Town Board Rejects The Best Qualified Applicant

Dear Editor:


At its February 11th meeting, the Republican majority on the Copake Town Board rejected the application of a well-qualified candidate for the position of citizen ombudsman because the candidate is an Episcopal minister. The Columbia Paper’s February 18th report on that meeting quoted Councilman Dan Tompkins as saying, “Is someone from another religious denomination going to want to speak to him?”

If we use Mr. Tompkins’ rhetorical question as a guideline for determining the suitably of future volunteers for the ombudsman’s position, then one might also argue that there should be no African-Americans allowed because someone from another race would not want to speak to them, or that there should be no gay people, or handicapped people or poor people. That is most assuredly not an attitude to which we should pander as Mr. Tompkins has done. It is an attitude to be despised.

If we then follow Mr. Tompkins’ sad reasoning to its logical conclusion, the best outcome would be for there to be no ombudsman at all. Now we come to the real crux of the matter. Mr. Tompkins and his Republican cohorts don‘t want an ombudsman looking over their shoulder because they fear exposure. By rejecting a citizen who may well have been the best qualified applicant for the job, they have secured their agenda of carrying out their business with as little citizen oversight as possible.

And to answer Mr. Tompkins rhetorical question, Yes, Danny, there is at least one person of another religious denomination in this community who can imagine dealing with an Episcopal minister as ombudsman. That person is me. I am the person who urged the Episcopal minister to volunteer for the position and I am indeed of a different religious denomination.

Sincerely,
Deborah Cohen
Copake Falls, NY