Iverson: Response To Pickering-Cook's Letter

To the editor,

I am writing in response to the recent letter by Nina Pickering-Cook in your opinion column.

For the sake of full transparency, I serve on the Planning Board, Short Term Rental Workgroup, and the Affordable Housing Trust. I am speaking for myself and none of the above groups.

Attorney Pickering–Cook’s position would have been easier to understand if she had been much more transparent as to her relationship with ACK-Now. Attorney Pickering–Cook is the lead lawyer in litigation against three community members who own vacation rentals. These three cases are being at the very least partially if not completely funded by ACK-Now. In these cases, attorney Pickering-Cook argues that vacation rentals are an illegal use on Nantucket period.

Nina Pickering-Cook has a financial entanglement with ACK-Now that was not fully disclosed. If she had clearly stated this in her letter, her position on these issues would and should be seen in a different light.

I understand this is a contentious issue but without honesty and transparency how is this community going to make informed decisions on the issues? Opinions from hired guns who are paid for their opinions does not give our community the information it needs to make educated decisions. Instead, it clouds the facts and creates more confusion. We deserve better.

David Iverson