Thursday, January 17, 2013

Town of Cheshire advocates gun control

Earlier this week, a state wide organization named the CT Conference of Municipalities (CCM) voted to endorse their view of gun legislation.  You can see the 13 measures by clicking here.

Cheshire is a member of CCM. And IIRC, the town pays around $10,000 to $20,000 annually to be a member of CCM.  So you may wonder if CCM is worth the cost to the taxpayers?

Well, there certainly is some value IMO.  For example, when I was on the Council I used them several times for aggregation of data on municipalities for comparison purposes. One instance that comes to mind relates to my investigation of the use of Defined Benefits vs. Defined Contributions Pension Plans by municipalities.

Anyway, the MRJ is reporting that there was overwhelming support for CCMs proposed legislation. Among those in favor of the bill was the Cheshire representative to CCM, Town Manager Michael Milone.

As the MRJ reports:

Cheshire Town Manager Michael Milone was among the CCM members who voted in favor of the gun control measures. “I think that they were very reasonable,” he said.

My question for the Council:

Did you publicly, or privately, either individually or collectively, direct the TM to advocate for this?

I'm pretty sure that the Council has not deliberated gun control.  It's really a state issue.  Hence, CCM is advocating for state legislation.

However, if five (or more) Council members individually contacted the TM, then I can understand why the TM voted as he did.  But if that's the case, I feel those Council members should share those views with the public.  And if there were not at least five Council members who encouraged the TM in this manner, then there's an entirely different issue that should be addressed.

Tim White

1 comment:

CT Curmudgeon said...

A serious error on his part, he should publically retract to amend his mistake. TC should address this. A government employee that thinks he governs, rather than serves the citizens, is not good in either in DC, Hartford or in town hall.