Shelby board makes perplexing decisions, pushes out dissenting voices

Editor:

For some time, I as well as many others have viewed the Shelby Town Board as the “good old boys” network, where public input and transparency are minimized. While 50% of the population is female, there has not been a woman board member in 30 years.

Half the village of Medina is in the Shelby township, yet not one of the current board members lives in the village. This situation hardly represents the general population.

Actions by this board, over the last several years, have resulted in: voting to join the STAMP wastewater pipeline and now filing a court motion to oppose it; book keeping questions; proposed 630-foot windmills and now harassment allegations. The windmills involved potential financial gain for the previous supervisor and the STAMP wastewater pipeline provided immediate pay out to his sisters. These are not histrionics but real contentious issues that demand our attention.

So how did we get here.

Given that Republican voter registration in Orleans County is over 2 times that of all others, it is not surprising that it is exceedingly rare for non-Republicans to get elected. This alone is not a problem, but the process by which candidates are appointed or selected tends to continue the “good old boy” board makeup.

Councilman John Pratt is a classic example of a system that rewards a do not rock the boat mentality and punishes those that dare to speak up. John was a member of the Republican committee that selects candidates and appoints individuals to the board to fill vacancies.

In 2019 John was appointed to the Shelby board to fill a vacancy. Later he resigned from the committee, something he was not required to do. Recently he has suggested an addition to the proposed ethics policy that any board member or employee of the town should not also be on this committee. The town of Ridgeway has such a rule.

Of course, this idea is opposed by those who would be impacted, losing the power to choose who they work with and who represents you. As you can see from John’s recent letter to the editor, he has rocked the boat and subsequently that same Republican committee decided not to endorse him as a candidate. These actions are by an unelected committee that decides who serves and who does not.

The residents of Shelby now have the opportunity to vote for change.

Let us put Linda Limina on the board, the first woman in 30 years.

Write in a vote for John Pratt, he is still a Republican just not committee endorsed.

Vote for Bill Wolter, the hardest working individual I have ever met. (As an aside, his opponent Dale Root sits on this Republican committee.)

Get out and vote, do not line vote, but look and choose those individuals you believe will do the best job. Attend the meetings either in person, view it live streaming on-line or recorded on YouTube.

James Heminway

Medina