Dukes County Is Due for Test of Its Charter

By JAMES KINSELLA

Hopes were high over a decade ago when a newly reorganized
government went into effect for Dukes County.

Voters in the county had bought the vision put forward by a charter
study commission in 1992 that reorganizing rather than eliminating
county government offered an effective way to confront regional issues,
such as solid waste disposal and affordable housing.

Years later, the vision retains its appeal.

But the track record of the reorganized county government instead
has given rise to disappointment and disillusionment, along with calls
for its outright abolition. The government, led by an elected
seven-member county commission and an appointed county manager, has been
long on bickering and short on substantial regional accomplishment.

At the state election on Nov. 7, voters in the county, which
consists of Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands, will
decide whether the time has come to take another look at a central
government for Dukes County.

Facing voters will be a decision whether to form another charter
commission, which will study county government for two years and come
back with a recommendation.

If voters agree to form the commission, they also will decide who
will serve on the commission, although the vote will be pro forma, given
that 15 county residents have declared themselves candidates for the 15
available seats on the commission.

Whether you want to junk county government or keep it, voting for
the charter commission is a smart move, according to Edmund (Ted)
Stanley of West Tisbury.

"The charter study will critically review all aspects of the
county, listen to public input, analyze the findings, consider
alternatives, and ultimately make a recommendation to the public for
their vote," said Mr. Stanley, who was a member of the first
charter commission and is a candidate for the proposed commission.

The commission is "the mechanism which empowers the voters to
retain, reshape, or demolish Dukes County," Mr. Stanley said.

Two key questions hang over the future of local county government.
If eliminated, to what extent will county residents notice that
it's gone? And if retained, what assurance do residents have that
the future leaders of the county will perform any better on regional
initiatives than the leaders of this past decade?

The question is not academic. The seven towns in the county -
six on the Vineyard plus Gosnold - will pay more than $700,000
this year in assessments to help fund county government.

Where and how the county government spends its money and time also
has come under scrutiny. Recently county government spent time and money
on a costly intramural battle with the Martha's Vineyard airport
commission - which cost at least $608,000 in damages and in legal
fees.

The position of county manager has also been a revolving door.

But two top county employees - county manager E. Winn Davis
and county treasurer Noreen Mavro Flanders - say that voters need
to appreciate the value of local county government.

Eliminating county government, Mr. Davis and Ms. Flanders said, will
not eliminate the towns' responsibility to continue to fund the
unfunded retirement liability for past and current county employees,
which at present totals about $3.5 million.

Assets such as the Vineyard airport, the county courthouse and the
jail also would pass out of the hands of local ownership and control,
most likely into state hands.

The county registry of deeds generates about $200,000 a year that
goes to support other county programs. That cash flow, they say, would
be lost to local control.

Ms. Flanders said the county is the designated recipient of part of
the money generated through the Cape and Islands license plate, and no
longer would receive those funds, which totaled  $127,928 for the
fiscal year that ended June 30.

Towns in Dukes County, Mr. Davis said, get a bargain through county
government, since 60 cents of the county budget dollar comes through
grants, contracts and fees generated by the county itself rather than
the towns. "We earn more than they give us," Mr. Davis said.

Some prime Vineyard real estate also is under the ownership of the
county, including Norton Point, sections of Eastville Beach in Oak
Bluffs and Herring Creek Beach in Vineyard Haven.

Then there are lesser known county assets, such as the Vineyard
communications center at the airport, and property on New York avenue in
Oak Bluffs, part of which the county makes available to the Community
Solar Greenhouse (COMSOG) for $50 a year.

Eliminating the county, Mr. Davis and Ms. Flanders said, also could
jeopardize a number of services, including a central place for
processing Vineyard parking tickets, services from the county engineer
and the veterans agent, a health care program for uninsured and
underinsured county residents, and programs provided through the
sheriff's office, such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE)
and Project Lifesaver, which can help locate disoriented people.

Mr. Davis and Ms. Flanders also point to less tangible benefits
offered by the county, such as its availability as a third-party broker
to help towns mount cooperative programs. The county performed just such
a task in helping get the skateboard park in Oak Bluffs get off the
ground, Mr. Davis said.

But county critics such as Tristan Israel, a member of the county
advisory board on expenditures and a candidate for the county commission
in November's election, note that other entities can step forward
to perform functions and services now performed by the county.

Mr. Israel proposed the charter study earlier this year, an idea
subsequently adopted and sent to the ballot by the county commission.

"We need to allow the community to be part of the
solution," Mr. Israel said. "Right now, there is a lot of
mistrust due to events that unfolded in the past 10 years. It's a
way for the people to take a measured look at county government."

Another county critic, Woodrow (Woody) Williams of Vineyard Haven,
also backs the charter commission. He's running for a seat on both
that commission and the county commission.

"Clearly, it cannot stay the same," Mr. Williams said of
the existing county government. "I think these people never read
the initial charter study. They're acting like they have no
clue."

Among the Massachusetts counties that eliminated county government
was Berkshire County. John Barrett, now the mayor of the city of North
Adams, served from 1976 to 1980 on that county's commission.

"You don't even know that it's gone," Mr.
Barrett said. "County government was just another layer of
government that you didn't need."

Although regionalization is an attractive concept, Mr. Barrett said,
"Parochialism will always exist."

He cites the example of a north-south highway through the county, a
plan backed by the cities of North Adams and Pittsfield that ran into
opposition from smaller towns in the southern section of the county.

Following the demise of county government, the state and other
entities stepped forward to run former county operations. For example,
the University of Massachusetts began operating the county's
cooperative extension service.

Essex, Hampden and Worcester counties also voted to eliminate their
governments, while voters in Franklin and Hampshire counties modified
their traditional governments into regional councils of government. The
councils are authorized to provide regional services to member towns,
who are assessed for the cost of the services.

The League of Women Voters, a non-partisan organization that has
tracked shifts in Massachusetts county government, notes that counties
continue to exist as geographic and political units even when the
governments themselves are modified or abolished. Voters in those
counties still elect sheriffs, district attorneys, and registers of
deeds and probate.

Mr. Stanley said he understands that Dukes County residents may not
be happy with how their county government actually has performed.

Following the conclusion of the original charter commission's
work in 1992, Mr. Stanley said, "I don't feel our
expectations for better county government have been fully realized, a
characterization which may be overly generous."

But engaging in extensive criticism of county government, he said,
now holds little value. Instead, he said voters should bring in a
charter commission, and also carefully choose who will fill the four
available county commission seats at the Nov. 7 election. Three
incumbents and seven challengers are seeking the seats.

"Assuming the charter study question passes, I strongly
believe the behavior and performance of the four winning candidates over
the next two years will have a profound influence on the future of
county government here," Mr. Stanley said.