I have served on the Representative Town Meeting Finance Committee with Oscar Heller for three years, during one of which he served as chair, and I can enthusiastically recommend his candidacy for a three-year seat on the Brattleboro Selectboard.
Oscar is a flatlander who came to Vermont as a camper and then counselor at Camp W in West Brattleboro. Those summer experiences made him commit to Brattleboro as a place where he wanted to make his life and his work (which is in web design and marketing).
Brattleboro's budget provides for the services residents receive, is the foundation for addressing problems facing the community, and determines the taxes we pay. Because of his dedicated work on the Finance Committee, Oscar has deep knowledge of the budget, and he can work the numbers.
He has also been a member of Representative Town Meeting for five years and served for five years on the Energy Committee, including as chair.
Representative Town Meeting approved a motion in 2023, calling on the Selectboard to allocate American Rescue Plan Act funds only after engaging with the public as to its preferences for use of those funds. In Selectboard meetings before and after, members of the public asked - really, begged -
The Brattleboro Representative Town Meeting (RTM) elects each year members of the body to serve as a Finance Committee to review the budget as proposed by the Selectboard so as to improve the ability of RTM members to make an informed judgment as they vote on the budget article.
If I found $1,000 in the street, I'd grab it and be a happy camper. Now, the wizards in Washington plan to send me $1,000, maybe more. I'm certainly not rich, but I don't really need the money. I'd like to see some entity in town - the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce, Strolling of the Heifers, or another nonprofit - serve as vehicle to which I (and others like me) could donate all (or part) of our COVID-19 checks...