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| May 04, 2025 |
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May 22, 2011
To the Editor:
Civility: Civilized conduct; courtesy, politeness; A polite act or expression
Integrity: Firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values: incorruptibility
These definitions were obtained from Webster’s Dictionary. When Mayor Coyne ran in this past election he ran under the slogan of “civility”. There is a distinct difference in the definition of civility and integrity. Monday night at the village board meeting I was very disturbed by Mayor Coyne’s conduct to the public during public comment session. As previously discussed, Mayor Coyne interrupted Jan Smith during her public comment period, not once, but twice, and also cut her public comment short of three minutes. I do not understand how that is either civil or shows integrity.
At the second comment session I posed my own comment and question to the Board. I asked the Board why the Cornwall Local, the official newspaper, and the Village website listed the April 18, 2011 Board meeting start time as 7:30pm, when the meeting actually started at 7pm. The laws on open government require that accurate public notice be given regarding the start time of a public meeting.
When I posed my question/comment I brought two copies of the meeting announcement from the Local to the meeting, and attempted to give Mayor Coyne a copy of it for reference as I was speaking. Mayor Coyne refused to take the paper, or acknowledge the fact that I was holding it out to him.
Mayor Coyne – I do not understand how your attitude towards the public during public comment exemplifies either civility or integrity.
We currently still have many major issues in the Village. The current legal retainer is not a fixed retainer, and gives Mayor Coyne two choices – Either to allow the village to once again pay exorbitant legal fees, or limit legal counsel to 28 hrs/month, which is 32 hours LESS than typically required. It also gives no extra hours for legal counseling to our ethics board - I was wondering what is the state of the ethics board? Do we still have an active ethics board? The issues regarding both the structural integrity, and the legality of the DPW building have not yet been addressed.
Jan Smith came to the meeting with a letter containing citations to laws governing our Board. She was interrupted continually, and no answer or acknowledgement was given to the fact that our Board is acting contrary to legal requirements.
Science and engineering are governed by the concept of integrity – especially science. Scientific integrity is what makes us able to believe research that confirms the world is not flat, the earth orbits the sun, and that things like UV rays and radon are bad for us. Without it there would be no trust and belief in the laws that govern science.
I believe without integrity there can be no faith in the laws or lawmakers that govern the people. Mayor Coyne, can you run our village with integrity, and treat the residents with some sort of civility?
Melissa Vellone
Cornwall-on-Hudson
Comments:
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Here is the second public comment session. It is about 3.5 min. in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4eLqIWf_rk
Also it is May 16 meeting #4 on ArgenioAndrew Channel on YouTube
posted by Andrew Argenio on 05/25/11 at 7:37 AM
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