Archive for October 3, 2008
Do It Right Or Do It Twice
by Chuck Ring
At Wednesday’s (October 1, 2008) Edgewood Town Council meeting, the mayor’s zeal to accomplish got in the way of accomplishment in a legal manner.
On a vote of 3 to 2, with the mayor voting to break a tie, the council voted to adjust the budget. I say they voted, but they really did not, because they did so in an illegal manner.
How did this happen? In addition to the mayor’s obvious desire to ignore any reasoned opposition to his hasty need to get his way on the adjustments and the lease for the library; a series of actions by the mayor and his supporters on these issues led to improper action in an attempt to give the mayor his way.
To add clarity to what happened, it must be explained that Resolution 2008-58 was on the agenda to pass or not pass town budget adjustment items. There was both opposition to the some of the adjustments and support for some changes to the overall resolution. An initial round of voting saw a portion of the resolution pass. What followed was a misguided and slippery-slope attempt to renumber the remainder of the adjustments to arbitrarily form Resolution 2008-59 (a completely new resolution). Such action is clearly outside the proper bounds of town government as there was no such resolution appearing on the agenda. Basic elementary town government will tell the mayor and the councilors voting for the illegal action that the action taken by them was both improper and unnecessary. »» Do It Right Or Do It Twice