For each of the past two years, the Middlebury selectboard authorized the Vermont League of Cities and Towns (VLCT), on whose executive board Town Manager Kathleen Ramsey serves, to lobby Montpelier against marijuana legalization. The decision to lobby against sensible drug policy reform was made in secret, without any public warning, and without any public input.
When this secret was finally exposed at town meeting, town residents warned the selectboard in an advisory resolution to seek public input before taking another position on marijuana legalization.
Reluctantly, the selectboard commissioned a survey, and the response made it clear why they preferred to do this in secret:
Nearly 600 Middlebury residents responded to the survey (the typical town survey gets fewer than 200 responses), and over 68 percent of them said they support legalizing marijuana. Moreover, by a lopsided margin of 65 percent to 25 percent, town residents told the selectboard to stop lobbying against legalization through the VLCT.
Sadly, it appears that the selectboard doesn’t care what you think.
A majority of selectboard members are set to vote to re-authorizing VLCT’s anti-legalization lobbying agenda at its next meeting (7 p.m. on Tuesday Sept. 26, at the town offices), despite clear instructions to the contrary from the public they are supposed to represent.
It’s long past time for the Middlebury selectboard to represent the will of the people who elect them, instead of the will of the law enforcement community they actually listen to.
Enough is enough. The Sept. 26 selectboard meeting is open to the public. Go. Be heard.
Dave Silberman, Esq.
Middlebury