Leaderless

The last Rotterdam Town Board meeting made one thing resoundingly clear – there isn’t a true leader among any of the elected five members. Procedurally, the meeting was a complete mess. Most have been after the 2009 election. Sure, there are a few political novices among the bunch but there is also a fair degree of experience as well. It’s now 2011 and there has not been much if any progress toward conducting a meeting efficiently or transparently. The cause of that has been the subject of enough finger-pointing to cause a blindness epidemic! At this juncture, it’s beyond disgraceful.

Even worse though, is the rancor. No one on the dais seems to be able to maintain any semblance of professionalism. The disrespect is blatant and intentional. It’s very sad to witness but the real damage isn’t limited to the political participants. It has seeped into the audience. Disrespect has been validated by the behavior of the Town Board members and has now been adopted by too many in attendance. Disrespect breeds disrespect. I have previously stated on this blog that if you intend to hold someone to a higher standard, then you’ve got to hold yourself to that same higher standard first. This Town Board has collectively failed to do that.

It is abundantly clear that every member of the Town Board is trying to advance their own personal agendas at the expense of everything else. Normally, this might not be so surprising but this crew was elected as a unified team with a unanimous Democrat endorsement. What’s occurred since is nothing short of a travesty.

I don’t believe there is a leader among them. If there was, they would have already emerged to quell the fiasco. Instead, each seems hell-bent on fueling it.

The solution lies in upcoming elections. The Supervisor seat and two Town Board seats will be up for election in November. It’s still wicked early so most candidates are not known yet. What we should know at this point is who we definitely don’t want. We need to start looking for those who will bring some professionalism back to the meetings in place of the juvenile antics we have currently. We need to start looking for those who favor rigorous, respectful discourse and debate in place of last minute shenanigans and political maneuvering. We need to look for true leaders.