| 12/19/2004 |
| Budget vote battle brewing |
| By SZYMON TWAROG , The Herald Press |
MIDDLETOWN -- A battle is brewing on Randolph Road as the South Fire District firefighters’ union tries to get the annual budget vote back to a town meeting format.
Since 1999 the district has been using voting machines to approve its budget, but after the South Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners received a legal opinion on Monday, they found out they must first amend by-laws before continuing the practice.
The board has made a motion for the same attorney that presented the opinion to draft an amendment for the by-laws to allow voting machines, but Osiecki believes that only makes the problem worse. "They have been doing something illegally for the last few years. If they amend the by-laws they are only condoning those illegal actions," says Osiecki. Osiecki said a district the size of South Fire normally doesn’t need a machine vote for the budget and a town meeting preserves the small town atmosphere of the area. "We all know the people in this town. We see a lot of them on a regular basis," said Osiecki. "We don’t need voting machines, if you look at towns similar to ours in size, they all use a town meeting format." Osiecki said he isn’t even necessarily against the machines, but is more insulted on how the process is being ignored and the board is just doing as they please. He said he has brought the issue up on a regular basis, but his words have been constantly ignored until now. Earle Roberts, vice chairman on the board, said he feels the voting machines are hardly an issue and the board is simply cleaning up some language in the by-laws. "The charter and by-laws go back to the 1950s and 1960s. A lot has changed since then," said Roberts. "There are a lot of issues with language in the charter and by-laws that need to be cleared up for the 21st century. For example, the by-laws state that the commissioners are not to meet between July and August, the summer months, but we still have been meeting for the last five years." As far as Osiecki’s comments that he has been pointing this problem out since 1999, Roberts said he should be glad it’s being taken care of now. "No one legally challenged this in the past. We never asked for a legal opinion until Monday. We got the opinion and we are making changes to abide by it," said Roberts. "I’m sorry it could not be done faster, but why cry over spilt milk. At least it is being taken care of now." Roberts also believes this has little to do with the voting machines, but rather how much of an influence the firefighters have on the vote. "I got a lot of complaints last year about the budget vote. Residents were upset that union members were present inside the voting room," said Roberts. "I suggested that we adopt some standard rules where it would bar the firefighters from being in the room. From there it digressed that we should have a town meeting." Roberts and board chairman Anton Petras both believe that the machine vote, in the end, is the best thing for the town. "If you look at voter turnout, it goes up with machine ballots," said Petras. "Before you had 10 or 12 people coming to a town meeting, now we have around 500." Petras said, in the old town meeting format, many voters felt intimidated by the fire department. "How are you supposed to give an honest vote, if you come to the meeting and you see 12 guys in union shirts saying to support the budget," said Petras. Osiecki though isn’t impressed by the numbers the machine elections have had in the past. Since machine votes have been implemented, the highest percentage the district has gotten out to vote was this year, when nearly 10percent voted on the second referendum. The lowest percent-age was two in 2000 when only 158 out of the approximate 7,300 eligible voters came out to vote. "How does 500 people out of 6,900 represent the majority," says Osiecki. Professor Richard Boyd, chairman of Wesleyan University’s Government Department, believes there are pros and cons for both methods. "There is a trade-off. When you have a town meeting, the people that are involved are more likely to be knowledgeable, informed on the suspect, and have a desire to take part in the process," said Boyd. "However, with voting machines you can get a much larger representation of the community." Boyd also said it is much more difficult to influence a machine vote rather than a town meeting. "Anytime you only have 50-70 people at a town meeting, it is relatively easy to manipulate the outcome," said Boyd. "When you have a referendum, which is much more representative of the whole population, it is much more difficult to organize enough support to change the outcome." Osiecki and Roberts agree that the change in 1999 came about after the budget was turned down in 1998. Firefighters organized to vote down the budget at the budget meeting after $300,000 was allotted to a firehouse expansion, but many of the firefighters still felt their need were not being addressed. Once the amended by-law is written, the amendment must be approved at a town meeting, Rob-erts said he has no doubts that the amendment will pass and even encourages Osiecki to support the measure. "I think this should be overwhelmingly supported by the people. It is democracy," said Roberts. "It is what all those men and women are dying for right now. I hope the union would support it, so we can move towards a better democracy." To contact Szymon Twarog, call (860)347-3331 Ext. 220 or email stwarog@middletownpress.com.
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