Lee Muns 'has experience that the board will need' to handle growth

Editor:

On Tuesday, Columbia County will choose its first elected School Board chairman. We are very lucky that we have two fine candidates running for this position. I am asking for your support to elect Lee Muns.

Both candidates have run a good clean campaign, unlike another local race, and they have laid out their positions clearly. I am supporting Muns because I feel he has the experience that the board will need to get through these next few years of unprecedented growth. I know the "knock" about Muns not being able to "play nice with others"; on occasion I have been accused of the same thing. Muns is passionate in his beliefs about where the Board should be heading, and sometimes that leads to confrontations.

I have spoken to Muns about this and he knows that as chairman he has to be more open to the other members' ideas.

A major difference between the candidates is their feeling about open debate about critical issues facing the board. Regina Buccafusco has said in two interviews that she feels that the board should iron out all of their differences before the open board meetings and the votes. Muns says that the open meetings are exactly where different ideas should be aired for all to hear. In my conversations about the way the Board of Education conducts its business, there is feeling that the comments by the public are a waste of time because the Board has already decided and just needs to vote to finalize any decision.

With so much of our tax dollars at stake, I want to know that the voice of the public matters and can even sway a vote. Not that we have to wait for a term to be up to make a change.

And that is why I am voting for Lee Muns and I invite every voter in Columbia County to vote for him.

Larry Waxman

Martinez