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Thursday, April 10, 2014

Let's talk money

It's nice to see an actual debate taking place over the mayoral salary. It was intellectually dishonest for the current mayor to give himself a significant raise in his first budget, expecting the fact that Trustee Rhoads made the suggestion to square the fact that he never mentioned it during his campaign. It was reprehensible for the board to reverse that raise in a surprise action late at night, which no one believed was not orchestrated (even the people who thought the raise a year earlier wasn't).

Having this conversation in public is a good idea. We all should know who is advocating because they like or dislike the current mayor, and whose arguments are rooted in a concern for the village.

You know what else would be good for political discourse? Not asking the Chamber of Commerce to moderate candidate events. They need to work with whoever wins, so they weed out questions that really need to be asked -- like whether a candidate is planning on budgeting a raise, or how one's personal relationship with another candidate might translate if they both shall win.

If we can't get our local paper to take on this task, how about the League of Women Voters?