TRURO — Six part-time Truro residents have been appointed to the town’s newly reconstituted Part-Time Resident Advisory Committee (PTRAC) with a mission to improve lines of communication between the town and its part-time residents.
The select board voted to revive the committee in November after a tense summer and fall that included an under-the-radar voter registration campaign spearheaded by the Truro Part-time Resident Taxpayers’ Association (TPRTA).
That campaign led to a series of voter registration challenges, a lawsuit against town officials, and, eventually, a six-month delay of a November town meeting when voter turnout exceeded the capacity of Truro Central School.
The committee’s charge is to “give part time residents a voice” and “review policy proposals, make recommendations and share their perspective on matters of importance to the Town.” It will meet at least quarterly and collaborate with the select board to host an annual part-time residents meeting.
The select board appointed seven members to the committee on Feb. 13 after asking nine candidates how they would attempt to “heal the divide” in Truro. The seventh appointee withdrew soon after, however, leaving a one-year seat on the committee vacant.
Committee member Linda Brady of New York City and Truro is a psychiatrist who spent the last 20 years as a hospital CEO. “My leadership style was to involve all stakeholders and try to make decisions that fit the needs of as many people as we could,” Brady told the board.
Brady said she would seek out nonresidents with diverse perspectives.
“I don’t necessarily have preset opinions for which I want this position,” Brady said. When she watched the town’s DPW facility video, she was concerned to see that staff were working without proper ventilation, she told the select board.
Another appointee is Phineas Baxandall of Cambridge and Truro. He is president of the Mass. Budget and Policy Center, a state public policy organization.
“I have pretty deep knowledge of property taxes and particularly ways to make them more based on ability to pay,” said Baxandall. He told the board that affordable housing is a priority for him and that he favors the residential tax exemption, even though “it means more taxes for me.”
“We have a discourse in the U.S. that sometimes militates against a strong, capable government,” Baxandall said. “My fundamental viewpoint is that taxes are how a community brings together resources to do things we can’t do individually.”
Stephen Duncombe, a professor of media and culture at New York University, told the select board he’s “been a community organizer and activist for my entire life.” According to Duncombe’s website, he is cofounder of the Center for Artistic Activism and has written and edited several books about cultural resistance and progressive politics. He was also named to the committee.
Duncombe said his priorities would be twofold: maintaining public access to natural spaces and making Truro a place where young people and families can thrive.
Brady, Baxandall, and Duncombe were all appointed to three-year terms.
Ken Field is a composer and musician, chair of the board at JazzBoston, and chair of Truro’s concert committee. He told the select board that he was concerned by the level of discord in town and that the divide may not only be between full-time and part-time residents. The town has “a diversity of opinion on a variety of issues,” he said.
Robert Elwood lives in Truro and Philadelphia and walked “the entire periphery of Truro” in 2022, he said.
Elwood is a tax lawyer. He said he is adept at “finding a way forward that involves respect and consensus.” His approach on the committee would be to “tone down the negative rhetoric” and focus on “the things we agree on,” like Truro’s natural beauty, he said.
Field and Elwood were both appointed to two-year terms on the advisory committee.
Kathleen Higgins, a self-employed financial professional, told the select board that since buying a home in Truro in 2020 she has kept herself informed through local newspapers and “part-time residents emails,” which meant she was “not biased one way or the other.” She said misinformation was the root of division in town, and that there is mistrust of the select board and town manager. “I think that I need to know more in order to bridge a divide,” Higgins said. She was appointed to a one-year term.
Susan Leff was appointed to the other one-year term but then withdrew her application, according to Town Manager Darrin Tangeman.
An eighth applicant, Ann D’Ercole, withdrew before her interview because she is Brady’s partner and the select board did not want to appoint couples to serve together.
A ninth applicant, David Gavelek, had written on his application that none of the select board’s goals for 2024 were “specifically relevant” to the advisory committee.
He also told the board that he plans to become a full-time Truro resident “towards the end of this year,” which would make him ineligible to complete even a one-year term.
Reconvened
The last iteration of Truro’s Part-Time Resident Advisory Committee stopped meeting in 2018.
Sue Areson, vice chair of the select board, said the lack of remote participation options had hastened the end of that group.
“They had to be physically present at town hall,” Areson said — a challenge for a committee of part-time residents.
The committee had been created shortly after the town adopted the residential tax exemption (RTE) in 2017, which lowers property taxes for most full-time residents and raises them for part-timers.
The RTE was controversial — but once that controversy died down, the committee “kind of ran out of steam,” Areson said.
In an email to the Independent, the TPRTA’s five-person executive committee, composed of Anthony Garrett, Catherine Haynes, Regan McCarthy, Gail Pisapio, and Steve Wynne, wrote that their organization has represented part-timers “successfully and well” for 30 years.
“We hope the relationship between TPRTA and this Committee will be positive,” said the email. “We want the Committee to succeed and will offer perspective, information and help.
“In the meanwhile,” the email went on, “TPRTA will continue to represent our members’ concerns and interests effectively, faithfully, and lawfully, as always.”
The advisory committee will begin meeting once its final member is appointed, Tangeman said. Applications are due by noon on Friday, March 8.
