Hello Neighbors,
I am running for re-election to a three-year term as a Representative Town Meeting (RTM) member for District 9 (formerly known as District 3).
I am asking you, if you feel comfortable doing so, to vote for me and, more, to encourage your friends in District 9 to do so as well.
I have been a member of Representative Town Meeting since 2019. Beginning in 2019, I have been elected every year to its Finance Committee which scrutinizes the Town budget to provide a report each year to inform RTM (and the public generally) of issues before that body votes on the budget article; in three of those years, I was chosen to chair the committee.
As a representative of District 9, beginning in 2022, I took the initiative with fellow District 9 representative Bob Oeser to convene annual forums just prior to RTM to brief and to solicit opinions of District 9 residents on the proposed budget and other issues coming before the meeting. This year, because of a threatening increase in property taxes, Bob and I organized a meeting on 17 November to discuss next year’s budget; if re-elected I would continue in the future to put together a second forum about the time the Selectboard begins its consideration of the budget.
I attend, sometimes in person and more often by Zoom, almost every Selectboard meeting, often enough raising questions or making comments.
I also serve on three restorative justice panels through Interaction, Inc. (previously named Youth Services) and for several years I was a volunteer at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital doing internal transportation. I am most proud of my service since 2019 as Weigher of Coal for the Town of Brattleboro.
While I am certainly not opposed to government spending, and the taxes it requires, to pay for important public purposes, I am deeply concerned about recent patterns of Selectboard decisionmaking—the absence of adequate long-term financial planning, its willingness to erode the Fund Balance the Town is supposed to maintain for emergencies, and the casual draw-down of the Revolving Loan Fund. I voted in the special RTM against the Acceptable Community Conduct ordinance because it addressed a number of behaviors which are already against the law and touched upon others that are constitutionally protected, but I do take seriously issues of public safety in the town center (and all around the town); I am hopeful that the innovative Brattleboro Resource Assistance Team (BRAT) and the HCRS social workers will restore the town we all love.
I welcome hearing from District 9 residents about my candidacy: fideladelphia@gmail.com, 413.559.1533. Please ask me any questions you have about Town matters–if I don’t know offhand, I will investigate–or my positions.
Thank you.
David Levenbach
