Selectmen in West Tisbury Fret as Legal Bills Begin to Mount

By RACHEL KOVAC

West Tisbury needs more money to pay its legal bills, and this week
selectmen expressed growing concern over the amount of money being spent
on attorneys' fees this year. At the regular board meeting
Wednesday, executive secretary Jennifer Rand advised the selectmen that
the town will not be able to cover its legal costs under the current
year's budget.

The total town legal budget for the year is $60,000. As of April 20
West Tisbury had incurred more than $30,000 alone in bills from the
ongoing tax case between resident William W. Graham and the town
assessors. The bills are for work prior to the start of the legal
hearing in the case. The hearing began in Boston in May and is still
ongoing.

The fiscal year ends June 30. All bills for services incurred during
this fiscal year must be submitted to the town by July 15. Any bills
that come in after that date require a nine tenths majority vote at a
special town meeting before they can be paid.

But even if attorney Ellen Hutchinson, who is representing the town
in the tax case, submits all her bills by July 15, there will not be
enough money in the town legal budget to pay them.

Board members said this week that they will meet with the town
finance committee next week to discuss the problem.

Selectmen Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter said a detailed accounting is in
order.

"We've got to get some sort of handle on how much this
is costing us," Mr. Manter said. "I'm not sure what
the numbers are but I know they're getting some zeroes behind
them."

The hearing before the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board is now in
its fifth week.

Mr. Graham, who owns 235 acres at Mohu off Lambert's Cove
Road, is appealing his assessments for fiscal years 2003 and 2004, when
he paid more than $500,000 in town property taxes. Attorneys for Mr.
Graham have charged that the fundamental system West Tisbury assessors
use to determine land values and property taxes throughout the town is
flawed.

Ms. Hutchinson has maintained that Mr. Graham's assessments
are fair and accurate, and that other real estate sales in the area have
justified the values.

As the case drags on, billable hours are piling up for the town of
West Tisbury.

"We're going to need to get money from somewhere because
we don't have it," Ms. Rand told the selectmen Wednesday.

West Tisbury's legal spending has increased over the past
several years and Ms. Rand said she sees this as only the beginning of
the trend. She said legal spending will likely continue to increase and
she said the time has come to get a better handle on how other town
boards use lawyers and spend money from the town's legal budget.

"We need to develop a solid policy on legal spending,"
Ms. Rand said. She said she will approach town counsel Ronald H.
Rappaport to create a training session to advise the selectmen and other
town boards on legal spending.