Islanders Denounce Effort To Smear MVC Officials

By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer

A growing array of residents and public officials - both
inside and outside the Martha's Vineyard Commission - called
this week for an end to the smear campaign that targets three commission
members who voted against the Down Island Golf Club plan.

"I think we should all remember why we have the commission and
how much its presence does for this community. . . . What does it say
about our community that a single person can come here with $8 million
or $9 million and so divide us?" wrote Kate Warner, a member of
the commission, in a letter to the editors this week.

"Public attacks on people like Linda Sibley, Richard Toole and
Tristan Israel, who have all demonstrated outstanding community
contributions, is unconscionable and unfair. We would all be better
served to focus on the good that people do and not indulge in hateful
vilification," wrote Marie Allen, an Oak Bluffs resident and
former longtime member of the commission.

"The current and ongoing effort to undermine the independence
of the Martha's Vineyard Commission has now taken on the
reprehensible role of character assassination," wrote Tom Hale, a
Vineyard Haven resident.

The letters are published on the Commentary Page in today's
Gazette, along with others on the same subject. The letters come against
the backdrop of an ugly smear campaign that targets three members of the
commission. There are now clear signs that the campaign has been
orchestrated by the developers of the Down Island Golf Club and their
cronies.

The central target of the attacks is Linda Sibley, a member of the
commission from West Tisbury.

The latest attack against Mrs. Sibley came this week in a letter
from Mikel Oglesby, a governor's appointed member of the
commission. The attack on Mrs. Sibley by Mr. Oglesby is especially
vicious, among other things openly accusing her of racism and prejudice.

"I am concerned and offended at the statements made by Linda
Sibley. . . . It's her personal crusade to implement
segregation," he wrote in part.

Mr. Oglesby voted in favor of the golf club project, which was
turned down for the second time in a close vote two months ago.

The statements Mr. Oglesby referred to in his letter were in fact
from a commission meeting two years ago during a review of the first
Down Island Golf Club project. Mr. Oglesby was not a member of the
commission at the time.

A misquote from Mrs. Sibley about "little men from
Tokyo" first appeared in a political advertisement in the
Martha's Vineyard Times several weeks ago.

"In doing some research, I heard a tape where Linda Sibley
referred to the types of golfers who will be attracted to the Island as
‘golf fanatics from Tokyo,'" Mr. Oglesby wrote in part
this week.

Mr. Oglesby could not be reached for comment, and it is not clear
where he did the research he refers to in his letter.

But records at the MVC show that Mr. Oglesby never contacted the
agency for tapes. The only people who requested copies of the tapes of
the golf club hearings and meetings were spokesmen for the Down Island
Golf Club.

A review of the tapes by the Gazette this week at the commission
office in Oak Bluffs revealed that during the MVC review of the first
Down Island Golf Club plan, the subject of membership in the golf club
came up for discussion during one public hearing and two subsequent
meetings of the MVC land use planning subcommittee.

At a public hearing on May 11, 2000, more than one member of the
commission raised questions about the planned membership policy for the
golf club - including Mrs. Sibley.

The subject was taken up again at two land use planning committee
meetings, on June 5, 2000, and again on June 12. In every case the
discussion was wrapped around the question of whether the planned golf
club would permit corporate memberships.

The June 5 tape shows that members of the commission had fuzzy
memories about the testimony from the public hearing.

"Wasn't the testimony that the members be Island
residents - period?" said commission member Michael
Dona-roma. "So if you're Bill Gates and somebody wants to
just fly in and use it you could not possibly get a membership. . . . I
remember we discussed all that," he added.

"I thought there was a question about whether [the golf
members] had to have existing ties to the Island and the answer was
no," said Mrs. Sibley. She added to Mr. Donaroma:

"You said the magic words about Bill Gates flying in. . . .
This was clearly a concern of the community and it's been
articulated repeatedly. . . . I found it very interesting last week
reading the interview with the new airport manager, he said they are
going to see more and more corporate planes coming in . . . and what we
have before us now is vague enough that you could have corporate
membership, and . . . my hypothetical golf fanatic from Tokyo could have
a membership and could fly in, and I've got to say that a lot of
people are very disturbed by that. . . . The idea of a lot of corporate
jets flying in and people playing golf - it happens on Nantucket
all the time, you could even fantasize: fly in, play Nantucket in the
morning, play the Vineyard in the afternoon. I consider that to be a
major detriment."

Mr. Donaroma replied: "I think a residents-only membership
thing is fine with me."

On June 12 the commission took up the subject of membership again.

"I go back to what I said about when you're weighing the
benefits and detriments. Presumably we want the benefits to accrue to
the Island, and not to the mythical golf player from Japan. In my mind
that affects the benefits," said Mrs. Sibley.

Mr. Donaroma agreed.

"Destination golf. This takes all that out; you've got
to have a residence. . . . It makes it Island-only, residents golf. I
like that. It takes all that other stuff away," he said.

"I would like a condition not allowing any corporate
memberships. I frankly have a real concern about not restricting
membership to Island people," Mrs. Sibley said. "I am
talking about regular members that have ties to the Island so we
don't encourage people to have membership and flying in and
out," she added.

Again Mr. Donaroma agreed.

"I don't remember the applicant saying anything about
corporate memberships, but I think that's a good one," he
said.

In a letter to other members of the commission three weeks ago, Mr.
Donaroma also attacked Mrs. Sibley, along with Mr. Israel and Mr. Toole
- calling them arrogant and biased.

This week Ms. Warner called for a truce.

"Is this all in the guise of loving this Island? I don't
think so. Instead, it is a way to tear it apart and leave us with a
community much diminished. Where is the Vineyard that we all were part
of, that included open-mindedness, diversity and a sense of small-town
life?" she wrote.