Our Neighbor's Struggle Too

In one sense it's good to know that we in North Greenbush are not alone in our struggle to keep government open and accountable. While our Town Board has turned off the cameras that used to record and broadcast Board meetings on Time Warner Cable and censor any political criticism of the Supervisor by restricting her access to the taxpayer funded town web page, bloggers can shine an unwanted light on local government and the politicians who run things.

Yes there are studious efforts and fumbling efforts by the political operatives on both sides of the political spectrum. But the East Greenbush blog called East Greenbush Talks offers a perspective that lacks the name calling and hate that characterizes some blogs whose authors lack any capacity to provide substantive thoughtful criticism.

We were especially fond of this post on the East Greenbush Ethics Board. Imagine that, an Ethic Board that actually meets while we in North Greenbush have one that has never met, not even once. Better yet, we have a Town Board Majority likes it that way and has refused to take any action to compel them to meet or to hear complaints against town officials collecting dust in the Town Clerk's Office.

So take a minute to compare notes on two communities that have a lot in common and that could do a great deal together in terms of shared services if they decided to seriously examine the possibilities.