To the Editor:

A recent opinion piece in Wareham Week by Article 19’s proponent purports to inform the voters about her “Citizens Petition (sic) To Amend Sewer Commissioner Law.” The author goes on at length about all the things the proposed legislation would not do, and at the end provides only a vague statement that it would “change the manner in which the elected Board of Sewer Commissions is allowed to perform their sworn duties and responsibilities...”

If the chief proponent of this legislation cannot identify one specific improvement the legislation would provide to sewer users and taxpayers, then why would anyone vote for it?

In reality, however, there are several things the proposed legislation would put in place, all of them bad for Wareham sewer users, taxpayers and Town government.

Let us pull the proposed changes apart sentence by sentence. The first change would be “The board of sewer commissioners shall not be subject to the supervision of any department, commission, board, bureau, agency or administrator of the town except to the extent and in the manner provided by the Wareham Town Charter.” This is redundant and unnecessary language. Everyone knows that we operate under a Town Charter that functions as our Constitution, and that the Charter establishes the relationships between governmental bodies.

The next sentence is far worse: “The board of sewer commissioners, in the performance of their elected duties, shall from time to time hire, transfer, or otherwise appoint legal counsel, financial advisers, and such other experts, engineers, accountants, clerks and other consultants and employees as it deems necessary and determine their duties.”

Presently, the Town Administrator is the hiring authority and procurement officer for all Town departments, pursuant to the Wareham Town Charter. This makes perfect sense, as the Town Administrator is also responsible under the Charter to manage employee hiring, discipline and termination, as well as to follow state procurement law in obtaining goods and services on behalf of the Town.

If passed, this language would give the Sewer Commissioners carte blanche authority to hire and spend that even the Board of Selectmen does not possess. It would also allow the Sewer Commission to hire redundant and utterly unnecessary staff. At present, our Town Counsel handles all legal matters for the Town, including those arising from the Water Pollution Control Facility, for a flat amount. In years past when multiple attorneys were used, the taxpayers footed a yearly bill for legal services in excess of a half million dollars. Today, the amount is less than half that. There is absolutely no need to hire another attorney to do the same work Town Counsel presently performs for the Water Pollution Control Facility.

There is also no need to hire separate accountants or clerks. The Town already has Accounting and Treasurer/Collector Departments that perform these functions for the Water Pollution Control Facility as well as all other Town departments. Hiring more people to perform the same work who would not report to the Town Administrator would not only waste money, but unnecessarily complicate the relationship with the employees’ unions and put the Town at a significantly greater risk of labor unrest and lawsuits. Additionally, this provision would expressly conflict with Sections 1(d)(1) and (2) of the existing Sewer Commissioner law, which state that the Sewer Commissioners have no control over personnel matters and that the Town Administrator is the appointing authority for all positions within the Water Pollution Control Facility.

Further in regard to labor matters, the following proposed change is also harmful: “The board of Sewer Commissioners shall be included in the collective bargaining process as it pertains to the Water Pollution Control Facility.” This provision conflicts with state law, which puts the Board of Selectmen in charge of conducting collective bargaining with all Town labor unions. Currently the Town is up to date with all Collective Bargaining Agreements with our union personnel. There is no need for the Sewer Commissioners, a policy board, to become involved in such negotiations to muddy the negotiating process and endanger our current labor peace. The Sewer Superintendent/Water Pollution Control Facility Director already has the ability to work with the Town Administrator to seek any changes in working conditions via the collective bargaining process.

For all the above reasons, I urge the voters to vote “no” on Article 19.

Respectfully submitted,

Peter W. Teitelbaum, Esq.