Diligence required for board members

Editor:

I would like to comment on what was described by Zach (Saratoga Sun reporter Zachary Laux) as a controversy on the Planning Commission. The alleged controversy is directed towards a single member of the Commission and not the Commission as a whole. It has been questioned as to if Bev Hempel had been officially re-appointed by the council to the Planning Commission. We are researching the minutes so we can get a correct answer to the question.

If we find that we haven’t reappointed her, then the Mayor’s re-appointment of her can be ratified by the council. While researching this issue we found that there were other boards that have members whose terms have expired that we will need to address as well. The fact that a member of one board was singled out when there were other positions that had expired is nothing more than a personal attack on that individual.

It is sad that those individuals that contacted the paper on this issue didn’t have the courtesy to go first before the Planning Commission or Council, or merely come to the town hall to check on their concerns. Their goal was to make this a “controversy”, which it is not, but it has to be a reminder to all of the boards and commissions and those volunteers that sit on them that we need to be more diligent when board members terms expire.

Mayor John Zeiger

Saratoga

Editor’s note: While the Saratoga Sun does not usually comment on letters to the editor we would like to clarify the situation. The letter was written in response to questions asked of Mayor John Zeiger after discovering Bev Hempel’s term, not Rod Weinman’s term had expired.

The Sun was led to research this issue because of information on the town’s website.