An editorial and two corrections

It was sweet to see a few folks publicly speak up to defend our friend and community member, a woman who has contributed to our island in many, many ways.  The "Letter to the Editor" on Page 4 speaks to this.

However, I wasn't surprised to learn that everyone of these people had not attended even one LTC meeting or watched any of the six recordings available for free on the Islands Trust website.

Nor was I surprised that these folks did not notice that last month's "LTC: Year in Review" article specifically referred to Trustees.  Nobody was evaluated on a personal level. These "public servants" were analyzed solely on the basis of what they did or didn't do as a Trustee. I attended every LTC meeting in 2023 and have watched every LTC meeting recording from start to finish. This is not enjoyable at the best of times, and when the Trustees perform poorly, it is down right painful to watch.

In the past year, Our Isle & Times ran nine articles highlighting the actions of our Trustees and the Islands Trust staff.  Despite positive community feedback for these reports, only Trustee Peterson showed any signs of responding to them. Remember, the Trustees receive a regular paycheck and have an extensive benefit plan that we, the taxpayers, pay for.  Feedback is critical for anyone to gauge if improvement is required, and the media's role has always been to provide this to those in positions of power.

Mockery is a powerful tool, but only if it is based on reality. And it was a pleasure to see all 3 Trustees at least try to improve at the recent March meeting.

Any paper I edit will be committed to journalistic integrity: show us a fact that has been missed or misrepresented, and a correction will be published.

Speaking of which, Trustee Peterson let me know that he doesn't have 8 meetings a month off island. He has a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 5, with 3 being more usual. We both celebrated that he gets to be at home more often than not.

And thanks go to two community members for pointing out that it was Trustee Lironi who tracked down the audio equipment to make the LTC meetings accessible to the hearing challenged. I suspect it was our beloved Mikaila that made it happen, but let's give the credit to Trustee Lironi.