LETTER: Attendance Does Not Equal Experience

To the Editor,

Lisa Bergen and Cynthia Rainey proclaim their attendance record at meetings this past year as positive reason to vote for them for School Committee. That theory would reward Concord students for simply attending class.  While we’re at it, let’s give everyone a trophy. My standards are higher for both our students and elected officials.  

New people to public service need to start with the basic foundation of respect for the people they serve and the democratic process. As the CCHS Building and School Committee were diligently working to meet the requirements of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for the CCHS building project, Bergan and Rainey were writing letters attempting to halt the reinstatement of funds.

In a letter to the MSBA dated October 10, 2012, Bergen writes that the building "will not meet our educational needs" and "is not fiscally responsible," followed by the threat "avoid escalation of legal injunctions." After stating she is not an architect or an engineer, Rainey wrote on the same date (coincidence?), "The current design is wasteful, inflexible, and inefficient," and "We need to start over, either with a model school or a new design." After admitting to having no qualifications for their opinions, they attempted to derail a project overwhelmingly supported (84 percent) by their neighbors. 

As a citizen you can disagree with the majority. You can even put your personal interest in front of everyone else and single-handedly stall the majorities’ desires unnecessarily costing your town tens of thousands of dollars. Fortunately we have elected officials and a democratic process to ensure people with personal agendas are not allowed to strong-arm the system. 

Electing people who disregard the overwhelming majority is the first step toward losing your say in the process.

Paul Scalzi
121 Lee Drive