To the editor:
Back in January, during the city council’s organizational meeting, council failed to take action on charter items 2.01/2.06. A couple of days later, the mayor paid me a visit and voiced displeasure that I tried to enforce that rule. I told him then I felt Councilor Morrell had done this on purpose, just to see if he could get away with it. (Having been a member of Citizens for Responsible City Management along with Doug, my husband and I were present one evening when Doug asked the members not to pay their personal property taxes; asked what the city would do, take us to court, take our personal property? Then he suggested we all pay our real property taxes late, and encourage our friends to do the same, because this would cause a cash flow problem for the city of Caribou.)
The mayor did not disagree. He said he realized Doug tended to push the envelope on occasion. He also suggested perhaps it would be nice if I would vote more with the majority, unity within the council was good, and unanimous votes on issues would look good on his resume for re-election, but it didn’t matter because “they” are the majority and would get the votes anyway.
I read Farmer Mark’s letter about his increased taxes, and although I think some of that is due to expansion, he didn’t seem too concerned last November when a lady came to council asking for a donation to help with travel expenses to Europe to train for Special Olympics. The mayor was quick to suggest we find $1,000 to give her, regardless of the fact that the budget had already been adopted and could not be increased, and there was no money in contributions to pay for it. Council voted in favor, and the Caribou taxpayer didn’t get one dime in benefits from this expenditure.
Charter violation? But then, I’ve heard him say that he’s sick of the charter.
I’m voting for three new guys on the block.
Joan Theriault
Caribou
