Does the Hamilton BOS Represent Us, Really?

 Is this the BOS that represents us?   I suggest that they should be impartial in decisions of major consequence to the town.  When a public hearing is held, they should listen to the public, not rationalize away when the public disagrees with their approach or opinion.

When people come to them with legitimate concerns and issues, they should listen, investigate and follow-up rather than appoint a hand picked committee who too often represents the opinions and positions of the BOS. The promulgating of the “good old boy structure” by selecting people to serve on a committee who only agree with the appointees continues to be a disquieting pattern at best. 

We have a recreation board that is looking for a variety different programs to be funded.  So they put out their wish list of programs and the BOS and the Town Manager moved ahead and design a new pool to accomplish  their list?   We lack realistic assessments of practical considerations here.  The BOS has bought into this project and is bending over backwards to kill any alternative or to hear that there may be a flaw in their concept.  What is the relationship between the BOS and the Planning Board?  Shouldn’t the Planning Board have been invited to the table to discuss and make recommendations for the Pool project and the Patton Homestead development? 

We saw what happened with the School committee when it had all pro-school spending people on the board - eight consecutive years of overrides. (taxes going out of sight) When we voted in different group 3 years ago, we got no more overrides, level services and over 4 million dollars given back to the towns. What kind of lessons are the BOS and Town Manager not learning?

How is it possible that the BOS keeps trying to “sell” the Town on development deals and projects that cost considerable funds invested upfront, with no assurances of success other than to tout the mantra that development will keep our taxes down.  Anyone who has ever looked at the development model knows that the math does not work.

At the end of the day, shouldn’t the BOS represent us and work on our behalf rather than be dictatorial?  We have a right to see and hear all sides of the issues, rather than to have projects presented as fait accompli. Does the BOS really represent us? Really?