New Ulysses Political Web Site: Ulysses Progressives
There’s a new political web site up for people interested in politics here in the Town of Ulysses: Ulysses Progressives, over on Google’s Blogspot network. The two articles present on the site at the moment both discuss a serious problem in the community: The lack of political neutrality in Trumansburg’s newspaper of record, the Trumansburg Free Press.
The response of the people behind Ulysses Progressives is the one that makes the most sense. If the local newspaper shows itself to be consistently biased, create your own media. Here’s hoping that the Ulysses Progressives keep it up, and offer a lasting alternative source for community information.
Open government?
I will be wary of voting for “Open Government” this time.
The last time it turned out to be totally bogus in regards to the Water District 5 issue.
In open government the plan would have been presented to the public as it stood and it would have been discussed on its merits.
That did not happen.
The board members would have been knowledgeable regarding the pros and cons of any water system and how it would benefit or deter town development.
The board members never learned a thing about the systems nor offered any alternatives. Only the cons.
Bogus issues of costs were proffered at an inappropriate time. The “map plan and report” would have addressed those issues.
That did not happen.
If they thought it was such a bad plan it should have been voted down at the beginning, not used for two or three years as political fodder to pretend they were doing something productive.
That did not happen.
The plan should have been presented in its entirety to the public in numerous public sessions to learn of the pros and cons as it existed.
That did not happen.
When petitions were circulated among people on the proposed water district route the petitions should have been considered and entered into the record.
That never happened.
In fact the petitions were ignored entirely.
I was not allowed to speak at a meeting because of not agreeing with Don Ellis and saying negative things about the ridiculous proceedings that had become town meetings.
Don Ellis even changed the rules of procedure from Roberts Rules of Order to match what he seemed to think was a better method of proceeding in meetings. Those rules are pretty much accepted the world over as a basis for meeting protocol. I guess that allowed too much openness.
So the rules were changed to accommodate the three new board members who were dead set against representing the public good and only interested in their own agenda.
This is Not Open Government in fact it seems to be the opposite.
There was also mention several times that the elected officials were there to vote their own ideas and not to represent the citizens of the town. So these electees thought they had all power because they had been elected. What happened to democracy there?
This amazing arrogance, seems inappropriate in small town politics.
Even smacks of imperialism at least and non democratic process.
Certainly not “open government”.
I would like to trust Dave Kerness and Liz Thomas but suspect they will be run by the same local party leaders who led to this non representative government of the last local election. Caution is advised here. Would not mind if things got considered fairly and crooked politics was not a part of proceedings.
Barry said,
“The board members would have been knowledgeable regarding the pros and cons of any water system and how it would benefit or deter town development.
The board members never learned a thing about the systems nor offered any alternatives.”
This is a very complex issue, and no one knows more about it than the board members that are blocking it. If you only knew.
Barry said,
“This amazing arrogance, seems inappropriate in small town politics.
Even smacks of imperialism”
Barry, did you forget to take your meds? Stopping WD5 was the work of conscientious, well informed, representatives. We owe them our thanks.
The Ulysses Progressives site wasn’t quite ready for prime time. They are taking it down temporarily. Check back soon.
When you’re complaining about unrepresentative government, and petitions that weren’t recognized, you’re talking about the refusal of the Trumansburg Village Board of Trustees (David Filiberto and Marty Petrovic excepted) to recognize the will of the overwhelming majority of residents on the matter of the impeachment resolution, right?
Certainly, you couldn’t be referring to the vote in favor of annexation by the very people who reside on the property to be annexed. Their will is being well represented by the Democrats on the Village and Town boards, after all.
No
the petitions were regarding the matter of the water district. Nothing to do with the imnpeachment nonsence
an exercise in futility.
Just wanted to pint out that non open government is what we have had under the dems that were elected last time.
The closed forums seem sort of non open also such as the Ulysses Progressives website which will only allow agreeable comments to be aired on it.
Stopping WD5 benefited the Town how?
Well informed not about the Water district but about underhanded politics and dishonesty yes.
Not allowing the public to see the actual plan nor consider the petitions in favor of the map plan and report is not open government nor is it from well informed individuals.
using the same tactics as the Washington crowd that gave us Iraq is not open government. Misinformation and disinformation are not the same as information. The plan was never properly presented to the public which would have both benefited and paid for it. The results of this foolishness will come home to roost in a few years in the form of much more expensive options and no gradual development of infrastructure which was the primary gain for the town.
Barry,
I think that those in favor of Water District 5 had years and years during which they had the opportunity to present their plan to us, and they were profoundly unable to effectively communicate their ideas.
A group of people who were plugged into the effort to create Water District 5 just voted to join the village instead. Does that not suggest something to you?
Barry asks,
“Stopping WD5 benefited the Town how?”
The water bill for the residents of Trumansburg would have increased about $100/year/household. There was talk of offsetting this cost, but the details were never worked out, and the Village decided against WD5.
What would they get in return?
A second source as required by the DOH, but only good for 30 days!
WD5 is a poorly planed scheme which costs too much (about 5 mil) and serves too few. Treating the well water of the handful of households on the route, that have water problems, individually, would cost a small fraction of that cost.
The 3 members that voted against WD5 never stopped information from reaching the public. They were frustrated by their inability to get information on it themselves! The application to the State , and the engineering report (March ’06) were not made available to the board members for a year and a half. How the hell can we have open government, when it’s not even open within the board?
Considering the petition of the people on the route, ignores the needs of the vastly larger number of people who would be affected by the project.
I got the information in the form of the engineering study and the next obvious step would have been to do the map plan and report for more specific information.
Yes, the town board members did stop information (accurate and factual information)(The plan as it was proposed) from reaching the public. and also never even considered the signed petitions of over one hundred residents which were in favor of at least finding out more about the plan by pursuing the map plan and report. The public never learned a thing about whether it would be practical or not because they refused to allow the map plan and report to go forward and because they blocked every effort of the Town supervisor to send out the information to the residents affected. It was and amazing thing to see in local politics. Looked like the WMD stuff all over again only on a local level. Feed the public false claims and fears and they will follow you anywhere. It works same as it did for Herrman Goering and W.
Interesting
the new political website will only accept agreeable comments. More open government I suppose.
The water district plan was never presented to the public who would pay because of the three town board members whop are more concerned with their own “vision” of what the town should be than with what will benefit the area as a whole. Their shortsighted vision will cost far more than the original starter plan and will serve less guaranteed. This is the opposite of open government and very similar to WMD creation in the WD5 creation of scare tactics. The people who joined the village in annexation will also pay more and get less. That will be borne out in the future. They will still not have adequate water pressure nor fire protection that is adequate in hopes of some of the benefits of village services which may or may not come to pass. It is the use of mis and disinformation to get a viewpoint across. The same methods used in Washington politics to get us into war. Here those tactics are acceptable but there they are not??? The End Justifies the means?? The way Hitler justified his tactics for Deutchland Uber Alles?? Is this Dems Uber Alles?
The WD5 plan should have been presented through the town board as the actual unembellished plan for WD5 not some propagandized version which was manufactured by Don Ellis and Roxanne Marino in the scare campaign.
The questions were bogus from the beginning and would have been answered in large part by the map plan and report.
The lies and deceit used for this is not accepatable to me even in politics. The plans should be presented as is for evaluation. This was like the “intel” gathered by bush for War in Iraq and now Iran. Same tasctics.
What happened to the propaganda spot Ulysses Progressives?
Gone already?
Not a very open minded blog at the start only reinforcement of the comments presented. No dissension please. Great Open Government and they don’t even see the hypocrisy.
“Blog has been removed
Sorry, the blog at ulyssesprogressives.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.”
Flash in the Pan