Due Diligence in Truro
To the editor:
Let me see if I understand this correctly: One of Truro’s selectpersons is being investigated by the rest of them (employing a law firm retained for the purpose) for the alleged malfeasance of speaking to a town employee about the town manager’s performance without getting the prior permission of the town manager (the employee’s boss). And this selectperson has the duty, along with her peers, of doing the annual performance review of the town manager. [“Select Board Will Investigate Areson,” July 6, page A4.]
I call it due diligence when she seeks input from the people who work for him. In fact, it is a common practice for an evaluator to seek exactly this input from all those who report to someone whose performance is being evaluated.
Maybe we should investigate just how the other four selectpersons gathered information necessary to judge the town manager’s performance. Did they do any due diligence?
This would be silly if it weren’t so poisonous.
Ellyn Weiss
Truro and Washington, D.C.
White-Knuckled in Wellfleet
To the editor:
According to your Wellfleet Current “Dry Hollow a Huge Success” [July 13, page A15], Cahoon Hollow Beach is a lot less boozy this summer. Wonderful.
Well then, I imagine that fewer police officers are needed to oversee that beach on Saturdays. In the interest of public safety, a police officer is needed to direct traffic at the intersection of Lecount Hollow Road and Route 6 on Saturday mornings until the South Wellfleet Post Office closes at noon.
Navigating that dangerous intersection is a white-knuckler, especially at that time in our peak season.
Mike Rice
Wellfleet
‘Keep Truro Rural’
Re “Truro Select Board Renews Tangeman’s Contract,” July 6, front page:
This article shows a rare movement toward balance for the Indie, but in the end it fails your readers. It includes misleading, cherry-picked quotes suggesting that the 450 petition signers calling for the town manager’s nonrenewal do “not understand how a Massachusetts town works” or that we are “the usual group that mostly live in NY.”
These statements are not true; the Independent reported on June 15 that 58 percent of the petition signers were Truro voters.
People want the town manager to go because of their direct experience with him, the direction of costly overdevelopment that the town is taking, and the autocratic manner in which Truro is now run.
Those who suggest that complaints about the town manager are based on “misunderstandings of the town manager’s duties and authority” have apparently not read the town charter, which says the manager “prepare and present to the Select Board an annual draft operating budget and proposed capital expenditures budget….” You chose to print the trope that “the town budget is set by the select board….” Not so. This government operationally is the town manager’s and so is the budget. What say do voters actually have when real discussion is blocked at town meeting by procedural maneuvering?
Your article didn’t mention the disgraceful and contemptuous way in which some members of the select board described the peaceful and lawful expression of citizens’ views.
This is not about griping. This is serious — about democracy, transparency, and respect for Truro citizens’ groundswell demand to keep Truro rural, civil, and affordable for those who live here now.
Jon Slater
Truro
Clocks and Sandwich Boards
To the editor:
I’m writing to shed some light on two Provincetown issues that seem to have escaped notice by our town employees.
The town hall clocks are certainly in need of help. The west face has been reading ten minutes of four since last fall. The south face is reading standard time and the east face is reading daylight time. I have brought this to the attention of staff, but nothing happens.
The second issue is the signage blocking the sidewalk in front of town hall. The Mayflower Trolley has two sandwich-board signs and a large pushcart with a big umbrella.
It seems that this has encouraged other nearby businesses to do the same. JD’s, which is the upstairs restaurant, and Perfect Picnic at street level west of town hall both have a sandwich board on the sidewalk.
I think there are rules prohibiting this. Is anyone awake?
Channing Wilroy
Provincetown
A Legacy Vs. a ‘Lessee’
To the editor:
Re “Del Deo Rejects a 2-Year Permit From Park Service,” July 13, page A5:
The dune shacks of the Peaked Hill Bars Historic District belong to the town, to all of us striving to live up to the cultural legacy of those who came before. You cannot replace a legacy with a “lessee.” You cannot remove a people from a place. The people are the place. I beg the town to revolt.
Myra Slotnick
Provincetown
