Morelli Responds To Councilor's Remarks

When Republican Town Councilor Kari Drost said she was not running for a second term Wednesday night, she said the reasons were because she was not respected by the other members of the Council.

"We have professional people on the Council and they call themselves leaders but they are not professional at all," she said. "One of the reasons I decided to run for office was after I attended a Town Council meeting and saw how they behaved. I thought I could change it but I couldn't.

"We always have a spot on our agenda for audience of citizens. That is supposed to be when we are listening to the people who attend the meeting and want to talk. The Democrats used it as a platform to tell people their opinions were wrong. They always interject when they should be listening and it's sad."

The remarks seemed to be pointed at Deputy Mayor Steve Morelli, an attorney. 

When Morelli was announced as a candidate for the Town Council on the Democratic ticket Thursday night, he took the opportunity to respond to those remarks. 

"Kari is mistaking lack of respect for criticism," Morelli said. "Nobody dislikes her as a person. We know her heart is in the right place and know she wants what is best for the town. But, when you say one thing and then say another in front of the audience I'm going to call you out on that. She changed positions in front of the audience on numerous occasions. 

"I'll give you two examples. She supported the renovation of the high school when we came up with the plan and presented it. Then when people in the audience opposed it, she changed her position and voted against it. 

"Worse than that was the environmental committee. We sat in the ordinance sub-committee and there was some language that might have given them some enforcement ability. We all agreed to take it out. I went right around the table to make sure everyone was comfortable with the wording that we were presenting, including Kari, and they all said they were. A couple people got up to oppose it at the Town Council meeting and then after fully supporting it, she votes against it. 

"We all get criticized. If you can't take the criticism then maybe you shouldn't be doing this. There were never any personal attacks, it was just criticism for changing her stance all the time on important matters."

Morelli is confident in the Democratic ticket.

"I think we have done a good job, especially controlling the budget in difficult economic times," Morelli said. "Because of the decisions we have made as a Council, the town has a chance to have a very solid future. We need to keep working hard on economic development. There are some projects we have started that I would like to see through."