Former Harbormaster Stu Smith Joins Select Board Fray

 CHATHAM – As a town employee for 39 years, Stuart Smith tried — and usually succeeded — to keep his personal political views hidden from the public. Those days are over. 

Having retired as the town’s harbormaster last year, Smith has announced he’s running for a seat on the select board.

Smith says the board needs to take a more active role in managing town operations.

 “They have a responsibility in the charter that they’re not executing,” he said. “The town manager and the board of selectmen, they comprise the executive branch of town government.” While other documents delegate day-to-day management to the town manager and reserve the select board as policy-makers, “it’s like whoever wrote it didn’t read the charter,” Smith said. “They don’t jibe, and I think that’s part of the issues that...you hear in the community,” he said.

As an example, Smith cited the West Chatham roadway reconstruction project, which was rejected by a slim margin at a nonbinding special town meeting vote in 2013 but was steadfastly advanced by a majority of the select board. 

 “It was hugely controversial. It failed at town meeting, and the select board and the town manager did it anyway,” he said. Work is likewise proceeding on the long-planned reconfiguration of the five-way intersection at Queen Anne and Main Street, which has not been authorized by town meeting, Smith said. “And I think to myself, how did that get so far along? It got so far along because I don’t think the two entities are talking to each other effectively.”

Smith said he favors the current plan to renovate the existing senior center on Stony Hill Road, but said the process was “a mess. You know, we ended up back exactly where we started.” Unlike previous proposals to build a new senior center, Smith said he believes the current renovation plan would have no trouble getting a two-thirds approval at town meeting, though the select board and town manager have announced plans to use this year’s unusually large amount of free cash to finance the project, without a need for a two-thirds vote.

 “I’m going to vote for that project, I think, because we’re out of options here. We need to do something with that facility,” he said. But Smith added that he is suspicious that free cash funds happen to be available to advance the project.

 “I don’t believe in coincidences, and the circumstances tell me that that was planned,” he said. Smith said it would be appropriate for the finance committee to investigate. “When I see repeated processes that are flawed and circumvent our small-town form of government, that gets my attention,” he said.

Smith also favors restoring the previous practice of allowing public comment during select board agenda item discussions, rather than in a designated public comment period at the start of the meeting. “It’s ineffective from a public engagement standpoint,” Smith said. The current policy has a chilling effect on public participation, which leads to ineffective decisions, he said. “We overuse, in this community, the word ‘transparency,’” he said.

If elected, Smith would also resume the push to challenge the U.S. Coast Guard on its response readiness in Chatham, saying the downgrade of the station has led to a potential gap in public safety. 

 “It seems to have just fallen off the radar. It just never gets discussed,” he said. “Do we have to wait until somebody drowns?” When he was the harbormaster, Smith advocated for coordinating with other Lower Cape communities to put pressure on the Coast Guard. “I was actually criticized by two board members when I was trying to do that,” he said. 

Smith said he favors continued investment in the town’s sewer project, though with better oversight to ensure that the pump stations have a consistent design that blend into neighborhoods.

 When it comes to community sustainability, Smith said a good starting point is for the town to resume the practice of hiring locally.

 “We need to entice local people into the biggest employer in town, which is town government,” he said. “I mean, what better way to keep younger families here than to employ them?” Creating new housing units is a noble effort, “but where are those folks going to work?” Some will be employed by local businesses, “but they’re not going to make a living here to buy a home working at the T-shirt shop. That’s not going to happen,” he said. He favors creating some kind of town policy that favors local residents for employment by the town.

 Smith said he disagrees with the strategy of building large numbers of apartments and rentals to boost housing stock. 

 “The people who actually make a living here, how are we going to make that more attractive? I don’t think it’s having them live in an apartment,” he said. Smith said he favors creating homeownership units, which he acknowledges is a challenge given sky-high real estate prices. 

 “But it can be done if we want to do that. But you can start by not putting $11 million in free cash, but putting that towards some housing that is truly sustainable. I want people to own a home, that the kids can play in the yard and the neighbors can trick-or-treat and all of that sort of thing. And you don’t get that same feeling in an apartment complex,” Smith said.

 To that end, Smith said he favors redeveloping the town-owned house and barn at 127 Old Harbor Rd. as a single-family home, rather than “cramming as many people as we can into one parcel of property, which disturbs the neighborhood.” 

 Smith took out nomination papers last week and is beginning the process of collecting signatures. Also taking out papers is Brian Phillips, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the board last year. Two incumbent board members, Jeffrey Dykens and Michael Schell, are up for reelection this year. Both have said they plan to seek another term. The annual town election happens on May 15; candidates must return nomination papers by March 27, and the last day to register to vote is April 30.