Guest column

by CJ Parsons

Joyce Barnett’s recent statements in a column featured in the Skaneateles Press are disturbing and false. In a rambling and at times incoherent tirade she manages to insult the memory of everyone who has ever served on the Spafford Town Board.

According to Joyce’s revisionist history, Spafford has never had a representative government. We can somewhat understand her confusion as she is not from Spafford and has not lived there long enough to know better. For the uninitiated let me refresh your memory as to who Joyce is and how she got into her current predicament. Joyce is a “professional” fundraiser and she fancies herself an expert in this field. Joyce ran for the town board in 2003 along with Linda Sanders under the guise of providing a “choice” for Spafford voters. This “choice” has turned out to be a disaster for the Spafford Area Historical Society. Her careless behavior on the town board not only threatens the $89,000 grant for the historical society but further funding as well. Now she is trying to shift the blame in the event the grant falls through.

References to the KKK and Frederick Douglass are amusing to say the least. Are we to assume that she fancies herself to be Frederick Douglass and the Republicans on the town board are the KKK. In Joyce’s world anything is possible. The Rodney King reference becomes dearer now that we realize she has dragged Phil Clark into the board meetings with his video camera in the hopes of catching some nefarious activity initiated no doubt by those KKK Republicans. Joyce despairs of facing hate, exclusion, disrespect and ignorance. Well that’s the chance you take when you encourage hate, exclusion, disrespect and ignorance.

She plays the “lone woman”card apparently in the hope of garnering some sympathy from the NOW segment in the garden club. And her habitual and erroneous claim that she ran against unopposed incumbent “men,” who have been in power for “decades” highlights her (dare I say it) ignorance of local politics. Let me clarify. None of the current board members has been in office more than two terms (eight years). In the past eight years there have been more than five changes to the Spafford board six if we include Joyce. Before Gordon Ireland the supervisor was Barb Randall who is a woman. Jeff Lanning, Ron Bourque, Sid Fisher, Debra Fichera and I have all previously served on the board.

None of these individuals served more than two terms, hardly the “decades” Joyce refers to. So why does Joyce continually hold to this claim? She used it as a tactic to win the 2003 election and is forced to defend it or lose credibility with voters who supported her.

Joyce claims, “Representative government did not exist here on the local level.” So exactly what kind of government did exist? Dictatorship? Monarchy? No one has been in office more than eight years.

Somebody better call the FBI. These dramatic claims and hyperbole are hallmarks of the Joyce Barnett style. Now she finds it hard to understand why she is facing a hostile Republican board and growing discontent in the electorate.

But what really shocks me is that people (and some who should know better) continue to support Barnett and believe her tirades.

The town of Spafford has and continues to have one of the finest, fiscally responsible governments in Onondaga County. Additions to the town hail, the transfer station, vital highway equipment, veterans memorial, four corners project and balanced budgets all attest to a responsive, visionary government that has the best interests of the residents of Spafford at heart.

Joyce Barnett’s thoughtless and careless remarks are an insult to the memory of every man and woman who ever gave of their time, talent and effort to serve the town of Spafford.

C.J. Parsons is a resident of Spafford and the vice-chair of the Spafford Republican Party. He was unseated by Joyce Barnett in the Nov. 2003 election for a position on the town board of Spafford.