There are drastic changes happening in Monmouth that threaten our form of local government.

Three of our selectmen are demanding that the various town departments cut their budgets, which were approved at the last town meeting, by 10 percent.

Recently, I had a discussion with one of our newly elected selectmen, Steve Kolenda (in the past I served with Kolenda for many years on the School Committee ), concerning what he is attempting to do, and I find his approach to be offensive.

There appears to be no precedent for across-the-board budget cuts that conflict with the will of the community, as expressed at the town meeting. I asked Kolenda where he found precedence for the budget changes and if the move was legal. He said that the topic was researched and that no statute could be found that said they could not do this, nor could he point to a case where it had been done in the past.

He said that the selectmen were breaking new ground and quite proud of it.

In a town meeting form of government, the role of the selectmen is to administer, enforce and carry out the decisions made by the citizens at the town meeting. This precedent dates back to colonial times. Hundreds of years of practice in New England give guidance for what is the proper course of action.

I do not know who did the research for the selectmen, but the logic is convoluted. Not finding legal language that would specifically prohibit a proposed action is not a blank check to do whatever they want.

This attitude shows a total lack of respect for the hard work of the previous board of selectmen, the Budget Committee, the department managers and the residents who attended the last town meeting.

The last town meeting drew more people than any town meeting in recent memory and yet these three individuals are attempting to substitute their will for the collective decision of the group that passed the budget.

In the past, Kolenda has praised the town meeting format as the purest form of democracy in which everyone can express his opinion and have a say in the decision-making process. That appears to have changed.

Selectmen could have made a motion on the floor of the town meeting to reduce the various budgets by 10 percent and had the residents in attendance vote on the proposal. But they did not.

The move to cut the budget may have support, but the opportunity to put the plan to a vote was missed. We don’t know for sure that the budget changes really represent what the people want.

The selectmen are attempting to push their private agenda, with an end run around well-established rules that govern town business. The system provides a legal channel at town meeting to change the budget, but that route was ignored.

If this maneuver by the three selectmen is successful, it will radically change local government in Monmouth. Within our present framework, the Budget Committee and the town meeting serve as a system of checks and balances to the board of selectmen. If that process of review can be negated by the vote of three people, who is going to be willing to serve on a budget committee or attend town meeting if their votes and opinions do not count? The resulting form of government will be, in effect, a town council format. Three people cannot make such a drastic change on their own.

The people in town should be outraged at this power grab, and they should continue to hound the selectmen at all of their meetings.

Demand that the selectmen adhere to long-established norms that govern town meeting forms of government. If they refuse to do the job for which they were elected, then steps should be taken to force them to follow the law, or we should explore ways to replace them with people who will enforce the decisions made at town meeting.

If we are to survive this period of perpetual economic hard times and still retain a sense of community, we need our elective officials to listen and show respect for the opinions of all the residents in Monmouth. Private agendas, arrogance and egos inflated with the power of elective office will do nothing to maintain or improve the quality of life we enjoy.

Edward Chuprevich is a former member of the Monmouth School Committee.

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