Good Governance Requires Accountability

To the editor: I strongly agree with Hillary Hedges Rayport’s concerns about the example the NP&EDC is setting for the town of Nantucket.

In my opinion, this is about much more than one contract, one employee, or one commission. It is about good governance, accountability, transparency, and upholding their fiduciary responsibilities to the taxpayers of Nantucket.

We have seen this issue before. In 2023, I filed an Open Meeting Law complaint concerning the NP&EDC’s handling of the hiring and contract of the Planning Director. Pretty much the same Commission members involving the same matter as Mrs. Rayport’s Open Meeting Law complaint. In March 2024, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office determined that the Commission had violated the Open Meeting Law. The AG found that the Commission failed to properly disclose who was the subject of its executive-session discussions and improperly handled the contract process behind closed doors. The AG specifically stated that the public must be able to witness the vote to execute an agreed-upon contract.

That was not the only 2023 matter. The Attorney General’s Office also found that the Nantucket Affordable Housing Trust violated the Open Meeting Law in a matter arising from a complaint I also filed stating that executive-session discussions were improperly used rather than conducted in public when the Affordable Housing Trust decided to undercut the Zoning Board of Appeals and recommend to the Select Board that the ZBA’s Superior Court appeal regarding Surfside Crossing be dropped.

In my opinion, these findings should not be dismissed as technicalities. Open government is not optional. Transparency is not an inconvenience to be managed; it is a fundamental obligation of those entrusted with public authority and taxpayer resources.

In my opinion, the taxpayers of Nantucket deserve government that operates with clear lines of responsibility, meaningful oversight, transparent decision-making, and accountability to the people it serves. When public bodies repeatedly find themselves on the wrong side of Open Meeting Law requirements, residents have every right to ask whether the structure and culture of governance are working as they should.

The Select Board should take these concerns seriously and demand a higher standard of governance from the Town’s boards and commissions. Nantucket deserves better than ambiguity over who is responsible, decisions that appear predetermined, and public scrutiny treated as an obstacle.

Good governance requires accountability. Accountability requires transparency. And transparency requires that the public be allowed to see how decisions affecting Nantucket and its taxpayers are actually made.

Meghan Perry