Dear Editor,
The Mayor’s claim of dragging heels is disingenuous. When people were pressing me to run again for Trustee, Village of Owego, I asked-“Why?”
The core responses to my question of “why do you want me to seek office again?” anchored around:
1) Holding taxes down, 2) Getting some level of control over the high numbers of sexual predators locating into our village, 3) Do something about the rising level of drugs and violence in the village and 4) Get us a functioning police force in the Village? So I ran for office again and retained my seat with firm convictions to do my best to address those four core issues my constituents raised.
Holding the taxes down is a function of many factors that needs to be looked at across the Village’s systems, but embraced within that Village wide scrutiny are the issues of drugs and violence in the Village and the police function that will enforce the laws that protect our constituency? In fact, that policing force is a key element affecting our taxes as well as mitigating the issue of drugs and violence.
As I have stated to those that call me to voice their displeasure with the Village departments, “you get what you are willing to pay for. To hold taxes as low as possible or even freeze them you have to be willing to sacrifice some level of services.”
Our Village is not alone in these struggles of how to maintain public services with the most effective staffing at the lowest effective cost to the taxpayer. Other communities, and cities, are struggling with these issues. All across the country the core taxpayers that carry the bulk of the tax burdens are being crushed, and for many in our Village that is even more so.
So, if a policing force is so vital to the Village then why has it been a struggle to keep and maintain a proper functioning one? A fair question, but not that easily answered.
Over the past years I have listened to many voices on either side of the argument of do away with OPD/keep OPD. When I ask why the stance on either side of the issue, with some exceptions, few can articulate their reason for why – it is just their position. Bundling that “it is just their position” with the fact that the issue is cyclic, reoccurring every three to five years, we decided that we needed to understand why it keeps reoccurring; garner enough information to look for possible options, inform the public of those options and let them decide.
That is the path Trustees Lockwood, May, Phelps and I chose to take. What are the issues people have with OPD; is there a way to solve them and if not what are the alternatives and then lay the facts before the public for their digestion and directions to the Board as to what “they, the public” are willing to accept and pay for policing of the Village.
The four of us know that this path has been walked before but there have been major changes to our Village as well. We have had two floods that are still having major impacts on our citizens as flood insurance premiums looms over them. We have lost significant tax base as houses are torn down.
For the Mayor to say that Trustees Lockwood, May, Phelps and I have been dragging our heels on hiring officers without reasons is disingenuous on his part. We have been trying to get the data we have garnered out to the public but the Mayor and followers have blocked doing so.
I believe that the taxpayers should be informed and let them make an informed decision on the issue. If it is path that has been journeyed before then so be it. Time, events and parameters can change a path’s characteristic and options at each fork so perhaps the journey is needed.
Sincerely,
Earl Hartman
Village of Owego Trustee, Ward 2
