We need full participation of our town council. Over the past three or four, crony partisanship has been the order of the day. Three projects come to mind.

1. The MorningStar project. The mayor designated herself, Cecil Yates and Dennis Brown to oversee the project. There were many problems with the inspections and the builder, Bart Shea,

sued the town. This suit was later dismissed.

2. The Park Place project. The mayor again appointed herself, Cecil Yates and Dennis Brown to negotiate the master Development Agreement, again, with Bart Shea. Impact fees were supposed to be paid prior to the start of construction. These fees were not paid, totaling some $400,000. At that point, with the permits in hand, Bart Shea stated that he did not owe the fees. The town fought to collect the fees and finally collected, not before Bart Shea sued the town once again.

3. The lagoon project. The mayor informally appointed a committee (herself, Cecil Yates and Art Tolis), to do a study on the town lake. This morphed into a committee to promote the lagoon proposal. Most of us know what a fiasco that was.

What is the common element in all these projects? The same four town councilmembers made questionable decisions in three major developments over the last three or four years.

It is time to ask, should control of town council be expanded beyond the closed loop of the real estate developers and financiers? Are those council members who have been excluded from the process ready for the challenge?

I call for all town council members to be totally involved and to be kept in the loop in these and other important issues affecting our town.