Seven Villages, Janet Joakim

Cape Cod Times Editorial - March 1, 2007

Citizens of Barnstable should reject the effort to recall Town Council President Janet Joakim and the other councilors who voted to end the one-year experiment of a split tax rate.

The recall process is serious business, like impeachment. It should be reserved for high crimes and misdemeanors, for actions that are irresponsible or criminal.

We supported the split tax, and are disappointed that the council ended it, but it’s a perversion of the town charter and good sense to drum up recalls when you disagree with someone’s vote on one issue. If we were to organize a recall effort every time an elected official shifted his or her position, there would be more recalls than general elections.

Joakim explains that she did campaign on a split-tax plank two years ago, and did vote for its imposition last year. But certifying a tax rate is done annually. The data on actual savings (and no doubt heavy lobbying by business owners, who are also her constituents) convinced her the resident property tax exemption did more to protect year-round homeowners from rising valuations than the split tax did.

What’s really going on here?

Joakim is in the cross hairs of a little band of perpetual critics, those angry, intemperate, attention-seeking citizens loosely affiliated around the blog Citizen For Open Government. In their eyes, the town never does anything right. So Joakim’s vote to end the split-tax experiment is just a convenient excuse to pin a target on her. Before Joakim, COG railed with equal venom (for other reasons) at the previous council president, Hank Farnham.

These men make noise but have no allies in useful civic work. They claim to be righting wrongs, but in fact their incessant carping turns responsible people off. Innuendo and personal insult are their stock in trade.

Here’s a sample:

“Janet is TOAST! Get lost Janet. RESIGN! No one likes a LIAR! Our town already has enough! And the recall of YOU is just the beginning! We will do others. We will get rid of the LIARS and FILTH one by one! The 13 councilors we now have are the WORST this town has ever seen! Nothing bunch of LIARS in bed with a bunch of more LIARS in the Klimm administration!”

Whew! Civic engagement of the highest order.

Residents of Joakim’s precinct shouldn’t have to put up with the distraction and expense of a recall election. They can register their objections to the vote with her personally, and at the ballot box in due course. In the meantime, they should separate the personalities from the real issue: The split-tax method did not have strong political support on the town council. Business lobbyists prevailed. The vote was 7 to 5, and would have been 8-5 if Hank Farnham had been there.

Split-tax proponents need to build political support and change minds. That won’t happen as long as COG controls the bullhorn.