Fwd: What a week - update from Montpelier

[Steven Moyer]

From: Gwendolyn Hallsmith <gwendolyn...@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Oct 27, 2013 at 1:23 PM
Subject: What a week - update from Montpelier
To: st...@stevemoyer.us

Hi ! I need your help  Please send letters to the editor in support of the New Economy. Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Friend on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend Join Vermonters for a New Economy!  We are a group of individuals and organizations who are working to design and enjoy all the new ways we can own and operate businesses, earn income, make exchanges, do our banking and investment, and measure the economy's contribution to human and environmental well-being.  We support sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and energy efficiency, creativity and knowledge based enterprises, affordable housing, and healing arts as the economic drivers of Vermont's future.  Click here to be added to our mailing list.   What a week! As you all know by now - I am writing this as a private citizen.  Nothing I say here implies any endorsement, implied or otherwise, of the Montpelier city government.  In fact, after what I've been through this week, it's fair to say that they don't endorse any of it.  And that's the problem... There are two things happening in Montpelier at the same time, and for similar reasons.  Both are aimed at me, and have made my job and my private life very difficult.  The first, reported this week, is the ongoing attempt of the city administration to silence me.  This has taken two forms - the first was a directive stating that I could not speak at all, anywhere, on any subject that might reflect badly on the city, particularly public banking.  I have all this in writing, and I have given the memos to the newspaper.   They must have received some legal advice after issuing the first memo, because the broad directive was rescinded a couple weeks later only to be replaced with an attack on my job performance, a list of directives that are impossible to achieve or measure, and further directives that impair my work and my free speech, including one that compels me (on the job) into speech that is not protected under the First Amendment if I'm a public official.  In short, it's a trap.   The first motivation for doing this has now been broadcast in news across the country - it made the wire service and was reported in Boston, Seattle, Houston, San Francisco, Indiana, and many other places.  The second, a much more local issue, is to try and discredit me and ignore the 100 year sustainability plan the city adopted in 2010.  This plan is the city's Master Plan, and has the force of law until it is amended.  It is supposed to guide the zoning we enact, but for the last two years, the City Council has appointed people to the Planning Commission who have a stated intent, now in full view at the City Council meeting last week, to move forward with the zoning without regard to what the plan or other city policies say.  We need long term vision to help chart our way through the troubled waters we are in right now, economically and environmentally.  The entire city was involved in drafting the plan - hundreds of stakeholders, countless meetings, an innovative prioritization process that allowed people to go through the different strategies and say which ones were most important and immediate.  I was not even at the City Council meeting when it was adopted - the room was filled with people who wanted it to be the city's official policy.  (I had to be in Iceland to give a talk about monetary policy, currency, and economic development).  The city leadership ignores this at their peril.  Especially in a city like Montpelier, where people care deeply about the city and its future.   Action on the New Economy After New Economy Week was over, a group of us got together to strategize about the next steps.  Here is what we came up with as a tentative action plan. Mapping and Measuring Vermont's New Economy:  We have started this project, which can be seen on line by clicking this link - Vermont's New Economy.  We need to make it bigger, more interactive, and to find ways to publicize it so people can self-organize their way into posting things on the map.  Caroline DeCunzo said she was interested in continuing that effort, but she needs help. Communicating our Message:  This is a critical step for moving forward.  We need to find new ways to talk about the new economy and what Vermont is doing.  As good fortune would have it, Elizabeth Courtney has indicated an interest in leading an effort on this front.  We have a meeting planned early next month, so we'll keep you posted on that.   Public Bank Town Meeting Campaign:  The town meeting campaign is underway - last week we had kick-off events all over the state.  We need to find organizers in more towns, and we need help coordinating the organizing efforts in various parts of the state.  Rob Williams has indicated an interest in doing this.  Please contact him and write to me if you're willing to make calls to potential organizers in different towns.  If we divide the state up into five or six areas, that should help us get the word out. We have compiled some very helpful lists of towns where the different legislators serve, and the town clerks to help with this effort.  You can see the lists and all the materials for the campaign by clicking this link:  Public Bank Campaign Materials. These three areas of focus are a good start.  If you are interested in helping us with any of them, let me know.  We also need to convene the steering committee of the entire effort again.  The steering committee should consist of people who represent these three areas of focus, and who are interested in leading the initiative.  Ideally, there would be two or three people from each area on the steering committee who will also take responsibility for making sure the individual initiatives keep moving forward.  If you are interested in taking on this work, please let me know. Here's the list so far: Measuring and Mapping:  Caroline DeCunzo, Marta Ceroni Communications:  It might be that Elizabeth will lead this effort - TBD Public Banking:  Rob Williams, Dan Jones We need more people who want to lead our efforts.  Please consider joining one of the committees, and working in your area on it. Letters to the editor at the Times Argus are also very helpful, both on the issues of public banking and free speech, and on the city's long term sustainability plan.  Please write to Steve Pappas if you'd like your voice to be heard.  This is a critical week, so it would really be great if you could just stop what you're doing, right now, and write a letter.      follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend   unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

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Steve Moyer
http://stevemoyer.us 
http://synergynation.net
http://nodes.net  ( NODES Network )

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