Shared with permission of the author, Thomas O. McGill. This commentary appeared on Eye on Edgewood in response to a letter to the editor of the local newspaper from Glenn Felton (follows Tom’s response).
P&Z commissioner Chair, and private citizen Glenn Felton wrote in a letter to the editor of the local newspaper that he felt that at-large voting is unfair.
Do you know what I think is unfair? How about the Acting Mayor and the Chair of planning and zoning and the Vice Chair of planning and zoning and four out of five planning and zoning commissioners all coming from district one?
How about most everyone else in high position in the Town Office coming from Bernalillo? Does that meet your definition of fairness private citizen Glenn Felton? Is that fair to districts 2, 3, 4, and 5?
How about most everyone else in high position in the Town Office coming from Bernalillo? Does that meet your definition of fairness private citizen Glenn Felton? Is that fair to districts 2, 3, 4, and 5?
Is it fair that planning and zoning make and interpret the rules for everyone when they don’t represent everyone? Is it fair that the Chair and Vice Chair of P&Z are so openly biased in favor of their own district that they feel they won’t be represented well by voters town wide?
Given that they feel that way, shouldn’t the rest of the town suspect they won’t be treated fairly by P&Z in turn? Shouldn’t we be concerned that they will go after our water company and protect their own? And then expect the ratepayers in the other districts to pay for all of it?
Why wouldn’t we expect they would locate a nuisance waste water collection system in our neighborhoods and protect their own? And then write the resolution so that the other districts pay for all of it?
Why wouldn’t their road be at the top of the paving list along with their political affiliates?
Why wouldn’t their road be at the top of the paving list along with their political affiliates?
Does that seem fair to you, private citizen Glenn Felton?
Does it seem fair that a commission that requires scrupulous equal treatment, beyond reproach, contain a Chair and Vice Chair and a former Secretary who are openly political activists that run a false, down-low propaganda Facebook page for a discredited former Mayor? That, as a group with the Town Clerk, and Acting Mayor, act as junior insurrectionists that defy judicial orders to meet with, defer to, support, and otherwise pretend that the former Mayor hasn’t been removed from his position? Is that fair to the community? Does that advance community interests? NO.
Aren’t you, in fact the vocal minority and the special interest?
You knew perfectly well when you collectively fought against the citizens of Edgewood in the special election, that voting by district would be unpopular. You revealed that by dishonestly warning the voters that if they voted Commissioner/Manager they would lose their right to vote, because they would have to vote by district. You were lying then. You are misleading, now.
You wrote that the proponents of the different form of government were a minority. You were wrong then, too. Your neighbors didn’t believe you then, I don’t think they believe you now.
If you are afraid that the Town as a whole will not support your cabal of self-serving elitists, then stop insulting your neighbors, private citizen Glenn Felton. Go back to your work, abandon the insurrection, start performing as you should as a fair, non-partisan, who is worthy of trust.
Thomas O. McGill
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8-6-2021 Letter to the Editor:
At-large voting is unjust
After listening to the recording of the July 23
Edgewood Council Meeting, I want to go on record
objecting to the opinion expressed repeatedly by
Councilors Audrey Jaramillo and Sherry Abraham and
various members of the public that voting at-large for all
five Commission seats is “the will of the people.” It is, in
fact, the will of a very vocal subset of the people of
Edgewood, many of them CORE organizers and supporters.
I fail to understand how citizens of Districts 2, 3, 4 or
5 having a voice in who represents me in District 1 can
be considered just. Don’t mistake the absence of vocal
feedback on the part of the silent majority of
Edgewood’s citizens, some of them discouraged by the
many months of deadlock that has gripped Council
since 2018, as tacit agreement with at-large voting. With
respect to citizen claims that voting by District is “voter
suppression,” everyone in Edgewood who votes for a
school board member votes by District without raising
any such complaint. They would probably object vehemently
if their representation were instead determined
by those living miles away who have different concerns
than their own. Please also remember that authority to
run municipal elections is given to the County Clerk’s
and Secretary of State’s offices, which would seem to
render Councilor Abraham’s resolution for at-large voting
moot out of the gate. Finally, Council should recognize in
all of this that what is ethical is often different
from what you may be able to argue is legally feasible.
While Councilor Jaramillo announcing her candidacy
and soliciting campaign supporters from the dais does
not rise to the level of electioneering in New Mexico (it
does in several other states), it is certainly poor form
and poor judgment. I hope we can let the process of
governmental change unfold naturally, as development of
the Town did after 1999, and not force this issue for
individual ends and those of special interests. Just as
Councilor Jaramillo, Councilor Abraham and their
family members asserted in signing the CORE petition
that led to a referendum which changed our governmental
model, these opinions are my own, expressed as
a private citizen.
Glenn Felton
Edgewood
After listening to the recording of the July 23
Edgewood Council Meeting, I want to go on record
objecting to the opinion expressed repeatedly by
Councilors Audrey Jaramillo and Sherry Abraham and
various members of the public that voting at-large for all
five Commission seats is “the will of the people.” It is, in
fact, the will of a very vocal subset of the people of
Edgewood, many of them CORE organizers and supporters.
I fail to understand how citizens of Districts 2, 3, 4 or
5 having a voice in who represents me in District 1 can
be considered just. Don’t mistake the absence of vocal
feedback on the part of the silent majority of
Edgewood’s citizens, some of them discouraged by the
many months of deadlock that has gripped Council
since 2018, as tacit agreement with at-large voting. With
respect to citizen claims that voting by District is “voter
suppression,” everyone in Edgewood who votes for a
school board member votes by District without raising
any such complaint. They would probably object vehemently
if their representation were instead determined
by those living miles away who have different concerns
than their own. Please also remember that authority to
run municipal elections is given to the County Clerk’s
and Secretary of State’s offices, which would seem to
render Councilor Abraham’s resolution for at-large voting
moot out of the gate. Finally, Council should recognize in
all of this that what is ethical is often different
from what you may be able to argue is legally feasible.
While Councilor Jaramillo announcing her candidacy
and soliciting campaign supporters from the dais does
not rise to the level of electioneering in New Mexico (it
does in several other states), it is certainly poor form
and poor judgment. I hope we can let the process of
governmental change unfold naturally, as development of
the Town did after 1999, and not force this issue for
individual ends and those of special interests. Just as
Councilor Jaramillo, Councilor Abraham and their
family members asserted in signing the CORE petition
that led to a referendum which changed our governmental
model, these opinions are my own, expressed as
a private citizen.
Glenn Felton
Edgewood
