Chris Perry Column: It Was A No Brainer

Something was different.

This time around, Town Meeting lacked any flair, pizzazz, soul, intrigue, humor, or passion. There were no compelling speeches that swayed the majority of voters or a “gotcha moment” that left a lasting impression. Town Meeting played out more like a national convention of Amway salesmen in Biloxi, Mississippi, or Ernst & Young’s annual meeting in Topeka, Kansas.

With little buzz in the air, moderator Sarah Alger promptly started business at 8:31 a.m. on Saturday with roughly 725 registered voters on hand. It was a disappointing turnout to get the ball rolling, leading to a bumpy start as Alger turned to Select Board chair, Brooke Mohr, who treated the microphone as if it were a hand grenade, with the audience barely able to hear her opening remarks.

Once all the pomp and circumstance was satisfied, the first order of business was a non-binding sense of the meeting question from the Town Council Study Committee proposing the consideration of a new charter that would establish a Town Council/Town Manager form of government.

Most people who attend Town Meeting are dedicated to the traditions of Town Meeting, so it was not much of a surprise that the voters soundly rejected that question 477 to 251. After the vote, Curtis Barnes, one of the driving forces behind the initiative, told me: “The committee expected it to be defeated at Town Meeting, but we are banking on a positive vote at the ballot box…”

From there, it was a slow, tedious march to Monday night when moderator Alger officially closed the Town’s business at 10:36 p.m. In between, the debate regarding short-term rentals certainly was the most anticipated, and it dominated Monday night’s agenda.

I don’t think you had to be Nostradamus to correctly predict the will of the people and the final tally associated with the STR articles. It just seems to be the same old, same old: rinse, wash, and repeat that we have heard for several years.

Frankly, I’ve had enough of the short-term rental debate and the inevitable paralysis through analysis.

I’m fried and I think the community is fried too.

So with that in mind, I’d like to offer a fistful of takeaways from Town Meeting that thankfully have nothing to do with short-term rentals.

It only took an hour before the moderator had to warn the owner of a red Ford Bronco that the vehicle was illegally parked and being towed away.

Seeing Dr. Butterworth resurface and speak against Article 38 ten years after a similar attempt was made to rezone a section of North Water Street proves once again that you can’t slip anything by a good doctor.

The public feud that has played out for years between moderator Alger and citizen Linda Williams on the Town Meeting floor is still simmering.

Caroline Baltzer, sponsor of article 66, played town counsel John Giorgio like a fiddle. During her opening remarks, Baltzer quizzed town counsel, who appeared to lend his support for her article. Baltzer’s ends might have justified her means, but Giorgio should have seen that coming.

Several of the town’s most vocal figures who have traditionally risen to speak on numerous topics were conspicuously slow getting out of the gate.

Linda Williams did not rise until 10:29 a.m. on Saturday, giving the audience almost two hours to prepare. Matt Fee stayed silent until 3:39 p.m. in the afternoon. Emily Molden waited until 3:13 p.m. on Saturday afternoon and then let it rip on articles 65 and 66 on Monday. Cliff Williams finally broke his silence at 4:20 p.m. on Saturday, only to get shot down on Article 62 on Monday night. Even Nat Lowell bit his tongue until 4:01 p.m. on Saturday afternoon – almost eight hours after Town Meeting started. It must have been excruciatingly painful for him, and if you know Nat, I am surprised someone did not call 911.

I’d like to welcome Juliet Eldredge (seven months old) and Frances Ferrantella (four months old) - Nantucket’s youngest community members to attend Town Meeting on Monday.

Fifteen minutes of fame was too much for moderator Pro-Temp Lee Saperstein. The former Dean and professor at Missouri University of Science & Technology struggled mightily on Saturday and then fumbled badly on Monday night with Article 65 as catcalls rained down from the audience. I think we can all agree that replacing Sarah Alger, even temporarily due to a conflict, is a thankless job, but on this night, we deserved better.

Town Counsel Giorgio introduced a new term (“underride”) on Saturday morning that seemed to slip under the radar. It was mentioned by Town Counsel as a potential way to “reverse an override through a ballot question…”

Moving forward, I have a feeling we are going to hear this term used more frequently as community members reconsider some of the past decisions that were made in previous Town Meetings that increased the town’s levy limit.

As one enters the arena and walks into the Mary P. Walker Auditorium, there is something very calming about seeing Jerry Adams and Mike Day manning the door.

It did not take long for Toby Brown and Thomas Barada to start their annual forensic audit of the town’s expenses. Brown and Barada have used Town Meeting as an opportunity to publicly question the sincerity of the town’s budgeting practices. From affordable housing to the CPC to the general fund budget in Article 8, their efforts initially gained some traction with the audience on Saturday. However, their chaotic schtick grew tiresome, and they lost momentum on Monday.

Once thought of as a fringe element needlessly questioning line-item expenses, Brown and Barada’s desire to shed some light on what’s happening behind closed doors piqued the interest of some voters who want more transparency and scrutiny, too. For example, when the CPC is funding debt service for the Affordable Housing Trust and financing a “rain forest” for the Lighthouse School to the tune of $83,950, perhaps Nantucket’s version of DOGE has a point.

Chris Young’s amendment to Article 71 regarding LED signs, MUTCD warning devices, and fluorescent background colors brought calmness to the floor after the masses departed following the STR vote. Young, who has done a thankless job as chair of the HDC’s Sign Advisory Committee, deserves a pat on the back for keeping an eye out on a topic that often goes unnoticed until it is too late.

He’s back… Bobby DeCosta resurfaced after a quiet Town Meeting in ’24 and rose to speak on several articles. But just when you thought it was safe to go in the water, it appears DeCosta is also grooming his son, Ray, to take the helm as he too went full throttle on a couple of articles. The former Select Board member’s highlight came on day one when he set the bait and then personally harpooned Article 12 with his well-organized and smoothly articulated argument against the expansion of the Public Works facility site.

Once Bobby was done, so was the $1.2 million earmarked for 1 Shadbush Road.

Don’t ever underestimate Teke, Gillian, Pastor Garfield Bloise, and the Servant’s Heart Int’l Ministries on Monahansett Road. After waiting patiently for two nights, the church successfully secured the right to hook up to the town sewer through Article 77. The initial results that were announced had them falling four votes short of the necessary two-thirds threshold, but a quick review of the final tally by the moderator resulted in a 236 to 97 victory for the appreciative church members in the audience, some of whom literally jumped with joy.

And finally, despite me not being able to secure the support of Josh Balling, executive editor of the Inquirer & Mirror, who was sitting to my right on press row and muttered to me “I’d rather saw off my left leg than support Article 85…”, I’d like to thank the 77 percent of the voting public who supported editor-in-chief Jason Graziadei’s article and the Nantucket Current.

Article 85 will simply provide more information to the citizens of Nantucket by giving the Town of Nantucket the option to consider digital media versus strictly print media for town notices, public hearing information, etc. Even for someone like me who is technologically challenged, this was a no-brainer.

And with that, we stand adjourned until this fall and the next Special Town Meeting.