Montgomery Town Board: Why no due diligence?

Staff Writer
Times Herald-Record

At the May 21 Town of Montgomery, Councilwoman Brown brought forward a resolution seeking that the scheduling of items on the agenda to be voted on be allotted sufficient time for review. One would think, how could this be a bad thing? Our elected officials requesting of the supervisor adequate time to read, ask questions of the necessary professionals to make an informed vote seems to be an anomaly in our current political climate, something that should be emulated and encouraged.

Unfortunately, the opposite occurred. The Supervisor called Brown’s actions "making a political statement" when sufficient time had not been given before his calling for a vote, after less than six hours of notice, on a 61-page Findings Statement from the planning board. By the admission of each board member, both in person and verbally, no member had at that time read the document, but only one member voted no to accepting it. Really, because said supervisor had read it and OK'd it no other review was necessary? Then call the one person who stood up for the public's actions a "political statement"? How disgraceful!!

Beverly Mertz