BY TED SHOCKLEY, Eastern Shore Post
Northampton County Administrator Matt Spuck said a Thursday, July 9, meeting between the county and towns about communication of housing needs will be held virtually because an "intent to disrupt" the in-person meeting.
"I believe this is the best way to ensure everyone can participate in a productive conversation without distraction," Spuck said in an email to town and county representatives.
Northampton County zoning watchdog Ken Dufty told County Administrator Matt Spuck in a Wednesday, July 8, email that it will take the sheriff to remove he and others from the Thursday meeting between town and county officials.
In an email chain Dufty sent to the Eastern Shore Post, Spuck told Dufty that the meeting will not include a “public body conducting business,” nor is it a public hearing or public information meeting, so it is not a public meeting.
“There will continue to be opportunities for public participation as the process continues,” Spuck told Dufty.
Dufty, a critic of a proposal to allow greater housing density in the town edge zoning district, was not having it.
“We will be there and we will attend,” he wrote back. “I suggest you notify Sheriff Doughty and if he removes us from the building or bars us from attending, so be it.”
“Last I checked, and so far, public participation is not a crime," Dufty wrote.
In a previous email, Dufty said he addressing the issue “in concert with” other zoning watchdogs Debbie Campbell and Steve Lawson, and Donna Bozza, executive director of Citizens for a Better Eastern Shore.
Dufty said after speaking with “several town managers and mayors, we have decided that it would be prudent and indeed necessary for the four of us to attend.”
“Our actions will be respectful, non-disruptive, and well within our First Amendment rights to participate in governmental actions and decisions,” Dufty said.
