Board members disrespect speakers

With the refusal by two elected Town Board officials to sit at the board's work session last Monday, the residents of our town were the losers.

Valuable time was lost, which prevented the complete presentation of the public reports of two citizen-volunteer committees on two very important issues. The first committee report dealt with the functioning of the town assessor's office, and the second committee report dealt with the functioning and structure of the town comptroller's office, an issue made especially relevant and urgent given the news of this past week.

The citizen-volunteers were deprived of the opportunity to make a presentation of their reports to a full Town Board. Each report had taken our volunteers over 120 hours to produce. Also lost was the opportunity for the entire board to ask questions of these committees in order to better understand the issues.

These citizen-volunteers had been asked to participate in our town's government, and last week they did not get the respect that they deserved. Their expertise was not able to be fully utilized. The problems facing our town at this critical time in its history require cooperation and the mutual respect of all in order to be solved.

Roy Wixson Deputy Supervisor

Town of Amherst