Mr. Hearn Finds Political Change Suits Him Fine
By IAN FEIN
Third in a series of profiles leading up to the West Tisbury
election.
You might call Glenn Hearn the presumptive Reform Party nominee of
West Tisbury town politics.
Since 1999 he has ousted incumbents from the land bank commission
and board of selectmen in close elections, and now he has his sights set
on the board of assessors.
Mr. Hearn will challenge longtime board chairman Michael Colaneri in
a three-way election in the annual town election next month.
"In all these cases, I felt that the incumbent needed to be
replaced," Mr. Hearn said this week in an interview at his home on
Tiasquam Brook Farm. "I'm not trying to arm wrestle with
people or anything like that. I'm running because I think I can
help make things better for the town."
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2006/03/17/content/glenn_hearn_1_sm.jpg" He said it was time for a change in the West Tisbury
assessors' office.
"We need some new blood in there, some new ideas," Mr.
Hearn said. "They've been doing things their way for 30
years, but I feel very strongly that there are some things that have to
be done differently."
Mr. Hearn, 68, is careful to note that he is not, technically, an
Island native. (He was born on the Cape and moved to the Vineyard at the
age of three.) He grew up in Vineyard Haven and in 1960 married his high
school sweetheart, Linda, a West Tisbury native whom he met at the
Tisbury School. "She used to cheer for me in the high school
basketball games," Mr. Hearn recalled.
After their high school years, the Hearns lived for more than three
decades in the greater Boston area, where Mr. Hearn worked in the
electrical field and taught at Northeastern University. But on most
weekends and in the summers they came to the Island with their three
children. The Hearn family has been a fixture at the West Tisbury
Farmers' Market for more than a quarter-century.
Mr. Hearn has kept busy since he and his wife moved to the Island
full-time in 1992. He taught math and started an aquaculture program at
the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School. He spearheaded much of
the new agricultural hall project as a trustee of the Martha's
Vineyard Agricultural Society. And he is one of four founders of the
FARM Institute, a Katama-based nonprofit that teaches children about
farming. He also sits on the town affordable housing committee.
As a selectman, Mr. Hearn stepped into the controversy that has
engulfed town assessors in the last year: the Graham tax case. The
ongoing trial - in which town resident William W. Graham is
challenging more than $100 million in property values - has served
as a lightning rod in town, sparking heated passions from people on both
sides of the dispute.
Some town residents have criticized Mr. Hearn and his fellow
selectmen for meddling too much in the assessors' affairs, while
others have criticized the selectmen for not exhibiting enough
oversight. Mr. Hearn is trying to bridge the gap between boards by
serving on both.
The Graham case opened the door to public complaints from a wide
range of town residents who are unhappy with the perceived lack of
accountability and responsiveness in the assessors' office. At
town meetings and in discussions among selectmen and assessors, Mr.
Hearn has repeatedly stated that the town must ensure that its system of
determining property values is open, fair and understandable to
everyone.
He said he is dismayed by some accounts he has heard from taxpayers
of their interactions with town assessors. "We need a more
professional and pleasing approach to dealing with the public,"
Mr. Hearn said.
Mr. Graham's case challenges aspects of the valuation system
used in West Tisbury, and he alleges fraud in the assessors'
office, among other things. The trial attracted wide attention from
state officials and assessors across the commonwealth. The highly
anticipated decision from the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board is
expected later this year.
Mr. Hearn said the case, even if it is found in favor of the town,
has uncovered some practices that need to be changed.
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2006/03/17/content/glenn_hearn_2_sm.jpg" "I'm dying to hear what the tax board has to say,"
Mr. Hearn said. "But when that comes out, no matter what,
I'm going to the [Massachusetts] Department of Revenue to ask for
advice. Whatever the tax board rules, I think we are going to have to
change the way we do some things in West Tisbury."
Mr. Hearn said it was vital that town assessors clearly explain
their valuation system to any taxpayer who asks, and he questioned how
well the current board knows it. Mr. Colaneri testified at the tax board
hearing that he was not familiar with the system.
"Michael always tells people that the process involves
thousands of factors, but I disagree with that," Mr. Hearn said.
If elected, Mr. Hearn said he would work toward more openness in the
assessing department. He would improve communication with the public and
with town selectmen, make more public records known and available to
townspeople, adopt a clear policy for how wetlands are defined and
valued, and create a log book for all site visits to properties.
As a selectman he has already helped convince the assessors to
identify their legal expenses as a separate line item in their
departmental budget. "They wanted to do it the old way, but not on
my watch," Mr. Hearn said. "I insisted on the line item.
This way, they have to explain their requests to the voters."
Mr. Hearn said he is concerned about the costs associated with the
three other West Tisbury property tax suits pending at the state tax
board. If elected, he said he would urge the board to try to settle
things outside of court. "In any case we have, going to the
appellate tax board would be the absolute last resort," Mr. Hearn
said.
Monitoring the town's rising legal expenses in the Graham tax
case one year ago, he intervened before it went to the hearing and
helped organize a mediation session between the parties. Mr. Hearn is
still unclear why Mr. Colaneri called off a second settlement
discussion.
"There should have been more meaningful mediation. The way
they ran the whole show was completely ridiculous," Mr. Hearn said
this week. "You might have a responsibility to defend the system,
but you also have a responsibility to try to work things out."
Mr. Hearn has a number of specific criticisms of the way the
assessors and their attorney handled the Graham case, and said the
record length of the hearing was caused in part by some of the
town's mistakes.
He is also unhappy with their handling of legal bills from the case.
Mr. Hearn said he feels that the potential costs of the case were
deliberately kept from the selectmen.
It is time for the assessors to switch attorneys, he said, pointing
to their unsuccessful case against the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank
two years ago, which cost town taxpayers $10,000 in legal fees. As a
selectman, Mr. Hearn this winter voted to appoint the assessors'
attorney as town counsel, but he said that once the final briefs for the
Graham case are filed, he would like to see their relationship end.
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2006/03/17/content/glenn_hearn_3_sm.jpg" He said it was also time to reevaluate the assessors' reliance
on its third-party appraisal company, Vision Appraisal Technology Inc.
of Northboro. The work of Vision Appraisal came under intense scrutiny
in the Graham case, and has also been under the spotlight in Edgartown,
where the company has admitted it made substantial errors. Edgartown
assessors now intend to use the Vision software, but do most of the
valuation work themselves - an arrangement that Mr. Hearn wants to
explore for West Tisbury as well.
Mr. Hearn assured he is not trying to amass town offices, and said
he tried hard before filing his candidacy to convince other qualified
residents to run for the seat. He chose not to comment on his fellow
challenger in the race, Seven Gates resident Jonathan Revere, and also
chose not to speculate about the upcoming special election for a second
assessor seat.
It remains unknown whether a proposed town bylaw, which would limit
the number of elected offices any West Tisbury resident can hold, will
affect Mr. Hearn's campaign. But Mr. Hearn said he feels so
strongly that things need to change, he would not let the bylaw keep him
from running for assessor.
"The people in this town know me. If they want me in both
positions, they'll vote me in," Mr. Hearn said.
"It's up to them."
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