Hello, folks. My name is Gabriel. When an incumbent Selectboard member runs for re-election, there should be at least one challenger. You deserve a choice. After unsuccessful attempts to recruit many worthy long term residents to step up, I refused to witness what would have been the 3rd time in 4 years in which the residents of this democratic town did not have a true choice of who serves on our town’s top governing body. I hope you welcome an alternative option and become inspired to vote for someone who will bring a different voice and tone to town service. In addition to the above, I will share four of the reasons I’m running for office.
First, I believe that our treasured rural town needs representatives with humility who consider the needs of the entire community with an open ear, a curious mind, and an open heart. I will be a representative who is accessible and engages in thoughtful, productive, and respectful dialogue with all of the town’s constituents. Worthington’s selectboard should have members who view their roles as hard-working and gracious community servants. Over the past year, I have had many conversations with our residents, including those who are vocal on town issues and those who are not. While I hear appreciation for the service of our town’s governors, I also commonly hear expressions of frustration, confusion, cynicism, and resignation.
I have listened to folks speaking of our town’s previous culture of governing that was less defensive, less paternal, more helpful, more joyful, and more infused with the courage to say, “I don’t know for sure, I’ll get back to you.” Fellow residents talk of bygone days of a selectboard that was more focused on nurturing and protecting our wonderful and unique rural character, natural beauty, and sense of neighborly community. While well intentioned, I have heard many stories of a Selectboard that often caters or shrinks to the complaints of the loudest, most familiar, or grumpiest individuals and fails to more patiently balance those voices with the larger good of the entire community. These missteps are also reflected when the board consistently defends town employees in the face of widely echoed and repeated concerns. We deserve a governing body that has the strength to balance support of OUR (not their) dedicated town employees with the spine to respond in actionable and common sense ways to justifiable, reasonable, and repeated grievances from their constituents.
We must return the culture of your selectboard to a constituents first model that is rooted in a more patient, helpful, and community nurturing. This will not happen overnight, but with persistence and a willingness to not shrink at initial obstacles we will succeed in reclaiming and building back our lost sense of town community. I relish at finding creative solutions that are not immediately obvious at first glance. This is one of many valuable skill sets I developed over years managing, protecting, and developing many successful artist’s careers with diligent project management which included motivating diverse teams of employees and volunteers towards shared goals. This will be a contrast to the seemingly current tone of top-down control that often at best results in a clumsy overreach of authority, at worst results in an abuse of power our residents resent and our bylaws do not grant them.
Second, I will make sure we do everything we can to provide critical services and support to Worthington through a range of innovative initiatives that advance the well-being of all the members of our community, young and old. For just one example, I am excited to creatively work with multiple partners and agencies in seeking to establish a mobile pharmacy that will provide much needed prescription health care directly to community members who face challenges with immediate prescription needs. This is one example of many ideas of how innovative collaboration can improve our town.
Third, I am dedicated to working together with enthusiasm and creativity for an affordable future of the town as we face rising property values and cost-of-living increases. I believe the selectboard’s primary responsibility is to the welfare of its constituents. Many of our residents are on fixed incomes, and we must work to have more transparent and fair assessments. We are too reliant on increases in property tax revenue through raising the assessed values of people’s homes. If elected, I intend to explore alternatives that don’t encumber our residents. This means ensuring that we are taking every possible step to find ways to advance effective services while minimizing the burden on citizens. In the past 3 years I have not seen our Selectboard prioritize consistently seeking appreciable funds through state, federal, private, and non-profit grants to help defray costs of needed services. These are the types of solutions that may seem like long shots, but we need to not shrink from the puzzle of sustaining an affordable quality of life while balancing our budget. We must try everything we can and I will prioritize creating, recruiting, leading and supporting a committee of your peers to stubbornly and optimistically research and pursue outside funding sources for our town. Another project would be to collaborate with motivated and connected current long term residents to proactively thoughtfully develop and discreetly pitch tangible paths for well healed distant town alumni to possibly and enthusiastically contribute back to our town. I of course will absolutely be a fierce and supportive champion of our many varied and thriving local businesses while pursuing new possibilities for public and private partnerships with them to offset costs and/or bring additional revenue and local job opportunities to our town.
Fourth, you deserve a more transparent, humble, and accountable town government. While we have our share of citizens strongly engaged in civic life, I have heard from many from our community who say they do not often understand how the selectboard operates and makes many of their decisions. I have also heard from residents who lament that they frequently are the last to learn about these decisions that affect their daily lives. It’s easy for our leaders to blame that ignorance on its residents’ apathy, but the onus should be on public officials to go out of their way to continue to look for ways to improve their messaging and communicate more simply, comprehensively, effectively, and clearly. For all the uninvited town hall overreach that happens, the selectboard might consider spending more of that policy policing time on policy communicating.. I will collaborate with our wealth of skilled residents with backgrounds in writing, communication, and technology to better inform our residents in more less awkward, more digestible, more graceful, more readable, and more visually attractive ways. I truly believe that a more informed community is essential for the integrity of our town’s democratic tradition and furthermore, will invite greater civic involvement and make our town government much more welcoming and accessible to all.
Like you, I am incredibly grateful for Charley Rose’s nine years of dedicated service to our town. Among many many other acts of service and accomplishments, I am particularly thankful for his tireless efforts with my friend, co-worker, and Hilltown market founder Hunt Chase (and his family) in setting up our local food pantry during the challenging years of the pandemic. I truly look forward to and hope Charley will continue to generously serve our town in a variety of roles. However, I believe when the same people serve in the same position for too long we all risk becoming too comfortable or complacent. After three robust terms from the incumbent (nine years) it is time for a changing of the guard and a fresh accountable voice to serve and represent you without any of the ego or possible entitlement that can unfortunately sometimes accompany unlimited terms in the same position. I think it’s for the better when our elected officials welcome some limits on themselves, especially when they are often a little too comfortable putting limits on all of us. If given the pleasure to humbly serve you on your selectboard, I will serve no more than two terms.
I entered this election because I love and believe in the potential of our small town and in the power of democracy to reach our shared goals. When I look at our selectboard, I see a body of officials instituting local government that either perpetuates a status quo, or oversteps its authority. If elected, I will do everything possible to educate myself on the facts of a matter, or law, carefully before speaking publicly or online. The rest of us can get sloppy, but when your voice comes with the authority of a town hall official, we take for granted that one must be correct assuming you have accurate and reliable information. This is the minimum we should expect from our elected leaders. We do not need to have all the knowledge or answers at our fingertips, but we must be vigilant and humble enough to know when we are not 100% sure of something to just say “I’m not sure”. I will be more thoughtful and careful and respect the factual authority that a voice from our town’s Selectboard assumes.
In closing, as your representative, I will work diligently to enhance the quality of life in Worthington, to ensure an affordable future for our citizens, and to create a fair, accountable, affordable, and transparent government that serves diligently, enthusiastically, humbly, and respectfully to all constituents. Fresh ideas and renewed energy are crucial for our continued growth and success. If elected, I promise to uphold the values we cherish, to work tirelessly to enhance our community, and to be a voice for all. This is more than a campaign; it is a call to action for all who believe in our town’s past and its potential.
Thank you for reading. For more info visit www.GabrielUngerSelectboard.com I hope you consider voting for me in this upcoming election. Together, let’s reaffirm our commitment to liberty, community, and prosperity. Let’s stand united for Worthington, a town we all are proud to call home.
Best wishes to us all,
Gabriel Dylan Unger
Ps. You can vote early this year every weekday from 10am – 1pm (except wednesdays) through May 3rd at Town Hall -or- on Saturday May 4th, 8:30a – 12:30pm at Town Hall. Let’s try to double turnout this year and politely remind town officials that they serve at the pleasure of a hearty and engaged community that cares. Finally, please consider dropping by our annual town meeting also on May 4th at Conwell Elementary at 9:30am (even more so if you have yet to attend one of our annual town meetings or rarely do!
You have my vote your statement covered the concerns of most residents. Make sure this statement is accessible to all country journal Post Office etc
I would like to hear your position on granting variances for profit-making events on property that is zoned for residential use, and I would like to know whether you will recuse yourself from decisions involving the use of your property for public events.