Selectmen in Five Island Towns Confer on County Government

By IAN FEIN

Raising questions of cost and effectiveness, selectmen from across
the Vineyard agreed this week to reexamine the role of Dukes County
government.

The decision marks the first step in a process that could imperil
the future of regional government on the Vineyard.

"I'm concerned about the county; I'm concerned
about the costs," selectman James Newman of Aquinnah said at a
meeting held on Wednesday at the Howes House in West Tisbury. "I
don't see what the county does for us personally."

West Tisbury selectmen hosted the meeting with four other towns
- Chilmark did not attend - in the wake of an expensive
legal battle between the Dukes County and Martha's Vineyard
Airport commissions that is expected to cost taxpayers hundreds of
thousands of dollars. Also this year a number of Vineyard towns sparred
with the county over extra assessments for the county veteran's
agent.

The meeting of the selectmen occurred while the county commissioners
convened their own session just a few miles down the road, with nary a
word about the growing discontent among Island residents and town
officials.

"We're here to talk about county government in a very
broad sense," West Tisbury selectmen chairman Jeffrey (Skipper)
Manter, who moderated the meeting, said at the outset. "County
government is always a topic. But recently it's come to the front
burner."

Mr. Manter set out the purpose of the meeting: to determine whether
the towns want to reexamine county government, and if so, how.

After some discussion, the selectmen agreed without a formal vote to
appoint a regional committee that will look into hiring an independent
consultant. The consultant would then examine the role of county
government - exploring the regional services provided by the
county and the associated costs.

Any decision about the fate of the county - as in, whether it
should be abolished - would occur later in the process.

The selectmen agreed Wednesday that each board will appoint one
member to this initial committee. The county commission will also be
invited to appoint a member.

No one at the meeting said whether a selectman from Gosnold, which
encompasses the Elizabeth Islands and is the seventh town in Dukes
County, will be included on the committee. Nor is it clear whether the
Gosnold selectmen were invited to the meeting this week.

Discussion Wednesday was rather restrained. Selectmen for the most
part did not criticize the county or single out individual county
representatives.

"My feelings are not about personalities. It's the
institution itself," said Tisbury selectman Tristan Israel, also
the town representative to the county financial advisory board.
"Whether it is a viable institution for this Island anymore is the
issue to me."

A number of selectmen noted the benefits the county provides to the
Island.

"I have a feeling that within the town, there is probably a
lot of interest in looking into this," said selectman Arthur
Smadbeck of Edgartown. "But a lot of times it's the things
that get done that get overlooked."

Selectman John Early of West Tisbury agreed.

"I think we need to take a hard look at the benefits of county
government. One of them is sitting in the second row," Mr. Early
said, acknowledging county engineer Steve Berlucchi, who attended the
meeting.

Mr. Berlucchi later offered his suggestions to the selectmen, noting
he spoke as a citizen and not a county representative. He urged
selectmen to hire an independent consultant for the bulk of the study,
and agreed the county commissioners should be included.

"I think an independent, unbiased professional is the way to
go," Mr. Berlucci said. "And I do think the county
commission should participate instead of leaving them out of the loop.
This should be a cooperative effort of everyone to serve all the
citizens of the Island."

Other selectmen said a crucial part of the process will be to
determine how the Island would handle some of the regional services
provided by the county if it was abolished. Selectman Glenn Hearn of
West Tisbury suggested looking to the other seven counties in
Massachusetts that currently function without a county government.

"I think it might be interesting to see how these other
counties managed that," Mr. Hearn said. "I'm not for
or against the county at this point. But I would like to get more
info."

Tisbury selectman Ray LaPorte suggested a first step for the
committee would be to review documents from the Dukes County Charter
Commission, created by Island voters in 1990 to study the structure of
county government. The charter commission reviewed the structure for 18
months and recommended a series of changes, which were adopted by voters
in 1992 and took effect soon thereafter.

West Tisbury resident and pilot Edmund (Ted) Stanley, a member of
the former charter commission, told selectmen Wednesday a wealth of
information still remained from the commission study. But he also warned
them that the intended results from the restructuring have not
necessarily proven true.

"You can take a horse and buggy and turn it into an
automobile," Mr. Stanley said. "But if you have the same
drivers, you will still have the same number of accidents."