This letter was published in the latest issue of Barnstable Enterprise. It was read at the public hearing of the Barnstable Charter Commission the other night. Richard Clark tossed it in the circular file last night.
The Greater Hyannis Civic Association expended a fair amount of time and effort through a subcommittee over 3 1/2 months, reported our findings to our members for their concurrence and reported our findings to you last May. We believe you recognized that effort with kind words but we must say that we didn't see or hear much about our suggestions in your discussions, nor do we see much in your preliminary report that addresses the main issue of citizen disenfranchisement in our present charter. To quote our May 8th report, "As an overall comment, a large number of residential owners feel disenfranchised and loss of control of their government under the present workings of our charter. There is also a lack of checks and balances within the structure of the town."
Frankly, we don't see that changing much after reviewing your report and would like to emphasize some major issues that need to be addressed or changed.
1. You must untangle and separate the legislative branch from the executive branch. This has not worked for the benefit of the majority in our town. You must give the voters that power in electing their chief executive. The council president concept does not solve this problem but, in our opinion, just confuses it.
2. Residential property owners tax levy, since this charter has been in force, has risen from 78% to over 90%, which should give us all something to think about. This is wrong and we strongly recommend that a Finance Committee be established that has a heavier hand and better represents taxpayers who pay the bills. Budgets are great but there are always two different sides to money matters depending on whether you are working under the budget or paying for it.
We do not feel that our Finance Advisory Committee has worked effectively over the Charter years. This town now requires over $150 million to operate and produces a two inch thick document. You have to have number-oriented people working on this year round to fully understand the numbers and their meaning. Presenting a document of this complexity to our Town Council and expecting them to fully understand it in a meaningful way is not realistic.
We would like to see more elective and/or appointed officers in Barnstable.
A. The voters have already spoken loud and clear on the Town Clerk position when the question was placed on the ballot last November. Why you wish to disregard this and go against this message in your report is a little baffling.
B. We believe the position of Head Assessor should also be elected. This is a very basic and important task and we believe needs a major independent review and possibly lead to needed changes. This will never happen with the present structure.
C. Personnel Board should be appointed by the Council and have executive powers to set pay grades and pay scales. Some 70% of the cost of running the town is in labor costs and it deserves top attention. There are many other issues in your report that have already been raised in the hearings, but there is one that we would like to still bring up. The issue is Recall, which you eliminated and we strongly disagree with that decision. We believe this should remain as a right. Instead of completely eliminating it, you should have simply increased the difficulty of a recall by raising the requirement to 5% for district positions and 10% for at large.
We often wonder why more people don't engage in the democratic process. Frankly, even though the voter will now vote for 5 councilors instead of one, the dynamics of your proposed Charter, in our opinion, will not change the business workings of our town. We often have people say to us, "What's the use, they do what they want anyway." This may sound like a cop out at first but think about it. If you are not part of the gang, you just don't go to the party.
Lastly, it appears that this Charter Commission is finding difficulty in putting forth a Charter with an elective chief executive which, it seems, many people want. Why not find a way to let the people decide by letting them vote and make the decision on this issue.
Tony Pelletier
President
Greater Hyannis Civic Association
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