The information mailers sent by all legislators, including state Sen. Tony Guglielmo, operate under strict guidelines established by the Committee on Legislative Management. These guidelines establish restrictions on content, timing, frequency, and cost of all such mailers. The guidelines are reviewed yearly by the committee and adopted by the General Assembly and the governor in the yearly budget. The process is transparent and visible because legislators cannot make up their own arbitrary rules.

The McCoy mailer is a “do as I please” mailer with no guidelines or policy established by the council as to content, timing, frequency, or cost. The process is not transparent and visible, as the mayor chose to make his own arbitrary rules without discussion or policy approval from the Town Council.

Like the legislature, if McCoy wants mailing privileges, the process should be transparent, with proper guidelines established through the Town Council, which has policy and fiscal authority. He should use a process that is open and transparent, similar to the one that was adopted in Coventry, for example, where that town’s Town Council, through its policymaking authority, approved a joint newsletter to come from the council and mayor.

Vale is totally wrong that the mayor was under no obligation to inform or consult the council on this issue. There is a policy and fiscal decision involved with such mailers that clearly belongs to the council, not the mayor. As a former member of the Town Council, Vale should know better than to advocate disregard for the duties bestowed to the council by the people that elected them to office.

With the help of many of the Republicans on the council, McCoy continues to abuse his power and make a mockery of our local government process at the expense of the people who put him in office. Hooray for Marie Herbst and the Democrats for taking them all to task.

Amarjit Buttar

Vernon