Public Comment: Are Leaders Paying Attention To Widespread Disappointment In Town Government?

The following Public Comment was posted on the town council’s public comment web page.

At the recent presentation by the League of Women Voters on the results of a survey on our community’s perspectives on the current charter’s method of town council, the scores were depressingly bad. Almost 50% of responses were “unfavorable” on the factors of participation, diversity, transparency, checks and balances, integrity, efficiency, and accountability. The overall “favorable” score was under 30%. These were all the areas where we were promised great improvement over town meeting, by the proponents of moving from Town Meeting to Town Council. I hope all town leaders are shocked by this feedback, or at least moved to action, to fix what is broken. I know many people in our community that are saddened and embarrassed at our town government’s failings. If the current town council will not fix this, who will? How can any solid progress be made in our town, if our town leadership has this reputation and modus operandi? If you are not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem, as they used to say.