Life In Lawless Lisbon

Lawless Lisbon?

Is the rule of law dead in Lisbon? Has Lisbon become a dictatorship?

 Tuesdays public meeting is just the last example in a long line of charter and statute violations made by  Lisbon’s Governing Council.

    According to the Lisbon Charter, public hearings are supposed to be published in the paper at least 2 weeks prior to a meeting. Tuesdays breech of this requirement was brought up at the start of  the recent public meeting by Mr. Fillmore. Chairman Larochelle’s response to this “point of order” was -- he didn’t care  about the charter notification requirement he was going to hold the  meeting regardless of its legality.  In so many words he told Mr. Fillmore to shut up and sit down.

 Lisbon doesn’t need  leaders with this level of arrogance.

    Lisbon is required by Charter to keep 12.5% of its budget in an un designated fund for emergency use. This requirement according to the available numbers is also breached.  A second violation of our own Charter.

There are valid reasons for this charter requirement.


     There are many examples of Lisbon"s Officials turning a blind eye to the  traffic, safety and weight restriction offenses in Houston Park. Residents have called  the Police may times without any solution. Is it a coincidence that the name of one of our Councilors keeps coming up in connection with this problem?

Our Laws should be enforced evenly without regard for a person’s social or political standing.

 Its rather ironic that we pay more for our law enforcement than almost any municipality our size in this state.

    At several of the last Council Meetings the Councilors have admitted that the proposed new (spot) zoning regulations were initiated in order to fix the problem of illegal businesses in town.  For years businesses of the favored few have been allowed to flourish in town while others have gotten official letters threatening them if they didn’t shut down their enterprises. I know of at least one Councilor that operates a business in a restricted residential district.

This illegal activity has risen to a level that the normal safety valves are ineffective in curtailing the corruption. We are at a point where we need outside intervention.  We need the Governor or some other outside governing body “with the power” to come in and perform a forensic audit to fix what we seem unable to repair.

I hope our pleas don’t fall on deaf ears.


Respectfully

LisbonMaine.Net
Joe Hill