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Letter: Lost touch with voters

John W. Eschenlohr, Wildridge

Buz Reynolds and Dave Dantas, in this paper, stated the case against the Avon charter amendment succinctly, tactfully and convincingly.

The following day, town Councillor Amy Phillips writes that approval would streamline the charter. She claims that the public vote on town property sales (including open greenspace, parkland etc.) would cost about $10,000 in each case and that there are several checks and balances available to voters to prevent abuses. Yet, anyone who has dealt with the town Planning and Zoning Commission, formerly headed by the current mayor, can experience the arrogance and high-handedness of this virtually self-appointed organization. Do you want to give them additional constitutional powers?

Amy claims Avon is a small town and councilors are our friends who are available at City Market, Starbucks and Loaded Joe’s, yet she did not hesitate to authorize expensive consultants to poll a selected few residents (me among them) to find out what the future direction of the town should be. Do you want to give this (or any future) council additional constitutional powers when they have obviously lost touch with the wishes of their taxpayers and voters?



Please vote no to this amendment. Don’t succumb to “leadership by polling,” which seeks to increase its freedom to act without voter participation by making seemingly inconsequential changes to a charter that has served the town so well over the years.


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