Your editorial misunderstood the actual reason for our choice of method to select a School Board appointment. As I explained to your reporter, having the first councilor that raises their hand to nominate a potential board member meant the entire council had to vote that candidate up or down before considering any other candidate. We would then have to go on to the next candidate, and the next until someone was selected. What an awkward and embarrassing way to make an appointment. It was that, and not a desire for secrecy, that made us the pick lesser of two poor choices forced on us by the City Charter.

Even the councilors who did not support this procedure came around to that position after our prior experience some months ago. It may not be the best way to make an appointment, but it was our only other option without amending the charter.

I personally don’t care who knows who I voted for, and by the way, as I told your reporter, it was Matthew Perkins and not James Doane. Councilor Eben Rose voted for Perkins, too, and he doesn’t care who knows. So the editorial was wrong about that, too.

City Councilor Brad Fox
South Portland 

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