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Health & Fitness

2014 Priorities in Government for Clarkstown

In January the Town Supervisor sets the priorities for the year, yet allows no comments at the meeting about what those priorities should be. Therefore I offer here an open letter to the Town Council about what their priority should be.

Members of the Town Council:

As we begin a new year, I want to refocus on the one issue that should be your primary concern: Trust.

When you were elected to office you took on a public trust – we placed our trust in you. The question becomes how you should exercise that trust. We are fortunate in the State of New York to have guidance. I quote here from the Open Meetings Law:

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It is essential to the maintenance of a democratic society that the public business be performed in an open and public manner and that the citizens of this state be fully aware of and able to observe the performance of public officials and attend and listen to the deliberations and decisions that go into the making of public policy. The people must be able to remain informed if they are to retain control over those who are their public servants. It is the only climate under which the commonweal will prosper and enable the governmental process to operate for the benefit of those who created it.

I know that you abide by the letter of the Open Meetings Law and that you have even been commended for it. Yet you have not abided by the intent of the Open Meetings Law – the part that builds trust. You have devised mechanisms to accomplish much of your deliberations so that we the citizens cannot, and I quote from the law, “attend and listen to the deliberations.” That is why your trustworthiness is questioned. That is why I have asked so many pointed questions of you over the last year and a half. The concealment of your deliberations raises a question about whether you are upholding the public trust. Failure to adequately explain your deliberations when asked about them sends a strong message that you are not worthy of the public trust. The root of distrust has been your way of carrying out deliberations out of the public eye.

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I propose that we have a shared interest in restoring the public trust. The best way to do that is to change your practice and bring your deliberations out into public view. I know that it is not comfortable. I saw that discomfort in November when you talked about the salaries for Council members and in December when you talked about whether to allow more time to go over the Salary Schedule. I understand that it is uncomfortable to deliberate in public. You will have to put that discomfort against the discomfort of being consistently distrusted for the actions you take. When you are asked to make your deliberations public, when you are asked to explain your deliberations and fail to do so, you send a message that your deliberations would not withstand public scrutiny – you foster the distrust that you find so uncomfortable.

Open deliberations does not mean that everyone will agree with your logic or your decisions. That is not the root of public trust. Trust is built upon the idea that you have given all the relevant information due consideration in the making of decisions. Open deliberations are a messy process, but they are the defined intent of the Open Meetings Law because they are the only way to establish shared trust. We want to be able to see and hear that you have done due deliberation before reaching decisions.

The first step to re-establishing trust is to stop engaging in deliberations outside of the open meetings. If any member of the Council has a substantive issue with a resolution that is being proposed, you need to decline to take up that issue outside of the context of an open meeting. In the context of an open meeting resolutions can be amended, tabled for further investigation, or voted down. There is adequate provision within the structure of an open meeting to engage any substantive issues. So I suggest to every member of the Council that you are the ones with the heaviest responsibility for re-establishing trust.

Either Mr. Gromack or Ms. Mele pointed out that it would be inordinately time consuming to have a discussion of each item on the agenda when many of them are simply administrative actions. So I would propose an additional step at the beginning of each meeting to define which items on the agenda are administrative and which are substantive. Any item for which there are questions or comments by members of the public should be designated substantive. The remaining administrative items could be handled as they are now. Any items that are substantive will include an opportunity for discussion before a vote. The principle is that the public needs to have confidence that the members of the Council have considered and debated the issues, including those raised by the public, before voting.

If you fail to take these measures, then you will confirm for us that you are unwilling to have your deliberations subject to public scrutiny – your actions suggest that you are not worthy of the public trust. That is where you are now. I am not saying that you are not worthy of our trust – you are preventing us from knowing whether you are worthy. And in light of a whole range of questionable decisions this year, you have built up a strong case that you are not trustworthy. I have asked questions that have highlighted this situation, but you control the underlying circumstances of hidden deliberations. The primary reason for distrust lies in your hands.

So your greatest task for the year boils down to that one word: Trust – your upholding of the public trust and your fostering of our trust in your willingness to make decisions based on responsible deliberations. If you want that trust, the means are within your hands. It is your call.

Respectfully,

Tom Nimick

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