Fractious meetings have silver lining

Editorials

Discussion

COMMENTING ON STORIES:

Welcome to our story comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including the unpopular ones. We only ask that you keep your conversations clean, civil and on the topic of the story you are commenting on.

Coinciding with our websites redesign, we launched our new story comments feature through Disqus.

Disqus gives users the ability to log into our story comments feature so that they may be able to track their conversations, receive emails when their comments get a reply or to even have your comments update onto your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

For the time being, our story comments feature will continue to have the ability to post comments anonymously. We reserve the right to require registration in the future using your name and verified email address.

Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified at the newspaper’s discretion for a number of different reasons. Please follow our Online Rules of Conduct at all times.

RULES OF CONDUCT:

We reserve the right to remove comments that are unacceptable, to wit:

1. False and inacurate statements.
2. Personal attacks. Explicit name-calling.
3. Harassing, harmful, vulgar, obscene and defamatory language.
4. Threatening statements or statements that suggest violence.
5. Hate speech of any kind.
6. Intolerant comments on religion, race, age, gender, sexual preference or disabilities.
7. Accusations of criminal activity.
8. Content that is harmful to children and minors in any way.
9. References to any type of sexual activity and other private matters.
10. Random and inflammatory statements that are off topic.
11. Advertising of any kind.
12. Typing in all caps.

WE ENCOURAGE REASONABLE AND COURTEOUS COMMENTS THAT:

1. Create conversation on issues of interest and concern to fellow readers and local community members.
2. Express opinions and contrarian views.
3. Stimulate debate with respectful language.
4. Stay within the boundaries of these rules.

WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE ACCESS FOR:

1. Violating any of these Online Rules of Conduct.
2. Deliberately disrupting discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or spam.
3. Misrepresentation of identity or impersonating another user.

WE WELCOME:

1. Flagging violations of these rules that you observe to our attention.

MONITORING:

We monitor comments regularly Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Approval of comments outside of this time (including weekends) will be sporadic.

comments powered by Disqus

August 9, 2012

Fractious meetings have silver lining

Anonymous Daily Star The Daily Star Thu Aug 09, 2012, 03:25 AM EDT

In The Daily Star's news coverage of local meetings where gas drilling, pipelines or home rule was on the agendas, we've described events as being crammed, packed, overflowing, tense, crowded and heated.

And we think that's great.

It's democracy at work, and that's a good thing _ even if it does tick people off sometimes.

Take the recent Masonville town board meeting, where Supervisor Mike Spacaforno made a few enemies by limiting comments from Marie Soroka and her husband, Robert Beards.

Soroka and Beards, representing a group called Masonville 1st, were angry that they were not permitted to read a statement advocating that the town adopt a moratorium and craft zoning regulations to govern possible gas development.

Of them, Spacaforno said: "They take up an hour and a half at the meeting, and it's not like they bring anything new to the table."

Harsh? Maybe.

But is Spacaforno within his rights? Absolutely.

While state law requires that public bodies hold open meetings, it is notably silent on the subject of public comments. What the law does require is that the public be "able to observe the performance of public officials and attend and listen to ... deliberations and decisions."

Of course, the mere fact that it isn't required by law doesn't mean that town boards shouldn't listen to what their constituents have to say.

Soroka and Beards said they feel the town is ignoring their point of view, which is unfortunate. If for no other reason than to preserve their incumbency, it would be wise of local elected officials to find ways to allow their constituents to be being heard.

Though the Masonville meeting seems to have caused some hard feelings, this debate over how local governments and citizens interact is one we are glad to see happening all over our area.

Heck, there have probably been plenty of town board meetings where you could hear crickets chirping when the supervisor asked if there were any comments on the floor. So while this may seem like a problem, it's really an opportunity in disguise.

It's always a good thing when citizens become more aware of and involved in their local government. But it is not always pretty. Sometimes citizens don't like what they see _ and some elected officials are taken aback when their status quo is challenged.

Government and citizen alike owe it to each other to be courteous and well-informed. and to cooperate so that meetings not only follow the letter of the law, but also the spirit, which seeks to ensure that "the commonweal will prosper and ... the governmental process ... operate for the benefit of those who created it."