The voters of Longmeadow will be electing the leadership for the executive branch of our town government. They will be choosing 3 of the 5 members of the Select Board. In addition, there will be the election of a new member of the Longmeadow School Committee.
If you have been reading the "Buzz", you know that the financial crisis that has affected the rest of the world has had a direct impact on Longmeadow. The town's revenue sources have decreased significantly while at the same time the cost of operating our schools and delivering town services have increased. In addition, the town infrastructure including our schools, DPW facility and equipment, water/sewer systems, etc. are in critical need of repair or replacement. There will be important choices to be made and we will be electing three people who will be key players in the decision making.
Below are my choices for election day. You may not agree with some or all of them.... all I ask is for you to be an informed voter and get out to vote next Tuesday, June 9!
4 comments:
Jim I respect all of your work for the town. However, I think it is inappropriate for you as webmaster on a town sponsored site or at least a site with a direct link from the town site to endorse specific candidates for office on the site. I have no problem with your highlighting the issues, but believe you should not endorse any candidates on this site. I also think it is not appropriate to show a Mark Gold sign on the site without signs for the other candidates.
Having read both of your posts, I believe that one Select Board vote should be for Roy Johansen. Roy is experienced in many important areas of our town. He has been on the Historic District Commission, the Planning Board, and the Community Preservation Committee. Both of his children attend or attended Longmeadow Schools. He also brings experience working on committees in other towns. We need someone who can bring their outside experience to address our problems now and into the future. He is the only candidate talking about addressing the issues while making sure we maintain the values which make Longmeadow the town it is today. He will bring reasoned and thoughtful leadership to the Select Board. I encourage everyone to cast one of their Select Board votes for Roy Johansen on June 9th.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am serving as treasurer of Roy's campaign.
Bill Hoff
Bill,
The LongmeadowBuzz "blog" is not a town sponsored website nor is it supported financially in any way by the Town of Longmeadow. While some people may think that I am an employee of the town, that as you know is not the case.
I set up this blog for town residents to have an alternative forum (to MassLive) for discussion of important issues. I see nothing wrong with my endorsing a specific candidate or candidates much in the same manner as does our local Springfield newspaper. There is also no requirement for equal time or exposure.
The Longmeadow Buzz blog is basically a 21st century "letters to the editor". If you review the postings on this blog, you will find that I am not the only one who participates. You as well as many other people in town have been given privileges to post articles on the blog. In your latest comments, you have taken the opportunity to support your candidate of choice in the upcoming election.
In large part President Obama was elected through the use of 21st century methods including Facebook, blogs, websites, web videos..... Political campaigning is not longer taking place door to door.
Take a look at Mark's website at www.GoldforSelectBoard.com - the face of politics and the means for communicating with voters has changed!
Jim Moran
I support this alternative forum as an excellent way for people to discuss issues. It was only the connection to www.longmeadow.org while endorsing candidates that concerned me. I noticed the link on www.longmeadow.org hasbeen removed. Alternatively a disclaimer on the link on www.longmeadow.org and on the blog highlighting that the blog is separate from the town and the opinions are only those of the author would have also accomplished this separation. You and I may know they are separate,but others may not.
Bill Hoff
Bill,
You are correct that I removed the link to the LongmeadowBuzz blog from Longmeadow.org. While I do not think that this link was a problem, I did it as a response to your concern. You will also see that I added a new blog overview and disclaimer at the bottom of the LongmeadowBuzz blog page.
If you reread the post to which you objected, you will see that there was no attempt on my part to deceive readers into somehow believing that the commentary was some sort of official pronouncement. (Even though I am the "town webmaster", my opinion is no better than the next person.)
Here is what I said:
"Below are my choices for election day. You may not agree with some or all of them.... all I ask is for you to be an informed voter and get out to vote next Tuesday, June 9!"
I also posted my name as author. What could be more clear that this was a private opinion that I was sharing in public.
I have set up this blog for local public discussion- albeit in a somewhat moderated format. In the first comment you took the opportunity to endorse your candidate for Select Board... that is one of the purposes of this forum.
I do appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts on this new 21st century means of communication.
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