Work Group Is Stacked In Favor Of Short-Term Rentals

To the editor,

After listening to last week’s Short-Term Rental (STR) Work Group meeting, it’s no surprise that some are now conditioning expectations with respect to lack of progress.

The workgroup appears to be dominated by those with commercial interests who put great effort into bullying the ACK Now representative with respect to its lack of willingness to give up its first amendment rights as well as its ability to put forward another warrant article to reign in STRs. Let’s not forget that Nantucket voters were denied the ability to vote on both Articles 42 and 43 following parliamentary maneuvering by pro-STR officials at this year’s town meeting.

Given the dominance of pro-STR voting voices in the workgroup, it's apparent that the likely outcome will be either no reasonable proposal for the foreseeable future or assuming they can get the seven necessary votes, another “anything goes” pro-STR proposal.

It is therefore obvious why the pro-STR lobby would seek to prevent another Citizen’s Article from being put forward by ACK Now or other citizen’s groups.

Chuck Davis