At a recent meeting, the Mexico selectmen, acting on advice from the town manager, voted to take money from the Sewer Department and put it in the administration account so the office staff could get a three-percent raise.
That is not what the people voted for. They said “no” to that administration article twice and that meant the money budgeted would go back to last year’s figures, with no raises for administration, according to Mexico’s ordinance.
Not listening to the people who voted “no” is wrong on the part of the selectmen.
When confronted with how they were supposed to represent the people, the answer was “we are the people.” Two agree they are part of the townspeople but we taxpayers pay them to represent us. If that is a problem for them, they should resign.
It seemed like a very self-serving idea for the town manager to suggest to selectmen to take the money to give the raises to administration, especially since he is part of administration and he was going into executive session right after that meeting to discuss his salary and contract.
As to the Planning Board refusing to make an ordinance, as requested by Dr. Aniel to give the voters recall rights, they said there was no need for recall rights because there is no problem between boards.
The problem is not between boards; it is between the board of selectmen and the people. They do not honor the results of the voting.
Marjorie Richard, Mexico
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