On November 3, Cape Cod voters will find a question on their ballots that will not appear anywhere else in Massachusetts.
Question A asks whether Barnstable County should establish a Charter Study Commission to examine the structure of Cape Cod Regional Government and recommend whether it should be changed.
It may not attract the attention of the statewide ballot questions or the candidates running for higher office, but it could be one of the most consequential decisions Cape Cod voters make this year.
Cape Cod faces challenges that no single town can solve on its own. The replacement of the Bourne and Sagamore bridges will affect transportation, public safety, commerce and tourism across the entire region. Wastewater projects necessary to restore our coastal waters are straining municipal budgets. The health of our freshwater ponds demands regional research, monitoring and action. All 15 Cape towns are on the front lines of sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and increasingly severe storms.
These are regional challenges. They require a regional capacity to respond.
Barnstable County’s Home Rule Charter was approved by voters in 1988. Its purpose is not to create a sixteenth municipality. The County exists to help the 15 towns address issues that cross municipal boundaries and to provide services that can be delivered more efficiently or effectively on a regional basis.
The towns are, in a very real sense, the primary constituency of regional government. You might not recognize that from listening to some of the campaigns for County Commissioner or the Assembly of Delegates. Much of the discussion sounds like a conventional political campaign focused on delivering direct services to individual constituents. Those services are important, but the larger question is whether County government is structured and equipped to support the towns as they confront challenges that are regional in scale.
County government currently operates with an annual budget of approximately $30 million and is overseen by 18 elected officials: three County Commissioners and 15 members of the Assembly of Delegates. Yet many Cape Cod residents could not explain what County government does, how decisions are made or which regional problems it is responsible for addressing.
That alone is reason enough to examine the system.
Question A does not adopt a new charter. It does not eliminate the Assembly of Delegates, change the powers of the County Commissioners, or predetermine any particular form of government. A “yes” vote simply creates a formal Charter Study Commission and authorizes it to undertake that examination.
The proposed commission would include one separately elected representative from each of Cape Cod’s 15 towns, together with the three County Commissioners or their designees and the speaker of the Assembly of Delegates or their designee. The commission would conduct its work publicly, gather community and municipal input, study alternative structures, and issue findings and recommendations.
Any fundamental changes would still have to come back to the voters for approval. Cape Cod Regional Government has periodically reviewed its own charter through committees made up of the elected officials who serve within the existing structure. Those officials bring valuable knowledge and experience to the discussion. But asking people operating within a system to make difficult decisions about the future of their own offices presents an unavoidable institutional conflict.
That is not an accusation against any individual. It is simply human nature and one of the reasons independently elected charter commissions are used throughout Massachusetts.
Cape Cod has changed considerably since 1988. The scale and complexity of our infrastructure, housing, water-quality, economic and climate challenges have changed as well. It is reasonable to ask whether the regional government created nearly four decades ago remains the best structure for supporting the towns today—and whether it will be capable of meeting the challenges of the next 40 years.
The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce does not endorse candidates or participate in partisan politics. Question A, however, is fundamentally procedural and nonpartisan. It asks whether Cape Codders should have an independent, transparent and comprehensive opportunity to evaluate their regional government.
A vote for Question A is not a vote for a predetermined outcome. It is a vote to conduct the review, ask difficult questions, and give Cape Cod voters the final say over any recommendations that emerge.
Given the challenges confronting our towns, that is a conversation Cape Cod should be willing to have.
Paul Niedzwiecki
CEO, Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce