Selectmen’s Candidates Sound Out Off Budget,
Wastewater, Government Transparency

by Alan Pollock

            CHATHAM — On Jan. 15, voters will choose from a field of three candidates to fill a vacancy on the board of selectmen.  In separate interviews with The Chronicle this week, Florence Seldin, Stephen Buckley and Debbie Aikman say they want to encourage local government that is both effective and fiscally responsible. 

            The three will also square off in a candidates’ forum Friday at 4:30 p.m. at town hall.  Organized by the League of Women Voters, the forum will be moderated by Gwen Pelletier of Eastham. 

Debbie Aikman

            Debbie Aikman spent summers in Chatham before purchasing a home here in 1968.  When she retired from her career as a mathematics teacher, she and her husband, Donald, moved to Chatham full-time.  She is now the chairman of the charter review committee, the vice president of the Old Village Association, and the treasurer of the Chatham Alliance for Preservation and Conservation and the League of Women Voters of the Cape Cod Area.  Aikman is also a Friends of Chatham Waterways “beach watcher,” and before coming to Cape Cod, helped found an affordable housing group.  Asked to identify her top campaign issue, Aikman doesn’t hesitate.

            “It all has to do with fiscal restraint,” she said.  Aikman said the best way for Chatham to weather its current financial challenges is to look both at new revenue opportunities and cost-saving measures.  “We should start by collaborating with other communities,” she said.  The town should be open to the possibility of regionalizing its school system with a neighboring town, but only if it creates more opportunities for students.   Regionalization is not necessarily a financial cure-all, she said.

            “I look at Dennis-Yarmouth,” she said, referring to that cash-strapped school district.  When two towns regionalize, one town might be less able to pay its share, “and then what are you going to do?” Aikman said.

            Her second most important campaign issue is protecting water quality in the town’s embayments.  The wastewater plan is moving along well, and the citizens’ advisory committee has done a good job shaping that plan, she said, but citizen input needs to continue during implementation.  “We need to make the decisions on how we’re going to pay for it,” she said.  The board of selectmen should get good advice from a strong group of citizen advisors, she added.

            Aikman said she also believes Chatham should improve the way it takes on capital projects.  “Transparency is a big issue for me,” she said.  The police station-town hall annex project had a false start because there wasn’t enough citizen input at the outset, Aikman said.  “It had all been done by department people.  That was very wrong,” she said.

            As leader of the charter review process, Aikman said she has given much thought to the division of power between the selectmen and the town manager.  “I don’t believe in micromanaging,” she said.  The town’s staff should be sensitive to issues that are likely to create widespread public interest, and allow citizen involvement, she said.  The board of selectmen should also exercise its right to carefully analyze the town’s budget, but should not make management recommendations on a regular basis, she said.  But Aikman said she would not favor following the lead of some towns, which have included sections in their town charters which explicitly prohibit selectmen from certain actions deemed to be day-to-day operations.  “I think that’s a dangerous path to follow,” she said.

            Citing the increase in the town’s senior population, Aikman said she believes there is a need for a town-operated adult day care center in town.  Having served as the caregiver for her own aging mother, Aikman said she knows it would be difficult for many elders to take the bus to the center in Orleans.  “This is a group that doesn’t have advocacy skills,” she said.  Instead of building a new facility or adding on to the already-cramped senior center, Aikman said the town should locate the adult day care center in an existing building—possibly the Doc Keene Scout Hall.

            Aikman said she would bring a unique perspective and varied experiences to the board of selectmen, and while she tends to be associated with preservation issues, she is keenly aware and interested in the other issues that face the town.  Aikman said there are some voters who will have difficulty choosing from the strong field of candidates in the race, “but I’m running to give people who feel that way a choice,” she said. 

Stephen Buckley

            From Stephen Buckley’s perspective, many of the town’s day-to-day challenges can be alleviated by solving one over-arching problem.

            “We need to learn how to make our government work better,” he said. 

            Buckley holds a degree in environmental engineering from Purdue University, and worked in that field for the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Energy before moving to the private sector, working for firms based in Virginia and Maryland. In 1997, he became a self-employed management consultant.  He created and moderated an online discussion group on the topic of reforming and streamlining the federal government, and worked on a government improvement plan for the mayor of Washington, D.C.  From 2002 to 2006, Buckley served on Chatham’s Long Range Planning Committee.

            Buckley said he is troubled by the way that new projects, bylaws or proposals tend to originate from “a very small collection of perspectives” in Chatham, often spending months or years being deliberated by committees.  Citizens who wish to become involved in a particular issue would likely be confused and frustrated by attending a committee meeting, not knowing exactly what process is being used.  If elected, Buckley said he would push for a revision of the town’s committee handbook to create a standardized system of procedures for all boards, allowing people to more easily participate in the discussion.

            When the public is omitted from such discussions early in the process, projects tend to be flawed and too expensive—like the infamous Oyster Pond guardrails or the PD/annex—and bylaws and regulations are unclear or ineffective.  The result, Buckley said, is that the process “unnecessarily polarizes issues” in the public mind.

            Asked to identify campaign issues, Buckley said the need to improve the way government works is his single issue.  “Everything else is short-term,” he said.  Regionalization should be explored for the school system, Buckley said, though he doesn’t know whether doing so would be beneficial.  As evidence of his fiscal frugality, Buckley points out that he still drives a 22-year-old Volkswagen that he purchased new.  He said selectmen should focus on preserving Chatham’s environment, economy and social wellbeing, using “measurable, distinct goals” each year.

            With regard to the lines of authority between the selectmen and the town manager, Buckley said the division of authority needs to be sharply drawn.  “I think it needs to be more clear,” he said.  Selectmen can also reduce conflicts by setting clear policies, “without getting into details.”  The board’s annual performance evaluation of the town manager should be conducted clearly and publicly, and should include enough specific detail to be useful, he said.  It is not helpful for the board to simply issue glowing evaluations each year, without citing specific strengths and weaknesses, Buckley noted.           

Florence Seldin

            A retired school administrator, Florence Seldin said all of her campaign issues support one overriding goal: keeping Chatham a diverse community that supports its working population and is viable for retirees, tourists and year-round residents.  Right now, the top issue is the town’s financial health, she said.  Seldin said she is eager to review the town manager’s proposals for bridging the override with cost-cuts and fee increases.  “Of course, you have to look at the spending side,” she said.  Having reviewed prior years’ budgets, Seldin said she has counted the number of employees, and said it makes sense to review that number each year.  It might be advisable to continue the town’s hiring freeze for a while, or reduce the number of part-time staff the town employs, Seldin said.

            If layoffs are necessary, they should be undertaken only as a last resort, she said. “They are people who contribute to the local economy, and if we lay off too many, we could end up causing more economic harm,” she said.

            Seldin’s number two issue is implementing the wastewater plan, and finding the best way to fund it.  It is critical that the sewer project move ahead, not only for its environmental benefits “but also for economic reasons,” she said.  Only with clean waterways can the town continue to be a popular destination with a sustainable commercial fishing fleet, she said.  Delays now could make it more difficult for the town to access state revolving funds, Seldin noted.

            As a former superintendent of schools, Seldin is wary of a proposal to regionalize Chatham’s schools.  Such a step should only be taken if it provides better student services, and it is not clear whether a regional system would automatically create cost savings for the town, she said.  “I think we need to keep an open mind,” she said.  Also, if the fiscal 2010 school budget requires a Proposition 2½ override vote, Seldin said people should not assume that she would automatically support such a request, just because she was formerly a teacher.

            It is a board of selectmen’s job to ask tough questions of the town manager at budget time, but should avoid issues of management or personnel administration, Seldin said.  “Clearly, the board of selectmen has a town manager to handle the day-to-day operations,” she said. 

            Seldin said she is the best qualified candidate because of her background and her track record of accomplishments.  As a school administrator, she developed and presented budgets and took part in contract negotiations, she noted.

            “I’m not running to be the town manager, but I would know the right questions to ask,” Seldin said.  She served on the town’s human resources committee and the charter review committee; helped create the affordable housing committee that she later chaired; served on the search committee for the current town manager, and helped encourage the town to adopt the Community Preservation Act, which has funded more than $6 million in projects.  She is currently chairman of the community preservation committee. As the past president of the League of Women Voters of Cape Cod, Seldin said she lobbied hard for passage of the Cape Cod Land Bank.  She now serves as the town’s representative to the Cape Cod Commission, a position she said she would vacate if elected to the board of selectmen.

1/8/09