Generally I do not respond to letters to the editor, but in this case, since I was called out by name, I feel that some clarification is in order.

Last week’s letter from former council candidate Marcus Bulow von Dennewitz referred to my remarks made at the end of a council session (Oct. 16, 2108) regarding the town’s audit report. The following is what I said, verbatim:

“There was a lot of controversy during the recent campaign and a lot of people saying our finances were out of control, we didn’t know what we were doing, etc. The four years I have had the privilege of serving on the Town Council we’ve gotten clean audit reports. We’ve won awards.”

To this, Mr. von Dennewitz wrote, “[Magazine’s] comments infer citizens who opposed the property tax were unnecessarily controversial. [Magazine’s] commentary seizes the report to infer all past council decisions were correct and prudent.”

Huh? I meant no such thing!

My comments were nothing more than applause to the Town staff for excellent management of the Town’s accounting practices. This commendation had nothing to do whatsoever with past council spending decisions, an entirely separate issue.

And, “unnecessarily controversial.” I’m not even sure what this means. How can anyone say that the tax was not controversial? Did he see the nasty emails I received? Was he not at the candidate forums where the discussion, at times, became very heated? But honestly, that’s called democracy!

Further, Mr. von Denniwitz says, “It was disheartening to hear Mr. Magazine’s comments. Did he mean to cast doubt on me personally and the other candidates…?” What? Why Mr. von Dennewitz thought I was referring to him or any other candidate is, frankly, beyond me. Read the transcript.

I hope this corrects his misunderstanding.