Letter: Kinnickinnic residents must keep pushing for open government

Try to examine the following scenarios logically, as if they are happening in a town far away, where you know none of the individuals involved:

One: The town chair, who is a member/chair of the town’s road committee, is also privately employed by a road paving company.

As town chair and committee member, he is heavily involved in determining what town road work will be done. Before he became town chair, the town roads were maintained by the county.

Now the chair’s private employer has been awarded contracts worth over one-third of the town’s road budget.

Two: A building inspector has inspected as many as 22 new homes and numerous home additions in a rural town annually.

Then the housing recession hits. New home numbers dropped to two per year.

Inspections were expanded to include more kinds of buildings. But no ordinance process was used to notify the public of this expanded government involvement in their lives.

Don’t the citizens have a right, even an obligation, to inquire about the processes that led to these two situations?

What would be the worst way for the officials to handle the public’s questions in any of the above situations?

Is the answer to shut down all public comment because it isn’t to their liking, and then try to eliminate any public scrutiny of these issues? One would think that only makes them look like they have something to hide.

Please let your local officials know you appreciate the opportunity to speak at local public meetings. Let them know you would like them to listen to public input and respond to their constituents’ questions.

And let’s all thank this newspaper for its continued willingness to print letters to the editor, whether the officials are pleased with their content or not.

Tags: letters to editor, town of kinnickinnic, opinion