A Westminster residents? group has scored one victory and faced one defeat in its first two weeks of existence.
Downtown is already a safer place after a recent meeting between local police and the Greater Westminster Citizens? Coalition, according to residents.
“I was just out on Main Street, and for the first time in 10 years, there aren?t druggies and derelicts hanging out,” the group?s founder and president, Carter Clews, said Tuesday.
But the group?s request for an immediate performance audit was denied.
Council Member Robert Wack said Carroll County agreed to do a “limited” performance audit on oneor part of one city department, but said he wanted to wait until after new accounting software was implemented.
“We?d be wasting and squandering a real valuable thing,” Wack said.
Joseph Varrone, county administrator for performance auditing, said Tuesday that this was the first time he had been asked to do a performance audit for a municipality, and it wouldn?t have to be limited to one time.
How much it would cost Westminster in terms of money or in an exchange of services, if at all, has not been determined, Varrone said.
“The county has offered it, so Mr. Wack ought to take it,” said Clews, who has said he has no intention of running for council or mayor.
Other residents, like Mary Haifley, also welcomed the idea of a performance audit.
“A lot of people haven?t the foggiest idea of how you spend our tax dollars,” she said.
The coalition, which was formed after a tax increase last month, will hold its first town meeting Thursday with Westminster Police Chief Jeffrey Spaulding, who will address police?s ramped up efforts to combat public drunkenness on the streets and boost safety for residents.
“We have assigned additional bike and foot patrols in downtown to address” residents? concerns, Spaulding told Westminster Common Council on Monday.
