This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Budget Vote Communication

Stonington Budget vote reminders sent by someone

 

Over the past few budget cycles the Stonington School System has sent out polite email reminders to individuals about pending budget referendums.  The most recent email was delivered on Monday, May 7, 2012 at 9:55 a.m.  I received two other emails, one on April 26 and the other on May 1.  Three emails in 12 days.  It should be noted that the budget referendum is today, May 8.

The full text of the most recent email is as follows: 

Find out what's happening in Stonington-Mysticwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Please check to be sure that your personal calendar reads, "REMEMBER TO VOTE" in big letters on Tuesday, May 8th, between 6 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.

EVERY VOTE COUNTS.


Residents of the First (Stonington) and Third (Deans Mill) districts vote at the Stonington Firehouse in the Borough.

Residents of the Second (Pawcatuck) district vote at the Pawcatuck firehouse on Liberty Street.

Residents of the Fourth (Mystic) and Fifth (Old Mystic) districts vote at the Hoxie firehouse in downtown Mystic.”

In the email sent on April 26 which was titled “A message from the Superintendent” included an attachment that had the following message:

Find out what's happening in Stonington-Mysticwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Budget Vote

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

 

A “Yes” vote implies that the proposed budget should remain as is and no further cuts should be made.

A “No” vote implies that more cuts should be made, including additional cuts to the education budget.
----

What concerns me about these emails, are as follows:

Who authorized these email to be sent?  There is no signature line on this email, thus it has no ownership.  Did the Board of Education, the Superintendent, or a rouge employee send this?

As this email is being sent from the Town email server, a Town employee must have drafted the email and then hit send, is this the best use of that person’s time as a Town Employee and also, as a Town employee aren’t they asking you to vote for their paycheck?

What about those individuals that are not on this distribution list, how are they reminded about the vote? 

While I’m not opposed to being informed about the vote, what I am concerned about is that not all of the voters in the Town are afforded the same courtesy of being reminded to vote.  I did not get a vote reminder from the , the , the , or even the Finance Committee. 

Bethel Connecticut resident Billy Michael successfully introduced a Town ordinance about the communication on budget referendums; I think we should take his queue and adopt a similar measure here in Stonington so that the email correspondence encompasses all residents of the Town, not just those on the school email list.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?