Listen more

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The Greek philosopher Diogenes had it right when he said, “We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.”

We’d like to see more listening, particularly at public meetings.

Last week, the Steamship Authority allowed public comment at its meeting at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, but not until after all of its key votes — including one on rate hikes — were taken.

Though several people called out from the audience asking to be heard on the rate increases, SSA board chairman Rob Ranney of Nantucket proceeded with the vote. Marc Hanover, the Vineyard representative, said nothing, and voted along with his fellow board members to increase rates in 2019.

When one of the speakers used part of his time to criticize the board for limiting public comment to the end of the meeting (when there was a rush to get out of the high school’s Performing Arts Center), Ranney was dismissive — answering that the man had “three minutes.”

Though the initial idea to increase excursion rates on Islanders during the summer season was removed from the rate hikes, it still would have been good to hear from those who wanted to speak ahead of the vote.

It turns out they weren’t so much upset about the rate hikes, but instead were urging the SSA to do future increases incrementally, as Josh Goldstein suggested, so they aren’t as dramatic.

The SSA had not increased its rates in four years. The increases will generate $7 million in revenue, money the administration says is needed to offset expenses, and because revenue can be unpredictable.

Meanwhile, the Steamship Authority also did a lousy job getting input on the design of its Woods Hole terminal. Love it or hate it, the design was pretty much a forgone conclusion when the SSA held two public meetings on the designs earlier this month.

That’s disappointing, especially since The Times asked for copies of the proposed designs months ago, and was told there wasn’t anything to show the public.

The two meetings —  one in Woods Hole and the other in Vineyard Haven were billed as ways to get feedback, although not one representative of the SSA could be seen taking notes at the Woods Hole meeting, and the architects made it clear that the site was the best location and they weren’t budging on the size of the building.

Since then, there has been a petition drive and a letter from two state legislators who represent Woods Hole seeking changes to the design. General manager Robert Davis has said they will see if the public’s feedback can be incorporated into the designs.

But the SSA is not alone in being dismissive of public comments.

In July, the Tisbury board of selectmen chairman Tristan Israel eliminated public comment completely from the board’s agenda.

Instead, Israel said he would allow people who wanted to speak about a certain topic to request to be on the board’s agenda.

“If somebody wants to get on the agenda, as long as they get in before noon on Friday, I’m not denying anyone access,” Israel said at the time. “They’ll actually get more time, and we’ll know what it is they want to talk about. That’s the way I want to handle it.”

It sounds great in theory, but hasn’t always worked in practice.

Both the SSA and Tisbury selectmen could take a lesson from the Steamship’s longtime terminal manager Bridget Tobin, who is retiring. Bridget, as demonstrated by the outpouring this week at her retirement reception, is beloved. When we asked people why, the answer was clear.

She always put the public first.

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