Guns and Butter

First published April 21, 2004,
prior to the recommendation to close Otis AFB.
There's alot of fear(mongering) going around these days, what with all the talk about closing the Massachusetts Military Reservation on the Upper Cape. But like most things, nothing is what it seems.

There is alot of speculation about what the Base Closing Advisory Board will recommend. Alot of guessing what Donald Rumsfeld will say. The expected posturing by Kennedy and Delahunt. And ultimately what President Bush will decide. This one of the perogatives of being the President.

My guess is that the MMR will neither be abandoned completely, nor kept intact. Things will change, as they should. Closing military components of the base would not be a bad thing. I remember a similar situation, about 35 years ago.

Nixon v. Kennedy Redux
Richard Nixon was still seething about his defeat at the hands of Jack Kennedy 8 years earlier, but he was euphoric at his political ressurection and triumph in 1968. Paranoid as we now know he was, Nixon set off to settle the score in Kennedy's home state. He lost Massachusetts in '68, and it would be the only state he would lose in '72.

Nixon closed 5, count them 5, military installation in Massachusetts, shortly after coming into office. Bases, like the Chelsea Naval Shipyard, were moved to southern states, which Nixon had won, helping turn the tide towards Republican domination of the south for the next 35 years. To be sure, alot of the Massachusetts installations were being politically propped-up by the preceeding Democratic, Kennedy-Johnson, Adminstrations, but hey, there was a war on.

While instituting payback however, Nixon inadvertantly launched the high tech economy of Massachusetts. He literally threw tens of thousands of highly trained and educated military personnel out onto the street in Massachusetts during his first term. Alot of those guys decided to stick around and put their knowledge and talent to work here. Every wonder how Digital (Equipment Corporation) got started? Thus the nation's high tech industry was borne. "America's Technology Highway", Route 128, was so dubbed before Silicon Valley was even a gleam in David Packard's eye.

Brother, Can You Spare a Government Job?
The parallels are striking. Nixon beats Kennedy closes bases. Bush defeats Kerry, the other son from Massachusetts, and closes bases?

Let's have it. Dump a thousand military personnel from MMR onto the Cape's economy and let's watch what happens. How many of these guys will stick around, start companies, turn their talents into commercial enterprise, hire others or hire themselves out, and really contribute to the local economy.

As we debate the merits of keeping the 102nd Airborne, the Coast Guard, Air National Guard, Pave Paws, Homeland Security Training Center, environmental clean-up, and the rest of it, don't pay any attention to the politicians' bluster. Government jobs are nice, by only for those who have them. They do little to help the local economy. When those jobs get privatized, then you really have something.

The Rich and Powerful (Again)

They Are Among Us
How did Senator John Warner (R) of Virginia come to throw the biggest hurdle in front of the Cape Wind farm in Nantucket Sound? Family connections, and a coincidence of Senatorial Committee assignments that makes the Perfect Storm look like an afternoon thunder shower.

Mellon, remember that name. Senator John Warner married money, both times. It was very instrumental in advancing his political career. (Sound familiar?) His first wife was Catherine Mellon, daughter of Paul Mellon, of the famed Pittsburg Mellons. But by the time Paul Mellon got the money, the family had moved to the Virginia side of Washington, DC.

There, John Warner and Catherine Mellon, had 3 children, Virginia, John and Mary. Turns out Mary and Virgina have homes in Osterville, Oyster Harbors, where they are preoccupied with philanthropic and environmental causes.

Senator John Warner has a vested interest in not seeing, the wind farm built within sight of the family homes in Osterville. Virginia and Mary would be very put out if it were built, not least because they had the clout to kill the project, and the gaggle at the Wianno Club would be mortified if they found out that they hadn't used it.

But wait, there is an even more important family connection at play here. Turns out the family patriarch's (Paul) 2nd wife is non other than the much beloved Bunny Mellon (formerly Rachel Lloyd Lambert) of Osterville, which would make her Catherine's step-mother and Virginia's and Mary's step-grandmother. Mrs. Mellon owns ALOT of real estate in Osterville.

Also, Paul Mellon's 1rst wife and Catherine's mother was Mary Conover. Senator John Warner's first wife, Catherine Mellon, now Catherine Conover (very generous to local environmental causes) is also living in Osterville. And as anyone who has ever been divorced will understand, " now what's a Senator to do?"

Enter Opportunity
US Senator John Warner, is Chairman of the Armed Service Committee, and also chairman of the subcomittee that oversees the Army Corps of Engineers (the permitting agency of the Cape Wind project).

While the Cape Wind Environmental Review was being held hostage at the Pentagon, Senator Warner proposed an amendment to a military appropriations bill pending in the Senate, to kill the Cape Wind project. I'll leave it up the the professional scribes to expose the inner workings of the Senate and the Pentagon from here on, but let's not forget, Senator John Warner once served as Secretary of the Navy.

There's nothing like having a third Senator from the Cape to get the job done, (stopping CapeWind) when the other two can't or won't get their hands dirty. Especially when there's a really good family tree to do so. Turns out it was Mellon's, not Kennedy's, or Heinz's.

First published on Thursday, October 7, 2004.

County Dynasty

As we begin to witness the political equivalent of a cock-fight between the two branches of Barnstable County, one has to wonder, what ever happened to the collegiality of the once so congenial county government?

For the past 3 years, the County has had to suffer the embarassing task of having to decide how to spend the surplus revenues from the Registry of Deeds. The unseemly jockeying by ne'r-do-well, non-profits agencies on the Cape competing for a little largess from the County fathers every year, just got to be too much for our County Commissioners.

They finally figured out that they could spend the surplus before it became one, and then shipped a budget over to their collegues at the County Assembly of Delegates, that not only spent all the anticipated revenues, but also the anticipated surplus, while cutting-out the hand-outs to the towns in the process.

When you're elected to county-wide office, as are the Commissioners, you advocate for county-wide programs, and spend the money you take in accordingly. It's good for getting re-elected. But if you are elected on a town by town basis, as are the Assembly of Delegates, it's better if you advocate that some of the money go directly back to your town, so that the town fathers will leave you alone. Not that anyone really notices what the Delegates do anyways, but better smart that sorry.

So naturally, the Delegates miffed that their usual stash of cash would be tampered with, they in turn have devised an altogether different plan to distribute the county funds. By giving less money to the Cape Cod Commission, no money to the Cape Cod Economic Development Council (EDC), and a smaller piece of the pie to the county human services department, they found a way to cut out of the budget some of the Commissioners' favorite benevolence, while sending half a million dollars back to the towns.

The Assembly even hinted that the license plate funds that the County (EDC) receives from the Cape & Islands plate, may also be re-directed to the towns in the form of grants to their local EDCs, thus bringing the over all total sent back to towns to $1million, about what they've been getting for the past 3 years.

Underlying this disagreement, is a differnce of opinion, between Commissioners, between Delegates, as well as between Commissioners and Delegates, as to the role of the non-profit agencies on Cape Cod.

In the past, both the EDC license plate revenues and the County's surplus revenues have been diverted to various Cape organizations to ostensibly do good work in the community. In reality, the groups that get money (all the ususal suspects) have some connection to the EDC board members, the Commissioners or sometimes even the Delegates.

But some Delegates, notable Marcia King (Mashpee) disagrees with this practice. She thinks County revenues, in all its forms, should be spent by county agencies on county programs, and for any expenditures that cannot be justified, the monies should be rebated back to the towns, in fairness to the taxpayers.

Other Delegates, like Julia Taylor (Falmouth) thinks that the County owes nothing to the towns and that the County's revenues should be spent as they and their political allies see fit. (Note: The Chair of the County EDC is also from Falmouth.) Taylor was quoted in the Cape Cod Times (5/10/05) as saying that the $70,000 that her town would get in rebates, "they couldn't do very much with". I'm not making this up, folks. That's how insulated the Assembly Delegate's position is.

So here we are, the County Commissioners want to spend the real estate tax windfall this year by rewarding County agencies with bigger budgets, and non-profit agencies with friends in high places, with special hand outs.

The Assembly of Delegates, and least most of them, recognizing that this practice can lead to future financial instability, wants to spend what is necessary to run the County and send the rest back to the towns.

At loggerheads over the issue are the heads of the two bodies of county government, Commissioner Chairman Bill Doherty (R-Harwich) and Assembly Speaker Tom Bernardo (D-Chatham). Doherty is up for re-election next year. Might there be a fued brewing here as a lead-up to an election match-up next year?

Doherty's attempts to cut the towns rebates, flies in the face of the their combined efforts to get the towns on board with a Wasterwater Authority, er, Collabrative. While Bernardo is trying to sweet talk the towns into going along with a new county bureaucracy, er, agency, Doherty is cutting out the legs from under him. Hmm, was Doherty ever really for the Wastewater initiative?

Bernardo, turning around and threatening to give the County's do-nothing EDC's money directly to the towns to beef up their own local EDCs' efforts, smacks of the bribe, er, kick-start that the Wastewater initiative needs.

A display of political leadership or a just old fashion retribution?
Stay tuned for the next episode of Dynasty.

Children Need Not Apply

Old vs.Young. Retired vs. Working. Have vs. Have Not.

Our fellow citizens, the old fogies, and our town governments, are at it again. It's reminiscent of a bygone era of xenophobia. Like hanging out a storefront sign, No Kids Allowed. Not in our community, not in our neighborhoods, and definitely not on Main Street.

The issue has reared its ugly head again in Barnstable, with the bidding war for the old 5th Grade School in downtown Hyannis.

The Catholics want to build a high school there. The Developer wants it to build housing for the wealthy elderly. Both bid about the same for the surplused municipal building. They each threw in a kicker (in-kind) to sweeten the deal. And the Town wants the money.

Aside from the $3 million to buy the building, the Catholics point to the savings the town would realize if the parochial school attracted kids from the town's public high school. (And man, would they!) The taxpayers would save a million dollars a year in school costs.

Aside from the $3.5 million offered the town, the developer proposed giving the Housing Assistance Corp. (not affiliated with the town, politically connected, private non-profit), a million dollars to move the homeless (shelter) from downtown Hyannis to the outskirts of town. Anyone else see the self-serving nature of this magnanimous gesture?

Along comes the Cape Cod Times, defenders of the everything Osterville, and proffers in an editorial that the wealthy retirees would fit better into the downtown than the school kids. Never mind that this used to be a school.

(I once met a man with a yacht, who said to me, "I've got mine, now you get yours." Whenever I remember that advise, I always think of the Times.)

There you have it, in these two competing interests for once public space, the Cape's internal struggle for identity.

It's a myth that residents of (elderly) housing for the rich, spend money in their own neighborhoods, and oh yes, that they walk to do so. What makes the housing proposal so appealing to the developer and potential residents, is not the proximity to the Main Street businesses, but to the Cape Cod Hospital. That's where they expect to spend their money, or more aptly, our Medicare dollars.

The town doesn't want to be shown up by a group of parents that wants to use the former school building for teaching. What town council would want to be known for closing a school, ostensibly because it was too costly to repair, only to have a group of parents do so privately.

Maybe the town is still smarting, having fought this battle before with the Sturgis School on Main Street. A group of parents showed that they could run a charter school better than the public servants could run a public school.

But it took the intervention of the business community to make the Sturgis School a reality. It's time for the business community to get involved again and bring our kids and our families back to the downtown.

Not Just Barnstable
In yesterday's town election, Yarmouth voters said No to Schools and Yes to Libraries. They voted not to pay for repairs to the schools, but voted to pay for repairs to the library. Not to state the obvious, but kids use the schools, while retirees use the libraries.

A local publisher, suggested once, that there should be a program to have senior citizens on Cape Cod daycare for kids so that their parents could work. (He meant the ones that don't need daycare themselves.) At that time in his life, he was between kids and grandkids. But I was still surprised at his naivete. And told him so.

If our local retirees wanted to take care of kids, they would have stayed in their hometowns and raised their own grandkids. They didn't move to the Cape to take care of someone else's kids. And apparently, they don't want to pay for them either.