2005 will go down in Martha's Vineyard history as the year of the stupid lawsuits. There have been three of them. The sad part about it is that in only one of these cases has a party to the suit been a private citizen; in the other two cases both parties in the suit have been government entities, which means that you and I, average taxpayers, are footing the bill, not the government entities who are involved in the suits.
The first suit decided this year concerned the Wampanoag Indians and the Town of Aquinnah. About twenty years ago when the tribe was recognized by the federal government, they made an agreement with the Town of Aquinnah that the tribe would be bound by the laws and regulations of the Town. Well, as time went on, I guess the tribe forgot about that agreement, as they built a shed without obtaining approval (re zoning and other issues) from the Town. The tribe's argument was that they were a sovereign nation and, thus, not subject to Town laws. The Town disagreed and sued the tribe. The Town prevailed but not until considerable money had been spent not only by Aquinnah but by the other Island towns who filed amicus curiae briefs.
About ten years ago the Martha's Vineyard Airport was in bad shape, financially and operationally. Fortunately, a new set of airport commisioners came on board; many of the commissioners were good businessmen as well as pilots. They hired a professional manager, who turned things around so that the airport became one of the best run airports in New England. As a reward for the manager's good works, the commissioners wrote a new contract with the manager and his assistant. End of story, right? Well, not quite, as the airport commissioners are appointed by the county commissioners. The county Treasurer would not include the additional amount in the paychecks of the manager and assistant manager as the salaries for their position were not part of the county's payroll structure. So, suit number two began, this one financed on both sides by we taxpayers. The county lost and is now on the hook for almost $900,000 (their budget is $4 million plus), which will have to be paid by the taxpayers.
The third suit is a dispute between Wiliam Graham, of Washington Post money, and the town of West Tisbury, where I live. The assessment on Graham's property almost doubled within two years. He felt that his property was overvalued and tried to come to an agreement with the Town. He had one meeting with the assessors. I guess the meeting went quite badly in the assessor's eyes as they would not meet with him again. The result is a suit by Mr. Graham filed with the Appellate Tax Board of the state. It's not over yet, but as reported in one local newspaper, the Gazette, things don't look good for the Town, which will spend at least $250,000 (2% of the Town budget) on this suit. Now, the other local paper, the Times, claims that the owners of the Gazette are friends of Graham and, perhaps, their coverage is not impartial. Whether this is true or not, the fact of that $250,000 that has to be paid by the taxpayers, will, I'm sure, be a major factor in next year's Town elections.
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