I Wonder Why Nobody is Coming to The Zoning Meetings?

I read the reporting and commentary on JLL this morning with great interest and also with great amusement.  As many of you know Wiley at JLL has eliminated my comments on his blog.  K at Pandora’s has done so as well.  I am obviously one of those strong voices for prohibiting turbines in Cape Vincent, and those blogs really don’t want those voices heard in any great detail.   That is why I opened this blog.

So what I am going to do is comment here in regards to the post on JLL and some of the comments where Wiley and K at Pandora’s can’t run away from the debate or censor or control  my comments on the discussion.

Let’s start with this one by Wiley: 

“But for the most part other than the two town bloggers and folks from Lyme , public interest and public knowledge of the committee’s work has been very sparse”

Well no kidding Rick!!!  First the zoning committee meetings  are at a bad time of day for many people.  Second most of the seasonal people are still out of town like me and have no convenient way to attend zoning meetings.  In Wiley’s world he thinks that because he can waltz down and attend a meeting that somehow all the seasonals can too, or burden a neighbor to do it for them. 

But let’s think back…did anybody raise this concern about the work of the committee being more public and accessible so we didn’t end up with “sparse knowledge” of what was going on?.  Yup…I did exactly that back when the committee started. I wrote Mr. Hirschey and the Town Board in an open email to all of them saying that it would be nice if there could be some kind of reporting or summary from the committee after each meeting so the seasonals and the community and region could keep up with what is going on. After it was the seasonals that helped put he and his candidates in office, and it is likely that John Byrne would not have been elected without the seasonal vote and Schneider would have been close. And these guys sent out a letter asking for seasonals to remain registered and ENGAGED on the issue with input.  I didn’t think this was too much to ask.  Mr. Hirschey to his credit did get back to me.  He and the committee felt it was too burdensome for the committee to report after each meeting but would suggest to them that maybe a monthly or occasional summary might be appropriate.  In fact I think he said that was what the committee would do.  I felt that was fair…and I suggested the Town Website as an obvious place for the information to be posted. Now I think that just fried Wiley and the Hirschey supporters that that radical Pundt and Mr. Hirschey may have reached an understanding. The committee has  a secretary after all and they post other town meeting minutes monthly, so I didn’t see a problem with an occasional posting I didn’t feel it was right for the community to see the zoning for the first time at a public hearing when all the work was done.    NONE of that has happened, so we are going through some of the most important process in the history of CV and very few people, who will be directly, affected will have any concrete knowledge of what is going on.  Isn’t that wonderful and responsible!!!  But I will give the committee credit that they are going to apparently have a comment session, consider that input  THEN have a public hearing.

Now I made a point of this important issue on Wiley’s blog back then and of course what happens.  I am immediately marginalized as being too critical and demanding of the Hirschey administration, and asking too much and being too radical and unreasonable blah, blah, blah, and ultimately Wiley eliminates my comments because they don’t fall in line with the Hirschey or his agenda.  Now he seems to be bitching that not many people are attending the meeting or seem interested.  Well no kidding Rick, wake up we have little info to go on!!!

The CV blogs previously reported on nearly every detail of previous wind law committee attempts, but the mantra now is that the zoning committee and the Town Board are beyond reproach and questioning, and everything will be FINE as long as we radical NO turbine pesky meddlers just stay out of the way and let them do their work.  This idea everything is all wonderful now that we have a new govt in control actually has fostered an atmosphere were people don’t see a need to be engaged since it is now all unicorns and butterflies with our new town govt.  I think the feeling is that once you put that X on the ballot and your side wins, there is nothing else to be concerned about. 

And it is Wiley and his blog and Pandora’s blog that promote this idea.  Did it ever occur to them this might be why people are disinterested because they are by there rabid blind support of this govt actually discouraging participation?  Not to mention direct marginalization. Look at his blog.  The NO turbines stance and input is ALWAYS marginalized and he has banned people who don’t see it his or Hirschey’s way, then bitches that the participation is down.  Well DUHHH!!!!

Now there is another component, and that is input.  The zoning committee has provided a process for input. I support that…or at least I did at one time.  At a cost of $50 I sent committee nine CD  discs with two lengthy papers on how our comp plan and zoning are a viable responsible means to prohibit turbines in CV. Lot’s of research and legal case law and documentation from 7 years of studying our land use documents and the wind issue in CV.  So don’t give me this crap that the people who want turbines prohibited are hysterical NIMBY’s  who have no facts, research and science.  I will wait to see Wiley’s  two 25 or 30 page papers of research for his stance in support of the setback approach. What happened to those CD’s?  Well, when the committee received them the  were some on the committee that flat refused to even look at them, because they essentially didn’t like me, or my approach, or my beliefs.  I didn’t realize that input was based on who the committee likes and dislikes.  In fact isn’t that the way Edsall and Rienbeck used to determine who got listened to and who didn’t.  If they didn’t like you, you got cut off and marginalized.  I thought that was supposed to be stopped by our new govt????  I guess this would suggest that there is no point in me attending a comment session or public hearing if the committee has already clearly shown they don’t want my input.  Then Wiley wonders why some of us may not be engaged in the process or have “sparse” knowledge”.   This CD input story is a whole detailed story virtually no one knows about all by itself… but not for now.

The idea of prohibiting turbines in CV has not just met with measured debate, it has met with a wholesale organized blog supported marginalization effort that is just as radical in approach as anything I have ever done in my approach, and with the zoning committee outright rejection of that input it is now apparently sanctioned by an official govt committee and apparently the govt. that appointed them. .  Geee…I don’t know do you think any of them read the other CV blogs and have been influence by this marginalization scheme? 

But I do want to say a genuine thank you to committee members  Paul Docteur and Deb Suller who apparently took the discs and read them, not sure about the others at this point.  I guess you could say they showed courage in the face of this jr. high marginaliztion scheme, and despite it, showed the kind of judgment I would expect from an official govt committee that holds the stewardship of our entire region in  it's hands!

BTW I am not a hard person to reach if anyone would like to see those detailed documented  papers that were on those discs. Just ask around town.  I will happily email you the files.

So when Wiley gripes that there is sparse information and participation he need look no further that his own blog, and the Pandora blogs, or event he zoning committees  marginalization of citizens who have legitimately done a lot of hard work, and research  on this issue for a lot of years, and just happened to disagree with Hirschy Wiley zoning mantra.

 Not exactly a process that fosters that open govt we heard about before the elections.

More to come.