"Falmouth First" Review

When I was growing up, we had one TV in the house. Because of this, there were times when, if I wanted to watch TV, it was whatever my parents were watching.

My mother subjected me to watching "It's a Wonderful Life" every Christmas. My dad had been in the army; a captain and commander of a tank battalion in the Yankee Division. If you haven't already guessed, his movie of choice was "Patton".

And so, some time ago, when I worked with a guy who had this quote by General Patton in his email signature file, "If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking," I remembered it. It's one of my favorite quotes and I've previously used it here.

The quote is a good summary of the overall performance of the candidates on Kevin Callahan's FCTV-13 show, "Falmouth First." The first three questions dealt with the tax overrides. Every other candidate - all five of them - all supported all three of these overrides. I was the lone dissenter in each and every case.

I'm not sure why I was the lone dissenter, because in most cases the other candidates didn't bother to explain their position. I explained myself, and I'll reiterate it here...

1) In the case of the New Silver Beach override, the other candidates basically rehashed the history of the project and said they were in favor of the override.

For my part, I explained that no matter what, New Silver Beach is going to happen. The question - the override - is whether the residents of Falmouth should pay for 30 percent of the New Silver Beach septic plant. I don't think so, because I've not yet found a public benefit for the tax increase. I've already stated my reasons for this here, so I won't repeat myself.

I did finish the question with a question: If your septic system fails, who pays for it?

2) Another override question was about the Rapoza parcel on Davisville Rd, next to the Emerald House. This is a nearly-4-acre parcel that the town wants to buy for "municipal purposes." One of the justifications for this purchase is that Falmouth doesn't have enough of an "inventory" of municipal land.

In fact, we not only have municipal land all over the place (in Teaticket, near Seacoast Shores, at the golf course), but we have buildings (Odd Fellows Hall) that are lying vacant. If we don't have a specific purpose for the land, we shouldn't be buying it.

An argument in favor of buying the Rapoza parcel is because it might - might - be needed for the future sewer system. The problem with this is that no one is willing to say it out loud. If we need it for the sewer system, say so. Don't string the residents of Davisville and Falmouth along with half-truths.

Moreover, if we want the Rapoza parcel for open space, then let's use Community Preservation Act funds for it. We did that with the Haddad parcel.

3) The last override question was about sludge removal from the West Falmouth plant. This appeared as Article 34 on the town meeting warrant, and I actually voted for it. Before someone tries to paint me as a flip-flopping politician, let me explain my change of heart.

The other day, I got an email from a supporter who mentioned that some folks felt this cost should be borne by the users of the sewer. It got me thinking...

When the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) cleaned up Boston Harbor, it paid for that work by increasing the rates of the MWRA customers. Similarly, the users of the West Falmouth treatment plant - the ones who put the sludge there - should be paying for the sludge removal.

When your septic tank needs to be pumped-out, who pays for it? You do.

Someone noted after the show that West Falmouth also takes delivery of sewage from septic haulers, so it could be argued that we all - directly or indirectly - use the sewer plant and have contributed to the sludge.

Not really. See, we paid a septic hauler to take our sewage away. Where they took it I don't know, and frankly, I don't care. However, if they did happen to take it to West Falmouth, then it is they who are using the plant. And what about septic haulers from Mashpee or Bourne? They use West Falmouth too. So increase the rates the haulers pay.

The end result is that the people who actually use the plant will pay AND we will raise the revenues without having to go through the pain of a Proposition 2-1/2 override. In fact, we probably would've saved some money had we done it that way, since it could've been done months ago and it costs us $3,000/month to keep the sludge where it is.

An aside...
One caller to the show apparently remarked that they liked me; that they didn't want to pay for someone else's sludge.


What else was discussed?

-- There was a question about 40B. This is a common concern, and I've previously given thought about what we can do here.

Last night I offered another idea based on the Community Preservation Act. The CPA replaced the Land Bank, but it has more flexibility. Whereas the land bank had to be used to pay for land, the CPA only requires 10 percent of the funds to be used for land acquisition, 10 percent for historic preservation and 10 percent for affordable housing. The other 70 percent can be used for any of the above or a few other things like recreation.

Given that we want to reign in 40B development, I suggested that we use the bulk of that 70 percent to get us over the magic 10 percent mark, i.e., once 10 percent of Falmouth's housing is affordable, we can deny 40B projects. Until then, our hands are tied.

It is worth noting that Jim Fox suggested buying up properties around town and reselling them at affordable prices to add to our affordable housing inventory. This basically complements my idea; it is one way we would use the CPA money to get us to the 10 percent.

-- Another question asked about what we, as selectmen, could/would do for local businesses. The only memorable response was from Carey Murphy, who seemed to go on and on about the Chamber of Commerce. For my part, I drew on my experience on the Conservation Commission and our efforts to make our rules clear, consistent and fair, and I suggested that we review other boards and bylaws to make sure that every business is treated the same.

-- One question that generated some reserved answers was about the performance of Robert Whritenour, our town administrator. For the most part, no one wanted to criticize Mr. Whritenour. Mr. Murphy praised him at length, but Ms. Zylinski was willing to raise some concerns about communication between him and the selectmen.

I, too, was unwilling to discuss Mr. Whritenour's performance on-air, but I did note that if there are questions or concerns about his performance, they may be due to the performance his supervisors - the selectmen.


That was the show. It will play again several times between now and election day (May 15). It will be on again Thursday, April 19 at 7pm. Check the FCTV schedule for other dates.

Many thanks to Kevin Callahan for hosting and to the FCTV volunteers for producing the show.