In his letter to the editor last week, Mr. Joyce claims freedom of speech and fact-gathering distractions are unethical. I don’t believe Councilmember Friedel’s intention was to tear down his colleagues. I believe it was factual, as he used their own words. I believe the residents of this town deserve to know the facts.
If you go back and watch the meetings, very few facts are given supporting the sign ordinance that was passed. I appreciate that Councilmember Friedel sought the facts and communicated his findings to the residents.
The fact that the implementation of the ordinance has been delayed so several amendments can be made, tells you there are issues with the ordinance. The mayor, council and town staff should support our businesses and many of our businesses spoke out against the temporary sign portion of the ordinance and they were ignored.
How can you say you support businesses if you ignore their concerns? Councilmember Friedel did not ignore their concerns and sought the facts and I think the residents and businesses appreciate his efforts. In my opinion, the sign ordinance was not properly researched prior to passing and that the distraction is additional work to come up with amendments to fix it.
