Powers Supports Reckless Spending
Fairhaven is at a crossroads. The town has been in turmoil for over a year now. We have a special election coming up on July 26th. This is a recall election because the voters of Fairhaven are not happy with the way the current select board is conducting business.
Just recently it has come to light that the school committee had a surplus in their budget of over $800,000 because the kids weren’t in class due to Covid-19. They have used the $800k surplus to purchase lights, bleachers and fencing for a new football stadium. The same stadium that after being voted down for borrowing (requires a 2/3rd majority) at the fall town meeting, a separate motion that was not in the meeting warrant was made to take $1.2 million from the town’s savings account and it just passed (requires a simple majority).
Many voters were upset about how they finagled the town meeting to get the $1.2 million. So after obtaining $1.2 million from the town’s reserve funds they have added another $800k of money meant to educate students, not buy accessories for the football stadium. The price tag at this point is $2.2 million and climbing with some other money they have used.
I do not have an issue with improving the field. What I have an issue with is the failure to follow the process. We have a capital planning process in town for a reason. We budget these projects for a reason. The process was completely bypassed by the school committee.
We have a candidate for select board in this current special election who is a member of the school committee and has supported this project and the unethical process it has taken. The lack of transparency and the misuse of nearly $1 million of funds meant to educate students is mind blowing. How can we support Ms. Powers when she supported this type of irresponsible, unethical and reckless spending.
The special election is because voters are not happy about how the select board is operating. Myself and many other voters are unhappy about how the school committee is operating. Lack of transparency, manipulation of town funds, unethical practices and a complete lack of integrity. The response from the school committee including Ms. Powers is arrogant and condescending. The position they have taken is we did it, you should have paid attention to our meeting and we would do it again.
Is this type of manipulation of town government and town funds what we want to allow to carry over to the select board? I urge the voters of Fairhaven to demand more from our school committee and send a clear message this is unacceptable. We need ethical, transparent and honest leaders in our town government not backroom politics.
We the taxpayers of Fairhaven need to pay closer attention to what is happening in our town and elect ethical leadership and responsible leadership. I urge the taxpayers to askśthe questions and pay attention to what is really happening with the school committee.
Geoff Haworth, Fairhaven
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