WILL DISTRICT 2 BE DUPED????

The major question of the year is whether or not the residents of District 2 will be conned into reelecting Dillon Pesce to another term on the Town Council.  Dillon Pesce has spent a great deal of effort portraying himself as champion of the people.  However, he has graduated to become a very effect politician providing only half truths to the people.  I attend almost every workshop, Public Hearing and Council Meeting I can and have seen Mr. Pesce in action.  Below is a listing of the “rest of the story":

1.      The first is his statement:  :…I have been committed to being an instrumental voice of ALL members of our community and not letting the loud special interest groups take over.

Mr. Pecse has never implemented anything the people have brought out.  He listens, because the law mandates he do so, but he has not implemented the desires of the people.  As far as the loud special interest group, this group is made up of voters, parents and concerned citizens and they have gotten loud because their concerns land on deaf ears.  Mr. Pesce has his own agenda and sticks to it.

2.      As far as transparency goes, Chairman Pesce establishes the Council Agenda and sees what subjects are conducted in Executive Sessions.  Lately, town own property is sold behind closed doors after the town received bids for the property.  Also, discussion of retirement incentives are also discussed behind closed doors and you call this transparency.

3.      Now let’s look at accountability, there have been several incidents in the Public Works and sewer areas and no one has been held accountable for anything.  So much for accountability.

4.     This is probably my favorite of all.  Chairman Pesce demanded the School Department cut $600,000 from its budget sole on the fact the school budget is twice the size of the Municipal Budget.  Councilor Pesce had no idea what kind of impact a cut of this nature would have on the operations of our school system and apparently did not care.  As Referendums come and go the vote was always the same “NO TOO LOW”.  So what did Chairman Pesce do, remember he said he was an instrumental voice of ALL members of our community, he lower the school budget even lower the next time.  After, that one did not pass; Mr. Pesce orders taxes to be committed because the town could not pay their bills.  This was because our legal costs are way over budget because of Mr. Pesce seeking so many legal reviews.  The Undesignated Fund is too low to support our bills because of excess spending by the Town Council.  Making major cutting without knowing the impact is totally irresponsible.

5.      Chairman Pesce does not allow any citizen to speak at Council meetings without putting time limits on them.  Thanks to Chairman Pesce, there are no dialogues during a council meeting.  Mr. Pesce censors the voice of the people and responds by avoiding the questions with double-talk.

There are plenty of citizens who can verify how Chairman Pesce speaks to them during meetings. 

6.      The people submitted a petition for a Special Town meeting.  The Town Clerk provided the blank petitions to gather signatures, after a legal review.  Then when the people turned in over 700 signatures, which was approximately 100 over the requirement, the petition was denied after a second review.  Denying the people and citizens a Special Town meeting to resolve the difference in figures from the School Department and the Town Council is just plain wrong.  I thought this was the purpose of the Charter procedure.

I thought residents of District 2 need to know what is happening and how Mr. Dillon Pesce contributes to the problem.

Also, look at Charter Change Number 1 to change the two term limit on the Chair position of the Town Council.  Mr. Pesce wants to change this to unlimited terms for the Chairman of the Town Council. 

I wonder whom that is for.

Larry Fillmore