Three Reasons to Vote NO on the Community Preservation Act

Three Reasons to Vote NO 

on the 

Community Preservation Act

This article was posted on the Stonham patch. To read comments follow this link: http://stoneham.patch.com/groups/paul-rotondis-blog/p/bp--three-reasons-to-vote-no-on-the-community-preservation-act

 

Next years property Tax increase is in your hands. You can reduce the increase in your tax Bill next year by 40% by voting no on the acceptance of the Community Preservation Act.

Posted by Paul Rotondi , March 01, 2013 at 07:58 PM

April the people of Stoneham are going to be asked to accept the
Community Preservation Act (CPA) which is being sold as a State/ Town effort to
provide funds for conservation, historical preservation, recreation and
affordable housing.  The proponents of this are spinning this as a good thing for Stoneham; they are ignoring or downplaying the following three reasons why it is bad for Stoneham

1. Call it a Surcharge, but it is nothing more than a Tax Override.

THE TOWN HALL GANG

Anonymous

     I am constantly being accused of being rude, insulting and mean spirited because I point out unflattering things about the town hall gang and some of the people in it. If you look at what has been written you would have to conclude that however unflattering these blog posts may be they are at least factual. This is my response to a rude, insulting and mean spirited comment that was made on the previous post. A post in which I thanked the 169 people who did vote for me in this past election. I'll paste their insensitive comment at the end of my response.

    First of all I have no intention going away. You say that the people of Egremont have spoken and they don't want me. For your information there are 938 registered voters in Egremont of which only 227 voted for Charlie. 169 voted for me and change. For you to say that their vote doesn't count is insulting and shows your ignorance. Then there are the 528 who didn't come out to vote. These people were fine with either candidate otherwise they would have voted; this 528 by default can be added to either count. So we have 755 people who were ok with Charlie being the selectman and 697 were fine with me being the selectman. For you to say that the 227 votes for Charlie expresses the sentiment of the entire town means that you disregard the 711 other people who clearly expressed their opinion. This is the problem with the town hall gang.

    I believe you express town hall gang's sentiment, for all I know you could be one of them. The fact that you regard my concerns as "harassing the town officials" shows that you do not serve all of the people of Egremont. I am a citizen and my concerns deserve the same respect as any other citizen. When I attend a selectman's meeting I am made to feel that I am a nuisance not a citizen. The reason many people don't come out to these meetings is that they are made to feel unwelcome.  This is the problem with the town hall gang.

    For the record I have both a job and a life. Part of my life is keeping up with what goes on in town hall because it affects my life. I feel the people need to know the truth about what goes on in the town hall and I seem to be one of the few who will tell it like it is. You imply that I am not a person with dignity and self respect because I continue to write about my observations and concerns with the town hall gang. The fact that you would rather not hear this rhetoric is irrelevant; there are at least 169 people who do want to hear it. You post often on this site and your opinion is not ignored. If I had your attitude I would delete every one of your posts. However, I respect you enough as a person to allow you to freely express your opinion however much I  may disagree.

    Finally, please stop telling me to go back to Baltimore. I am a Berkshire native, I was born and raised here and I'll probably die here. I spent some time in Baltimore but I chose to come back to my home. However much you may dislike me and my opinion I am still your neighbor and fellow citizen. If you can't treat me with due respect then please just ignore me; but I won't go away.




    This was the comment: "Kevin. Enough is enough. You are not a viable candidate. The people of Egremont have spoken. They do not want you. Now would be the time that a person with dignity and self respect would say to themselves: Okay, I gave it my best shot and they obviously (after 3 lost elections) don't want me. Time to stop harassing the town officials, get a life or a job or both, and move back to Baltimore."

My most humble thanks to the 169

I would like to thank the 169 people who came out and voted for me. You are the people who are looking for change and are willing to step up to the plate. Don't think that because we lost this election that we have no power. Always remember that the power is vested in the people not the town hall gang. All this means to me is that for the next year we have to try to affect the gang from the citizens seat just as we did last year. Personally I have no intention changing my strategy. I plan on continuing to attend the meetings and writing it the way I see it same as always. Change is still in the air, it just may take a little longer. We have to get back up and continue on. Again, thank you. Now the work begins.

CAMPAIGN TACTICS

It was brought to my attention that there was some mean spirited chatter on the Egremont Forum. The person who called me was upset that these tactics were being used again. This is what Marjorie Wexler posted on the Egremont forum, and I quote:

IT'S ALL IN OUR HANDS

I've been accused by many of being negative with all that I have written since I started this blog; and much of what I have written has been negative. However, one cannot begin to resolve a problem until they first admit that there is a problem. Considering the recent response of the townspeople I think we have finally realized that Egremont has a problem and we need to address it. Now the real work begins.