Well, since my last blog regarding our annual town meeting here in Bethel, we have had two votes on the budget that haven't passed. Each time the budget doesn't pass, the Board of Finance makes more cuts to the budgets which now total $933,000 cut from the Board of Education budget.
After the town budget didn't pass last week, I went to the Board of Finance hoping to plead the case not to cut a ton more from the education budget. Apparently at a "special session" public comments are not allowed, and I was not allowed to express my opinion when they decided to make the $415,000 dollar cut to the education budget that brought the total to $933,000. And that I believe was when I got mad and decided this is ridiculous.
So, it started with a letter to the editor of the regional paper, the Danbury News-Times. In the letter I explained what the cuts so far to the town budget and the school budget mean. I also railed against the 70% of voters in town who didn't even show up to vote.
There are two very frustrating things about this process. First, if all the people who are against the budget, showed up at the first, or even the second budget meeting, they would have been able to pass the reductions they wanted and get the budget they wanted. But what happens is that most of the anti-budget people don't show up, the parents who care show up and block proposed cuts, and then the vote fails and we do it all over again.
Second, the First Selectman, Bob Burke, doesn't seem to want people to actually know what is going on and vote. He actually told the Town Clerk not to purchase signs to let people know when the vote was. I am not kidding!!! The school Superintendent used the automated phone tree system for the school to let people know when the first budget was and all he has gotten for it is grief and accusations of the politics of it. How about the town developing a system like that for the whole town, or even just put up signs.
Needless to say, when we went to the town budget meeting last night I was prepared with a few comments for the board. I honestly have never seen a meeting move so fast - which is really sad because we had a lot of new people at the meeting who didn't even understand the process of the town meeting. When the moderator asked for discussion of the town side of the budget I didn't even realize what they were talking about. When I was trying to figure out what they were asking for discussion for, someone moved to close the discussion and move on. I jumped up to speak and protested greatly that I should have the right to say my peace and ask my questions about the town budget. I was shut down because I had not spoken up soon enough and they had moved on. I was really mad!
So, they moved onto the education budget and I got up and read my prepared statement expressing my displeasure with the such a deep cut, as well as what decisions were made in the cuts in the actual budget.
As we are only allowed to cut things from the budget and not add to the budget, I really didn't have any motions to make, but at least I got to say what I was not allowed to say at the Board of Finance meeting.
To understand how fast this meeting went and how confused people were, people who came in at 7:35 because their watches weren't synchronized to whatever clock the moderator was using completely missed discussion of the town side - and the meeting started at 7:30. At one point during a vote, numerous people were asking what we were actually voting on.
When it came time to set a date for the vote, I once again, was the only one to stand up and make public comment. (Am I the alter-ego of Billy Michaels, anti-tax guy? He wasn't there because of a gig.) I thanked Lisa Bergh for prominently displaying the announcement of the Town meeting on the town website and then proceeded to let the Board of Selectmen know that it is not illegal for the town to promote as vigourously as possible that there is going to be a vote on July 1. As long they as they are informing the public that there is a vote on the budget and not encouraging them to vote yes or no, they are just promoting good citizenship.
After the meeting John and I were approached by many people to thank us for standing up and saying something. The town clerk, Lisa Bergh, let me know that my pleas to promote the vote were not falling on deaf ears. I also got cornered by the First Selectman, Bob Burke. I will tell you, that conversation did not improve my opinion of the man. He actually seemed more concerned that the Board of Education instituted pay-to-play sports than the fact that math, science and technology teachers. He thinks they need to cut administrators. Has he met teenagers these days? I was rescued from him by a reporter from the News-Times who wanted to talk to me. We were also invited to join a group of concerned parents down at the Putnam House restaurant to discuss how to get more people out to vote. Oh, and before any of this happened, I was approached to help lead the PTO (PTA to Californians) at James' school in the fall (I'm already editor of the weekly newsletter for next year.)
Where did all this political activism come from? I blame Tim Russert - I loved watching him on Meet the Press. Watching him got me interested in politics and it is so easy to get involved in a small town. Go Bills!
