Monday, March 7, 2011

To the citizens and voters of Winchester

This letter was submitted to the Sentinel and hadn't been published as of yesterday so we thought we'd put it up for the public to read before the election tomorrow:


Tomorrow we go to the polls and by casting our ballots, we choose the direction Winchester takes for the next year or more. As everyone knows, these are tough times for many of us, more so than in the past and our choices of candidates and spending issues will decide whether our town moves forward in a positive direction for the good of all; or whether it remains more of the same and Winchester continues to be a stagnant, sleepy little town, controlled by a few who bask in misinformation and under a veil of secrecy..

This year, more so than in the past an effort has been made to put into process changes that affect the way we as citizens can obtain information from the town; from what transpired at meetings, issues of spending and basically every town function that we as citizens have the right to know and question. Our new town Administrator has ,with the help of the Board of Selectmen, implemented many changes that prevent the free flow of information we once had when Bob Gray cheerily greeted us from behind the window of his office and asked if there was something he could help us with. Now, behind drawn blinds secrecy rules and service is next to non existent. New policy dictates how and who controls public information and when and if you'll receive it sometime in the future. There is really something wrong with people in public office who refuse to have any public contact and who spend countless hours of time changing policies to effectively hide public information from citizens. This is just so wrong !

There's an old saying that comes to mind; "You can always tell who is telling the truth, a liar will eventually change the story they tell, while the truthful person only has one story to tell, the truth."  How many times have you heard numerous versions regarding what happened coming out of Town Hall?

I'm running for Selectman and need your votes to overturn these unjust and unfair policies and to implement the open door policies we had in place when Bob was here. As a former Marine, honesty, integrity and a sense of pride are deeply instilled in me and I am a fierce fighter when it comes to defending the public's right to know, the word quit is not in my vocabulary. I promise to work diligently for you, to carry out my duties fairly and justly and to at all times have the best interests of the citizens of Winchester as the driving force in all of the decisions I make. I will make myself accessible to everyone and provide answers to every question asked and work with you to solve problems and help those that need it, to never turn my back to anyone who seeks me out and to listen with an open mind.

A wise man once said, " The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. "

If you do nothing else tomorrow, please join me at the polls and cast your votes. The future of Winchester and yours depend on it.  Don't let someone else make those choices for you.

Mike Towne

15 comments:

You have my vote said...

Page 11 of the town report states in the last sentence, Our door is always, i assume they meant to say OPEN, as we strive to provide excellent " customer service". That's BS when the town hall is open 3 and 4 days a week the the Town Administrator has the windows blocked.

Anonymous said...

What kind of customer service requires the blinds being drawn shut?
This is nothing more than a message top all of us -- "Don't bother me with your issues, go away"

Some service Mrs. Morel

Anonymous said...

http://winchesternhcorruption.blogspot.com/2011/03/more-lies-from-our-unprofessional-and.html

An interesting and in depth look at just exactly what is being discussed here.

Secrecy, stories changing and a seemingly veil of protection from having to disclose the truth and a wildly misunderstood definition of transparency.

Great and honest minds must think alike.

page 12 town report said...

Our new Town Administrator felt the need to remind us that we have hard working and professional employees. I would think that, late to work, extended lunch, come and go as you please and leave early employees are not what I would call professional. We also have employees who are hardworking and professional, so why should a few get away with this behavior. Open the blinds Mrs. Morel, and take a good look.

Anonymous said...

Before people get their panties in a bunch –

I can see the town workers now – you’re picking on us.

Let’s make sure people understand the difference between a smear campaign and bringing the truth and facts to the people.

Bringing the truth and facts to people, allows them to make informed decisions.

A smear campaign is when the facts are distorted or outright lies are told, in an attempt to confuse, muddy or negate the facts.

The best thing that has happened to this town is the people who are trying to get us the facts.

They have helped expose the fact that there is no Open Door in Winchester – ANYWHERE NEAR TOWN OFFICES

So someone is fibbing to us.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the reason the Sentinel did not publish the letter is the poor grammar and sentence structure. We need leaders that can at least compose meaningful prose. Sorry Mike.. you ain't gonna get my vote. The Pas Man is my guy.

Pee Wee Herrmann

got my vote too said...

Look who's talking about poor grammar and sentence structure .. ain't? Don't let this malcontent bother you Mr. Towne, you have my vote and I know you'll get many more. Would be nice to see a fresh honest face on the board for a change.

Anonymous said...

The more I see of you the more I like what I see. Never thought I would say it but you have my vote.
And yes......the New Town Administrative person is one of the rudest people I have met in my life. She should be fired. I have been ignored, spoken rudely to and shown total lack of respect. She makes you feel like you are doing something horrible to expect her to even speak to you. I dearly miss Bob and when Roberta was in there and there was a desire to be helpful and respectful.

Anonymous said...

People aren’t fooled by the new administrator. And when we get to see emails letting us know exactly how she comes across when reading her comments, well … lets just say she appears as caustic and unprofessional on paper as she does in person. Thanks to the link to the other blog posted by Anonymous @ 1:07. Another blog with factual information and not just made up dribble like we get from Joanie and her gang.

To Anonymous @ 6:54, if you have any clue about what’s going on in our town, with the boards and departments, paid with taxpayer $$$ and employees paid with taxpayer $$$$, going out of their way to snuff out the truth and keep it from us and the best thing that you can come up with, as a negative for someone running for office, Mike Towne specifically, is that his grammar isn’t up to par because he didn’t use "ain’t and gonna" when he wrote that letter you are criticizing as being grammatically incorrect, speaks volumes in a positive way about what you think of his character as he mentioned that in his letter.

You didn’t attack his character, did you?

You must agree then that he has integrity, ethics and that he is honest. If that were not true you would have attacked his character and not that he didn’t write a letter containing ain’t and gonna.

Seems to me integrity, ethics and honesty are far more important qualities when it comes to running the towns business.

Good luck Mike, you have our vote.

History Buff said...

To Pee Wee Herman -

Have fun hanging out at the theatre with the Pas Man! Should be explosive fun...

Anonymous said...

Good luck Mike, you have my vote. I see some of your political signs have been taken again. Why don't these people stop with the nonsense and leave things alone, shame on them.

Mike Towne said...

To all of you who turned out to vote and to those of you who cast their votes for me, thank you for taking part in this year's town election process, it's a shame that the majority of registered voters didn't care enough to come out.
Congratulations goes out to the candidates who were elected.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Mike for running for office!

It was a lot like buying a lottery ticket - it gave us an opportunity to "dream" about a better future by casting a vote for you. Only to find out someone else had the winning numbers.

Keep up the good work you have managed on the sidelines.

Anonymous said...

Yeh keep up the good work wasting our hard earned tax dollars defending your stupid lawsuits that get thrown out.

At least Mike isn't complaining about his missing signs as the reason for his poor showing. Blame the voters for not showing up...?? My how to win friends and influence people!!! The message I get is: "you people are stupid not to even show up and vote for me..." I showed up along with the majority and we voted for the future of our town.. without you and the gang of doom.

Winchester Tax Payer

Scratching my head said...

How is less than 10% of the voting population the "majority"? what a moron! You're math and logic aren't working...