Nancy and Ro,

I respect both of you and understand how you feel about this, and I also understand how the political process "works."  I consider myself fortunate that I am not "called" to serve in that profession, as so often what is required in order to survive is shenanigans.

Is is because were in the military and probably moved a lot that you have never been involved in what your government was doing?

My entire life until retirement in 1990 was in the military.  My father was a farm boy from Iowa who left during the depression to attend the Naval Academy.  I can remember sitting at the dinner table each night being schooled in ethics, integrity, and doing what is right.  I enlisted and then attended the Academy myself and was schooled in ethics and have attempted to live my life under those rules.  I did not get involved in what my local government was doing until I retired and moved to Worcester County.

What we face as a Board, as I see it, it is a clear case of situational ethics.  I have studied the Bill and I see no grounds for the Board asking for a % of the pie.  From what I have learned, OC and Berlin were added to the Bill with no justification and for purely vote-getting purposes.  This is "politics" and may be acceptable to you as the way things are done; it is not acceptable to me.  Do you believe that taking that action to purchase future votes - an act of what you seem to accept as just "politics" - as being proper?  Well, I do not, and I am unable to join in such action.  "They did it so it's ok for me to do it."  Sorry. 

Anyone with any awareness of what is taking place in his / her government is supposed to let those who are elected to serve them know what they think.

I did, and pretty forcefully, I might add.

We try to teach children to grow up and take responsibility for what goes on in their communities and I am reading that one who has been elected to look after our interests considers participation in government decisions ......"POLITICAL SHENANIGANS".

Think about what you just said.  I believe this could be a case study in exactly what is wrong with government at the state and local level.  We could start with the duty of government to look after its people in essential programs, particularly education.  We could discuss the purpose of taxes and how money is to be raised.  We could talk about the way local government avoids direct taxing with alternate methods such as gambling.   We could discuss the proper drafting of legislation to implement programs and how politicians violate their trust to amend laws purely to buy votes.  We could even discuss the pressure placed on others to join in such activity in order to attain what others have attained though such political shenanigans.

Did you ever take Civics?  Yes, lots of it.  This could be a great case study in civics for our school children.

You may call me politicly naive and say that I do not understand political reality or other such thing.  Some may consider my lack of political savvy as patently absurd.  That's fine, but I do understand.  I just will not "go along" with leading a movement to join in something that has no basis for justification other than they did it or they got it.

I hope this sheds some light on how I feel.  I am confident that you and Roseann will take any such action as you deem appropriate.  IMO, the effort should be to remove OC and Berlin from the Bill and to place all local impact grants in the hands of the County.  That is how "civics" is supposed to function, even though you may not trust them to function properly.  I just do not believe it is the Board's proper place to be.

Bill