by Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009)

Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone

The Town of Edgewood’s governing body had a fairly lengthy discussion on water issues for Section 16 on October 7th during the council meeting. In the discussion, Councilman Brad Hill asked Mayor Stearley to reveal information contained in an email exchange between the Mayor and “Hillcrest.”  The Mayor advised Councilman Hill and all others present that he did not know what Councilman Hill was talking about. Councilman Hill advised all present that he had the emails related to the subject and he would bring them to the next meeting.

The emails mentioned above were not discussed at the last meeting on October 21st and the subject was not on the agenda. It might be helpful to provide for playback, part of the meeting minutes discussed in the October 7th meeting:

Partial Minutes (10/07/09)

Once the above link is opened, you can expect to hear the beginning of the discussion between Mayor Stearley and Councilman Hill at the 2:40 mark with the discussion ending at the 4:50 mark.

The discussion above, when compared with the following series of emails exchanged between a Hillcrest principal and Mayor Stearley are revealing to say the least:

Email Exchange Section 16 Water

The above audio and the separate text should clarify what has transpired and what was discussed by Mayor Stearley and a principal of Hillcrest. It also shows that Councilman Hill was correct in his contention that the Mayor did have the email exchange and did not bring the discussion to the council for consideration by the full governing body.

While it is entirely possible the email exchange between Mayor Stearley and the Hillcrest principal was forgotten by the Mayor, the exchange calls to mind the Mayor’s pledge of open government during his administration.