I resigned because I am worn out and dread coming to work. Assembly meetings are painful and I don’t want to do it anymore.
I did not quit over “a decision to vacate a permit for gravel storage on Lutak Road”. No disrespect to Southeast Road Builders but I don’t care about their permit. What I care about is the process to get to the decision — code must be equally applied and permitting must be predictable.
I did not say “to move to a different design (for Lutak Dock) was offensive.” What I said is staff has worked on this project for many, many years and we finally got an infusion of outside money to fix it — walking away from the money and shifting the financial burden for repairing the dock onto residents would be offensive.
The executive session comment was simply a recent example of feeling disrespected as staff and the assembly not adhering to the Open Meetings Act (OMA).
While I would like to place all blame on the CVN, my choice of words “back door dealings” was absolutely the wrong term. That was my mistake. I never meant to allege any quid pro quo.
Most assembly members and planning commissioners work hard, are well-intentioned and try to follow the rules. I hope that in the future they embrace the OMA rather than try to find loopholes to it; follow process and respect the code (or change it if needed); and treat staff with respect (Tom – stop yelling!).
Alekka Fullerton – Borough Clerk