Dave Bergen Resigns
January 31, 2008 by Joanna · Leave a Comment
This letter was directed to SoutholdVOICE President, John Kramer, and is published here with the permission of the author.
John,
Please consider this my letter of resignation from membership in
SoutholdVOICE. While I am adamant that my membership in the
organization has not influenced my vote on any permits related to
members of the organization in the past, or would in the future, I
understand the perception which might exist with my dual role as member
of SoutholdVOICE and as a Trustee.
I appreciate your understanding.
Sincerely,
Dave Bergen
Dave Bergen is a Southold Town Trustee
LETTER TO EDITOR-SUFFOLK TIMES:
Well, The Top Guns at the Suffolk Times have finally succeeded in getting Trustee Bergen to resign from SoutholdVOICE. While the Newspaper’s leadership may be basking in sanctimonious self-righteousness, they have done the citizenry of the Town a disservice. Good regulation comes from active, cooperative dialog and interaction between all interested stakeholders. Bad and unworkable regulation is the inevitable product of arms-length command and control attitudes and the erection of unneeded barriers. I have never met Dave Bergen nor spoken with him but from watching him in action over the last year or two I have seen a very capable, energetic and task-oriented public servant who understands ethical behavior and who possesses enough common sense to know right from wrong. As a member of SoutholdVOICE, I regret Dave’s resignation. As a subscriber and reader of the Suffolk Times I resent the “perceived conflict of interest barrage” you inflicted on Trustee Bergen. Perception is, by definition, a very personal human process. If you have a dozen people looking at the same issue you can easily get a dozen different “perceptions”. In Bergen’s case the Suffolk Times perception of conflict is totally out of sync with mine. Anyone else have a perception?
Paul Torpey
I wonder if Dave’s resignation from Southold Voice would lead to farmers resigning from any number of agricultural committees or groups. The same could be said of the baymen association and town officials. The fact that Dave’s integrity was even questioned is a sad footnote to politics in Southold.