To the editor:

I wish to address Mr. Mundel’s recent letter to the editor. In it he talks of unity, yet he has done nothing but seek to divide the town.  He talks of having a transparent town government, yet he hasn’t even bothered to show up to participate in it until this past year or so with, first, the Special Election for the new school bonds, and then the petitioned Special Town Meeting.

When appearing before the town’s Finance Committee he could not really grasp the concepts of how municipal finance works, or for that matter, town government as a whole.  In fact there is no record of either Mahoney or Mundel participating in a town election, town meeting, or any other town government function (including boards and committees) until the vote to bond out the schools, which I have to assume they both voted against, since both own properties valued by the town in excess of  $1 million. 

They have the backing of the Westport Taxpayers Association - the same people that distribute deliberately misleading political flyers across town.  They claim that they, and only they, can “Take back the Town” if they defeat the only two life-long residents and representatives of the North End of town currently on the board.

This would leave a 5-member board with no representative for more than half of the population - those who live in North Westport.  

They speak of not participating in town government because the board and committee meetings are held in the daytime and not posted.  These claims are patently false and just a small example of how unfamiliar they are with our town’s governmental practices. 

They claim that they want to lower your taxes, but fail to mention that your taxes are already the 22nd lowest in the Commonwealth out of 331 municipalities.  How much lower do you want to sink, to the bottom of the barrel perhaps? I’m just curious. 

I could go on, but I won’t, because I think you get the point.  They are selling you a bad bill of goods, and it is clear that neither has any real experience in how municipal government and its finances actually work.

In these extremely trying times when we are bracing for huge state cutbacks and reductions in other revenues, we are going to be faced with some very hard choices.  I ask you all, do you want experienced leadership which as led you through some very hard times by fostering cooperation, unity, and transparency? Or do you want to elect people to divide our town, who don’t know how all this functions, or more importantly, how the pieces come together to move forward with a collaborative plan which involves input from all of us? 

Mr. Ouellette and I have that experience. We have weathered these storms before. I ask that you vote for us to help navigate these difficult times ahead. You know we won’t let you down.

Brian Valcourt

Westport