Suing the Auditors
To the editor:
Buddy Perkel’s March 9 op-ed, “What Wellfleet Deserved,” contains several inaccurate assertions.
The select board has not filed a malpractice claim against the town’s auditors first because that firm cannot be faulted for the failure of the previous town administration to act on its findings, incomplete though they may have been, and second because the town has been seeking bids for the auditing contract, so far without success.
The town is required by law to secure an annual audit. Suing the sole auditing firm currently available would be ill-advised. Such a lawsuit would tie up virtually everyone in town government in depositions, subject the town to a likely countersuit, and cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. It would turn a train wreck, which we are putting in our rear-view mirror, into a catastrophe.
It took many years for the cumulative effects of sloppy accounting, failure to properly note transactions, improper procurement procedures, and a “this is the way we’ve always done it” mindset to manifest themselves. The failure to properly implement new accounting software and the turnover of key personnel added to the mix. To expect that the resulting disaster could be sorted out within a year or so is simply unrealistic.
Mr. Perkel’s suggestion that possible theft was covered up is outlandish. The stellar team of Charlie Sumner, Lisa Souve, and Mary McIsaac looked specifically for anything hinting at illegal activity. Ms. McIsaac especially, a forensic accountant, was well positioned to ferret out any malfeasance and found none.
Suggesting that the select board has “continued to tolerate this fiasco for the last three years” is disingenuous. Perhaps to the uninformed it may seem so because we were not “screaming out loud,” but the most efficient engines are those that do their work more quietly.
John A. Wolf
Wellfleet
The writer has served on the Wellfleet Select Board since July 2021.
Provincetown’s Zoning
To the editor:
There are few things as unsexy as municipal zoning bylaws. Yet little else can tell us so comprehensively what a community values and doesn’t value as much as the roadmap and vision of its built environment told through zoning.
Across the country, many communities are learning that their zoning bylaws have been designed to systematically drive up the cost of housing, shutting out low- to moderate-income earners across the board. Some state governments have taken action to intervene, such as California clawing back local zoning control from communities that fail to adopt adequate multifamily housing production plans and Massachusetts requiring multifamily zoning in communities served by the MBTA.
The story of Provincetown’s zoning is in some ways the same and in some ways different. I regularly hear from residents, nonprofits, and state and local officials about the dire need for more affordable and community housing in Provincetown. Serving as vice chair of the Provincetown Community Housing Council and the Year-Round Market Rate Rental Housing Trust for over two years, I have learned about the many challenges and possible solutions for preservation and expansion of affordable and community housing.
With projects like the VFW site redevelopment bringing many new units online over the next few years, we will begin to make a dent in the problem. But we can and must do more. It’s important that we consider evidence-based policies including zoning changes, subsidies, and incentives that support the creation of more housing. As a member of the select board, I would help the town navigate the complex local, state, and federal web of policies and reforms necessary to meaningfully address this crisis.
Austin Miller
Provincetown
The writer is a candidate for Provincetown Select Board in the May 9 town election.
Educating Dog Owners
To the editor:
Gardening is an enriching way of life in Truro. Many of us thrive on it.
Most of us probably garden organically, but I’m sure at least a few residents use pesticides and chemical fertilizers to manage flower and vegetable gardens, lawns, shrubbery, ticks, and mosquitos. Some of those toxins will probably affect the people and wildlife as they are carried by the wind, seep into the groundwater, or are inadvertently served in the green salad at the neighborhood potluck.
But we do not create a bylaw restricting the right to garden.
Instead, we discuss, collect data and look for patterns, educate, provide resources on responsible choices, and enforce rules against egregious abuses if and when we find them. In other words, we find a balance between freedom and safety, the ideal and the pragmatic.
Allowing dogs to be off leash is a way of life in Truro — a critically important, meaningful, and enriching way of life in much the same way as gardening is. It should be accepted in a parallel fashion.
We can’t legislate our way out of things that make us feel uncomfortable. We respectfully and transparently find ways to address problems cooperatively and openly. Legislation should always be the very last resort in a functional and interdependent community, used only when all other options have been exhausted.
I support an educational initiative geared towards responsible dog ownership in Truro. I oppose any modifications to the leash bylaw as an unacceptable curtailment of dog owners’ freedoms and an unnecessary infringement on an indispensable staple of the Truro way of life. I encourage other Truro residents to do the same.
Heather Korostoff Murray
Truro
Waterfront Questions
To the editor:
Re “With More Space, Barker Unveils a Bigger Plan for the Waterfront” [March 16, page A5]:
With the building of two more mega condo-restaurant developments in the works, I wonder how our limited water and sewer systems will handle all the extra rooms?
Alice Brock
Provincetown
