Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1921-04-15

|
"This request that you favor us with
admission to your sessions is not a
matter of personal interest on the part
OF the present management of The
Register AS in your own case it will
mean, if granted, the devoting of an
entire evening to public service, when
) perhaps something else would be more
) pleasureable from a selfish viewpoint.
'It is said that to grant an invita-
ton or admission to your sessions
would be unprecedented. What of
/, that? Every day in one form or an
other we ignore precedent.
III YOU gentlemen see fit to welcome,
or even tolerate a reporter from The
Register at your deliberations, you
will not have cause to regret the step.
We think sincerely that the coopera-
ton between the administration and
the newspaper of this village will mean
much to our own mutual advantage, to
YOU in a better informed and more
contented electorate or public support,
and to us in our more extensive ser
vice to our readers, your friends and
our friends we trust
When Mr. RosSiter had finished
speaking, Allen R. Sturtevant, the
legal counsel OF the Trustees, said that
it was wholly a matter of whether or
not the Trustees were willing to per-
NIT a reporter at their meetings. They
could make a regulation in that re-
gard that would be sufficient in itself,
he said While the public has an in.
terest in the news of the marriages of
local parties, the public has no right
to inquire into the details of their
courtship, he continued. Mr.. RoSster
objected that the cases were not par
aIlel in as much as courtship is a
matter of personal inte3est to the
couple concerned but that the Trus-
tees met to transact business OF in
terest to everyone in the community.
Mr. Sturtevant denied the exception
taken and likened the value OF secrecy
in the deliberations of the Board to
the privacy of the conferences of bank
directors in deciding on loans re-
Quested
Both Mr. Sturtevant and Mr.. Rossi-
ter left the room Immediately after
the former had finished speaking. BY
this time Mr. Pinney had entered the
neeting and took the chair Mr..
Hammond was the only absentee.
The letter that had been written by
Mr. Rossiter to the president of the
Board Robert F Pinney, and which
was never answered. was occasioned by
criticisms made by Mr.. Pinney to him
] 10 Of tosr
meeting of the Trustees and Water
| Commissioners
January 30, 1921
Nr. Robert F. Pinney,
Chairman Board of Trustees,
Middlebury
Dear Mr.. Pinney:-
The management of The Register
4 has received several complaints during
| the past months that its reports of
the meetings of the Board OF Village
/ Trustees have lacked accuracy. You
will readily appreciate our disappoint-
ment in such criticism. Will you please
help us in remedyng this shortcoming
in public service by permitting us to
be represented at the deliberations OF
the Board
We respectfully urge your attention
to our request for the reason that we
will both be better servants of the
community. and this is our mutual
business. in that we will not be obliged
to RELY upon second hand authority
for our information and that you will
not be misquoted.
You will recognize that as officials
OF the public, and as Trustees you
serve only the public. there would
be real advantage in giving the news
papers an opportunity to report your
meetings.
Very truly yours,
THE REGISTER CO., INC,
per D. P Rosster,
In a personal letter to Mr.. Rossiter, !
editor of The Register, Mr. F. E.
Howe, editor of the Bennington Ban
ner, described briefly the welcome ac-
corded a reporter at the meetings of
the Trustees of that village. He wrote |
as follows
'T have lived and worked in a
dozen or more towns and cities and
never yet heard of board of trustees |
or city council holding their meetings
in secret. Executive sessions are war
ranted and desirable in discussing con-
tracts where an effort is being made to
get lower price, but even in these
cases the actual award should be in
public In Bennington the representa-
tive of the Banner remains in at the |
executive sessions with the understand
ing that he is not to print things in /
process where a trade might be upset |
before completed" Mr.. Howe is presi-
dent of the Vermont Press Association
and was Lieutenant governor OF Yer /
mont in l9l5-17.
When in comforting with four of the
seven members of the Board previous /
to the Tuesday meeting, Mr.. Rossi-
ter requested that they listen favor
ably to his request for admission to
the sessions, the principal objection
raised was the liability OF themselves
being bothered by the objections and
suggestions of the public regarding the
measures proposed. "The work was
difficult enough" said one. without