Our town board consists of four supervisors and a chairman. They serve two year terms. These seats alternate, so in any year we will vote for a couple seats. So, it should be noted that a supervisor could run unopposed.
When we go to the polls to cast our vote, we may not know much about a candidate. Typically there are questions asked of the candidates and answers are posted in the Oregon Observer. But do we know how a candidate really feels about a topic until they are in office?
As has been evidenced by the topic of TORC (Town of Oregon Recycling Center), the board has decided to end garbage and recycling at TORC and mandate curbside pickup for every household in the town. That was decided by three people!
You may not know that the board discussed putting a referendum on the ballot as early as January 2022. The board also had their town attorney draw up a referendum in May 2022 and that referendum was never put on the ballot!
You also may not be aware that a committee was formed to research this issue and advise the board. Interestingly enough, a number of those committee members live in a neighborhood that already contracts for curbside pickup.
And there were board members who did significant research on the subject. So, one might ask how independent the recommendation from the committee to the board was?
You may want to know that the committee and the board did discuss, at least half a dozen times, a proposed mailing to town residents giving them information and letting them know they were considering curbside pickup, but that never happened!
I’m sure most of us eventually heard about what was being discussed about TORC, but I know I ran into people who didn’t know about this until a month prior to the final vote to sign the contract.
So, what does this tell us? It tells us we need to be more involved. Until something like this happens, we may not think about following the online town site to pay attention to monthly town meetings and minutes.
We may want to pay attention, so that in the future we could ask questions early in the process and perhaps request a meeting that allows input from town citizens.
Cheryl Sandner
Brooklyn
