LETTER: Give Lynda Walsh a 'Voice at the Selectmen's Table'

Dear Editor,

This past Saturday I attended an event at American Legion Post #93 and was seated at a table that included selectman candidate Lynda Walsh and others.

The event was a meat raffle that provides funds allowing the Legion to continue its support of many programs and charities around Foxboro.

During the event somebody asked Lynda, “Why would you want to run for selectman?”

Her answer was short and to the point.

“Because I love this town and I want a voice at that table.”

This told me all I needed to know to finalize my decision as to who would have the interest of the town and its voters above all else.

The Wikipedia definition of selectman is “the function of the board of selectmen differs from state to state, and can differ within a given state depending on the type of governance under which a town operates. Selectman is almost always a part-time position that pays only a token or no salary. It is the chief executive branch of local government in the open town meeting form of government.

"The basic function consists of calling town meetings, proposing budgets to Town Meeting, setting public policy, calling elections, licensing, appointing and supervising department heads and employees, setting certain fees, overseeing certain volunteer and appointed bodies, and creating basic regulations.

"In larger towns, the selectmen's daily administrative duties are delegated to a full-time town administrator or town manager. In some towns, the board of selectmen acts more like a city council, but retains the historic name.”

There was more but as I looked it over I found nothing that says selectmen are anything more than the executive branch of the town government with the town meeting being the legislative branch. I found nowhere that the selectmen have the authority to decide what the voters can or cannot have a say in.

Two selectmen were elected last year while singing a one-note song on one issue backed by an exceptionally loud faction who decided that the voters shouldn’t have the ability to decide an issue that would have affected every person in town.

This cost the town one of the most qualified and professional selectman that it ever had to people singing a one-note song. However, the voters made their choice and that is how it should be. It should not have been that people using the democratic process to prevent the legislative process from being able to decide an issue.

Well, the one-note song seems to have become a broken record. Certain voices that rode the wave of the one-note song now find themselves in calm water and are trying to roil the waters as some sort of a smoke screen.

The voters of this town owe it to themselves and all other voters to have their voices and votes heard.

“I love this town and want a voice at that table!” said Lynda Walsh on March 24, 2013.

This says it all!

Sincerely,

Mike Stewart
Neponset Heights Ave., Foxborough