Speakers did not refuse to yield microphone

Dear Editor:

In your story about the September 12 Select Board meeting, you said that two women “refused to yield the microphone.” That is untrue. Rita Lombardi, the first woman, did in fact yield the microphone — there were two speakers after her, including myself. After being interrupted mid-sentence to be silenced by the chair, I said, “Wow, really?” because I was stunned by the rudeness.

It was 15 seconds later, per the video, that Chair Thomas Theodore said to his fellow board members, “I’m asking for an adjournment of this meeting.” It takes longer than 15 seconds to refuse to yield. Taxpayers used to get five minutes for public comment, then it was three minutes, and now it’s no minutes to provide feedback to the government we are paying for.

In last week’s paper, you also reported that the Select Board has decided to suspend the public comment period for upcoming meetings. I’m assuming you are now checking to see if this was done in violation of the state’s Open Meeting law. The deliberation and vote for that decision were not conducted in public and would not qualify for executive session, nor was the executive session process followed. I look forward to your reporting on that.

Kathleen Howley

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=119013

Posted by Guest on Sep 29 2023. Filed under From One Citizen to Another, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.