Imperious Behavior
We feel there is no excuse for the Town Board’s recent actions regarding the appointed Olive Planning Board, whose members resigned at the town’s January 2 reorganization meeting when town councilman refused to re-appoint the planners’ vice chairman, Paula Minew, for what appears to be purely political reasons. We don’t like this sort of interference when it occurs in the other towns we cover; we don’t like it here… especially given a local history that has seen this happen before.
As bad as the mass resignation was, we have been further appalled at the way the town board has handled this protest from not only some of its constituents, but also an entire board of hard-working volunteers that they appointed in the first place. For one, they spoke about what happened as a means of threatening their position in town. Secondly, they started talking about how they were ready to put a new board in place quickly… with no suggestion that they’d be doing so in any truly public manner that seeks applications and reviews them in an open fashion. Last, they not only oversaw a subsequent slipshod planning board meeting on their own, with possible conflicts of interest overlooked, but they started taking potshots at the former planners – solid Olive citizens, all – who had resigned.
There’s only one adjective that properly describes this sort of behavior: Imperious. And what is “Imperious” if not arrogance personified.
It is time that the town board stop seeing itself as above the rest of Olive simply because they’ve managed to win elections over and over again, and effectively quash any meaningful opposition. Sure, they have done good things for the town’s benefit. But they’ve also played their “Us vs. Them” politics a bit too far, in our view, holding back new talent from coming up, and setting us all back through questionable ethics.
A town lives by growing, by evolving to match changing times, shifting demographics. It respects all its citizenry, and manages itself from the heart, and not just via political muscle. It does not expand any horizons by constantly reverting to jibes and threats against anyone it disagrees with, or by holding on to its power base by dissuading new talent, of any political party, from rising to service.
What we’ve seen, in these latest antics, is no better than what we’re seeing in the Bush Administration’s current refusal to accept advice, to consider the benefits of any real change.
Remember... our longest-standing board members have now been in office since the 1970s. Even though we’ve not liked the idea before, we’re starting to hear all the old 1990s arguments about term limits in a new light.
“This will all pass...” came one response from a boardmember. Not exactly a statesmanlike position.
We think the town board owes its planning board, and the rest of us, an apology for its behavior. It’s the American way…
PS