When Rockport residents head to the polls in a few weeks they will find an opportunity there to potentially transform their town. 

First, they will get the chance to cast an up-or-down vote on the Town’s budget. Among Budget Committee members, I cast the sole “no” vote on the budget and would strongly encourage voters to do the same. Nothing else voters do at the polls on that day will send as powerful a signal that big changes are needed.

That said, residents also have the chance to put new municipal leadership in place. With three slots open on the town’s five-person Select Board, Rockport has the rare opportunity, if it supports the right candidates, to completely change the Board’s—and Town’s—direction in lasting ways.

I say this because, as I have noted elsewhere, the current Board is almost entirely responsible for the explosion of spending in recent years. Rockport’s budget has more than doubled since Denise Munger was elected to the Board, and both Michael Thompson and Kim Graffam (each of whom is seeking reelection) have signed off on millions of dollars in increased town spending. 

So how to choose from among the candidates for these important seats? To my way of thinking, this is largely an exercise in knowing who not to choose. In this, I’m reminded of that famous episode of Seinfeld in which George Costanza comes to realize that success lies in doing the opposite of what he is otherwise inclined to do. The same rule applies here — find candidates who would do the opposite of what the current Board would do, and the town would be far better off.

In order to make this determination, it may be helpful to better understand the thinking that has motivated the current Board to drive spending through the roof. As I see it, there are three main elements to their governing philosophy.

The first is that they have boundless ambitions for town government. 

In a speech last fall, New York’s new mayor claimed that there “is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.” That same mentality is alive and well on the current Select Board — they will endlessly expand town government because town government has, they believe, some kind of role addressing every issue that bedevils us.

As evidence of this, take a couple of hours (as that is what it will require) to review Rockport’s 2025 Comprehensive Plan, which the current Board approved. At more than 200 pages, it contains, by my count, more than 150 discrete tasks for town government to take on. Co-working space cultivation, 'scenic resource inventories,' youth-focused climate action programs, sign standards, an elder mentoring program, wildlife corridors, something called 'wayfinding,' food sovereignty, greenhouse gas dashboards, junior sailing programs—the list is endless, and it is completely divorced from any rational sense for the practical limits to what a town our size can and should do.

The 2004 Comprehensive Plan, by contrast, was drafted by people who understood these limits. It was far shorter and more narrowly focused, and had, as its first priority, controlling town spending and providing property tax relief.  Neither of these is even remotely a priority for the current Select Board because that would mean moderating their grandiose ambitions.

Grandiose ambitions are expensive, of course, but in Rockport’s case, that expense is multiplied because this specific board has also embraced a philosophy of utter hostility to regional collaboration. 

They could have regionalized EMS but didn’t. They could have taken a regional approach to wastewater management but decided against it. They had a recent opportunity to regionalize police services but took no steps there either. If we hadn’t already regionalized the schools and solid waste, I have no doubt they would insist we do those ourselves, as well. 

With the sole exception of John Viehman, who has signaled genuine interest in exploring regional options, this “do it ourselves” philosophy is pervasive on this Board. 

And don’t let this new regionalization task force they created fool you. That idea originated with the Budget Committee—desperate for some strategy to rein in the Board’s spending madness—and my guess is the only reason the Board agreed to do it is so they can later say they tried.

Being able to say they tried is a manifestation of the third element of their philosophy—an obsession with controlling the narrative. Spending has spiraled out of control, but this Board has demonstrated zero interest in being transparent about that fact, has repeatedly used the taxpayer-funded newsletter for political advocacy, and routinely attacks its critics in public forums.

Their latest innovation is using your tax dollars (as well as no small amount of taxpayer-funded staff time) to create a brand-new website purporting to tell Rockport’s “Budget Story.” There is, of course, nothing on the site about what I calculate to be the $10,000 per household in added spending these people have approved over the past few years. Rather, this is the Select Board seeking to take credit for having relented (at least for this one year), to tremendous pushback from the Budget Committee and others.

The use of town staff for this kind of political work is standard practice as well, by the way. As Budget Committee members, we were told repeatedly how busy the town’s staff was and how burdensome our requests for information had become. Somehow, though, there is always staff time available to do the Select Board’s bidding.

Add all of this up, and is it any wonder that the number of full-time staff in the Town has grown from 28 to 43 in five years? Is it any wonder staffing costs have more than doubled under this Board’s leadership?

So, what to do?

Easy. Find and elect Select Board candidates who have reasonable goals for town government, who are genuinely interested in cost cutting and regional solutions, and who are deeply committed to radical transparency in everything they do.

Put three people with these beliefs on a five-person board—three people who deeply understand how far we have strayed from the town we used to be —and we can set Rockport on a new course.

Vote wisely!

Stephen Bowen lives in Rockport and is a member of the Rockport Budget Committee. His views are his own and do not represent those of the Budget Committee.