Spain Politicizes Comprehensive Plan Committee

It was bad enough when we reported that Jeff Spain and the Town Clerk Ms. Connolly used the DeFreestville Fire Chief and Comprehensive Plan Committee member Richard French as pawns in their effort to retain control of the Democratic Party which they turned over to the GOP candidates in the last town election. Now they have apparently recruited another CPC member Mark White who resides on Sandra Drive in Election District 5 to run with French in ED 2 as well.

It's unfortunate that that these so called Democrats are so desperate so as to use the CPC as political tool to control the Democratic Party by using members as candidates for party committee seats. Each will find a vigorous campaign that will taint their roles on the CPC and seriously damage the reputation of a committee that must be apolitical to be credible.

So little by little the Spain slate emerges with Kathryn Connolly apparently afraid to run in ED 4 Snyder's Lake district and instead going to ED 8 where she lives. What a fun race that will be!

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It's obvious that the Committee misses the knowledge of the members who worked two years to help produce the document delivered to the town by the consulting firm retained to draft the plan. Instead of simply asking that consultant to make whatever minor changes they claim are needed without ever specifying them, they instead want to spend more money on a politically connected consultant, LaBerge Engineering, to do the work. At no time do the members state what is a reasonable amount to spend and every dime wasted redoing it is money lost for implementation through the redraft of the zoning.

Al Spain, Committee Chair, apparently wants to award a contract to LaBerge based solely on "qualifications" to LaBerge. Had the prior committee recommended a firm solely on qualifications and resume without considering price, it might have gone to another firm at twice the cost. Both qualifications and cost must be weighed together but in this case, it appears Spain is not at all concerned with cost. He wants a particular company to do work which is at best unnecessary and at worst a waste of money.

We are told that Spain showed another childish maneuver at last week's meeting. The poorly attended meeting had only one person in the audience, the man Spain is apparently afraid to hear speak, CB Smith. Spain allows no public input until the very end of the meetings, unlike the manner of the previous committee which allowed open dialogue from the audience throughout the meeting.

Near the end, Smith left the room for a minute and while outside the door, Spain asked for public comment. How brave! No one was in the room. When Smith returned, the meeting was adjourned with no input, assuming there would have been input from Smith.