The town of Berne has a rare chance to make a fresh start. We hope the new board uses that chance wisely.

The rare opportunity comes because every seat on the five-member board was open in the November election. This followed the abrupt resignation last year of three board members, leaving the board without a quorum for seven months.

The councilmen who quit claimed among other complaints that Supervisor Dennis Palow would not share financial documents.

The town has been in financial disarray as tax cuts led to draining Berne’s substantial fund balance and bills went unpaid.

The 2026 budget looks to be getting the town back on firmer financial ground. But we were dismayed that the only way to review the budget was to go to the town hall to see a copy.

While this meets the legal requirement, it does not serve the wider purpose of informing the public. We commend the towns who posted their tentative and preliminary budgets on their websites, giving citizens a chance to review them.

We have long been mindful of United States Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’s statement: “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”

Under Palow, public comment has not been allowed at town board meetings.

This, too, is not against the law. The state’s Open Meetings Law requires only that the public be able to observe the board. 

But a board benefits when its citizens are allowed to speak. Before the election, we asked candidates running for the Berne Town Board if  meetings should include a period for public comment.

Supervisor-elect Joseph Giebelhaus noted public comment was not required by law but said, “I believe that the public should be afforded that opportunity under the presumption that basic rules of order and decorum are maintained.”

Councilman-elect Brian Bunzey said, “The town board needs to hear the residents’ questions and concerns.”

Councilwoman Melanie laCour, who leads by a handful of votes in the unofficial count, said, “Public comment is essential to a healthy democracy. Residents deserve the right to speak, ask questions, and to be heard by their elected officials. I will work to restore public comment at meetings and ensure the process is respectful, organized, and meaningful. Open dialogue helps the board make better decisions and strengthens trust between government and the people it serves.”

Councilman-elect Casey Miller said, “As elected officials it’s our responsibility to listen to the concerns of the community members who voted to put us in that position. At this day and age, we should also be able to broadcast our meetings or record them for future public viewing.”

We agree with Miller and urge the Berne board to expand its reach and broadcast its meetings. Consulting with a town like Rensselaerville that has managed to do so on a reasonable budget would be wise.

We take these newly elected board members at their word and look forward to hearing citizens making informed and civil comments at Berne Town Board meetings in the new year.

We advise board members to listen with open minds.

Board members can constructively explain their positions in the midst of public comment but being defensive or even nasty is not productive.

At an October budget hearing, a Berne resident who formerly lived in Knox and served on the town board there, said, “I see a spending problem.”

He noted that Knox, unlike Berne, does not pay its planning board and zoning board members for their work and he also questioned stipends.

“Move back to Knox if you’re not happy,” responded Palow.

Listening with an intent to understand and responding thoughtfully later, once facts have been gathered, is a wiser course.

Most all of the boards we cover — town, village, and school — allow for public comment. Often, someone in the role of gadfly will regularly appear.

Plato in his “Apology” wrote about Socrates, while he was on trial for his life, as a gadfly. A literal gadfly of course arouses a horse by biting it. Socrates aroused ancient Athens with his biting words.

 “If you kill a man like me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me,” Socrates said at his trial, stating that his role was “to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth.”

Robyn Gray, who chairs the Guilderland Coalition for Responsible Growth, is the most frequent speaker during the public-comment periods held by the Guilderland Town Board and often acts as a gadfly.

She frequently criticizes the board on its decisions and offers perspectives on a wide range of issues broached by members of the coalition.

Her comments are delivered in a civil tone and the board members listen with respect.

This year, the Guilderland supervisor nominated Gray to be recognized by State Assemblyman Phil Steck as a Woman of Distinction, an award she accepted.

Joel Willsey is a gadfly in Berne. Our regular readers are familiar with him because of the lengthy letters he writes to us.

At its November meeting, the Berne Town Board allowed Palow to skewer Willsey for his efforts. Copies of two emails he had sent to two board members were printed out for the public to read and were also read out loud.

“We’re really tired of it and getting attacked by him,” said Palow. He called Willsey’s emails “totally disrespectful” and said, “It needs to stop.”

Deputy Supervisor Thomas Doolin read out loud the first email, addressed to two council members, which was an offer to help with the budget, relaying residents’ concerns about a councilman, rather than the supervisor, drafting the budget.

We checked and found out that allowing a town board member to draft a town budget runs counter to state law.

The second email, read out loud by Palow, addressed to the same two council members, raised concerns about transparency — concerned that Palow wouldn’t post the tentative budget online — but focused largely on the suspension and firing of Shawn Duncan, who had worked at Berne’s transfer station for six years.

Just as Willsey’s letters goad us to check facts so we can let the opinions flow, the reading of this email led us to look further into Duncan’s firing.

We learned this week that Berne had never entered Duncan in the Civil Service system as it should have. Since Duncan had worked for the town for more than five years, he should not have, under Civil Service law, been dismissed without due process.

Had the board looked into Willsey’s claims and addressed them rather than mocking or dismissing them, a worker may have been given a fair chance and the town may have had a chance to right itself and follow proper protocol.

We urge the new board to let the sun shine in.