Printed in the Falmouth Enterprise as Guest Commentary
In 1988, recognizing that a lot more could be done by setting aside our differences than by going it alone, voters of Cape Cod embarked on a lofty project: to overcome the most significant issues facing our region by establishing a regional government.
This regional government could provide services, foster inter-town cooperation, and advocate for all Cape Codders. It would have an executive branch of three Commissioners, akin to a Select Board, and a legislative branch—the Assembly of Delegates—with one representative from each community.
Over the past four decades, this has proved to be a resounding success. The County boasts a state-of-the-art health department, a dredging service, and the septic loan fund, amongst many other valuable services that save Cape communities millions annually through shared services and alternatives to for-profit contractors.
In regional government, legislative and local representation matters! As the Delegate from Falmouth since April of 2022, I have had the privilege to advocate for our community, bringing home $1.3 million in federal American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds to address our wastewater issues; negotiating steadier increases to dredge rates; and advocating for financial relief to homeowners faced with replacing their septic systems. Nevertheless, the most rewarding aspect of serving on the County is working with Delegates from Bourne to Provincetown to find solutions to common issues in the same spirit of regional cooperation that the County was founded upon—even if we’ll never be able to agree whose beaches are best (Falmouth’s, of course.)
Recently, the County executive branch has used legal opinions to impede the work of the towns’ elected representatives.
Recently, however, for every success at the County that inspires renewed faith in regional discourse, the County executive branch, vested in the Board of Commissioners, has made a concerted effort to use legal opinions and procedural technicalities to impede the work of the towns’ elected representatives. Often, this dispute is not an exercise of checks and balances but an attempt to strike at the very existence of a regional legislature.
In the Spring of 2022, when the Assembly—vested with the power of the purse— sought to legislate on the distribution of federal ARPA funds, the County Commissioners procured a legal opinion granting them unprecedented and unilateral authority over the entire $43 million.
When the Assembly persisted and proposed distributing a share of the ARPA funds to the towns, the Commissioners sought an ethics opinion barring certain delegates from voting on the ordinance. This forced Falmouth’s Delegate and my predecessor, Doug Brown, to resign from the Assembly rather than cede Falmouth’s vote on the critical issue.
The Commissioners claim that only the executive branch of the county can propose legislation
That summer, when the Assembly voted to invest $2.5 million of the County surplus in a freshwater ponds initiative to study and preserve Cape Cod’s kettle ponds and lakes, the Commissioners’ lawyers asserted that the Board could ignore the ordinance. Not because they disagreed with it, but as an opportunity to claim that only the executive branch of the county could propose legislation—as opposed to the legislative branch.
Later that year, when the Assembly amended an $11.4 million housing grant program to provide transparency in how the administration would choose winners, the Board again turned to its lawyers. This time, the Commissioners asserted that they could treat those amendments as advisory, placing themselves above the written word of the law.
When Delegates initiated a review of benefits provided to County elected officials, seeking to propose reductions, yet again, the Board turned to its lawyers, contending that benefits provided to elected officials fell under a unitary executive purview and were not subject to any semblance of legislative oversight.
Just this past month, Delegates—who are volunteers—negotiated to hire a part-time administrative assistant, only to have the Board once again reach for legal counsel. This one, conveniently, claimed that it was the sole authority of the executive branch to hire, or refuse to hire, Assembly staff. Unsurprisingly, given this new power, the Board seems inclined not to allow the Assembly to hire a staffer.
Over two years, the men and women elected by the voters have tried to represent their communities in distributing $43 million in ARPA funds, allocating a $28 million budget surplus, and creating regional policy while being told that they cannot oversee vast sums of County funds; cannot propose legislation; are limited in their ability to propose amendments; and even if the Assembly succeeds in amending legislation, the Commissioners have the power to ignore it.
None of this has been dictated by a court of law or the voting public, but by Commissioner edict, simply banking on the fact that they’ll never get challenged in court by a volunteer legislature.
Unwilling to turn to the Courts, the Assembly is turning to the voters to seek clarification on their role in the Charter
On this point, they are correct; unwilling to turn to the Courts, the Assembly is turning to the voters to seek clarification on their role in the Charter, having proposed a question to appear on the November 2024 ballot. After months of contention, the Board allowed it to be sent to the Secretary of State, but not before, for the umpteenth time, retaining legal counsel to see if they had any recourse to prevent it.
The ballot question will ask voters to clarify the wording of the Charter, expressly giving the Assembly the ability to propose and amend ordinances, while preserving the foundational checks and balances of the legislative process—a Commissioner veto and an Assembly override.
In the face of mounting regional issues that don’t respect town lines, such as climate change, housing unaffordability, and wastewater, we have an opportunity to rise to the occasion as a unique regional forum for finding innovative solutions.
By bringing attention to this issue, I urge the Commissioners to reconsider their approach to governance by legal opinion, and I hope that in November, voters will empower their representatives to advocate on their behalf.
