Archive for January 15, 2012
Edgewood Politics – My, How You Haven’t Grown
by John Weckerle
Well, it’s silly election season in Edgewood, and things are gearing up in the usual, sad fashion. We found ourselves shaking our heads while reading this article in the Mountain View Telegraph about the Town of Edgewood’s last council meeting. The festivities apparently included Mayor Robert Stearley interrupting public comment and seeming to attempt a bit of smearing against Town Councilors Brad Hill and John Abrams; we won’t run through the details here but encourage our readers to read the MVT article.
The former is a rather inappropriate and unfortunately habitual behavior of Mr. Stearley’s – your editor has actually personally run into it – and we agree with Councilors Hill, Abrams, and Chuck Ring that members of the public should be allowed to provide input when it is solicited without being interrupted and/or having their motivations and character questioned. Mr. Stearley has plenty of opportunity to make his voice heard, and he should do speakers the courtesy of having theirs heard, as well. The latter behavior is all-too-typical of Edgewood politics, and we take exception to it as we have in the past. Some years ago, when people supporting Mr. Stearley attempted character attacks against those with whom Mr. Stearley disagreed (former Mayor Howard Calkins and former Town Councilor Paul Hoffman are two examples), your editor publicly denounced those actions as inappropriate, cheap political tricks. We do so again now. While we don’t always agree with Mr. Hill and Mr. Abrams (that’s not to say we disagree with them most of the time, by the way), we have no doubt that they have been acting ethically in their elected roles and thoroughly reject Mr. Stearley’s suggestion that they are using their positions for personal gain.