Animal Cruelty as Public Policy, 5: Conflicting Interests, Bullying and Official Cowardice

OP ED

No one disagrees that overpopulation of deer is a problem everywhere in Westchester or that something should be done about it. The central issue is whether medieval inhumane hunting methods in which animals are cruelly injured and bleed to death is the way to attack the problem in Anno Domini 2010.

The Village Board’s Sept. 20 postponement of consideration of a local deer bow hunting law for a mere two weeks would be laughable if it were not a clear indication that the administration is suddenly aware that they are moving too fast. The public sees no reason for the unseemly haste with which this unpopular legislation is being railroaded through. What has been glaringly lacking is thoroughgoing public discussion of such pressing issues as alternatives, public safety, privacy and risk management, to name but a few.

In Croton, the process of approving new laws is a surreal extravaganza of Marxian proportions—not Karl Marx but the Marx Brothers. Burlesque would be a better word to describe the rampant conflict of interest in the process. Although Fran Allen had pointed out the lack of supporting evidence to the Waterfront Advisory Committee (WAC), three Committee members, including Trustees Olver and Murtaugh, found no inconsistency in the proposed change to Croton’s hunting ban.

After their positive vote and undeterred by the clearly evident conflict of interest, two of the WAC members (Messrs. Olver and Murtaugh) will take off their WAC hats and don new hats as Village Board members. “Imagine that,” they will exclaim. “The WAC sees no conflict between deer hunting and waterfront revitalization. Now let’s pass this law quickly!”

In another classic display of a conflict of interest, at least two members of the Conservation Advisory Committee, which proposed this inhumane and dubious solution to the deer problem, were allowed to speak interminably at Village Board meetings, to spread inconsistencies about deer counts, and lie that neighboring communities embrace a similar law. The Village Board has yet to explain why proponents receive unlimited time at meetings to “educate” the public about the glories of bow hunting deer, while opponents are strictly limited to five minutes.

Fran Allen, who is both a national and a local treasure and who has spent her working life in the service of logic and the scientific method, carefully explained her vote as based on a total lack of scientific evidence to support a decision either way. Not content with having easily won a 3 to 1 vote in the WAC, Trustee Olver, in a Stalinesque ultimatum, then abandoned all decorum and publicly demanded that Fran Allen be removed from the chair she has held these many years. Later he demanded that she resign.

Ignoring an opportunity to apologize to Ms. Allen, Trustee Olver resumed his unrelenting attack on her. Trustee Olver has frequently exhibited an annoying penchant for patronizingly lecturing Crotonites and tediously belaboring the obvious. Apparently, a lifetime spent on the global public purse explaining to villagers in the hinterlands of the Third World how a flush toilet works has distorted his perception of Croton voters’ level of intelligence, making his frequent absences from meetings more welcome than his presences.

Ernest Hemingway once defined courage as “grace under pressure.” During this embarrassing performance by Trustee Olver, the Mayor and other Village Board members, three able-bodied men and a woman, sat stiffly, staring straight ahead, each with the same grim expression on their Great Stone Faces. No one said, “Just a damn minute, Mr. Olver, a public meeting is neither the time nor the place to be attacking Fran Allen for her vote.” In the face of a cowardly, bullying assault on the character and integrity of an unpaid longtime volunteer, it is obvious that courage is a commodity in extremely short supply with Croton’s paid governing body.

It so happens that voters denied Mr. Olver reelection in March of this year, and he was appointed by Mayor Leo Wiegman to finish what's left of Ms. Restuccia’s term. Presumably, he serves at the pleasure of the Mayor. Mr. Olver has given every indication that he wishes to commit political suicide. It’s your move, Mr. Mayor.