Oak Bluffs Moving on from Election Snafu

Oak Bluffs selectmen yesterday held a special post-mortem meeting to look at a mistake-laden process that flawed a May 26 special town election. Then they worked on a fail-safe process for the future.  

Voters resoundingly defeated more than $480,000 in proposed in that election, which was later found to be improperly posted.

In addition to directing town administrator Michael Dutton and town clerk Deborah Ratcliff to develop an interdepartmental plan to allow sufficient time for public notice and to develop correct posting protocols for town meetings, selectmen also began to hunt for $100,000 to $120,000 in additional spending cuts they believe will be necessary to meet the voter-approved $24 million Fiscal Year 2012 budget.

The money is required to fund a town treasurer position that was left vacant following the death of Paul Manzi in October 2010, and was a casualty of the override failure. Selectmen will comb the budget for cuts to fund the treasurer's position.

Adding perhaps some unneeded drama to the proceedings, selectmen also learned from town counsel Ron Rappaport that the commonwealth's attorney general is not happy with the town's procurement policies, and wants quarterly reports on the procurement of bids as well as extensive details on planned projects. Selectmen agreed to the plan, which includes a state offer to provide free training to town officials and employees involved in procurement. 

Selectman chair Kathleen Burton, a former information technology corporate executive, is not a fan of finger-pointing, posterior covering and hindsight judgments in the aftermath of organizational gaffes. 

After opening the meeting at the Oak Bluffs Public Library, she wryly told a dozen audience members, town officials and a spate of curious reporters that “We have another opportunity for improvement in Oak Bluffs. My policy is to have a positive, productive discussion when a mistake or error has been made.” 

“Discussions can create a lot of excitement, so I am going to ask everyone to raise their hand before speaking,” she said, introducing Dutton, who immediately accepted responsibility for the missed deadline and for improper posting of the town election, including notices without selectmen's signatures, some detail errors in the warrant and not providing a proper copy to the town clerk required by law.

Ratcliff began to about posting irregularities before polls closed on May 26.

In addition to internal miscommunication issues, the town decision to separate the override vote from the annual town meeting (ATM) by more than a month may have contributed to the missed deadline. Towns typically list overrides as ballot questions on the town election warrant. Elections are held a day or two after ATM. Thus, the ballot questions are part of the warrant and meet state requirements of seven-day public notice.

At the suggestion of the Department of Revenue, Oak Bluffs opted not to include the override questions on the ballot. Instead, they decided to provide some distance from the town meeting vote in order to make their case for override approval to voters in the interim.

However, by not including the ballot questions on the ATM warrant, the town ran afoul of a longer notice requirement—a signed warrant 35 days in advance, a requirement of which it was unaware, as Dutton explained. Nor did the town campaign effectively for the overrides in the additional time it created, Ratcliff and others pointed out on Monday afternoon.

The good news is that since the overrides failed, the town has no need to take further action on the snafu, Rappaport told the audience. He explained that since no funding article appeared on the original ATM warrant, no unfunded article exists to be dealt with. Had the override passed, however, it is likely that an act of the legislature would have been required to correct the situation, he said.

Before adjourning the nearly two-hour session, selectmen put off discussion of public vs. private use of town docks in the harbor and Burton received approval from selectmen to enter  executive session at the board's June 14 meeting for a disciplinary meeting with an unnamed public employee.