The Voters Have Spoken

To the editor: The voters have spoken. Well maybe... If you listened to the Select Board at this week's meeting you might question that statement. When discussing the Our Island Home issue one board member said "The voters have spoken" when referring to the fact that the OIH building project was voted up at the polls and deserved one more look at creative ideas.

Oddly enough, just a mere 60 seconds earlier, the Select Board decided to completely ignore the will of the voters when they voted down the Change of Government to Town Council issue at both ATM and the ATE polling booth. Despite the question suffering a double thumbs-down, the Select Board chose to continue to retain, and presumably pay, a consulting firm so they could meet with the Change Committee on June 11th "To see where things might go."

How do I describe my feelings when I heard this? Shocked? Sort of, yes. Sad, jaded and maybe feeling a bit like my vote simply didn't count? Yeah, that's it exactly.

To give a bit of background, in a previous life I was an elected Town Council member for 12 years in a seaside town surviving on real estate, tourism, and fishing. Fast forward to when I made Nantucket my home and couldn't wait to have issues hashed out and voted on in person by anyone who cared to invest the time. When I listened to the Select Board completely ignoring the will of the voters, I was reminded of my days as a Councilman where decisions were made by the few, not the many.

I know a number of the members of the Change Committee and truly appreciate the time and energy the entire team has invested in researching and presenting this issue. They did exactly what we asked them to do at a previous ATM, and for that we all should all be grateful.

While I generally agree with and respect the decisions of the Select Board, seeing them try to resurrect something the voters have twice rejected makes me ask a simple question.

Why?

Dave Bossi