Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Wellfleet are in person, typically with an online-attendance option. Click on the meeting you are interested in on the calendar at wellfleet-ma.gov for details. All meetings are at Town Hall unless otherwise indicated.
Monday, Jan. 6
- Herring River Restoration Project, 2 p.m.
- Nauset Public Schools Superintendent Search Committee, 3 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 7
- Elementary School Committee, 5 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 8
- Nauset Public Schools Superintendent Search Committee, 3 p.m.
Conversation Starter
A Charge of Bullying
At the select board meeting on Dec. 17, chair John Wolf denounced a “constant drumbeat of email harassment” that town staff have received from a Wellfleet resident whom he did not name. Wolf later confirmed that he was referring to fine art appraiser Jude Ahern, who has been physically removed from public meetings on several occasions for disrupting them and refusing to comply with rules for public comment.
Ahern, Wolf said, has been engaging in “harassment, bullying, and threats to our town” in the form of frequent emails to town staff. Wolf also noted that Ahern’s Open Meeting Law violation complaints and public record requests cost the town almost $18,000 in legal fees during the last fiscal year. “This is not about the First Amendment or about grievances,” said Wolf. “It is about self-aggrandizement and personal vendettas.”
Shellfish Constable Nancy Civetta also spoke during the public comment period, saying that emails from Ahern had caused DPW Director Jay Norton to end an agreement with the shellfish dept. whereby whenever they were already driving off-Cape, DPW staff would deliver oyster cultch to Wellfleet in exchange for gas money — an arrangement that Civetta said saved the town having to pay private trucking companies $1,200 to $1,500 per load. Due to the “volume and critical content of emails” from Ahern to the DPW, Civetta said, her department is now back to paying the private companies.
Ahern disputed the characterization of her emails as harassment this week. Her goal is “to get this town to function properly,” she said, “not to harass and not to be negative. If they’re upset with someone asking some questions, that’s a really bad sign.”
Ahern also said that town employees have told her to make public record requests to get answers to her questions, for which she paid $1,400 in fees last year.
Ahern said the DPW was too busy to be taking on additional work. “We were told this spring that they needed another employee,” she said. “If they’re already at capacity, then why are they taking on another department’s role?” —William von Herff
