A few hours before Yom Kippur, and I have to post a most un-atoning post. I now live in the Town of Ulysses, were the town board unanimously approved a ban on hydrofracking. In my former town of Caroline, obstructionist council members just shot down a similar resolution.
The short article in the Ithaca Journal failed to capture the nuance of the meeting, which was open to the public. Don Barber and Dominic Frongilio both spoke and voted for the ban. Not surprisingly, given their past utterances, Linda Adams and Toby McDonald voted nay. Linda Adams is a representative of a land owner's coalition which attempts to get advantageous gas lease terms from gas companies. Toby McDonald has property that he has leased. Their greed and avarice tie them to big oil and gas. We know what color is their stripe of greed. Both Barber and Frongilio have not leased their land and are staunch conservationists.
But the real award of awkward non-committal goes to Pete Hoyt. He too has a gas lease on his property, and in the past has stated he does not see a conflict of interest in voting against fracking motions and his personal situation.
And in this particular vote he has found a brilliant way out! He abstained from the vote. He does not want to weigh in on an issue where their is the appearance of conflict. Problem is, with two yes, and two no votes, and abstention is tantamount to a no. The resolution was shot down, and Hoyt got to maintain the illusion that he may win his re-election campaign when the year ends (he won in 2008 by two votes). Does he think he had fooled anyone with this sleight of hand? Better to come out with his misguided views and then cast them into a vote than insult the citizens of Caroline with his trickery.
My only true regret in moving away from Caroline is that I can't vote against Pete Hoyt at the end of the year. I voted against him once, and it felt particularly satisfying, but now, seeing how he struts about and makes utterances that are transparently insincere, a second vote against him would have been all the more pleasurable. I hope the three people who stayed home election night and put him in office vote this year put on their galoshes and go the the polls. Alternately, I hope it doesn't rain that night.
Because Peter Hoyt needs to go home.
The Ithaca Journal has an article about the hydrofracking meeting at the Brooktondale Community Center.
In it there is a strange sense of dissemination on the part of Councilpersons Hoyt, Adams, and McDonald, as if they exist in a sphere detached from social cause and effect.
On being asked about a conflict of interest in supporting a resolution to offer no impediments to fracking in Caroline, McDonald answered he did not see a conflict of interest in his actions, but he would look into it. What exactly is he going to look into? That he has a gas lease, and that he supports a measure to prevent any ban on fracking?
It appears he needs to find the connecting thread where a conflict may exist. But where? In his mind, in his soul, in the spheres up high where motivations become actions, but are often shrouded in a concealing mist? We don't want to be uncharitable, and venture to say he is not being truthful? Something else must be wrong. He needs to solve a mystery.
Linda Adams, who works for a landowners coalition that helps secure gas leases, also sees no conflict at all in her support of the ban. She is quoted:
"for the first time in their life (they) are not signing a gas company lease, but something that the community put together, that the landowners had drafted for their purposes, not the industry,"
She herself has not signed a gas lease, she explained, but she helps others to do so. From what motivation? Through the goodness of her heart? From a firm and unwavering stance for landowner rights? From remuneration from the coalition? We have to wonder why, and scratch our heads as we ponder the purported lack of connection between her support of the ban and her work at getting advantageous gas leases for her clients. She has some homework to do. She too needs to roll up her sleeves, sit at her kitchen table, and do some old fashioned connect the dots.
But Peter Hoyt's disjunction is perhaps the most elegant. There is simply a disconnect, pure and simple. He did not see a conflict. In fact, he never though of it. He is quoted:
"A conflict of interest never occurred to me, but it was mentioned here tonight and I think it is a legitimate observation. I'm kind of surprised I didn't think of it"
When there was laughter in the room, he responded: "Guys, I'm just telling you the truth, OK?"
He is kind of surprised he didn't think about it. Indeed, the admission is shocking. It either shows a lack of fundamental thinking on issues that impact him and us, or some kind of radical cleavage between the parts of his life, his public role and his private interests, that he has kept so far apart he did not even see that they may be in conflict until that very moment. If this is so, he is a man of rare psychological gifts. He can live two, or more lives of very different motivations at one time. Good thing he attended the meeting. He may have missed a vital piece of self-knowledge. He may have lost he chance to connect those pesky dots of his varied motivations.
So we are thankful that Peter Hoyt attended the meeting. He was given a boon to take home with him. There may be a conflict! He didn't know. He is telling us the truth. Maybe he will ponder it further and reach deeper conclusions.
For now, the ban on the ban on fracking had been tabled for a later town meeting. I suggest it gets moved from the table, taken out in the yard, and buried for good.
Some of our local elected officials are willing sell out our land, water, air, health, and life, for their own personal profit. I'm very proud that over 200 + people showed up at the Brooktondale Community Center to support the defeat of the Hoyt/Adams legislation that would let hydofracking run amok in our community. I found this particularly compelling quote regarding Councilpersons Hoyt, Adams, and McDonald:
"Council members Linda Adams and Peter Hoyt co-authored the legislation, and Toby McDonald supports it. Should gas wells be drilled in town, all stand to benefit: Hoyt and McDonald have leased their property to gas companies, and Adams directs the Tompkins Landowner’s Coalition, a group whose sole purpose is to help landowners obtain the best lease possible." Found in this blog.
Nice to know the even our local politicians are just as capable as thinking (and I use the term lightly) with their wallets rather than their consciences. There is a special brand of shame for their avarice. A special place in the gallery of doomed people who can be bought or sold.
And for this trio, it is easy. They need do nothing but own land and reap the benefits of their non-labor at the expense of others. When has doing nothing and thinking nothing been so profitable?
PS: And Linda Adams is our Watershed Committee Chair!
