Letters to the Editor

Beaty, Lynch, help Barnstable avoid an electoral blunder

To The Editor:

I would like to take this opportunity to heartily congratulate and thank West Barnstable resident, Ron Beaty, Jr., and the Town of Barnstable's delegate to the Barnstable County Assembly, Tom Lynch, for a recent job well done in motivating our three apparently absent-minded County Commissioners to finally fill the county clerk position after it was vacant for almost an entire year. There was no viable excuse for their inaction.

The BARNSTABLE COUNTY HOME RULE CHARTER, Article 4, Section 4-2, Subsection (b)2, states that "There shall be a regional clerk, appointed by the board of regional commissioners to serve for a term of office as established by ordinance.  The regional clerk shall be a person especially qualified by education, training and experience to perform the duties of the office.  The office of the regional clerk shall coordinate and supervise all election and election related matters affecting the Cape Cod regional government with the city and town clerks, boards of registrars of voters, election commissions and other local officers performing similar duties.  The regional clerk may, if chosen by the assembly of delegates, serve as clerk of the Assembly of Delegates.  The office of regional clerk shall perform and may exercise such other powers and duties as may be assigned by this charter, by ordinance or by other vote of the Assembly of Delegates."

During the election of 2010, five candidates were unfairly left off of the ballot due to bureaucratic foul ups on the part of the County Clerk's office at the time. At the end of that year, the particular official in question declined to be reappointed as the Regional County Clerk.  The 2012 election cycle begins only one and a half months from now with nomination papers becoming available from the Secretary of State on or about February 14th. I realistically believe that if it were not for the astute efforts of Mr. Beaty and Mr. Lynch, the voters of Cape Cod would be witness to yet another major electoral blunder because for whatever reason the County Commissioners would most certainly have continued to sit on their thumbs regarding this particular matter.

Nancy Johnson
Hyannis, MA