Special Bd. of Aldermen — 05/14/2019 Page 3
maybe one or two spots. | have seen people circle around trying to vote and they can’t vote. In fact, on that
point | will probably submit a complaint to the Secretary of State about obstruction of voting.
Nevertheless | do think Special Elections are expensive and unnecessary. Special Elections as Paula pointed
out came about because of cronyism. Cronyism in School Boards and some people get elected, they step
down soon after their election because they really didn’t intend to serve 2 years or 4 years and then somebody
else got appointed that the Board liked. For awhile there was a practice in the City to appoint the person with
the next highest vote. That was the person that lost the election but was the next highest vote getter. That
was practiced in the School Board until somebody showed up, was the next highest vote getter that the school
didn’t like, namely me and then they got away from the practice.
So that’s why this charter change came about to stop cronyism and hold elections. Nevertheless, what |
recommend is some change to your legislation. What | recommend is to reinstitute as a charter amendment
namely that if there is a vacancy the first person that can fill that vacancy is the person that ran in the previous
election and was the next highest vote getter. It is only fair. Now if the next highest vote getter isn’t available
any longer or doesn’t want the position any longer, then you can have the Board make the appointment, but
only following an advertisement for the vacancy so it isn’t an inside deal of making this appointment. You
understand that? So the next highest vote getter is allowed to fill this appointment. That is my
recommendation. Thank you.
Justin O’Donnell Good evening Madam President, members of the Board of Aldermen, my name is Justin
O’Donnell and | live at 355 Main Street. | am opposed to that legislation, not in spirit, | do understand the costs
of special elections are a burden to the tax payers and the management of the City, but rather as a purpose of
representation. And | do disagree with the two previous speakers that the next highest vote getter should get
the job, because in the previous election the majority of the voters in the district disapproved of them to do the
job in the first place. What | would ideally love to see the special elections happen if it weren’t for the cost,
there are some Boards that | think should not be filled by an internal vote, namely this one, the Board of
Aldermen. My recommended change that | would recommend and | would fully support this legislation is if the
other Boards were allowed to solicit applications and make recommendations for the Board of Aldermen to fill
those vacancies until the expiration of the current term, so long as this Board, that Board that holds the
Legislative and Executive Power in this City and where the rules derive from is continued to be elected by the
people you serve. Thank you.
John Lisle Bluestone Drive, Ward 8, Moderator. As some of you may know | sort of started this whole
campaign against the special elections after the election of proposed with for the replacement of Bob Hallowell
because of the cost and effort put in for a low turnout election that was demeaning of both the citizens who so
many couldn’t show up, the fact that we had the schools open, which was always a problem. And the fact that
it was just a bad deal. So | proposed an alternative and | have sent all of you my proposed alternative to this.
But let me give you a very tangible example of why | think the proposal that you have is defective. It goes back
to the resignation shortly after the 2017 municipal election of Bob Hallowell from the Board of Education.
When he resigned, the question, it was unclear from the reading of the Resolution which board would appoint
his successor; the board that was in place that he resigned or the one that had just been elected. The other
thing is we have an election every November in this City. Why do we have to wait for the end of the municipal
term to have the election; why not have it at the following November? | mean we have the election, we have
the mechanism in place, why wait? | mean this is an important step, it is an expensive step and | think that the
Legislation that we have in front of us is just not appropriate. It goes back to cronyism that some of the
previous people talked about; that the City rejected this approach some years ago and put in a new approach.
But what we need is to meld the idea of appointments with an election using the Board of Aldermen as a way
of assuring that there is minimal if any cronyism involved. Thank you.
