PlanB for Essex
PlanB for Essex
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  • Home
  • Re STDs
  • Specifics
  • Fait Accompli (1)
  • FA (2)
  • FA (3)
  • Neighborhood Voices
  • Donate / Contact
  • Better Decisions
  • Thank you!

Concerns re STD Proposal for Essex

The expected outcomes of any STD
(Special Taxing District) are problematic.

(Home and Re STD pages offer details and resources).
Below are additional items to note about the proposal for Essex,
as well as background info on the selection of an election date in December.

Using Parks, Pools, Reservoir

For decades, Essex taxpayers have invested in acquiring and maintaining 12 parks, 2 pools, numerous trails and a 60-acre reservoir. If an STD is created, management of / care for such resources would fall to that separate entity. 

Residents will have to take a leap of faith, when leasing or conveying such resources to an STD, that it will invest in and maintain these gems to the degree that the Town / Village have.

Admisssion By Point System

Demand already exceeds supply among EJRP clients for such offerings as Camp Maple Street. Therefore, a point-system helps prioritize applications.  

With an STD, twice as many residents could apply without paying a non-resident penalty. How will points be allocated, such that newcomers aren't relegated to waiting lists, while repeat-customers gain admission?

Senior Services on the Move

The Essex Seniors org. just voted to discontinue as a private non-profit and become associated with the Village, which hosts the Senior Center; the Town provides supervision / programming. Creating an STD would mean another change in oversight for Essex Seniors, as well as the Senior Center and Senior Van.

Next Up: Libraries

The RGSC included a Town resident who is also a Brownell Library Trustee. This was by design. The RGSC (May 11, June 1) and Selectboard have talked about library budgets eventually being part of any Rec (or Cultural) STD that is formed. 

[Let us] choose to take the time to distinguish between what we're told and what we really want. We might even find a way to think for ourselves.
Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say,
Douglas Rushkoff, p. 264.

Who You Gonna Call?

RGSC members are crystal clear about their desire for Rec independence / isolation. They want no oversight by the Municipal Manager of their new municipality (STD). Nor shall the Selectboard weigh in on proposed rec budget increases, as it does now for a good-sized portion (salaries not covered by program fees) of the Town Rec budget.
Some suggest this rejection of oversight stems from a lack of Trust in Town gov't, despite recent consolidations of other Town / Village Dept's. 
In the next breath, we're told the new STD fully expects to buy (or borrow!) expertise in Finance, Payroll, & IT from (who else?) Town gov't. If Trust isn't the real issue, what is?

Exempt from Tough Choices

The RGSC promotes the independent Rec Budget as a reason for taxpayers to like the STD model: "When road-salt prices go up", as one Village Trustee put it, "the Rec Budget will be isolated from the give-and-take that might happen if it were part of the Town Budget" voted on in March.

Although a Rec STD Budget would be voted on in April, along with School Budgets, the same wallet funds all of these ventures! Most taxpayers are wise to that fact and don't like having to vote in both March and April to fund these local services.

Know When to Fold-Up

The RGSC has continued to meet, even as their charge -- to study options and make a decision -- was met in May. Their work is done.  (Update: RGSC members voted to officially disband on Dec. 6, 2016.)
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Whose idea was a separate voting date, 12 days before Christmas?
Why not ask 11,000+ voters when they came to the polls in November?


In the spirit of consolidation, is it not curious that the STD vote wasn't consolidated with other important questions on the Nov. 8 ballot?

Claims that a Rec STD vote must be held in December were false.  Once a curious resident brought this fallacy to light, however, it was too late to warn the vote for November.  December’s turnout, thanks to voter fatigue, holiday preparations, travel and weather, would be a fraction of the prior month’s...
 
At a joint meeting on June 22, Brad Luck indicated “there are some real challenges with operating a federal and local election at the same time” (48:36). In other words, holding the Rec STD election in November, when thousands more voters are expected to turn out than in mid-December, was “basically deemed impossible by the Town Clerk,” said Brad (50:07).

The RGSC FAQs stated, “it was impossible to hold both a local and federal election on the same day in Essex” for four months.
 
Will Senning, Director of Elections at the VT Secretary of State’s office, disagreed (Sept. 20):
I never advised the Town of Essex that it was “impossible to hold both a local and federal election on the same day in Essex.” I have spoken with the clerk, Cheryl, and she acknowledged right away that neither of us said it was impossible.

 
After exchanging messages with Cheryl Moomey, I understood that an election for the Rec STD board might have been appropriate in December.  However, the Rec STD question itself could have been asked during the federal election, tapping the wisdom of the 11,209 residents who voted for President and avoiding the additional expense of a December election to seat a new Rec STD board, had the proposal failed in November.
 
But the emphasis doesn't appear to have been on finding ways to make voting easy for thousands of voters.
That the Town Clerk could have done by herself. 

Instead, Brad Luck appeared and offered to help Cheryl select a voting date!
Among his early suggestions:
  • 5 days before Christmas,
  • 2 days after Christmas, and
  • 2 days after New Year's,
per the spreadsheet he sent Cheryl Moomey (image shown above).

As Cheryl wrote on Nov. 3: "I pushed for March Town Meeting but was told that would be too late. Then I pushed for 1/10/17.  I was against 12/13 because petitions are due 11/7, the day before the general election, so I have to prepare ballots while I’m doing a general election Tuesday and official results Wednesday."

Despite her protestations, Brad and his preferred Dec. 13 date prevailed.  Cheryl, who'd already presided over 5 elections in the past 12 months, had yet another election to shoehorn into her schedule before retiring at the end of Dec. 2016.  As did voters.


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