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Savaging the Competition is an Irresponsible Campaign Tactic
To the Editor:
Parties interested in shaping town government in Philipstown are reducing this election to personal preferences, masked by general accusations about integrity. They assign nepotism, collusion, gross incompetence and corruption. This is tough stuff in a big city, even worse when accusations are made in a small town. Is it true, is it politics or is it self-interest?
Savaging the competition is an effective way to 'gin up' interest in high-profile elections. This tactic diminishes the context about individual topics and purposefully lumps together points to prove a personal preference. In our community of 10,000 where we need the 'good will' of volunteers to manage our boards and programs, this irresponsible and selfish tactic reduces the sense of community interest. While many of these charges are about land use, a perfect example of this approach concerns the Butterfield Library.
Bill Mazzuca, Town Supervisor, has been accused of improperly challenging the outcome of the Butterfield Library referendum. After the referendum vote, the Town Board felt the Library incompletely notified all of Philipstown's residents about the facts of the referendum prior to the vote. It was the Library's responsibility to inform the public that the referendum was for a perpetual and largely unaccountable 120% annual budget increase from the Philipstown taxpayers. Even though I try to be an informed voter I did not know it was my business to vote on Cold Spring's library. Regardless of the vote, its challenge or a settlement, the point I'm making is much larger, it is about integrity.
When asked, Bill said he's held a Butterfield Library card for 50 years, and lives five minutes away. In his fourteen years as Town Supervisor, Butterfield's town contribution grew from $8,000 per year to $120,000 per year. From Cold Spring, it would have been much easier for him in an election year to turn a blind eye to the referendum. I appreciate the integrity he had to challenge the vote- regardless of the outcome. From my vantage point, when someone's integrity is challenged wrongly, people who know better should say so.
A recent letter cruelly lampooned town officials as being in the same 'family', it alluded to serious character flaws by virtue of proximity and decisions when working on land use. When people do this for their selfish cause, no number of town engineering positions will suffice. Surrounded by exploding growth in every direction, Philipstown's 3- 5% growth over the past 10 - 20 years is extraordinarily modest. It sounds like someone has been driving the bus carefully.
More importantly, until we as a community are able to convince the county (they set septic and BOHA standards) that BOHA on vacant land, grandfathered years in advance, may be standards that are no longer viable in Philipstown. Until we are able to communicate with Carmel effectively, at best our local Boards may only be able to play catch up.
Tim Donovan
Garrison
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