Endorsement for Norm Silber and Harry Bean for Gilford Budget Committee (reelection!) - Granite Grok

Endorsement for Norm Silber and Harry Bean for Gilford Budget Committee (reelection!)

BudgetThe BudComm is the last bastion to protect taxpayers wallets”; that’s what I say when asked what is the purpose of the Gilford Budget Committee. It takes into account, not just one or two “communities” within Gilford, but the entire community needs, wants – and what it can afford. While the Selectmen and School Board are concerned with their communities/functions, the BudComm is the only fiscal entity that takes everyone into account from the richest to the poorest, from the most active to those that just simply want to call Gilford “home” and otherwise wish to be left alone, and everyone else in between.

Grok Banner Donate Today

We add to some line items and decrease others and live with the decision of the town folks when they change the presented budgets at either of the Deliberative Sessions (the public session or secret ballot voting). We strive to ask the hard questions and we make, at times, hard decisions that may delight some (and increase funding) and screamed at by some (e.g., as Joe Wernig did at the Public Session because we “disrespected” the school “community”) when we decrease some funding. We do what we believe is right for Gilford in toto.

I do know one thing – I fully support and endorse Harry Bean for reelection to the BudComm. I’ve only known him for a year but his Gilford family roots are long and historical. He’s slow to speak in public but when he does, I listen. He doesn’t always ask the questions during meetings but makes sure that his “silent” ones get answers from those wishing to spend more than he thinks is proper. In my mind, the BudComm needs that presence to accomplish its mission; always weighing what is good and needed versus those that are wants, unnecessary, and those that are failures of proper planning and maintenance failures on the part of “our employees” (as we, the taxpayers, ultimately are, indeed, the employers).

The BudComm chair, Norm Silber, is also up for reelection. I read the news accounts of his asking the VERY hard questions last year and personally heard them this year. I defy anyone to say that he doesn’t come to meetings unprepared – he goes into the minutia of the complicated details and has the ability to cross-examine different parts of the budgets against each other – and from years past, which I believe is an irritation to many but taxpayers who have every level of government picking their pockets ought to be celebrating his tenacity to get things right. He does his homework and is forceful to have those wanting more of our money justify their needs for it. And even with that striving to push the envelope, he has the rare sensibility to admit when he is wrong, rectify the mistake, and move forward in finishing the job at hand; he has my endorsement.

We need hard headed (and sometimes, hard hearted) folks like Harry and Norm on the BudCom to ensure that the emotions of the day don’t overrule the right and necessary fiscal processes to keep Gilford the town that it is; spending what is necessary and quickly saying “NO” when it isn’t.

I will be voting for both of them; I ask that you do as well.

-Skip Murphy
Vice-Chair, Gilford Budget Committee

>