At the RSU 9 budget meeting in Farmington Wednesday night, School Board member Nancy Porter passed a beautifully hand-written note to two women sitting in the front row asking them to hold their questions on the proposed budget until after the first two articles were presented.
This was a district-wide budget vote on $32 million in school spending.
And two voters were asked to hold their tongues.
Why? Because they have a considerable habit of asking too many questions.
But that’s what these annual budget meetings are for, so the public can get answers to their very many questions.
If someone asks too many, can that be annoying? Sure.
The meeting went on for about three hours, and any longer could have been exhausting.
But, so what?
We all have a constitutional right to confront government and a right to speak freely.
After learning of Porter’s request to quiet voters, Elaine Graham and Cheryl Best, Board Chairwoman Jennifer Zweig Hebert quickly distanced the board from Porter’s action, saying the note was done without the knowledge of the rest of the board or of administration. “It should not be considered an action of the board, but rather one of a private individual.”
We agree that it was not an action of the board, but in this context Porter was definitely not a private individual. She was appointed to the board to represent Farmington voters and she was attending the meeting in that capacity.
Her actions were those of a public official and they were absolutely wrong.
The articles the two women were prevented from questioning were for regular instruction for all grades and for special education, including psychological and speech therapy services, administration and home/hospital instruction. The total of the combined articles was close to $15 million, or about 45 percent of the entire district budget.
And it wasn’t as if the spending was a cakewalk for voter approval. The budget was heavily discussed.
During debate on the first article, for $10,253,395 for regular instruction costs, there was a move to reduce that spending to $10.2 million, cutting out about $134,000.
Voters ultimately rejected the motion for the lower amount by a vote of 158-111, and then approved the original warrant article.
While all others were permitted to speak to this budget line, Graham and Best were not.
Same on the article to spend $4.7 million on special education, which was approved as proposed, passing 162-99.
They were allowed by Porter to speak on the remaining articles for technical and adult education, general administration, transportation, maintenance and debt service. These are important elements of the school budget, but the two off-limit topics covered the two top spending categories.
So, OK to weigh in on what building maintenance may cost, but not on the cost for instruction going on in classrooms.
It’s worth noting that Porter opposes the budget as presented, as do Graham and Best. They’re all on the same side.
On Friday afternoon, Porter sent Sun Journal Staff Writer Donna Perry a fiery email over the newspaper’s report about Porter’s written request to silence Graham and Best.
In that message she noted that she’d received emails and messages on Facebook from people who “tell me I should have told those two to shut up completely.”
Really?
Would those people want to be told the same thing? Or might they have questions they need answered.
“People have sat thru meeting after meeting when these two have monopolized the questions, and folks who attend are frankly sick of Elaine and her crap,” Porter wrote.
That is probably true. Elaine Graham is a very persistent woman and has annoyed more than her share.
She is also a person entitled to the constitutional protection of free speech without interference from government — in this case, in the form of School Board member Nancy Porter.
In her note to our reporter, Porter sarcastically thanked the newspaper for bringing her actions to people’s attention. “And remember,” she wrote, “don’t mess with old people. I’m one of them.”
Elaine Graham is one of them, too.
She’s also a voter and a taxpayer and entitled to ask questions about how government intends to spend her pennies.
In this situation, silence was not golden. It was rotten.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com
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