(1/27) Following repeated requests by multiple residents at last month’s Town Council meeting for a special workshop to discuss the Town budget, which was brushed off by Burgess Barnes, the Town Council has reversed course and agreed to hold a special workshop in March where residents will be allowed to review next year’s proposed budget line by line and make suggestions and/or recommendations in real time.
The workshop will be part of the Town’s regular monthly meeting, Barnes said, but each budget item will be reviewed in detail and then as much time as necessary will be allotted for residents to give input.
The about-face followed an apology by Barnes to the residents at the January meeting for the way he handled comments from residents during the December meeting, who pressed the Council for answers on the scope and cost of the recommended repairs to the town’s water and sewer plant that had been submitted by its new operators, the costs for the completion of the state mandated lead pipe survey, and the rationale for and the cost for the new Town Hall.
At the December meeting, Barnes repeatedly interrupted residents during the public comment period, often dismissing their comments out of hand or questioning why they had not brought them up at prior meetings.
Commissioner Jessie Case said he had heard from several residents expressing concern over the lack of transparency in the Town’s financial affairs and requested that he address it going forward.
While the decision to hold a budget workshop was met with the approval of all the residents who had shown up to push for it, Barnes next proclaimed that going forward, he was going to restrict the time allowed for residents to comment on town affairs to three minutes, after which, "we will ask you to wrap your comments up," Barnes said.
Further elaborating on the new policy, Barnes said that residents could not use the time to ask him or the Council any questions, and neither he nor the Council would offer any responses to anything said. "The goal is to give you three minutes to speak about whatever is on your mind," Barnes said.
Barnes implemented the new protocol during the meeting’s public comment period. But Barnes broke it almost right away when during the comment period, Rick Bontz asked the Council to communicate to the town residents the next steps in completing the lead pipe survey. Bontz questioned why the Town approximately spent $9,100 for a paperwork review to determine what houses were built before 1972, the owners of which subsequently received a letter informing them that the status of them having lead water pipes connecting their homes to the Town’s water system was "unknown."
Bontz correctly pointed out that it was the Town’s responsibility, according to the requirements of the EPA’s Lead Copper Rule Revision, to develop a plan on determining the actual status of at least 10% of all the homes in town that had received the letter. [Editor’s Note: The requirements Bontz referred to were published in the January edition of this paper.]
Bontz comments asking what the next steps in the lead pipe survey would be were expanded upon by Andrew Velnoskey. In responding to Velnoskey, Barnes broke the new protocol and responded to the question, stating that the Town had no responsibility to replace lead pipes within residents' homes, and the Town would not shut off water to anyone with lead pipes. But he completely missed the point that Bontz and Velnoskey were making, that in fact the Town did have a responsibility to verify the absence or presence of lead pipes from the town’s water system up to a home’s water meter, per the state requirements.
Resident Ed Mortan questioned why the Town was not following the state’s Open Meetings Act by publishing the agendas for town meetings as required, 24 hours prior to a council meeting, and why the Town had not published any meeting minutes since August of last year.
"At last month’s meeting you continually challenged residents why they had not brought up their issue prior to the meeting. But how could we when we don’t know what is on an agenda and the Town doesn’t publicize the results of the meetings," Mortan said.
The new protocol met with mixed feelings from many of the residents who had come to get answers on specific issues. "It’s sort of a glass half filled, half empty feeling," said one resident.
"Unlike last month, where I was repeatedly interrupted while I tried to make my point, this time I got to speak my mind without interruption. But that said, I got no response from anyone on the Council, so I’m not sure if anything will be done about what I talked about, or if I just wasted my time. The least they could have done was given a commitment to look into the issues raised."
Several residents pointed to Barnes’ response to Bontz and Velnoskey as an example of where Barnes was not listening to what residents were saying or asking for. Nor was the fact missed by many that the Town decided to limit public input during the public comment period without putting the issue on a meeting agenda so the public would be ready to address it during the meeting.
On the flip side, residents were pleased to see Commissioner John Cutshall and Jessie Case approach speakers after the meeting to get more insights on their concerns. "At least they listened" said one resident.
Read other news articles on Woodsboro
