We are educators, land surveyors, public servants. We are lifelong Yarmouth residents and newcomers. We are parents, grandparents, voters. And we all care deeply about our community.
It is our love for this town that led each of us to join a lawsuit challenging a recent amendment to the Town Charter that will bar school and town employees from running for and serving on the Yarmouth Town Council. This includes teachers, custodial workers, even volunteer firefighters – who, despite the title, are town employees in order to ensure proper insurance coverage in case of an accident.
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Until this change, town employees have been serving on the council for as long as there has been a Town Council, without incident.
We believe this change will harm the fabric of our community. It will keep a large swath of our fellow residents from serving on the council – people who have the very experience and perspective that would serve them well in the role. And it will undermine the right of every Yarmouth resident to vote for the person they think is most qualified for the position.
We have heard the argument that this change was needed in order to ensure a fair, unbiased committee. But in a democracy, it is the voters who get to decide whether a particular candidate has a fair and balanced view of the issues. Candidates for elected office promote their positions on issues in order to win votes. They run as candidates who support or oppose certain issues or ideas. We elect them because they represent our views and beliefs.
Electing people who see the issues the way we see them is the essence of representative democracy and is our right as voters. This charter amendment deprives us of that right.
We have also heard the concern that teachers and other town employees will naturally have a conflict of interest if they serve on the council. But this is local government – any number of things can lead to a conflict of interest for one councilor or another. And when conflicts of interest do arise, there is already a law governing what to do. In fact, in teacher Meghan Casey’s time on the council, other councilors have had to recuse themselves based on their own jobs more often than she has as a teacher.
The assumption that teachers pose a particular conflict because they will act in their own self-interest misunderstands how the Town Council works. The council is not involved on any level with teacher contract negotiations. The only time councilors deal with teacher compensation is when they decide whether to pass the entire school budget on to the residents of Yarmouth for a vote.
Beyond issues of salary, school or town employees who support maintaining the high quality of Yarmouth’s schools are indistinguishable from hundreds of Yarmouth citizens who hold the same view. If support for schools is a justifiable reason for disqualifying someone from running for Town Council, it is likely that a majority of Yarmouth’s parents would be similarly disqualified.
Because the charter amendment was presented to the Town Council by petition, there was little opportunity for public debate and discussion leading up to the vote. Since its passage, we have heard from many people who said they didn’t realize the impact the change would have. Unfortunately, if we don’t act quickly to overturn this change, the damage will be done.
Yarmouth’s motto, “Our latchstring always out,” has always symbolized our open and welcoming spirit. We believe that includes ensuring all qualified people have the opportunity to serve in leadership roles – not closing the door on some people simply because of their profession.
One of the things that makes Yarmouth great is that so many people here have dedicated themselves to public service. It is in the best interest of this town to encourage those people – or any qualified person – to run for office, not to bar them from doing so.
We write on behalf of ourselves and our fellow plaintiffs in the case. The six of us brought this lawsuit because we want the best for Yarmouth, and we know it is not too late to fix this. Together, we can recommit ourselves to the ideals of our motto.
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