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."