Rochester city staff, councilors ignoring taxpayers: Letters

Rochester city staff, councilors ignoring taxpayers

Oct. 6 − To the Editor:

When did it become okay to not return citizen phone calls or respond to citizen emails?  Over the past several months, I’ve had the need or desire to contact several Rochester city departments and a couple city councilors. Whether it was the public works department, police department, fire department or a councilor or two, I either never got a response or the response has been unprofessionally slow.

I know everyone is busy and there may be some staffing shortages, but not responding to a citizen/taxpayer or taking longer than a couple days to respond is simply not okay. Citizens/taxpayers are customers, and we should be treated with the respect and decency deserving of who we are. I do not make it a habit of being a nuisance and don't seek special treatment, but when I call or email it’s because I couldn’t find what I needed/wanted myself and I need their help.

It's become abundantly apparent to me that there is a divide between the “city” and its citizens. An us versus them mentality has developed I simply don’t understand. Without people there can be no city; the people are the city.

Our departments have been getting the best of everything the past several years. New vehicles, construction equipment, raises, new/refurbished offices and buildings that rival Fortune 500 companies. You would think city employees who get lavish digs and expensive vehicles and equipment would at least return a phone call.

I don’t expect anything to change with one letter, but we need to return to a time when those being served become the priority again. We shouldn’t have to beg for help or to have a simple question answered. And we certainly shouldn't be treated like the enemy!

Fred Leonard

Rochester

Portsmouth City Council candidate forum Oct. 12

Oct. 8 − To the Editor:

The Citizens for Voter Education, together with the Portsmouth Public Library, is hosting a forum for candidates to the City Council in the Portsmouth City Council Chambers on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Please come to the forum with your questions or watch from home on Channel 22 or the City's YouTube Channel.  The municipal election in Portsmouth will be held on Tuesday, November 7, 2023.

Beth S. Margeson

On behalf of the Citizens for Voter Education

Portsmouth

Cutting services is not the only option. We can also have fairer taxes.

Oct. 7 − To The Editor:

The Republican House has gone bananas sending the government into chaos over the debt ceiling and spending on social programs. Amid all this rhetoric on the evils of the national debt and the need to cut, cut, cut, there has not been one word about the possibility of additional  revenue to lower the debt and pay for needed services. The elephants (and sadly some donkeys too) in the room are terrified of hinting about, let alone uttering, the word, “taxes,” (gasp!) or “wealth taxes”, or tax reform” or “funding the IRS.”

The Republican’s “Debt-Ceiling-and Cuts Bill” would harm families and deepen poverty  among children. Meanwhile Paul Allen, co founder with Bill Gates of Microsoft, was worth an estimated $20.3 billion at the time of his recent death. His French Riviera villa was bought at an estimated $105 million by Millennium Management founder, Israel Englander, whose estimated net worth is a mere $11.4 billion. These men according to Forbes are among 735  billionaires worth a collective $4,5 trillion living in the US in 2023. According to Robert Reich, the top 1% hold 15x more wealth than the bottom 50% combined. And they have enough political power to cut their taxes to almost nothing.

When you vote, pay attention to not only to the candidate’s concern for children and families, but also their policy on taxing wealth for responsible government, and who is funding their campaign. We can do better!

Cynthia Muse

Rye

Political problems listening session Oct. 12 in Rye

Oct. 4 − To the Editor:

Not many in New Hampshire are fully content with our current state of politics, or the process of managing our government. While the Federal chaos and animosity outshines what is happening in the Granite State, polarized driven stagnation is seeping into more levels of our government.

If you want change, how does that happen in New Hampshire? That is an excellent question and one of the challenges the national non-partisan group “The People” is looking at with its New Hampshire Project. The People’s website says “While we have seen success in the application of our model in ballot initiative states, New Hampshire will be the initial pilot state in developing the model for citizen-led reform in a legislative state.”

So the first question becomes, what initiatives? The People feel these must come directly from Granite Staters. Phase One of this project is to find out more about what people in NH would like to be different. To make this happen, The People hired Martha Madsen, a well known figure in NH Civics education. For over a decade Madsen was the Executive Director of what has become NH Civics. If you are a NH Social Studies Teacher, you are very familiar with NH Civics, since they are the ones who provide Civics education, content and programs for NH Schools.

Madsen said “While I already miss NH Civics, it was a good time to make a transition, and it feels with all my experience and NH connections, I was tailored made to lead this initiative.” October and November will be jam packed with listening sessions, with the goal of having at least one in every county. Madsen reported that light food is being provided and the format is open discussions. The goal is to collect direct inputs from people around what they think is broken and where they would like to see improvements.

The Seacoast session will be Oct. 12 at the Rye Public Library. All are welcome and Seacoast residents can begin to arrive at 6 p.m. at the downstairs Community room. For more information go to www.thepeople.org/newhampsire

Steven Borne

Rye

Wells needs to do more to improve recreational beach access

Oct. 5 − To the Editor:

Thank you for the September 26, 2023 story describing community efforts to enlist the Town of Wells to address the access issues at Moody Beach. This issue is important for all of Maine, not just Wells.

Although I now live in California, I have vacationed in Wells, Maine every summer since 1967. My parents had a summer home near Moody Beach which my siblings and I inherited. I know it is possible for the beachfront property owners and their “backlot” neighbors to share the beach in a fair and harmonious way. We did it for many years prior to the 1989 Bell decision.

The Town of Wells can play a key role in expanding recreational beach access for the whole Moody Beach community. The Town of Kennebunk provided a model for this through their work on expanding access to Goose Rocks Beach in 2019. The alternative to expanding public recreational access to Moody Beach is to tax the beach-front property owners for the land down to the low-tide mark, as is done with any other private property.

Recreational access to Maine’s beaches should be available to the public. Colonial-era laws granting public access only for “fishing, fowling, and navigation” need to be updated to fit with modern-day recreational beach activities. Maine needs to live up to its “Vacation State” moniker.

Selene Fabiano

El Cerrito, CA

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Rochester NH city staff, councilors ignoring taxpayers: Letters