Submitted by Betsey Frumin
I had always thought the RTM was safe from nefarious influences because we were 230 strong. Who could twist 115 arms or bribe 115 members to influence the vote? I never thought I had to worry about the Greenwich RTM being anything but a non-partisan body. We were 230 people looking at each item on the Call and thinking about our neighbors and voting in accordance with what we thought was best for Greenwich and for our part of Town.
What I had not considered was the possibility of stacking the RTM. Backing people to run for the RTM who can be influenced to vote the “right” way. There is no harm in asking your likeminded neighbor if he/she is interested in running for the RTM. There is a great deal of harm in convincing 10 of your like-minded neighbors to run and then making sure they get on the ballot by doing the hard work of petitioning for them.
Let me explain. In order to run for a seat on the RTM one must either be an incumbent in good standing or. petition to be on the ballot by having a minimum of 25 voters in your District sign your petition. This method helps prove that the person petitioning is willing to work for the position and that he/she wants to meet the neighbors, to listen to their concerns and to represent them.
What has happened this election season? We have an overwhelming number of petition candidates. In my District, District 9, we will normally have one or two non-incumbent petitioners. This year we have 10. Normally this would be an exciting happening to have 10 people interested in joining the RTM.
As chairperson of D9, I invited the 10 non-incumbent petitioners to attend our D9 meeting and to also send us a paragraph about themselves. Only four of the ten attended our meeting. Where is the interest and excitement of the other six?
I have had a chance to look at the signed petitions for D9. It appears to me that two of the non-incumbent petitioners went door to door and met with their neighbors. Both of these petitioners attended the District meeting. One additional petitioner has some of his neighbors and friends and he also attended the D9 meeting. The rest of the petitions looked like someone went door to door with a handful of petitions and got signatures which is perfectly acceptable. Only one of the petitioners with cookie cutter signatures came to the D9 meeting.
Be careful in your voting on Nov 7. Do not put people on your District because they are Democrats or Republicans. Put people you know and trust on your District. Make no mistake, being on the RTM, when done right, is work. We do not need new faces for the sake of new faces. We are happy to have new faces who are willing to do the hard work.
Full disclosure, I am part of a slate put out by some of the incumbents of D9. I believe the incumbent members of the slate have worked in a non-partisan way to make Greenwich better and will continue to put the good of the District first.
Partisan voting has no place in the RTM.