Dan Campion of Salem is running for town supervisor in the the April 6, 2010 election.
Here is a video of the candidate answering some questions about his candidacy and priorities:
Here is a letter from Campion to the voters of Salem:
Dan Campion
Candidate for Town Board Supervisor, Town of Salem
I’m running for the position to offer my experience and knowledge communicating with differing groups. I have met and listened to a number of town residences. I discovered there is a disconnection between our citizens, the town board and the town staff. Many of the residences have become disinterested partly because they do not believe they have a voice in matters.
As a resident it should not be necessary for you to attend every meeting. It is the duty of the town officials to make information available to the citizens of Salem quickly. Our practice of publishing meeting minutes only after they are approved is not adequate . By the time the public sees the minutes the subject matter has passed the of “Consideration and possible actionâ€.
A common response is “they should attend the meetingâ€. This is not possible for the majority of citizens in our community. City-data.com reports, approximately 50% of the working population of the town of Salem travels over 30 min to work. Because of the lengthy travel time the citizens of Salem are not always able to attend meetings and still address their family matters. We would be remiss if we did not have an alternative method to keep them up-date of the proceedings from board meetings. Draft minutes, is one method or an up-date of the proceedings using the agenda as the outline.
Village status – the town board needs to create a non-partisan comparable list of features and benefits for a Village status or remaining a Town. Until the matter is researched a decision can not be made. More importantly the Town should have Intergovernmental Cooperation Community boundaries agreements in place.
Intergovernmental Cooperation Community boundaries – the Town should actively pursue boundary agreements with our neighbors. During a resent Public Hearing & Open House Town of Salem Comprehensive Plan; 2035 it was noted the villages of Twin Lakes and Silver Lake has in their Comprehensive Plan for 2035 to include land that is currently in the Town of Salem. We need to have a working agreements with communities that can influence and infringe upon our Town.
Our Lakes – the town’s biggest asset is the nine lakes. It was good to see the turn-out of the different lake association at last two meetings. They came prepared and eager to discuss the issues of each lake. This same passion and respect must carry over to the town board meeting!
I bring to the table experience in communicating between groups to discuss, review, evaluate and develop action plans and facilitate the process keeping people on task. I will bring the same skill sets to the town board.
Therefore, I am asking all to vote in the General Election April 6th.
Dan Campion
Candidate for Town Board Supervisor – Town of Salem
