We have got to lose this Voter Guide

Cost for three selectmen to brainstorm and come up with ideas for a Lebanon Voter Guide 2013: about 50 bucks.

Cost for having Selectman Jason Cole ghost-write Selectmen Chairman Bob Frizzell’s “Achievement Letter” in which he heaps praise on a beleaguered Lebanon Rescue Department led by Assistant Rescue Chief Jason Cole: about 12 bucks.

Cost to have Selectman Cole put together an eight-page pdf file in a ready-to-print format for the printer: about $100.

Cost to have mailers printed up for about 3,000 Lebanon households and PO Boxes: about $1,500.

Cost to have them mailed out to 3,000 Lebanon households and PO Boxes: about $600.

Getting your list of “achievements” and a marvelously gilded state of the town address out in front of the vast majority of Lebanites who don’t have the time or inclination to follow town politics: for Chairman Bob, priceless.

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in on a Selectmen’s Workshop one afternoon and asked Chairman Bob if he was going to buy some political signs to put around town like the rest of the candidates.

No, he chuckled, he didn’t bother with ‘em.

Now I understand why.

Why would you bother to waste your money on signs when you can waste taxpayer money on a mailing a week before the election that touts a town where everything is wonderful in “Whoville.”

Pray tell, Chairman Bob, why nothing in the letter about the Rescue probe that took five months, cost the town thousands of dollars yet produced not one shred of documentation refuting the claims of five Rescue volunteers whose affidavits sparked the probe?

How come nothing about the fact that from May to November you never attended a regularly scheduled Tuesday night selectman’s meeting? When I asked you why, you said you had a lot of other commitments, that you are a very busy man.

And how come there was no mention of the bitterly contentious arguments with the Budget Committee over sloppy selectmen’s payroll submissions.

Not to mention the huge problems the town had this year with Facebook feuding between town departments, conforming to Right to Know requests, being chastised by a Maine Assistant Attorney General for Freedom of Access violations regarding late postings of meetings and well, we could go on and on.

But none of that is in the letter, which is signed by only Chairman (Candidate) Bob.

No, everything’s peachy keen in Whoville.

I’ll bet the Budget Committee would’ve loved to have been able to produce its own Voter Guide, considering they voted against both the Old Town Hall renovations and Code Red.

But then again, as they say in another credit card ad, membership has its privileges.

Only thing is, he’s getting the privileges. We’re paying the bill.     - HT