Your account does not include highlighter on images.
Searches Highlighted on Image
| December 29, 2006 Barnstable Patriot |  |
|
©
Publisher. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 1 (1 of 30 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
December 29, 2006 |
|
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader 
|
An open
question
It
doesn't take Nostradamus or
even one of Dionne Warwick's
psychic friends to predict a
charter commission for Barnstable
in 2007.There 's a strong desire among
many behind the effort to change
the town's top executive from an
appointed town manager to an elected
mayor, accountable to the voters and
replaceable at regular intervals if
needed.
Those behind the charter movement
have not contented themselves to sim-
ply spout. They've mobilized and in all
likelihood willcause a question for anew
charter commission to be placed on the
November 2007 ballot, and that is to be
commended.
Thismovement for a new charter com-
mission has succeeded on a grassroots
level, doing little by way of outreach to
media outlets.There'sbeen coverage,but
none initiated by charter organizers.
The prime movers of the charter effort
have the support of a blogging Web site,
but they are not one and the same. Greg
Milne, a town councilor and the most
public of the charter petition organiz-
ers, appeared at a meeting this week to
separate the charter movement from
the blogs.
•'Nothing relative to the charter drive
... has anything to do with the blogs,"
Milne told the council-appointed com-
mittee reviewing the town charter. "I
can assure you the two are completely
separate."
That's a good thing. The badgering
and name-callingthat are the hallmarks
of Barnstable's blog-o-sphere will only
serve to undermine an honest review of
this charter's shortcomings.
What needs to be understood about
today'smost persistent strain of critics,
to include the primaryauthor ofthemost
strident blog, isthey are alsoyesterday's
strain. Their criticism transcends the
administrations of three town manag-
ers and 11 differently composed town
councils, and had its beginnings in the
days of selectmen.
Such is their right to disagree and
criticize, and they aren't always wrong,
but any contribution they could make
is more often than not drowned out by
the incessant whir of poorly-grounded
rhetoric.
"America's Hometown" provides
an instructive and recent example.
Plymouth's new charter commission
was elected last spring, but it's not the
one those gathering signatures wanted
or expected. The driving force in gath-
ering signatures, head of the single-
note "Mayor for Plymouth" committee,
found himself on the outside. He wasn't
alone, as all but one member of a slate
of candidates supporting a change to
mayor failed to make the nine-member
commission.
Plymouth voters opted for candidates
on an opposing "Open"slate,who agreed
change was needed but remained open
to all possibilities.
Government, especially local govern-
ment, depends on those who choose
to participate. Some choose to play
at a higher level, seeking public office,
while others choose to be attentive civic
participants, exercising their will at the
ballot box.
In exercising a right available to them
under the Massachusetts Constitution,
the charter petition organizers have also
chosento participate in ameaningfulway.
That action has a transforming quality,
turning them from critics into activists.
It will be up to them to convince the
electorate of the correctness of their
position, and that willtakecredible ideas
from credible people others are willing
to follow. The opportunity for thisexists,
and it is our hope the goal of a charter
commission is realized in 2007.
Best wishes for a healthy and happy
new year.
David Still II
editor
2006 • THE YEAR IN REVIEW • 2007
x
i
i
j
a
£l
www.bsrnstabtepdtnotcoin
H| Sj
B "
™ B 1 0 8 7 9 0 0 0 ill 4