Opinion

From a March 26, 2015 Hampshire Gazette editorial:

It’s not shocking that several public officials stood up at a public meeting to complain that the state’s Open Meeting Law is cumbersome and confusing.

What is shocking is that they derided it as “unfair and undemocratic” and claimed that a request for meeting minutes is tantamount to harassment.

Even more shocking is that in a room full of 100 elected and appointed public officials from Hampshire and Franklin counties, these comments elicited applause.

 A Saker is a very large falcon, native to Europe and Asia.

“The Saker” is a pseudonym for a top level American military analyst who lives in Florida, the author of the leading blog covering Russia and the Ukraine crisis, , which gets an astounding 50,000 page views per day.   Of the many blogs covering the subject, his has shot far ahead of the others, due to his sharp analysis and insight.  

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Dear fellow Town Representatives:

I have been meaning to write an open letter reporting out my concerns and observations about this year’s Representative Town Meeting, items on the agenda, the budget, etc. I have left this until the last minute in hopes that others of you might finally step forward to join me in drafting a brief report as your Town Finance Committee.

This is the

The site has not been updated in a year. I can’t do the work of the committee by myself, so please regard this as merely a personal letter.

Our nation’s police department’s primary objectives have to be enforcement of existing law as enacted by the various state and federal legislatures.

The latitude exercised by each department is affected by a dizzying array of various police departmental and community circumstances. There is no template except that which falls back upon established law.In a real sense, the Executive Summary and therefore the full report of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) to the White House Task Force on Community-Police Relations (January 2015) is putting the cart before the horse.

 Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy in the Reagan administration, claiming the title of “Father of Reaganomics”.  He has been associate editor of the Wall Street Journal and columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate.

He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts’ latest books are and .

*Please Visit the on the below letter.*  

To Mr. Governor Shumlin,

I am a hard working Vermont State employee for the Agency of Transportation (District 3). I plow the roads. As you may recall, we in AOT have endured many challenges in the recent past ….Including Tropical Storm Irene (2011), Pay Cuts and Pay Freezes (2008-9), Changes to our Health Insurance with Higher deductibles and less coverage (2014). And despite all these hardships and challenges, we still get up, as needed, at 3am (sometimes working 7 days a week) to make sure our roads are safe so Vermonters (including yourself) can go to work, so tourists can come here and spend their money, and so everyone’s kids can get to school.

Richard Evers is a write-in candidate for a District 3 Town Meeting Member seat.  I have been well acquainted with Richard for twenty years and have always known him to be interested in and aware of town issues.  He is thoughtful and uses good judgement.  I recommend writing in his name for a District 3 Town Meeting Member seat.

Thank you.

Because the media are not perfect, there are three misconceptions that persist about the amendments and I would like to clear them up in these last days before the election.

First, the charter clearly shows how the representative town meeting (RTM) restricted the rights to call for votes.  Anyone can check this our on the town web site:  See brattleboro.org, click “Charter, ordinances” > “charter”. 

The RTM did uselessly lower a signature requirement but at the same time authorized
themselves to vote first and block the petitioned article from the ballot.  Their revision (charter article III 2 B)
says: 

3rd White House Error message at “We the People” petition section of President Obama’s official government White House website.  This has occurred at 1091 signatures on the Make Marijuana Legal petition, and it previously occurred at 1064 signatures on the Make Marijuana Legal petition, and before that it occurred when the petition had not reached the first 150 requirement. 

Brattleboro residents can vote on March 3 ( or by early voting now at the Town Clerk’s Office) about whether we should add a 1% optional sales tax here in Brattleboro.

This is a difficult issue because many fear it will hurt our downtown businesses and Brattleboro residents will also pay this extra 1% tax.( It won’t just be people who live out – of -town or out -of -state. ) On the other hand, it has been estimated that it could raise around $600,000 in extra revenue for the town.

I haven’t heard much public comment about this issue and I ‘d be interested to know what I-Brattleboro readers think.