This letter was sent to protectnorthbranford.org by a resident. Well written, and likely sums up the feelings of many people: I was in attendance at the meeting last night (10/21) and I could not believe what I heard/saw from our elected Town Council. I feel we need to emphasize that the Council not only stated people have to leave but they ASKED citizens to leave the meeting. This is incredibly offensive and negligent of our town rights and the town charter. Instead of accommodating citizens who the council is elected to serve by moving the meeting to NBIS (which has been done in the past), they ASKED citizens to leave a public meeting so they can conduct town business which apparently didnt impact the citizens in the room?? Again, incredible. The irony is the Town Council faulted the citizens for failing to be present at the earlier public meetings when the bulk propane storage was initially passed, and now that we are all informed and vehemently oppose this proposal citizens are being asked to leave public meetings. Throughout this process two things have become very evident to me: 1. We need a complete turnover of our current sitting town council at the next election, and 2. We (North Branford) need to explore a different town government structure, one with an executive office that can make decisions, not one like we have who brings in explosive bulk propane proposals and then hides behind the process stating their hands are tied. I dont know this process of creating a new town government, or if this is even possible, but I would like to begin discussions. The propane issue is the priority for all of us involved in defeating this, however when the dust settles (after we get bulk propane rejected in our town) I recommend that we all consider the above two points. Point number 1 is much easier to accomplish, this entire council needs to be turned over. The bigger challenge is changing our town government structure so we can have leaders in place that will listen to the citizens and be able to make executive decisions on our behalf. After the meeting was determined to be over I approached members of the Town Council who stayed behind (which if anything these council members should be commended). In talking with them, it seems that they really dont know how we all got this far along with the propane proposal. They said that the town attorney tells them that the Town Council has no power to intervene, that it is a planning and zoning issue. I then asked a council member specifically If I propose changes in zoning to allow a giant water park and then propose building a Giant Water Park to be built at the old Wall Field and I get a majority vote from planning and zoning to pass, you are telling me that the town council cant do anything to stop such a ridiculous proposal? The answer, Correct, this is my understanding. The positive thus far from fighting the bulk propane proposal is that I feel our town has woken up and is now very in tune with our process and the people involved in this process. We need to stay awake. Sean O’Brien
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 05:01:58 +0000