Democracy wins big!

Preliminary report 10/24/2000 Early AM

Frank Hogg

Town Board Special Meeting re changing the ZBA from 7 to 5.

I arrived a few minutes before 8 and the room was nearly full. A very good turnout. I recognized many of the people there, but there were many I didn't know. Going into this I assumed that the Town Board would call in all their friends. I worried that if they got more than we did, they could do this with justification.

The meeting was called to order and John Steger called for comments from the floor. It was quiet for a few moments before the first person talked… Against the Town Board changing the ZBA! Then citizen after citizen talked against the Town Board. I began to wonder what was happening. I was taking notes, so I could tally the votes, for and against. After almost an hour no one had talked in favor of the Town Board! As a matter of fact most of the speakers were not only against changing the ZBA from 7 to 5 they also spoke in support of keeping Carl and Barb on the ZBA. I began to wonder what the Town Board's strategy was; perhaps they were waiting till all those opposed to the Town Board talked before they spoke up. It soon became obvious that no one, not one single person, nada, nothing, nobody was going to support the Town Board!

What a great victory this was for democracy, a perfect example of a government agency being thwarted in their selfish goals by the will of the people… Still… I tried on two occasions to get the Town Board to commit on one simple point. If they decide to keep the ZBA at seven will they reappoint Carl and Barb to the ZBA? On both occasions they refused to answer. I took that to mean that they were still considering replacing Barb and Carl with others. More later.

A brief look at my notes shows 28 people speaking, some more than once. Many of the talks were brilliant, all making very valid points. I want to go thru the tape transcript and fairly and accurately report what each person said.

While I was writing this I received an e-mail from Barb Frier.

I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to come out last night. As a member of the ZBA I want you to know we all work very hard. Your unanimous support for a seven-person board tells us that the community appreciates what we do. The best thing about our 7-person team is the various insights, knowledge, life skills and common sense that each of us brings to the meetings. When you combine this with our dedication and our ability keep focused on our task without losing our sense of responsibility to this community everyone wins. Seven members on the board are what you wanted and I hope it's what you get. Thanks again for your support. Thank you Frank for www.prebleny.com Barbara Frier

 

You are welcome Barb. The dedication and hard work that you and the other board members do is seldom mentioned. I doubt that many know the effort and work that goes into serving on the board. I thank you and I know that everyone else thanks you and the rest of the members of the ZBA and Planning Board.

Back to my report. There were many interesting and even funny things that happened at the meeting. Some things to make you want to tune in later when I get the tape transcribed.

 I had another strange discussion with Ann Brennen when she decided to ask me a personal question during the meeting.

After the meeting Betty Ann Pitman told me she thought my numbers were wrong because the town of Preble was not properly depicted on the map. I'm going to go over my numbers because of this. The numbers I refer too are the population breakdown I came up with to compare the representation of the different boards with the population centers. More later.

There are so many good things to say about this meeting that I want to spend some serious time on it. I'll try to get it up in parts so you won't have to wait long. Update.

Frank