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| April 7, 2006 Barnstable Patriot |  |
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Darby water easement...
THE EASEMENT - The proposed easement to protect
a potential public water supply on the town-owned
Darby property in Osterville is making waves.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE A:1
inaccuracies."
Crocker, Joakim and four other councilors
walked the Darby property Monday and then
attended a meeting of the Centerville Civic
Association, at which a seventh member of
the 13-member council, Tom Rugo, appeared.
That resulted in an observation by Crocker
that Joakim could be in violation of the Open
Meeting Law for consensus-building prior to
a scheduled meeting.
The Ostervillecouncilor saidthat it appeared
asif Joakimwas attempting to find agreement
among a majority of her council colleagues to
put the matter off to a later date.
Crocker shared that observation,along with
what Joakim characterized as "threats and
intimidation,"in an e-mail copied to all coun-
cilorsand members ofthe town administration
Wednesday.
If there were a motion to continue or hold
on the item, Crocker wrote, he was prepared
to challenge the action as a violation of the
open meeting law.
Crocker'schallenge may not stand,however,
as there are specific exceptions to the open
meeting law, including site visits.
Accordingto guidelinespreparedbythe state
Attorney General'soffice, "Any on-site inspec-
tion of aproject or program by a governmental
body does not qualify as a meeting. A quorum
isdenned inthe»Lawas asimple majority of the
body unless otherwise denned by applicable
constitution, charter, rule or law."
InBarnstable,the charter definesaquorumof
the council as"onehalf ofthetotal membership
of the town council plus two."That places the
quorum at 8.5 members, effectively nine.
Whether the item would end up with a vote
or a continuance last night was uncertain at
press time.
The easement does not require a formal
public hearing and it was not advertised as
such, but Council President Hank Farnham
planned to treat it as such, with the council's
indulgence. Farnham expected alarge turnout
for the meeting, which also featured public
hearings on the 2007 capital improvement
plan, for which individual hearings on each of
the 22 items will be held.
The Easement
The easement sought inthe order now before
the council would protect two potential sites,
each with the DEP-required 400-foot radius.
COMM's consultant , Douglas DeNatale of
Earth Tech in Concord , said that a two-well
system would have the benefit of drawing the
greatest amount of water from the site with
the least effect.
Some of the protected area is underwater,
taking some of the pond-area into consider-
ation.
Crocker saidMonday's site visit was to show
that the topographyof the easement areawould
be difficult to develop because of the steep
grades and the proximity to the ponds.
The easement request was supported by
voters at last year's COMM annual meeting,
where $133,000 over 10years was approved for
maintenance and the creation of parking areas
on the property to make it more accessible to
the public.
The request now before the council is the
follow-up step to that vote.
The COMM Board of Water Commission-
ers unanimously supports further testing of
the Darby sites, as well as other sites in the
district.
"Weneed to protect it,"water board chairman
Bill Mclntyre said in an interview Thursday.
Crocker has also taken to recording all of his
councilcorrespondence onthismatter with the
town clerk's office, making it a public record.
In addition, Crocker has filed a Freedom
of Information Act request of all councilors
for their e-mail correspondence on the Darby
easement issue.
Crocker said that Joakim and others are
attempting to "triangulate" the discussion of
wellprotection and open space into affordable
housing.
The easements do not seek conservation
restrictions for the remaining portion of the
Darby property, a section of which would still
be available for housing development.
A Request for Mediation
Councilor Curtis serves as liaison to the
town's housing committee, which voted and
sent a request, through Curtis, to have the
agenda item postponed and moved into me-
diation to resolve land use issues.
That was brought to the council agenda
meeting on March 27, where the issue was
discussed, but no decision reached.
Crocker views the discussions of this item
at the housing committee and the Centerville
CivicAssociation asspecifically excluding him,
although he is the sponsor and could bring
additional information to bear.
"At times, there 's a real lack of cooperative
spirit for the good of the council," Crocker
said.
To some of his colleagues, Crocker is seen
as a disruptive and bullying force , which they
suggest ismore to blame for his exclusion than
anything else.
In her April 5 response to Crocker, Joakim
wrote that there are residents who choose to
say nothing "lest they be the subject of your
wrath."
That comment came as part of a challenge
to Crocker's dual role in the easement request
as a town councilor and as an elected member
of COMM's prudential committee. This has
been raised as an area of potential conflict of
interest.
"I have tried very hard to keep my compo-
sure with you Councilor/C-O-MM Prudential
Committee member Crocker,"Joakim wrote in
response to one of Crocker 'swritten inquiries,
"but you need to know that the majority of
the concerns I have received, the ones that
residents have been reluctant to share with
you lest they be the subject of your wrath, is
that whether or not it is legally unethical, the
overlapping of your elected positions regard-
ing this issue and others, is, at the very least,
giving the appearance of a conflict of interest ,
if not such."
The Town Manager's Position
Town Manager John Klimm said that he
would support whatever action the council
takes on the easement. He does not see the
easement as precluding other development
options on the Darby parcel, or on other po-
tential sites identified for affordable housing
in Osterville.
Klimm said that he has not been asked di-
rectly for a recommendation on the deal, but
"we certainly have made it very clear that we
have recommendations that deal with Darby
and other parcels. "
The town manager was among five people to
sign an agreement sketching out a plan cov-
ering the development of housing and water
production that allowed access to the Darby
site by the COMM water department and its
consultants for well testing.
Klimmsaid that the agreement, whichspeaks
to the support of other affordable housing and
ultimately a conservation restriction on the
remainder of the Darby property if the village
meets its housing goals, was done prior to the
testing. He called the test result a "significant
change in the universe " with respect to the
public supply needs of the town.
The easements sought this week do not seek
any additional restrictions on the land.
"It's still a sound document ," Klimm said of
that agreement.
"That site will be used at some point in time
and we can't let it disappear on us,"Mclntyre
said. He was also a signer of the earlier agree-
ment.
The issue of preserving is likely to resurface
as the town council is presented with the re-
drafted Local Comprehensive plan later this
year. The Osterville Village Plan includes the
following language: The Village desires that
the Darby parcel be preserved. No land bank
purchases for open space parcels occurred
within the boundaries of the village.This raises
the urgency to preserv e the Darby parcel in
its entirety.
The recommended strategy for accomplish-
ing this includes "To impress upon our Town
Manager and Town Councilor and remaining
Town Council body of the need to preserve
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By David Still II
dstill@barnstablepatnot.com
Jim Crocker of Ostervillehas apersonal and
political history with the Darby property.
Personally, he is a user of the conserva-
tion area, which he enjoys with his family.
Politically, it is the issue that got him elected
in 2003, when he defeated incumbent Carl
Riedell.
Crocker sought to protect the land from
any development , while Riedell supported a
town plan to construct an affordable housing
development there, although he worked to
reduce the number of units.
It was Town Manager John Klimm'sambi-
tious 2001 affordable housing plan, ratified
and supported by the council, that brought
Darby to the forefront. Among the strategies
in the housing plan was making town-owned
land available for development ,which would
serve as a subsidy by lowering acquisition
costs and add another layer of control regard-
ing the type of development and percentage
of affordable housing to be created.
For Darby, the initial plan was for 140 units
of rental housing with about a 50-percent
affordability rate. Through the work of then-
councilor Riedell and the Osterville Village
Association , a compromise plan for 87 units
of total housing at Darby gained the support
of the town council in November 2002. The
village association sought additional protec-
tions on the remainder of the land, which
were to be granted if additional affordable
units were created in the village. The com-
promise plan sketched out how that could
be achieved.
It was that compromise that served as the
basis for the Crocker-led recall attempt on
Riedell in March 2003. Twice, the necessary
signatures were collected , the first petition
deemed legally inadequate by TownAttorney
Bob Smith. The recall was eventually pulled
back on what amounted to a gentlemen's
agreement between Crocker and Riedell.
The 2003 COMM annual meetinginMay had
to be continued to June because of a Darby-
fueled overflow crowd. On the warrant was
an article seeking to authorize the COMM
Prudential Committee, on which Crocker
served,to take aportion of the Darby property
from the town by eminent domain.
That failed , but Crocker successfully
amended an article seeking to explore po-
tential new public well sources in the dis-
trict to include testing on Darby. From that
exploration , for which eight test wells were
drilled, one area was identified a potential
well site capable of more than one million
gallons per day.
Last year, COMM voters approved an ar-
ticle seeking the easement now in question
to protect that water source.
Crocker and
Darby: Political
and personal ties