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.