Letter: Mr. Douglas should resign from appropriations

Posted 6/22/17

To the editor:

I have been reading the letters about Mr. Douglas being on the COA being a conflict of interest. It is and he should resign. I say this with no malice. 

Senator Cindy Coyne, …

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Letter: Mr. Douglas should resign from appropriations

Posted

To the editor:

I have been reading the letters about Mr. Douglas being on the COA being a conflict of interest. It is and he should resign. I say this with no malice. 

Senator Cindy Coyne, when she was a town councilor, would not vote to renew members to any committee until they attended her annual seminar on rules, regs and ethics of serving on a committee. 

It was run by our assistant solicitor and a member of the AG's office. There was a lot of useful information including what constitutes a rolling quorum (never hit "reply all"), what the rules for executive session are, and when to recuse because of a conflict of interest. 

We were told the following: "If your spouse, parents, or close family member could benefit from an action, or sits on a board of directors that could benefit from that action, you must recuse yourself from the vote and the discussion of the issue. You cannot recuse yourself by sitting in the front row where you body language or facial expressions could convey your desires to other members of the committee, you must remove yourself from the room."

Based on what all members of all committees in Barrington were told, in order for Mr. Douglas to serve on the COA he would have to recuse himself from all school budget discussions. School discussions are about 75 percent of what the COA does. And I suspect that the school is the reason why Mr. Douglas wanted to be on the COA. I am pretty sure the police department is not his first priority. 

If Mr. Douglas stays on, regardless of an opinion by the solicitor, the first time he speaks about the schools on the COA, I suspect some motivated person will file a complaint after the first meeting, not to the solicitor but to the state ethics board, which I expect will agree with the AG. Mr. Douglas will be told to recuse from the votes and discussion of the school budgets unless the information we were told at Sen. Coynes' forums was false, and if it was then the forums were a waste of six hours of my life. But I suspect we were given the correct information.

At the end of the day we will have only four members who can do the job, and risk 2-2 votes. Mr. Douglas should resign.

As to Mr. Fuller's "attacks" that "have to stop," I refer to the old Smothers Brothers joke: "here in Barrington we believe in free speech,....And you better say what your supposed to say." 

Barrington's lack of respect for other's opinions is and has been sad. Whether it is this or yoga pants or when I spoke out against senior prank day, reactions in Barrington have been disproportional and intolerant.   Barrington needs to be tolerant of others' opinions. That is free speech. And the far left like the school supporters, and the far right need to let all speak their opinions, even when you don't like their opinions. Without harsh retribution. That is what a civil society, what a good town would do.

Joel Hellmann

Barrington

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