Few can deny that Peru town government has gone through its share of distress over the past three and a half years. Former Town Supervisor Donald Covel's tenure was fraught with animosity among the councilors, and confusion often ran rampant as government lumbered and labored through that difficult period.
Now, with Covel's departure following his conviction last month for official misconduct, the town has been given a new lease on life, so to speak — a fresh start to repair its wounds and return to the kind of community its residents have always cherished and bragged about.
But officials have already stumbled and now stand on the brink of disaster if they cannot right the ship quickly and efficiently. With the loss of Covel and the departure of former Councilor Cortland Forrence a few months earlier, the town has only three voting members remaining.
Law requires that the council have a majority of its original seats for any action to carry forward. That means all three remaining councilors have to agree on an issue for government to move forward. As Town Attorney Donald Biggs said during a recent meeting, "God forbid" that if one of them could no longer function in his elected capacity, town government would cease to exist.
The potential danger of this situation was amply observed when the remaining councilors attempted to fill both vacant positions to ensure that the government remained viable. Two of the three, Peter Glushko and Brandy McDonald, presented several names to consider for the councilor's position, but Thomas Powers balked at each, casting a no vote that neutralized the two affirmative votes.
We understand if Powers believes appointing fill-ins could give candidates in the November election an unfair advantage. We staunchly agree that the public's right to choose its elected officials is one of our most cherished.
But we question his response to some of the candidates brought forward. In particular, Glushko began the action by nominating Tina Calkins-Covey for the councilor position. Calkins-Covey is a former councilor who served the town prior to the turmoil of the Covel era and is not seeking a seat in the upcoming election. She was a responsible public servant who had the trust and respect of the townspeople and, to our knowledge, had never been involved in overt controversy. She would provide the town the experience needed to get through the next two months.
Powers said he would like to talk to Calkins-Covey about the councilor position, but in this time when the town needs to move forward quickly, we wonder why he did not speak with her prior to the meeting, if he felt it was important to have that conversation. With his affirmative vote, the town could have taken the first step toward healing. Now it instead has another wound.
Since the men could not agree on a councilor, they did not even address the supervisor's position.
We are not privy to the underlying reasons for this renewed controversy. We can only hope that it is not a political decision that is again disrupting the daily operations of town government. This is not the time for politics; it is time to move forward and make decisions for the good of the town, not for any one person, any one group or any one political party.
