SHORT TAKES!!!!

There is a very contagious virus going around; but, no one can diagnosis it, it is a stealth/secret virus. It is mostly carried by politicians and it is transmitted by biting them in the butt. The behavior of the politicians is they all want to do things behind closed doors or in secret. The cure is daylight and sun shine.

For example, the board of selectmen, had a closed door session and by consensus voted in a $112,000 pay raise for the town department heads. Out of all fairness they have been working on this for almost 2 years. They implemented it at the worst possible time with no thought of the financial times the taxpayers are going through and lost sight of the financial ball. When it was discussed about putting the issue on the regular agenda for discussions and a public hearing, one selectman said, “There is no legal requirement to do that”. How stupid can you be, this was a hot button issue the requirement is that the voters don’t want issues like this done behind the scenes.

It took one selectman over a month to get it on the agenda; unfortunately the notice for the hearing was on page 3 of the News Letter in the second story of the “Around Town” section. The agenda for the selectman’s meeting was misrouted to the conservation commission then the night of the meeting, for whatever reason, the meeting was not broadcasted. It was recorded and played at later dates, but, not that night.

Matt brought the issue up to put it on the agenda, Bobby and Bill were resistant. Bill brought up that the board all agreed to the pay plan by “consensus”; Matt shot right back, “maybe we made a mistake”. At some point Bobby said there was no legal requirement to vote on this. It was put on the agenda and discussed and is half way to being put to bed.

Congratulations to Matt for bringing it in the open for public discussion and input; also, to Al Bailey for his tenacity on keeping town government open and honest.

I’M AGAINST GAMBLING AND I’LL BET YOU $5.00’S YOU ARE TOO!!!

If I made a plan to screw up a special interest funded get together I couldn’t do it any better than what happened in Exeter on the gambling promotion where all the local state reps were invited. They were wined and dined and told how wonderful the gambling would be for the state.

This was a Maggie show and the press was not invited. The Exeter News Letter wrote an article about this; Oh the press are now invited we have nothing to hide.

Right now there is a “black Friday sale” on state senators by the gambling interests, if you get to Concord before 11 am they are 3 for a dollar.

The Strafford County state reps that went to one put on for them were not as smart as the Seacoast reps. Strafford reps got half a meatball sub and pasta salad. The seacoast group got brazed lamb in cider sauce, fish and crab stuffed mushrooms. Senator Jackie Cilley sponsored the one for Strafford. I think Jackie grew up in a working class family and counted pennies; Maggie is with the Phillips Exeter Academy, more upscale. I read somewhere that the cost for the shin dig in Strafford cost about $7 per person while the one is Exeter cost $20; money is a wonderful thing and can buy anything and almost anybody.

Welcome to the world of special interest politics.

Is the state party AWOL on this issue? I think people need to know where the republicans are on this.