Reject The Charter

Changes

To the Editor:

In reading and reflecting on the questions that will be presented to the voters on the ballot this Tuesday, I must recommend that the voters of Newtown vote No to questions 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, which are all the questions relating to revisions to the current Newtown Charter. It is hard to admit that the sum total of the efforts of six people for a year and a half nets out to a recommended “no change.”

I believe this past charter revision process was so distorted by the efforts of past and current administration officials in an overall attempt to eliminate any increase in transparency of government processes and responsible oversight as to have made many of the recommendations being presented to the voters on Tuesday by the outgoing Legislative Council of last fall, self-serving at best.

For the previous Legislative Council to reject recommendations from the Charter Review Commission such as publishing more information on town processes and procedures on the town website (recommendation unanimously, rejected by all recently reelected Legislative Council members), yet dramatically increase the dollar thresholds under which the Legislative Council can approve without voter approval, just does not feel right. To have the town attorney add back in to the questions an item rejected by the last two Charter Revision Commissions as a really bad idea — letting the first selectman/Board of Selectmen remove appointed board or commission members without cause — feels mafia-like. With all we have seen in recent years of a number of political leaders working to further what appear to be personal agendas — to give them more authority to eliminate controversy and oversight seems ridiculous.

While I do have concerns that some of us on the commission feel we wasted our time and effort, I am absolutely certain we did not waste any taxpayer money. Every request made by commission members to get outside legal council on issues, procedures, and processes that included current government officials was flatly rejected by the chairman of the Legislative Council and the former first selectmen. The commission and its members were repeatedly told we could only ask legal opinions of the current town attorney. I’m sure many can appreciate our frustration since the current town attorney seems to have never had issued a legal opinion that was not in full support of town official actions, in addition to being a key participant in constructing a number of the procedures and processes that we sought to question.

Help me, help us in favor of more open government, force our town leaders to stop the current farce of providing lip service to the principles of open government while acting the opposite. Vote No on questions 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Guy Howard

Former Charter Revision Commissioner

4 Main Street, Newtown                                                  April 16, 2008