Letter: ‘It takes three votes’

As a resident of the city of Newport for over 60 years, I have taken great interest in the way our city operates. In watching our Newport City Council in action over the last eight years, it has become obvious that Tim Geraghty is a single voice on the City Council and because he is only 1 vote out of 5, gets out-voted on most issues — especially budget issues where he is consistently out-voted 4-1.

Now again Tim Geraghty wants to serve as mayor and it occurs to me that unless he gets new council members willing to work with him, he will still be a single voice, still 1 vote out of 5. Paraphrasing one of the council members at the Sept. 5 meeting, “It takes three votes.”

This election year we have a chance to make a difference — really make a change in the old status quo on our city council. Not only can we elect a new mayor, but we have the unique opportunity to elect two new members to our city council who will be willing to work with our new mayor Geraghty.

Bill Sumner, who has a background in finance, has for the past three years attended a majority of the city council meetings and shows a keen interest in how the city operates.

Tom Ingemann is a former member of the Newport City Council and a longtime member of the Newport Fire Department. He has council experience and has showed a willingness to work for the people of Newport.

I am supporting Bill Sumner and Tom Ingemann for Newport City Council as well as Tim Geraghty for Mayor. They are all independent thinkers unwilling to toe the line, willing to listen to the citizens of Newport for a change.

So unless we are satisfied with the way our city is being run, we need more than Tim Geraghty for Mayor. We need two new council members willing to work with him for the people of Newport. Those two are Bill Sumner and Tom Ingemann. After all, “It takes three votes.”

Tags: newport, timgeraghty, billsumner, tomingemann, letter, election