Notes on Being Supervisor

So how does one describe four years of being Supervisor in the Town of Milan? 'Interesting' is the word I use the most, and after that, 'good', 'worthwhile', 'tense.'

The interesting part is clearly all that comes across your desk during your time in office. Finance, zoning, laws, people, buildings, employees, press, hundreds of outside organization vying for your attention. Lots to do, lots to think about, lots to work on.

Good in the sense that I enjoyed the time well enough and certainly thought it was the right thing to do. So, from a personal standpoint, I am certainly glad to have done what I consider my civic duty.

And worthwhile, because I think we brought new discussion to the town. I think the work we did on the Comprehensive Plan and the ensuing community dialogue were definitely to the benefit of the town. The development issues are certainly not over.

And tense? Would you enjoy having people around who are regularly trying to throw mud or other disruptions at you? Of course, there is a tension to being in politics. There is tension wherever there are groups of people working together. This arena is special, however, in that it is in public, and there are people who are actively working to bring you down.

Overall: It was a good run and there is a part of me that wishes the circumstances in my life might have allowed me to continue. Of course, the people of Milan would have had their say.

Community Dialogue on Development Issues

This is the heart of the matter for me. We are a community that is beautiful, natural, moderately empty and close enough to NYC. It has great appeal. Fortunately, there are many places that fit this description, so we are not inundated with housing projects.

But here is the point: The expansion of the population and therefore housing is an ongoing process in our society and it will not stop in the near future. The only thing that will cause a halt to the process is some catastrophic incident that seriously disrupts life as we know it. However, we have to assume that such event is centuries away and therefore on we go. Development happens. (See the sidebar for more on this.)

Recently, I made the statement in public that the essence of my local outlook (my view of what Milan should do) is "Fight Development.".Now this sounds a bit "anti-growth," so it needs explanation.

The key here is that "fight" doesn't mean block all development. It means take an interest, pay attention, get ahead of the game, develop a good tool chest, and get ready to deal with developers.

It is very simple: Developers are in this for the money. They are, in effect, mining Milan and exploiting its valuable features (I call them treasures) for the purpose of making money. Note, however, that this is normal and the way our society works. The profit motive drives business because a business must pay for itself. The money incentive works.

So there are several points to be made in considering what it means to take on development:

    Given #1:
       Development pressure is a given and will not go away.
    Given #2:
       Development does add to economic growth.
    However:
       Economic growth, which is the true objective, does  not have mean development. It can be in non-housing     businesses (think software).
    Given #3: 
       "Development" is a very general term. There is, of course, good development and bad development.

In time, these points need expansion, but for now, Milan has to consider that development of housing and, to certain extent, business is the major force affecting the overall community. Therefore, the town has to pay attention, otherwise, it will assuredly get "junked up."

I think this was the message we brought to the public in Milan. Our Comprehensive Plan was a first pass at setting the goals of the community and the tools that might help us deal with development in the future.

So let me reiterate: Fight means work with developers so that they understand and conform to the wishes of the community, so that the town is not overdeveloped by people who do not live here and are simply doing business to make money.

As a point of my political outlook: I very much think that those who live here should have the say about what direction the community goes. Their voice should carry more weight than others.

And I believe that the community has said a lot and out loud about these matters in a way that respectful of all opinions.

This dialogue was part of my (and others) contribution to the Town of Milan.

 But Wait a Minute: We Lost the Election

What this may say is that maybe we didn't the make the right choices about how to implement the plan. This may say that we forgot other issues, or we didn't do as good a job at managing things as we thought.  I will come back to this in a bit. Even though we lost the election, I believe strongly that the electorate in Milan does not want the town to be overdeveloped. For whatever it means, we want to remain rural, which to me means uncrowded. (Fight Development.)

What happens, and what may have happened in this election, is that the specifics of what we proposed drew a fair amount of criticism. While we were presenting ideas to help with development issues, local residents saw our proposals more as infringement upon their rights.

This is a basic fault line in America: The point where government intrudes on our personal lives and rights. The question is how an individual sees his/her relationship to the community. We were taking a community-wide view related to future development. Others took it as too much government.

So the struggle for preservation of Milan continues. The need to fight or at least control development continues. The goal of keeping our rural character and rural setting continues. But how do we do this?

In conclusion of this part, I say that the community dialogue is worthwhile and very interesting. The discussion is not over, and should not be over ever.

Town Administration

Being in government means taking care of the government, in this case, administering the matters of the town. Here we have "interesting" and "good" and "tense."

The interesting part, and a reason that many of you might consider Town Board positions (or supervisor), is that there is so much out there: youth programs, open space programs, greenway development, community planning, zoning issues, financial management, legislative programs, and ideas, ideas, ideas. If you like to think about what is going on in your world, being in public service can give a picture.

The good part is that I feel we got a reasonable handle on the town's matters and, other than a few rough spots, we keep pretty good order. We sorted out the books (left a mess by the previous administration) and managed the money for four years with very reasonable expenses and taxes to the residents.

There were two rough spots that came up: Bridges in need of repair and lawsuits over our activities. The bridges problem is simply normal infrastructure wear and tear, but repair and construction is hugely expensive, particularly in a small town such as Milan. This is going to cost the taxpayers money over the next decade. (And this is on top of the building debt that we will be paying down for another decade.)

The lawsuits are business as usual. We went up against a significant regional corporation with deep pockets and experience in fighting towns. Naturally, they have sued us. It is part of the process. The wetlands suit was also expected. We know that such new ideas often have to be tested in court both for proper procedures (the wrong question) and for content (the right question). There are two nuisance suits on minor matters. The newest suit, just in, about the state police and courts, is a whole different matter, not really related to town government. (Milan needs to get out this story about the state police picking on the smallest town in Dutchess County.)

The tense part is the political aspects of the job. For whatever reason, other persons want your job or want you to fail or want you gone. That became an overriding concern with some during my time. Actions followed based on the desire to inflict political damage--that is, to make a person (politician) appear wrong or incompetent or out of touch. This can border on inappropriate character assassination. This part of the job is not the most fun. Some people like combat like this.  I do not and this was one of my limitations as supervisor.
The tension was always there, but you actually learn to handle it and in working in this arena you have feel you know what you are doing. You must have some confidence in yourself. But the tension is always there.

     
In subsequent writings, I would like to expand on all of this, provide some chronology and thoughts on specific actions, but this is enough for now.

Van Talmage
January 2008