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April 14, 2006     Barnstable Patriot
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April 14, 2006
 
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I Know the Market.Know the Town. Only in ftfje iarnstablt patriot 396 Main St., Suite 15. Hyannis. MA 02601 508/771-1427 • Fax 508/790-3997 E-mail: infoCabarnstablepatriot.com • www.banistablepatriot.com . i COUNTY CLIPPINGS I CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Mohammad AH Chaudry, Ph.D. A dialog on Islam Mohammad Ali Chaudry, president and co-founder of the Center for Understand- ing Islam, will host an inter- faith and intra-faith dialog on "Understanding Islam" April 27 at 7 p.m. in the Grossman Upper Commons at Cape Cod Community College. Chaudry, a native of Pakistan who holds degrees from the London School of Economics and Tufts Uni- versity, was elected mayor of Bernards Township in New Jersey in 2004, becom- ing the first Pakistani-born mayor in America. Parking in lots 9 and iO is most convenient to the Commons. Budget hearing is Wednesday The finance committee of the Assembly of Delegates will host a pubic hearing on the Fiscal Year 2007 county budget Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the Assembly chamber at First Barnstable District Court House in Barnstable Village. Flex your public transit muscle With the debut of Flex bus service between the Harwich Chamber of Commerce on Route 28 in Harwich Port and Dutra's Market in North Truro June 1, Barnstable residents will be able to travel car-free to some Lower Cape beaches and other points of inter- est. There are connections to Plymouth & Brockton buses as well as Provinc- etown/North Truro shuttle. Using the H20 service from the Hyannis Trans- portation Center, riders can connect to the new Flex service, which will operate from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week through Labor Day. The genius of the plan is that it allows deviations of up to three-quarters of a mile off the main route, with advance notice of at least two hours. Fares are expected to be $1 for the fixed route, with a dollar surcharge for off- route destinations. People with disabilities and those 60 and older would pay 50 cents. The Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority is exam- ining its entire fee structure with an eye toward reduc- ing fares, according to a press statement. To lean more, go to www. TheFlex.org Join the Senior Corps An information session on the Senior Environment Corps of Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands will be held Wednesday from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Bourne Senior Center. Anyone over 55 is invited to learn how to make a con- tribution to protecting the Cape's environment. Call 508-394-3596, ext. 175, to register. Name a modern-day Mercy The deadline is June 1to submit nominations for the 5th annual Mercy Otis War- ren Cape Cod Woman of the Year Award, which will be presented on July 4 outside Barnstable Superior Court House. The award honors the Revolutionary-era writer. Nominees must be Cape residents who have "dem- onstrated leadership in the Cape Cod community and made a significant con- tribution to any of the following: the arts, educa- tion, business, community involvements embracing the ideals of patriotism." Brochures will be avail- able at town hall May 1. Cape Light shines The federal Environmen- tal Protection Agency gave the Cape Light Compact its ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award last month in Washington, D.C. The recognition was for the Compact's varied energy efficiency programs, which it estimates has saved more than 10.5 million kilowatt ' hours or more than $1.5 million per year. Darby water easement OK'd THE MANY MOODS OF JIM CROCKER - Osterville s Jim Crocker is among the more animated town councilors on the dais, as his expressions and movements during last Thursday's Darby debate demonstrate. CONTINUED FROM PAGE A:1 pointed e-mail correspondence among councilors and hints that alleged vio- lations of the open meeting law had occurred. Crocker and council vice president Janet Joakim were the central figures in that correspondence. At the meeting, Joakim read excerpts from the town'saffordable housing plan, which calls for the development of 87 units of housing on Darby. While two years old,the plan remains Barnstable 's approved housing plan recorded with the state. She asked that the council postpone its vote on the easement until questions relatingto housing and others raised by councilors during the meeting could be addressed. HyannisCouncilor Harold Tobey called the question for avote before any proper vote to postpone was made. Regarding the claims of a potential conflict of interest, Crocker said in an interview this week that the issue of dualrepresentation had been addressed three years ago. A similar complaint was filed against then councilor and elected COMM water commissioner Carl Rie- dell. According to the letter provided by the state Ethics Commission on that complaint, it was determined that "the conflict of interest law does not apply to public/public conflicts within the same town." Crocker saidthat he had also discussed the matter with town attorney Robert Smith. Other Points of Interest In his opening remarks, COMM Pru- dential Committee chairman Nestor Silva, who serves with Crocker on that board , said that it had "been apleasure " working with Crocker. "And we always meet in public ,"Silva said, a not-so-hid- den slight at councilors Crocker accused of violating the open meeting law. Public comment on the issue was mixed, some asking for additional time for questions and issues to be answered and discussed, some asking that the easement go forward and others that it be turned down. Among those seeking its defeat was Tom Lynch, executive director of the Barnstable Housing Authority and signer of a "declaration of mutual inter- est" regarding the Darby property. That document was presented two years ago as a roadmap for water exploration and housing uses on the land. As he did last May at the COMM annual meeting when the easement was first debated , Lynch criticized COMM signatories Bill Mclntyre , chairman of the district's water board , and prudential committee member Nestor Silva for what he saw as a breach of tits provisions. Also as he did last year, Lynch did not include Town Manager John Klimm, another signer of the declaration , in his comments. Klimm was not questioned during the town council meeting and offered no written staff recommenda- tion on the proposal. As town manager, Klimm is responsible for executing any and all agreements on town-owned and controlled land. Klimm told the Patriot last week that if asked, he would recommend that "we certainly have made it very clear that we have recommendations that deal with Darby and other parcels" with respect to housing and water. Assessor tunes in to local tax issues... CONTINUED FROM PAGE A:1 years at Arizona DOR's Locally Assessed Property Division as manager of its commercial sector oversee- ing assistance and advice to local assessors. He then spent eight years with the Maricopa County assessor's office in Phoenix, serving in all capacities up to satellite office manager. He was the assessor in Ox- ford, Mass., for three years before taking the Barnstable post about a month ago. He is grateful, he says, to previ- ous assessor Paul Matheson "who took all the heat" over the massive revaluation that hiked some local valuations by 50 to 60 percent, then through the split-tax imbro- glio that divided the town into two distinct camps -business vs. residential. While the town council passed the split rate, a 20 percent residential exemp- tion and a small business exemption, that isn't the source of the current dis- pleasure with taxes, he said during an interview this week in his office. Oddly, complaints pour- ing into the office these days are concentrated on the "personal property tax" that non-residents are obliged by state law to pay. Few are complaining about the 20 percent exemption, Rudziak says, probably because the change hasn't made that much of a difference in their bills. He said calls have been coming in for several months since the town sent a personal property tax form to all non-resident property owners. "I think most callers are as angry at the intrusion into their privacy as they are over paying the tax," he said. "But it's a state law." He said his predecessor, whose stay was marred by contentious times and abbreviated by early retire- ment, started doing what should have been done all along by his predecessors , such as mailing the personal property tax forms to non- residents rather than value personal property the same each year. "Now the state insists we send the forms," Rudziak said, "and the non-residents getting them are reacting as expected." Permanent resi- dents do not pay a personal property tax. Striking a chord with the aggrieved, Rudziak points out that some non-residents may have legitimate com- plaints about the escalated value of their personal prop- erty but notes their chances of getting an abatement are lessened if they do not accu- rately complete and return the form. On a personal note, he has chosen to five in Sandwich, he said, "because I think it's better not to live in the town where you work as an assessor " and because he believes that as a profes- sional public servant he should not be involved in the town's political pro - cesses. Did assessors, before he arrived, identify all non- resident property owners in connection with the 20 percent exemption? "I don't know," he said. "It isn't a perfect system and never will be. Property is always changing hands." Rudziak likens the system to a roller coaster metaphor, where municipalities are in the rear car always behind real time sales, located in the front car. Because of the way the system runs, com- munities cannot catch up to real time assessing. "We need a full year of sales figures " to set new values, he said. As to making music, Rudziak , who is single , says he hasn't had a gig for some time and has generally abandoned playing as a pay- ing avocation. Meanwhile, tax collector Maureen McPhee said there is nothing "unusual" going on from her office's perspec- tive. She has posted a list of town councilors who voted for the tax changes and refers callers to the council office for those with a politi- cal problem or to assessors if their grievance is about assessed values, abatements or exemptions. But, she notes, most non- residents "aren't back here yet." 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