[RP TownTalk] The Town's Finance Committee meeting of 5/24/07

[Dwight Holmes]

Gerard ~ I will speak only for myself, but I'm guessing I'm not alone
here...  (First, and this is just me, I had wanted to and planned on
attending but knew that the fact that this meeting was on Thursday,
which is Farmers' Mkt day and with Michelle being in the market and me
helping her out and us not getting home til about 8 after closing up
at the market, I knew it was a bit of a long shot, though I had
thought I might go late.  Alas, I didn't make it at all.)  I think
it's fair to say that at Monday night's public meeting some of us left
with this feeling & hope:  The feeling was that we didn't really have
enough information based on the way the proposed budget was presented
to make an intelligent evaluation of the proposal. A number of said
so, in different ways, on Monday. I think we left with the hope (and
expectation) that the council would meet on Thursday, and that by the
time of the *next* "public" meeting there would be a new and better
presentation.  Now, I'm looking at my notes from Monday here and
unfortunately they aren't conclusive: I know that Rob Oppenheim
proposed a public meeting for Thursday May 31 (another market day!)
and that there was discussion of his motion, but I'm not sure if that
was approved or not.

I'm sorry I'm so longwinded here. In short there may have been a
number of us who thought that maybe it was best or at least ok to let
the council revisit the budget presentation on its own, and then we
would tune in again at the next "public" meeting (May 31?) and give it
another listen.

(I say "public" because I know all of these meetings are in fact open
to the public. I am distinguishing between those meetings we are
entitled to be there versus those where our input has been invited.)

On 5/25/07, Gerard Kiernan <gerardkiernan at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Dear Town Talkers,
>
> I was able to return from my business trip in time to attend last night's
> Finance Committee meeting to discuss the proposed operating budget for the
> Town. We got through the General Government budget.
>
> It is my sad duty to report that the only attendees at the meeting were the
> sitting and incoming Council Members, the Town Administrator, the department
> heads for police and public works, and the accounting clerk.
>
> In other words,   no member of the public chose to attend and find out how
> their money is proposed to be used in the coming year.
>
> Gerry Kiernan
> Ward 5 Council Member
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