West Tisbury works fast and efficiently
West Tisbury voters approved a $12,973,262 operating budget for the 2010 fiscal year that included a two-percent cost of living adjustment (COLA) for town employees at annual town meeting Tuesday.
Today, voters go to the polls from noon to 8 pm at the West Tisbury Public Safety Building. The one ballot question asks whether the town should continue to elect its town clerk. The measure was defeated on town meeting floor.
Voters let town clerk Prudy Whiting know they have appreciated her long, good-natured tenure as town clerk. Ms. Whiting is not seeking reelection. Behind Ms. Whiting, town moderator Pat Gregory puts his hands together. Photo by Ralph Stewart
In the three contested races, Jemima James and Tara Whiting compete for a one-year term as town clerk; incumbent Michael Colaneri, chairman of the assessors, faces a challenge from Jonathan Revere for a three-year term as assessor; and Sarah L. Carr, Harvey W. Garneau Jr., Melissa M. Hackney, and Isaac D. Russell will vie for two seats on the library board of trustees.
Town moderator F. Patrick Gregory declared a quorum shortly after 7 pm with 245 voters in attendance, 11 percent of the town's 2,222 registered voters and more than double the required quorum of 111 voters. More than half, 137 voters, stayed through the three and one half hour meeting to vote on the last of the 45 warrant articles.
Mr. Gregory kept the meeting moving, and voters by and large were willing to follow.
For example, a long, complex proposed bylaw detailing regulations for the construction and use of wind turbines was indefinitely postponed by voters with virtually no discussion, after planning board member Leah Smith said that more time was needed to develop energy regulations in concert with the Vineyard Energy Project and other Island towns.
Poet laureate Dan Waters set the tone for a generally upbeat meeting with a
poetic reading of a humorously wry "Letter From a Small Town" to the U.S. President in which he decried the recent behavior of the financial community: "...If the Dow was a cow, we'd be calling the vet.
And those corporate bonuses -what can we say? We'd be shocked by our pigs if they acted that way. ..." Mr. Waters's verse also advised the president that the town's handling of leaf-eating moths last year qualifies it to solve the current national economic woes, provided Mr. Obama sends a few million dollars.
Jen Rand, executive secretary, alerted voters to a new policy that denies permits of any kind to residents with delinquent tax bills.
Jeffrey S. (Skipper) Manter, chairman of the selectmen, offered a tribute to Prudy Whiting, outgoing town clerk, for 12 years of service marked by "grace, compassion, patience and humor."
Voters reduced to two percent a proposed 3.6-percent COLA called for in the town warrant by the personnel board. Finance committee (FinCom) chairman Al DeVito noted that most employees would also be receiving a five-percent step increase. The FinCom recommended a two-percent COLA. The difference between the one and the other was $40,000, Mr. DeVito said. "Edgartown and Oak Bluffs have voted no COLAs. The average COLA is 1.7 percent Island-wide. Two per cent is fair."
Personnel board executive secretary Maria McFarland, however, argued that many town employees at the top step of the pay scale had not received step increases for 10 years.
Voters resoundingly defeated a proposal to appoint rather than elect their town clerk. "There are so few positions left for us to vote on." Sharon Estrella said. "Do we want to give up what little is left?"
Former selectman John Alley said, "The town has always elected good town clerks. We don't need to expand the pool. We'll do all right in West Tisbury."
The town also passed several articles approving the use of Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds, $30,000 to plan renovation of the First Congregational Church and $100,000, a sum also approved at annual town meeting last year, to fund debt service for the ongoing renovation of town hall.
They also created reserves totaling $450,000 in CPA funds forlater use in affordable housing, open spaces, historicalbuildings, undesignated reserves, and administrative costs.
Les Cutler warned voters not to accept an article allowing the Martha's Vineyard Regional School District to dispose of property housing the superintendent's office at 4 Pine Street in Vineyard Haven. The funds would be used to construct a new office in the future. "This is a 'black box' proposal," he warned, adding that the plan did not include constraints on what the future office would cost. "We'll be left holding the bag. We could be painted in a corner."
Another resident asked why the article exempted the sale from the state's public bidding statutes. "This is valuable real estate. High bidder could get you a McMansion," said one audience member.
Martha's Vineyard Commission member Linda Sibley assured Mr. Cutler that a variety of public hearings would protect the process, adding, "I trust the district to act responsibly, as they have in several other projects." The measure passed by voice vote.
The evening included several unexpected challenges to warrant articles. Spirited debate preceded approval of bylaw changes that designated several roads as special ways, and before a conservation restriction was approved that would be swapped for an additional affordable housing lot off Great Plains Road.
Perhaps the most contentious dialogue of the night preceded passage of an article to designate Stoney Hill Path and Chicama Path as special ways.
Neighborhood resident J.C. Murphy argued at length that the designation would open abutters to additional traffic and liability, in the case of accidents involving users of the path. He also objected to what he termed the town's decision to "just take 20 feet of private property."
Mr. Murphy argued that no definition exists for ancient or special ways, which leaves abutting homeowners open to liability. His motion for indefinite postponement was defeated.
Attorney Cynthia Wansiewicz from the town's law firm of Reynolds, Rappaport & Kaplan, offered a succinct summary. "This bylaw change does not grant or take away any rights that exist today. If people do not have the right to be on your property now, they will not have the right in the future," she said.
Discussion of Article 10, which would create conservation space in the Great Plains Road neighborhood in exchange for an affordable housing lot, evoked comments from several wary residents who generally supported the proposal but wanted assurances that the open space would be preserved. The discussion spilled off-topic into a long-running feud between members of homeowner groups in the area.
Several residents warned the town that it was entering an environment of longstanding disagreement about maintenance of electrical service.
Great Plains Road resident Rebecca Solway said, "This is not about costs and electric lines. This is about conserving the last piece of open land in the Great Plains Road area."
Voters also approved construction of multi-family affordable rental units and agreed to drop the cost of two affordable houses at the 250 State Road affordable housing complex by $170,000 in total and to increase rental subsidies for affordable housing by $66,000.
Several residents, including Chuck Hodgkinson, closely questioned Island Housing Trust executive director Philippe Jordi about an additional $170,000 requested to reduce prices for eight affordable housing units at 250 State Road. The units are designed for residents with incomes below 100 per cent of the area median income.
Noting that commercial builders are offering to build homes for nearly $200,000 less than the IHT was proposing, Mr. Hodgkinson asked for an explanation. Mr. Jordi noted that the construction involved use of "green," energy-saving materials and development of infrastructure.
Several audience members had questions for Affordable Housing Fund executive director Patrick Manning about the AHF's planned use of $50,000 in Community Preservation Committee (CPC) funds granted by the town for financing future and unspecified AHF "go-green" energy efficiency projects.
"We have a track record of doing these projects," Mr. Manning responded, adding that the projects will be reviewed by the CPC. "This is not a slush fund. There is accountability."
In other voting, resident Abigail Higgins offered a budget amendment to increase a proposed $3,850 stipend increase to $5,000 for the town shellfish constable. While Mr. Gregory cautioned the amendment needed to name the position rather than the individual, Ms. Higgins said "I see Tom [Osmers, shellfish constable] out there every day, working for us, regardless of weather. He's got some health issues right now," she said before the amendment was passed.
Voters soundly defeated for a second year the attempt to substitute a secret ballot for voice or hand votes on specific articles, if 20 or more voters request written ballots.
They approved a $5,000 study on water quality in the Mill Pond, bedeviled by weed growth in recent years, and agreed to underwrite the town's share of the County of Dukes County administrative expense and to shoulder an additional share of the expenses of the Health Care Access and Integrated Pest Management programs offered by the county.
