Letter to the Editor: Charlie Palmer Discusses his Candidacy

I am running for Trustee for the .  I have been a local resident since 1965.  My wife Terry and I raised our children here and they are now in college.  I have been fortunate to live in Westhampton Beach and would like to help preserve the quality of life my family has enjoyed over the years.

For the past 29 years and have been a municipal accountant and I have provided oversight for an annual budget of 650 Million Dollars.  Our village has an annual budget of 9.5 Million Dollars funded by your hard earned tax dollars.  My accounting experience would be an asset to our board of trustees.

The best way for our Village to save money is for our residents to know where every tax dollar is spent.  Right now, you won’t find the village budget on the village website, much less a disclosure of line item expenditures.  This should be changed, because once you can easily find out where the money goes, everyone will be more careful, and more accountable to you.  When wasteful spending is curtailed your tax dollar goes further.

Our previous trustees have done a good job by making the minutes of village meetings and even video of those meetings available online.  That is good, open government, and we should build on that with even greater transparency. 

As a village, we can always be a little bit better with new ideas that will build on what is great and protect what we value most in Westhampton Beach.  I am asking for your vote on June 15.  Thank you.

— Charles Palmer

To read a Letter to the Editor written by Palmer's runningmate, Ralph Urban click here and to read Trustee Toni-Jo Birk's letter, click here.