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Councilmatic referendum set for Dec. 22
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In a 5-0 vote, the Town Board voted to put the issue of councilmatic districts up for a voter referendum Dec. 22.
Councilman Mark Cuthbertson said he is distressed about the timing of the election and what he saw as a "gaming of the system."
"The proponents of this had these signatures in hand," Cuthbertson said. "They only added a hundred signatures from the time in which they could have put them on this year's ballot and the time in which they submitted to the clerk. And the result is that we're going to have a special election on Dec. 22 that asks the question should we fundamentally change the way our town government is structured."
While he said it was fine to debate the issue, Cuthbertson claimed a very small portion of the population will make the decision because the vote will take the place during the holiday season.
"But we have no choice," he said. "Under the law we have to put this on in a 15-day window. So reluctantly I will cast my vote for this."
The next day, Mark X. Cronin, co-coordinator of Concerned Citizens, the group that organized the petition drive, refuted Cuthbertson's claims.
"We asked the board to put the issue on the election day ballot and they refused," Cronin said. "We turned in the petitions as soon as we could. They claim we only added 100 signatures. In fact we added 500 signatures and they know it, because we put that in a letter to them to show them the 500 signatures."
Voters can decide the matter themselves on whether they want to keep the at-large election system with four council people voted by and representing the entire town, or change to councilmatic districts, also known as the "ward system," where four council people would be voted for and represent their respective districts.
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