Recently in Meredith SB2 Category
To the editor,
The Citizen March 9, 2009
The prescription plan for solving grotesque spending is to implement SB-2. We have enjoyed tremendous increases in Meredith’s debt and tax increases due to the ability of a flamboyant School Board and Board of Selectmen to manipulate the budget and Town Meetings. The “Barbarians” are truly at the gate when local government can continue year-after-year to provide less information on reasons for increasing our taxes without providing us with the ability to thwart their quintessential increases in budgets. Leadership fails to respond to a public that is not apathetic, but worn out by worry and over work. The School Board and Selectboard, with their enormous egos, have been hugely successful at gathering forces at town meetings to pass whatever they want. They assume we are the richest people in the state. Some folks live from hand to mouth to make their daily commitments and salary go further. We face rising taxes, inflation , job losses, reductions in retirement plans and reduced income. Personal serenity and security is something of the past. School boards fail to respond to the shocking increases in budgets. They show a manifold dereliction of their duties when they manufacture and manipulate Town Meetings. These boards have virtually unlimited power and no ethics and this situation requires voting reform. Advantages of SB-2: We must launch an effort to shut
down the spending and initiate a process of getting more people involved in the budget approval process and to the voting both. This effort can be achieved by approval of Senate Bill -2 (SB-2) which gives those that are unable to be present for Town Meeting a chance to vote by absentee ballot and the ability for those that are present in the community to vote by secret ballot in the privacy of a regular voting booth during a time of personal convenience. SB-2 permits voters to vote conveniently during regular voting hours during the day.The movers and shakers continue to dominate the budget process with stunts like voting on the big budget cost items at Town Meetings last, at 11 p.m.. Hours are spent on a list of items with smaller significance and at 11 p.m. the major budget of over $10-million comes up for discussion without much opportunity to discuss the line items. Last year an hour was spent on a presentation regarding the fire department and another hour on Long Pond.. There was no presentation on the enormous budget. No PowerPoint graphs and charts were presented as information by either the School Board or the Selectboard. There were no graphs or charts demonstrating performance on state standardized tests, SAT test scores or how we stacked up against other school districts, or a willingness to elaborate on how we spend so much money per student for average results. No voter had the opportunity to ask why we have such a blotted educational administration. For instance, why do we need an assistant superintendent of schools for such a small school district with declining enrollments. No one asked why we need a dormitory and apartments in the fire station renovation project. We need a return of public freedom fighters who want to take our liberties back and allow us to challenge the status quo and a militant political active teachers’ union. We need to vote YES for SB-2, which will give the voter the opportunity to vote in a voting booth and permit the use of the absentee ballot so we can engage in debate. Are you ready to join in the process of taking back our government. Advance freedom and vote YES for SB-2 providing all registered voters the opportunity to vote in a voting booth.
VOTE YES FOR SB-2!
Richard Gunnar Juve
Meredith
Editor, The Citizen January 6th, 2009
As a proponent for SB2, last year I wrote a missive comparing maple syrup production with town governance. At the risk of boring those folks that took time to read that effort, I will refer to it again to show that change, from time to time, is needed.
Town Meetings have had the same format in NH for more than 250 years. The second Tuesday in March, folks left their farms and shops and gathered around the center of town to hear their brethren discuss the needs and issues of the town, and years later the schools; all the while a vote was taken here and there, after much discussion. They made a day of it; bringing forth food for the mid-day and evening meals and sewing to keep the women busy (after all, back then the women did not have a say in the political events). It was as much a social event as anything. But serious work was done, nonetheless. Not much else happened in town on "Town Meeting Day" except the annual discussions, decisions and politicking of the town.
The day after Town Meeting was usually relegated to tapping the sugar maples for the other age old spring tradition: Sappin' Season. Over decades, the technology of wooden spigots and buckets gave way to metal spigots and buckets, and a tin lid to keep out the snow. In more recent years sap is collected with plastic tubing and boiling is done by gas or oil, not wood fired evaporators. Even the dates of the season have been adjusted for climate change. Has the sweet flavor of grade A light amber (or my personal "fav" grade A dark amber) changed? No. The methodology has changed. The timing has changed. Even the grading has been altered … but the result is the same wonderful product.
Town Meeting has not changed much. It takes a full day of being away from home, employment, or avocation in order to vote. The food brought forth is that of a food sale, and a few ladies still bring sewing as a pastime. But the result is not the same. Not everyone in the town is allowed to vote. We have, over the years, recognized that women and those young adults over 18 should share in the voting at the ballot. Ah, but town meeting has a different guideline in allowing or disallowing a person to exercise their right to vote. No matter what is going on in your life, you have to take the day and devote it to Town Meeting. Are you working, sick, out of town, at school or in the military? Well then, they don't want your vote. At least it would seem that way. The result is that the opinions discussed and voted on at Town Meeting represent only a small minority who are afforded the right to vote 'cause they are there. Clearly they do not represent the opinion of the entire town.
Two ancient
SB-2 will be on the ballot again this March in Moultonborough and Meredith. In both towns, last year SB-2 received well over a majority of votes in favor of it, but missed passage by a handful of votes because SB-2 needs 60% (a super majority). We need your vote to bring these two towns up to date with more than half of the population in NH that has already opted for SB-2 as their form of voting.
Rick Heath
Moultonborough
December 11, 2008
SARAH SCHMIDT
MEREDITH — Formal proceeding to unionize two town departments began earlier this year, but the question of who can join in is yet undecided. Last week, the
who might be considered to have supervisory powers in the unit. The employees who may join a union include 27 members of the Public Works Department, including Assistant Director Al Bolduc, and five of the six employees at the Water and Sewer Department. “The petition is filed, and the discussion right now before the PERLB is about the “community of interest,”” said Jay Ward, SEIU political organizer, speaking on behalf of the association. “The employees are contending that Public Works and Water and Sewer are a community of interest.” Ward confirmed that Bob Hill, a Water and Sewer employee, was one of the first to bring forth the idea of organizing the town’s employees into a bargaining unit. After 17 years as superintendent of the Water andSewer Department, Hill was demoted to the position of operational manager in January, in the wake of the water shortages and treatment plant malfunctions in the summer of 2007. Hill declined any comment, and is currently on paid administrative leave, according to Interim Town Manager Brenda Vittner, who said a “personnel issue” had spurred the action. Town attorney Mark Broth and SEIU official Jeffrey Brown cross-examined several town employees, focusing on the “community of interest” between the Public Works and Water and Sewer Departments. From the testimony the employees gave, the PERLB will have to decide of certain people are ineligible to join the union because of supervisory duties over fellow union members, and if the community of interest between the two departments is strong enough for the employees to form a combined collective bargaining unit. Along with Hill, Public Works Director Mike Faller was subpoenaed to answer questions at last week’s hearing. Faller said that he spoke to the interaction between the two departments, directed by the Capital Improvements Committee, in order to keep things efficient. Faller also testified that in 2007, then-Town Manager Carol Granfield had requested that he set up an organizational plan to merge the Public Works and Water and Sewer Departments, in the wake of the aforementioned
2007 problems at the water treatment plant. “I put together a plan, but I don’t know what became of it,” said Faller, who said that the plan was dropped as Granfield resigned and the town hired on a new Water and Sewer Department Superintendent, Brian Carroll. Neither Broth nor Brown could not be reached for comment. The PERLB will have 90 days to make a decision on the composition of the collective bargaining unit.Once they make their decision whether or not the Water and Sewer Department employees are kept in the unit, the unit will go straight into negotiations with the Public Works Department. “Mostly, it’s to have more of a say on the job,” said Ward. “It’s all about the voice in the workplace. They have some great ideas, and they want to be part of the futureof Meredith.”
Editorial
The Meredith News May 22nd, 2008
In the 1960s and 70s there was a large voting group dubbed “the silent majority.” When government strayed from its path its members quietly and politely walked into voting booths and changed the direction of the country.We can only hope that there’s a “silent majority” waiting in the wings to turn things around in Meredith. Frankly, the town is becoming a mess.......
www.LaconiaDailySun.Com April 9th, 2008
To the editor,
The traditional Town Meeting is not a hiding place for backward antiquated thought. People, like Mr. Horne and Ms. Pam Finer are offering advice on improving Meredith’s government and some folks just don’t understand the advantages of SB-2. The public’s perception is that if truth has fair play it will always prevail over falsehood. The public, up to a point, is gifted with a charitable bent. But let us not be mistaken, through God’s grace they possess a mesmerizing charisma and charitable nature. They are forgiving until they become fed up with rhetoric which stokes up a controversy about how the town’s gentry know more than they. Mr. Obadiah Plainman 11 a recently resurrected gentlemen told me that one should listen carefully when the better sort of people tell you that they know more about what is good for you; this method of government leads to dictatorship and that can be upsetting. When a certain individual implies that the folk in the street are the mobs or the rabble, heads rise. Well I enjoy being and am proud to be the “rabble”. My breakfast friends enjoy being the “rabble for freedom” and detest hearing that there are folks out there that style themselves as a “better sort” or imply that the common folks are a stupid herd. The common citizenries, the “poor ordinary folk” work hard to meet their responsibilities and pay their property taxes. Cantankerous Yankees get rankled up when someone proclaims themselves to be of the better sort and look at the rest of their neighbors with contempt. Some folks don’t like it when others put on aristocratic airs. We are allergic to snobbery and are proud to be a part of the rabble and a Plainman. It was the “Rabble In Arms” or Continental Army under Gen.
Richard Gunnar Juve
Meredith
www.Laconiadailysun.com April 8th, 2008
To the editor, Mr. Peter Miller promises to study the hybrid “charter” forms of government (allowed to be adopted by towns and cities as set forth in the state Constitution) and share his findings from time to time. What information he will be presenting was already presented in The Laconia Daily Sun on March 24,
2008. The restructuring of local government is stated in state law Title III Chapter 49-B. The forms of government allowed to be adopted are: 1. town council, 2. town council with official ballot, 3. representative town meeting, 4. budgetary town meeting and 5. official ballot town meeting. It was spelled out what they were, and that before any could be voted on by the people the new charter as construed by the charter commission must be reviewed and approved by the Secretary of State, Attorney General and commissioner of the Department of Revenue Administration. This process takes at least three years after it is first initiated, and who knows how twisted the meanings written between the lines. What SB-2 offers is rather straight forward and simple, the residents of Meredith will be regaining the right to cast a ballot in deciding articles on the warrant. All the Statutes — RSA’s— are available at the state’s website. Mr. Peter Miller needs to study more that the state statutes, he needs to study history. He has a tendency to construe and present as fact. An instance is his statement on February 14 that Town Meeting is “our direct link to the
achievements of other hybrid forms of local government he can to convince us to keep the form of government we have, instead of allowing all registered voters to vote because that would be the worst thing of all.
G. W. Brooks
Meredith
