Members of the Town Council,
every so often, decide our Charter does not provide them total control over the
town. This leads to the Council making
changes to ensure they have total control.
Several years ago, it was to
eliminate any possible chance of recalling a Councilor. The Council added additional requirement to
make it harder and to discourage the people from thinking about recalling a
Councilor. If you remember, the people
have tried twice to recall a councilor and both times the effort failed. They
failed NOT because the majority of voters were not in favor of recalling the
councilors but because there were not 30% of the voters in the last
gubernatorial election voted. It
is impossible to reach 30% without the help of Two Priests, a Nun, a Rabbi and
the Pope. This means that in the Town of Lisbon there
will never be a councilor recalled. Adding additional requirements just
ensured the people would not try.
Now, this year the Town
Council is trying to ensure a Councilor can remain Chairman of the Town Council
for his entire tenure on the Town Council.
This is another means to control the people. The Chairman has complete control over the
agenda and the meetings. The Chairman can deny a person from
speaking, throw a resident out of a meeting, and restrict any discussion he
does not want. In the current
situation, members of the Council want Chairman Pesce to remain Chairman until
the people vote him off the council.
Chairman Pesce has denied
people from speaking and does not allow for any dialogue during the meeting
regardless of how crucial the situation is.
This is the very reason it is important to keep the two one year terms
limits. It is vital to a strong council,
if the town has fresh input from the Chair.
New Chairman means new
thoughts, agendas and a refreshing new perspective on allowing the people to
contribute in local government.
These no term limits apply to
committees and boards. The President of
the United States is restricted to two terms.
Remember the town forefathers placed the two one term limits on the
Chair position for a sound reason and it has worked well for years. So
if it NOT broke why change it!!!
Please do not let these Councilors
manipulate you and weaken our town Charter any more.
Vote NO on questions 1, 3 and 4.
