Chris Perry Column: What We've Got Here Is A Failure To Communicate

Before I get to the crux of the matter, I want to say three words because it is important to give credit where credit is due.

Maria Mitchell Association…

For almost two years, I have criticized the MMA and the motivation behind its decision to sign the Good Neighbor Agreement (GNA) in the summer of 2020. Clearly unable to reconcile its mission statement with Vineyard Wind’s agenda, the Maria Mitchell Association publicly took a beating. Until now.

Officially notifying Vineyard Wind via Fed Ex on Oct. 8 and then releasing a public statement on Wednesday, the Maria Mitchell Association has officially withdrawn from the Good Neighbor Agreement due to a “material breach” of the Good Neighbor Agreement by Vineyard Wind.

Simply put by executive director Joanna Roche, “The Maria Mitchell Association can no longer, consistent with its charitable and preservation purposes, remain a party to the agreement.”

I am sure this decision did not come easily. It is difficult to face the public - admit a mistake - and reverse course.

It took guts. It took humility. It took leadership.

What was especially uplifting to me was their press release highlighted the fact that after more information became available, they no longer could support the negative impact on our island community.

Finally, one of the three local co-signers of the GNA stepped up and put the Nantucket community first.

Hallelujah.

As for the Nantucket Preservation Trust (NPT), it should be ashamed. Without a doubt, the NPT engaged in the same type of discussions behind closed doors that their fellow non-profit, the Maria Mitchell Association, was having leading up to its decision to withdraw from the GNA. However, the NPT opted to double down and continue its support of Vineyard Wind’s agenda by remaining silent.

While the Maria Mitchell Association deserves a lot of credit, we must refocus our attention on Nantucket’s Select Board. With overwhelming evidence rolling in on a weekly basis, including Wednesday’s announcement from GE Vernova that Vineyard Wind would be removing additional blades already installed at the offshore wind farm, the Select Board stubbornly continues to ride the fence despite taking on more water than the Titanic.

With mounting pressure to withdraw from the GNA, you have to ask yourself: Who is steering this ship right into the iceberg?

As a member of the Nantucket community, watching valuable time wasted as a pawn in a political chess game and feeling like I am still a sitting duck waiting for the next blade to drop, the Town of Nantucket needs to start with a clean slate because there is an obvious disconnect between the Nantucket community - the Nantucket Select Board - and Cultural Heritage Partners preventing us from replotting our course.

For those who haven’t been following along, Cultural Heritage Partners is the Virginia-based law firm hired by the Select Board as its special counsel for offshore wind matters and the one that advised it to sign the Good Neighbor Agreement back in 2020.

Much like in professional sports, there comes a time when the message simply is not getting through. There is a breakdown in communications, and a disconnect develops between ownership, the head coach, and the players.

The owner isn’t going anywhere. You can’t trade all the players. On Nantucket, that leaves Cultural Heritage Partners. And despite a recent, puzzling endorsement from the Select Board – which re-upped its contract with the law firm - I think it’s time to question their legal stewardship going as far back as their original recommendation to sign the existing Good Neighbor Agreement, especially when you consider where we are today.

I came to that conclusion for many reasons, but none more important than the fact there is a steady wave of resentment growing within our community from residents frustrated with the strategy being recommended by Cultural Heritage Partners and ultimately implemented by the Select Board.

Initially characterized as isolated, fringe pockets of resistance, the Nantucket community is galvanizing its opposition and demanding that the Select Board withdraw from the GNA. However, either the Select Board is not listening, or Cultural Heritage Partners doesn’t want them to.

For example, Jessie Sandole of 167 Raw has been circulating a petition requesting that the town of Nantucket withdraw from the Good Neighbor Agreement. Presently, that petition has roughly 2000 signatures representing over 100 businesses.

After a lengthy discussion at the most recent meeting of the Nantucket Harbor & Shellfish Advisory Board (SHAB), board member Scott Anderson termed the existing Good Neighbor Agreement as “one of the worst contracts I’ve reviewed in 41 years” as well as “defective and worthless” - and “one that does not protect the Nantucket community.” The members of SHAB have agreed to draft a letter to the Select Board at their Nov. 5 meeting regarding their concerns about the GNA, an agreement that was called “unmitigateable” by chairman Andy Lowell.

Additionally, former Select Board member Bob DeCosta, Evie O’Connor from Keep Nantucket Wild, charter fishing captain Pete Kaiser, along with Amy DiSibio and Val Oliver from ACK For Whales, all signed off on a letter sent to the Board of Selectman urging them to immediately withdraw from the Good Neighbor Agreement.

And finally, we have the Maria Mitchell Association, which threw down the hammer in its letter to Mr. Lars Pedersen, chief executive officer of Vineyard Wind, LLC, and laid out how Vineyard Wind failed to live up to its contractual obligations and, more importantly, “how Vineyard Wind has been unable to explain what happened or offer any assurances that such a failure will not happen again.”

In an attempt to quell this growing wave of opposition, Cultural Heritage Partners recently spent three days on Nantucket triaging damage control as founding partner Greg Werkheiser and legal sidekick Will Cook barnstormed around the island in an obvious attempt to shore up support for a Good Neighbor Agreement that is starting to show some huge cracks in the hull.

But instead of hosting a series of open forums for the general public to attend, Cultural Heritage Partners attempted to divide and conquer the opposition. This approach did little for the partners to get a true sense of the growing, island-wide angst or to answer the question of what if any, financial gains will be secured by Cultural Heritage Partners if it is successful in “renegotiating” the existing Good Neighbor Agreement versus stepping away from it.

After spending over three hours on the phone with Greg Werkheiser in early October and going toe to toe with Werkheiser and Cook in a one-on-one meeting during their recent visit to the island, I am not so sure they are being fully transparent with the Nantucket community.

For example, why is the entire matter shrouded in secrecy? Werkhesier and Cook set up camp on Nantucket over Columbus Day Weekend, knowing the Maria Mitchell Association had already advised Vineyard Wind of its decision to withdraw from the GNA on Oct. 8. However, never once did they hint that there was a local defection from the Good Neighbor Agreement.

Secondly, Werkheiser admitted that Select Board chair Brooke Mohr’s recent Op-Ed piece was scrubbed before being released. But in a move that only Houdini can explain, why did the term “Good Neighbor Agreement” disappear and the phrase “community benefit agreement” replace it?

According to Cultural Heritage Partners and quoting from Mohr’s manifesto, the Select Board is in the process of “soliciting information from residents, business owners and members of the fishing industry to quantify economic or other losses.”

I reached out to several local business owners, including ACK Surf School owner Gaven Norton, who has become Nantucket’s poster child for business interruption due to the blade failure. The easily accessible entrepreneur said, “No one from the town or Cultural Heritage Partners has contacted me since the blade failure this summer, so finally, I took it upon myself and called Brooke Mohr last Friday.”

Carefully choosing his words, knowing the town of Nantucket is also his landlord, Norton added, “I don’t know what to believe. There is no clear direction…”

Not to be outdone, Werkheiser himself, who seems to be fixated on information translated by media opinion pieces, sent a shot across everyone’s bow when he recently added, “There will surely be more blade breaks… many more.”

Our community deserves better because it is painfully clear: We have a disconnect.

As damages continue to mount, will the Select Board follow Maria Mitchell’s lead and listen to the message being sent by members of the Nantucket community who want to exit the GNA? Or will they stay the course in an agreement with a foreign company that caused an “environmental disaster” off Nantucket this past summer?

Ironically, the recent blade failure opened the door for Nantucket. Not to “renegotiate” the existing GNA and ultimately remain a willing subscriber, but to close the door on Nantucket’s participation in the GNA as a party that no longer wants to be a supporting member of Vineyard Wind’s propaganda machine.

If Cultural Heritage Partners is not advising the Select Board of that course of action, then it’s time to find someone who will.

Like Strother Martin told Paul Newman in “Cool Hand Luke” – “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate….”

This week, the Maria Mitchell Association spoke loud and clear.

Now, it’s time for the Select Board to do the same before this ship sinks.