Cottage City Coffers on Empty

The financial crisis that has been gathering for three years in Oak Bluffs appears to be deepening, with the Massachusetts Department of Revenue throwing down the latest penalty flag on the field: The town must cut nearly a quarter of a million dollars from its current fiscal year budget before the tax rate can be set. Revenue projections are off — way off. And why? There is no coherent explanation and that is the most troubling part of the story.

Town administrator Michael Dutton has offered a litany of reasons that are vague at best for what he has termed a “structural deficit” — the leading one appears to be change and turnover in the town finance department partly connected to the death of the town finance director Paul Manzi last fall. But Mr. Manzi’s death was neither sudden nor unexpected; he had been gravely ill for a very long time. So why weren’t town leaders — especially the town administrator — planning ahead for what needed to be done? Why weren’t they examining the revenue projections more closely, probing them for weak spots?

The selectmen and finance committee have decided to erase the current deficit by leaving vacant town positions unfilled, including in the Oak Bluffs School, turning off streetlights and cutting back on town services such as curbside trash pickup.

What they have not done is address the deeper problem which can quite clearly be tracked to weakness and inefficiency on the part of the town administrator. The town administrator is the town chief executive officer. If the budget is a mess, then Mr. Dutton must be held accountable, and it is the selectmen’s job to do so.

Meanwhile, Reliable Market may want to stock up on extra flashlights for people whose neighborhoods are in the dark while their town remains frustratingly in the red.