Hi Carole, 

Please excuse my ignorance (or forgetfulness) since I am a part-timer who does not attend meetings. Regarding affordable housing: what is the current status of the former DeSisto estate at Interlaken? Or the abandoned factory in Housatonic (I know that isn’t technically in Stockbridge)? If the goal is to actually provide housing for people in need, it seems these properties would or should be considered at the top of the list. Meanwhile, as someone who has lived in New York City for 16 years and listened to these hamster-wheel debates, I’d like to say that affordable housing is only effective if it is able to be owned and maintained by the resident (or on a rent-to-own contract). Thank you in advance.

Haas Regen

Haas,

Thank you for being in touch. As you point out, Housatonic is a part of Great Barrington, and we could not do anything there. The former factories are in partial use with a dance studio, artists’ ateliers, and other workspaces. There are no living spaces as far as I know. I wonder if the cost to rehab the building for housing would not make the housing units too expensive?

DeSisto has made some legal moves that confused people. For example, they submitted a subdivision plan. It does not necessarily indicate something they are going to do. Rather, the plan satisfies a legal requirement that protects them from having to obey a new Stockbridge bylaw. That bylaw requires developers to build a percentage of affordable housing or pay the Town, in lieu, so that affordable housing can be built elsewhere through the Affordable Housing Trust. 

DeSisto is just creating the record to avoid that obligation because laws cannot be applied retroactively.

Finally, Stockbridge might benefit from more affordable housing even though, unlike many other Mass towns, it has met the state requirement for percentage of affordable housing. Stockbridge is in desperate need of middle-class, sometimes called “missing middle” housing. Missing middle identifies those missing out – not qualified for assisted living and not able to pay market prices. 

Carole

Good morning. David and I wish you success in your bid for the Moderator position. You are the model of positive civic involvement! I also want you to know how much I enjoy reading the articles you write about the local history. I am so interested in the topic and your articles are so fascinating.

Very good luck and best of wishes,

Leslie Jameson

The following two letters were first posted in The Berkshire Edge

To the Editor: 

Current town Moderator — Gary Johnston — has served Stockbridge for over 45 years in an unbiased and exemplary manner. Gary has “kept order and not allowed business to be obstructed” for the entire time he has served Stockbridge. Johnston has followed Massachusetts Laws for proper governance of town meetings. Get off topic, and you are properly shut down — in a nice but firm manner. This is the most important part of the Moderator’s job — “keeping proper order, while doing so in a friendly, polite and expeditious manner.

The additional responsibility of the Stockbridge Moderator is to appoint the town Finance Committee.

The duties of the appointed Finance Committee are very simple — they act on all financial matters presented for their approval by the SELECTBOARD. The Finance Committee is the town’s financial oversight body but can only act on the financial issues submitted by the proper governing body — the Selectboard. If the committee does not approve a particular financial issue, it is then voted on separately at the annual town meeting.

Simply stated, the Finance Committee is a recommending body — but only after having “fully informed themselves of all the issues regarding a recommended appropriation/financial issue.”

Johnston’s opponent, has written “Times are changing and we have to change with them.”

If she will check out Magislature.gov/Laws/General Laws/Part I/Title VII/Chapter 39/Sections 14 through 18, she could accurately determine the role of the Moderator. It is not complicated. Yet, she wants to arbitrarily revise the duties of that position as well as the legitimate role of the Finance Committee. Stockbridge does not need a moderator who will act outside Massachusetts legislative jurisdictions.

Gary Johnston has earned the support of voters in town who simply want a Moderator who will follow the laws governing the position, and not try to exceed his authority, and appoint members to the Finance Committee who are apolitical when it comes to Stockbridge finances. The appointees to the Finance Committee have various political views, which are not expressed, nor do they influence Stockbridge financial decisions.

Here’s a recommendation to Stockbridge Voters. Vote for Gary Johnston for another three-year term, based on his excellent job performance for the past 45 years. He has earned your vote.

Jim Balfanz

Please note: I write this as a private citizen and not as a member of any town committee.

To the Editor: The role of the Town Moderator 

A recent letter to the Edge may give readers an incorrect impression of the role of the Town Moderator. A section of the Massachusetts General Laws was cited as giving “the role of moderator” https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleVII/Chapter39/Section15

That section describes the “powers and duties” of moderators — quite a different thing. The letter-writer claims that “the role of the moderator … is not complicated” — a claim that flies in the face of experience. 

Until I hung up my gavel a year ago, I served for twenty years as the Town Moderator for Alford. During that time, I served for six years on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Moderators Association (MMA). I also helped write a guidebook for Moderators for conducting Town Meetings during the health crisis created by the Covid-19 virus. 

The MMA publishes (among many other resources) a 200-page book for Moderators called Town Meeting Time: A Handbook of Parliamentary Law. In addition, the MMA sponsors an active email group in which Moderators discuss issues that arise frequently and require creative treatment by the Moderator. None of this is simple. 

I examined Carole Owen’s website http://www.owensmoderator.com/ and could find no evidence that she “will act outside Massachusetts legislative jurisdictions” — Town Meeting is a Massachusetts legislative jurisdiction. The Moderator may do anything that is not in violation of state or federal laws or constitutions. 

Rearranging the order of articles is not against the law, for example. I did it frequently in Alford in order to help the Meeting run smoothly. Town Meeting is a legislative body that makes its own rules, determined by a combination of local tradition, town charter, town by-laws, and by decree of the Moderator. If challenged, the Moderator can put a question to the Meeting for a vote. The role of the Moderator is indeed a complex one. It requires a person who is willing to stay informed and keep up with the challenges of new legislation and new technology. I found my time as Moderator to be immensely rewarding.

Michael F. Wilcox
Alford

Carole, 

Very well said. Times are changing and we have to change with them Some say that we can keep doing what we always did. Yet, all around us, times are changing.

www.owensmoderator.com

Good luck with your bid to be moderator. Hope it works out well for you. 

David Jameson 

To the editor [of The Berkshire Edge]: 

I have been reading with interest the articles and letters surrounding the upcoming election for Stockbridge town moderator.

As suggested by another writer, I did take a quick look at Chapter 39 of the general Massachusetts laws. Those laws most certainly specify what duties a moderator must perform, but I don’t see any laws that prevent them from doing anything else. And even if there was such a law, I would point out that, as demonstrated by Section 19 of that same chapter, laws can be repealed.

Ms. Owens has indeed written “Times are changing and we have to change with them.”

I would note that without change, there is only stagnation. As long as it is for the betterment, change is not something to be feared; rather, it is something that must be embraced. The world is changing, and I, for one, would prefer not to be left behind.

David Jameson 

Hi Carole,

I sent a note to Michael Canales (and Patrick) two years ago about a new approach to the town meeting.

I was unconstrained by precedents, knowledge of legal requirements and, at the time, I did not know that the management of the town meeting was up to the moderator. I find the current format disjointed (to be kind).

Good luck!

We need a change!!!

Judith Wilkinson