BACK BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

     More of the same from the village Board of Directors. More secrets. Guess what? You have a new general manager. The old one is scheduled to advise her on an on-going basis. Sweet! I attribute all these secrets to our military leadership. They are not used to operating in a democratic fashion. It’s “do as we say, we know what’s best for you.” Executive sessions continue to be abused. The board policy has seven reasons to go into executive session, the seventh a catch-all for just about any time they want. By comparison, the state of Arkansas has three reasons to go into executive session. And our Board does not vote in pubic on personnel matters, a blatant violation of the public trust. No vote affecting us should be taken behind closed doors. We elect them and we are entitled to know what they are doing. And how each of the members are voting. The five years we have been in the Village full-time, the Board of Directors has been the most disappointing thing about the Village. And the Village Voice has not encouraged them to change or do anything different regarding all the secrets. The media usually takes up these battles, but then again, this is the Village. (I’m going to have to check if the Chamber owns them). At any rate, one can only hope that things might get better. It’s a great place, but secrets have no place in our community. We are mostly all capable of discussing various proposed ideas and letting the Board know in a reasonable fashion how we feel, prior to the Board making a final decision. That’s how it should work, assuming we are using democratic principles, which I would hope is our intent.