[Recaive[D) MAR 12 2018 Office of the City Council |.am writing as both a concerned citizen and former Mayor of EastlARDESHAS™: MA raise your awareness of a failure of leadership in Easthampton city government, We have seen an ongoing series of questionable activities within our government that, if left unchecked, will tarnish our reputation and reduce our ability to sustain the success many have worked so hard to achieve, An Open Letter to the Easthampton City Council The lawful requirements contained in the Easthampton Home Rule Charter are being repeatedly ignored by the officials we have elected to office. The reorganization of City Departments without compliance to Section 6-1 of the Easthampton Home Rule Charter, the assignment of duties to the Department of Public Works without compliance to Section 6-4 of the Easthampton Home Rule Charter and the outright defiance of the chain of command and due process when removing and reassigning city employees, as expressed in Sections 3-3 and 8-15 of the Easthampton Home Rule Charter, raise serious legal and procedural issues that demand your attention. ‘The actions taken and not taken by those of you who represent us are affecting the operations of our government in profound ways and creating a hostile work environment at City Hall. The City Councils’ failure to foster and promote public dialogue about these questionable actions is instilling a lack of trust in our government processes and causing undue damage to the morale and effectiveness of the men and women who work in the community we love and support. The issues | speak of represent a part of the changing times here in the community and such change is never easily embraced, | will admit that | have fostered much of what has changed in Easthampton over the years but never in the way it is happening today. Today we see an inclination to interpret the plain language of the law in ways that confound and confuse our sense of values. The specific requirement of law providing for public hearings is being cast aside in the name of efficiency. Employees are being treated with disrespect and juggled around or forced out oftheir jobs without the due process they are entitled to. The basic public dialogue called for in our laws is blatantly ignored or repeatedly perverted in a manner destined to harm Easthampton well into the future. The right of the public to hear and to be heard is fundamental to our democracy. Creating opportunities for the governed to contribute to public decision-making is fundamental to self-governance. We, as citizens of Easthampton, have a moral right to make our voices heard in our community and our government officials have a legal obligation to protect and promote that right above all other interests, ‘The public processes established in our laws are there to assure that all citizens have the opportunity to contribute their knowledge, insight, and opinion to the issue at hand. The public hearings required in these processes help to balance the needs and wants of our institutions and to check that the ideas and initiatives of those who represent us are truly in our best interest. ‘The process of checks and balance that the framers of our government provided has failed to materialize in the actions of our elected officials and | am calling on you to demand your attention to this problem. Transparency is not just a word to use in a political campaign. Being transparent means a willingness to be free from pretense or deceit, its character js the accessibility of information regarding an issue and its process is one of public discussion about what is good or bad about an idea before that idea is forced upon us. The failure | see in our present government is a willingness to look the other way when such transparency is refused. Michael Tautznik 166 Hendrick Street Easthampton, MA 01027 (413) 527-4233