The most important criteria for government experts and contractors is how well they work with the government. Our taxes pay for the Town lawyers who defend the government from the encroachment of the public into the policy and decision making process. Always and everywhere; the minimum possible legal participation is the maximum allowed to the people.
Everywhere in Tompkins County: self-serving policies and draconian regulations are enacted – without the involvement or oversight of the people — while contracted experts gain career longevity by showering the residents with carefully worded misrepresentations and intellectually dishonest paradigms.
At Town and County policy “hearings”; the public is informed that they can’t ask questions, and should be grateful they can sign up to speak for two minutes; because they don’t have that legal right.
County Authorities [and their cronies] don’t worry that a thoroughly cowed and conforming public will burn down their money-changing halls and establish a radical form of society: representative government.