To the Editor:

A year ago, I experienced shock and then despair at the national election. Finally though, inspired by having a young granddaughter, I resolved to become a more active civic participant. I knew that engagement was the only way to try to save vital programs and services such as healthcare and environmental protection that would be put at immediate risk.

We are now facing another November election and, even though it’s an off-year election, I’m paying greater attention to the local races than ever before. Indeed, that all politics are local is becoming more and more clear to me.

Much of my energy this year has been spent meeting promising first-time candidates and trying to understand what they are about. Some of the individuals I have supported are not people I’m even eligible to vote for. But, I support good candidates I come across because I see the inter-connectedness with my neighboring districts/counties/towns.

One local race, for the town of Knox board supervisor, has gotten a good deal of attention. Most recently, in an article in the Oct. 19 issue of The Enterprise, Melissa Hale-Spencer wrote a front-page article regarding the current supervisor, Vasilios Lefkaditis. The story was about customer disputes against him in a previous job as a Wall Street stockbroker.

For his part, Mr. Lefkaditis, who wants to be re-elected, went into detail about the disputes, and why he settled them. But this particular story and Mr. Lefkaditis’ explanations aside, it is an interesting story because of the sheer frequency of news coverage related to the Knox Town Board.

The board meetings seem to get a really disproportionate amount of unflattering news reporting, usually about behavior at the meetings that one would consider outside the regional norm of civility. Especially cringe-worthy are some of the remarks attributed to the supervisor to fellow board members, notably to Amy Pokorny, who is a first-time candidate for the supervisor position. The disruptive behavior engendered in the gallery during the meetings often gets as much negative news coverage as the actual business the board is trying to conduct.

Civility, I believe, is a measure of good character and good character is essential for elected officials. There seems an epidemic of political nastiness erupting all around us now.

And, when our leaders model bad behavior, the public sees that as permission to act out as well. It’s no small thing. The result is divisiveness and the lack of the kind of discourse needed to get things done.

If we wanted a single person to make all the decisions and just carry them out without thoughtful examination and respectful debate, that would be some other type of government — not representative democracy. I truly hope the voters of Knox will elect the candidate for town supervisor who has shown civility as well as competence.

Fran Porter

Altamont

Editor’s note: Fran Porter says she was friends with Amy Pokorny long before Ms. Pokorny married Russell Pokorny who had been Ms. Porter’s husband.