Parkside officials must be held accountable

To the Times:

The conduct of borough officials have left many Parkside residents desperate for transparency on the operating procedures and governing rules in place to protect public interests. Following the conduct violation of a borough council member in November which preceded months of intimidation by senior council members, several written complaints and citizen requests have been ignored, including a request to adopt or revise a Code of Conduct, formalize the borough’s complaints process and procedures, and consider additional actions to prevent future personnel violations from occurring.

Borough council has responded to public grievances with inaction, with some officials taking to private social media accounts to call out critics rather than respond to the demands of stakeholders in the community.

While the voters will ultimately decide on which values belong in government, Parkside residents are demanding a fair mechanism to hold incumbent officials accountable for improper conduct, ignoring the will of the public, eroding public confidence, and suppressing public participation in council meetings.

Parkside residents themselves are divided over which measures should be taken to establish a suitable system of checks and balances and reaffirm council’s commitments to governing fairly and transparently. For some, adopting formal rules of conduct for council members is censorship; for others, consequence. But at present, council’s uncompromising refusal to address the stalemate only further exasperates an increasingly tense, rapidly worsening, situation in which the needs of the community go unmet.

Borough council has responded to public grievances with inaction, with some officials taking to private social media accounts to call out critics rather than respond to the demands of stakeholders in the community.