law suit that has every look of winning.
Then, later:
*turning down, without even a negotiating word, two offers (mentioned here) to settle out of court;
* hiring an interim manager who cost us money and did very little for it;
* then hiring a full time manager, allegedly at a savings of money, but who, in the end, will cost the town more. This new manager was given a contract - crafted purely with the intent of preventing the undoing of it - at the behest of a majority that already had 2 of its members slated for recall, and who have since been recalled.
Certain things were put in place with this contract. Taxpayers were not consulted.
Questions our current selectmen, and whoever else is elected to come on board with them, need to answer:
(1)Instead of being told that everything is ok and costs will be covered, where is the money coming from to pay the overload of legal bills incurred by the previous 3-2 board majority?
(2)Are we financially prepared to deal with this law suit that no one has talked out loud to us about for 7 months?
(3)And, when are you going to tell us, the bill payers, anything about what that cost - and it's implications - might be?
Monday the Town of Paris starts over again. Right? New plan, some new people - or arrangements to be made for new people? A little shake up, straighten things a bit here, set a couple of things in order there? Pay a few back bills, reset some gears put in motion in a less than desirable way?
Except:
the clock cannot be turned back. It is not just a matter of cleaning house and then putting the furniture all back where it was. The house is our town, and it is not shaped the same as it was 7 months ago.
Recalling an elected official, or two in our case, means that the situation was seriously, dangerously wrong. It means that while those individuals were in office, real damage was inflicted; by their decisions, their actions, and the continuing, unfolding results of those decisions and actions.
The Paris Reporter has pointed out some of the financial burdens of the impetuous actions and self-serving agendas over the 7 months: legal costs, law suits, new hirings. Items not in any budget approved by Paris voters last June 2009.
But consider the audacity of individuals coming into office, and, at their very first meeting as a majority:
*taking action, the consequence of which saddled the town - all of us, tax payers, citizens, residents - with a law suit that has every look of winning.
Then, later:
*turning down, without even a negotiating word, two offers (mentioned here) to settle out of court;
* hiring an interim manager who cost us money and did very little for it;
* then hiring a full time manager, allegedly at a savings of money, but who, in the end, will cost the town more. This new manager was given a contract - crafted purely with the intent of preventing the undoing of it - at the behest of a majority that already had 2 of its members slated for recall, and who have since been recalled.
Certain things were put in place with this contract. Taxpayers were not consulted.
Questions our current selectmen, and whoever else is elected to come on board with them, need to answer:
(1)Instead of being told that everything is ok and costs will be covered, where is the money coming from to pay the overload of legal bills incurred by the previous 3-2 board majority?
(2)Are we financially prepared to deal with this law suit that no one has talked out loud to us about for 7 months?
(3)And, when are you going to tell us, the bill payers, anything about what that cost - and it's implications - might be?
Friday, February 5, 2010
...and these are the rest of the facts
The second half of the recall elections for 4 selectmen in the Town of Paris was completed tonight (2-05-10).
437 people came to the polls to vote today; 300 votes were cast by absentee ballot before today, 22 of them since Monday's election. Total votes cast for the final half of this election = 737 votes.
For all the tricky ads and signs and naysayers, Paris voters made the effort, made their own decisions, and voted accordingly. It is not difficult to distinguish between who takes care of this town and who takes care of himself.
The ballots and their results:
*Shall Selectman Ray Glover be recalled? 155 Yes 578 No (4 no vote)
*Shall Selectman Troy Ripley be recalled? 628 Yes 102 No (7 no vote)
AND
The Town of Paris is indebted to the ladies who implemented these two elections; sat 12 hours both days and collected ballots, smiled at voters, and then stayed another hour or two and counted every single ballot - twice; accurately. We are grateful for all their efforts. We are grateful that we have a staff in the office of the Town of Paris that keeps this town running, in spite of squabbles, the occasional less-than-professional behavior, and just plain oversight at some other times. Thank you!Thank you! Thank you all!
437 people came to the polls to vote today; 300 votes were cast by absentee ballot before today, 22 of them since Monday's election. Total votes cast for the final half of this election = 737 votes.
For all the tricky ads and signs and naysayers, Paris voters made the effort, made their own decisions, and voted accordingly. It is not difficult to distinguish between who takes care of this town and who takes care of himself.
The ballots and their results:
*Shall Selectman Ray Glover be recalled? 155 Yes 578 No (4 no vote)
*Shall Selectman Troy Ripley be recalled? 628 Yes 102 No (7 no vote)
AND
The Town of Paris is indebted to the ladies who implemented these two elections; sat 12 hours both days and collected ballots, smiled at voters, and then stayed another hour or two and counted every single ballot - twice; accurately. We are grateful for all their efforts. We are grateful that we have a staff in the office of the Town of Paris that keeps this town running, in spite of squabbles, the occasional less-than-professional behavior, and just plain oversight at some other times. Thank you!Thank you! Thank you all!
Now....
The Town of Paris has a great deal of clean-up to deal with. In the last 6 months there have been decisions made, things put in motion that are not stop-able. The financial fallout of these is staggering. It will not go away all by itself, like hives, maybe, or a bruised elbow.
A municipal organization is not a hobby or a game; it is a living, breathing thing that includes all the lives and happenings of the people in it. It requires planning, implementing, and vision. We have been 6 months without that; and worse, with the negative of that, the agenda of a select few. And now we have to see what this is really going to cost us.... You can bet it's going to be plenty.
The town of Paris has stepped up. We have remembered that we are the ones who are supposed to be running this town. We are the ones who are responsible for electing officials who will do the operating of our municipal organization. We are the ones who have to clean up - and, yes, pay the tab - for mistakes made. And we have learned that we have to be better prepared, and we have to do a better job.
We have made a very fine start this week.
Monday, 2-8-10, 7 pm, 2 of the remaining selectmen will meet at the town office. There will have to be a new plan. There may be some naysayers there....but there will be many more informed, concerned citizens.
Paris will not be as easy to fool the next time.
A municipal organization is not a hobby or a game; it is a living, breathing thing that includes all the lives and happenings of the people in it. It requires planning, implementing, and vision. We have been 6 months without that; and worse, with the negative of that, the agenda of a select few. And now we have to see what this is really going to cost us.... You can bet it's going to be plenty.
The town of Paris has stepped up. We have remembered that we are the ones who are supposed to be running this town. We are the ones who are responsible for electing officials who will do the operating of our municipal organization. We are the ones who have to clean up - and, yes, pay the tab - for mistakes made. And we have learned that we have to be better prepared, and we have to do a better job.
We have made a very fine start this week.
Monday, 2-8-10, 7 pm, 2 of the remaining selectmen will meet at the town office. There will have to be a new plan. There may be some naysayers there....but there will be many more informed, concerned citizens.
Paris will not be as easy to fool the next time.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
New: A Postponement
The joint meeting of the selectboards and town managers of Paris and Norway - scheduled for 6:00pm tonight (2/4/10) - to discuss issues relating to Norway-Paris Solid Waste, has been postponed due to the illness of Paris Town Mgr. Phil Tarr. A new meeting date will be determined.
Despite Mr. Tarr's absence, the Paris budget committee's meeting at 7:00pm tonight will occur as planned at the Paris town office.
Despite Mr. Tarr's absence, the Paris budget committee's meeting at 7:00pm tonight will occur as planned at the Paris town office.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Thursday at 6 PM
The continuing debacle over who is in control of who on the board of directors of Norway Paris Solid Waste and which person says so, has prompted the town managers of both towns to set a meeting for the selectmen from both towns to look at the situation - which the interlocal agreement says selectmen of both towns are in charge of in the first place.
Any continuing problem on that board effects both towns; and the half million dollar budget - for that board to operate a solid waste management program that is intended to benefit both towns - is directly relevant to the concerns of the tax payers in both towns.
They are spending our money.
The handling of that budget needs to receive a complete audit; there should be no rewriting of bylaws - just because they think they can - by board members who decide to shape the rules differently than the interlocal agreement. The agreement was written by Atty. Geoff Hole, town attorney for Norway and Paris, and enacted by voters in both towns in 2009; this NPSW board has no autonomous authority granted by any higher authority.
At 6 PM Thursday, 2-4-10, the joint boards of selectmen and town managers will meet at the Norway Town Hall. Norway and Paris voters are encouraged to attend and see just what these elected officials know about all this - and what they plan to do about the whole thing.
Our money...money...money...
Any continuing problem on that board effects both towns; and the half million dollar budget - for that board to operate a solid waste management program that is intended to benefit both towns - is directly relevant to the concerns of the tax payers in both towns.
They are spending our money.
The handling of that budget needs to receive a complete audit; there should be no rewriting of bylaws - just because they think they can - by board members who decide to shape the rules differently than the interlocal agreement. The agreement was written by Atty. Geoff Hole, town attorney for Norway and Paris, and enacted by voters in both towns in 2009; this NPSW board has no autonomous authority granted by any higher authority.
At 6 PM Thursday, 2-4-10, the joint boards of selectmen and town managers will meet at the Norway Town Hall. Norway and Paris voters are encouraged to attend and see just what these elected officials know about all this - and what they plan to do about the whole thing.
Our money...money...money...
Monday, February 1, 2010
These are the facts
The first half of the recall elections for 4 selectmen in the Town of Paris was completed tonight.
444 people voted today; 276 votes were cast by absentee ballot before today. Total votes cast for this part of the election = 720 votes.
The ballots, and the results:
*Shall Selectman David Ivey be recalled? 651 Yes 69 No
*Shall Selectman Lloyd "Skip" Herrick be recalled? 116 Yes 600 No (4" no vote")
One half of the job done. Paris voters made the effort, made their own decisions, and voted accordingly.
Now there is Friday.
Friday February 5, another recall election, another $1000 from the taxpayers' pockets for the cost of a second 8 AM to 8 PM election. It did not need to come to this.
But, since it did, Paris voters, we need to finish the job. The polls will open Friday at 8 AM., and it will cost another $1000. So get your money's worth, bearing in mind who takes care of this town and who takes care of himself.
On the ballot: Selectman Ray Glover; and Selectman Troy Ripley. Come and vote.
444 people voted today; 276 votes were cast by absentee ballot before today. Total votes cast for this part of the election = 720 votes.
The ballots, and the results:
*Shall Selectman David Ivey be recalled? 651 Yes 69 No
*Shall Selectman Lloyd "Skip" Herrick be recalled? 116 Yes 600 No (4" no vote")
One half of the job done. Paris voters made the effort, made their own decisions, and voted accordingly.
Now there is Friday.
Friday February 5, another recall election, another $1000 from the taxpayers' pockets for the cost of a second 8 AM to 8 PM election. It did not need to come to this.
But, since it did, Paris voters, we need to finish the job. The polls will open Friday at 8 AM., and it will cost another $1000. So get your money's worth, bearing in mind who takes care of this town and who takes care of himself.
On the ballot: Selectman Ray Glover; and Selectman Troy Ripley. Come and vote.
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