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Lee Citizen Petitions Return Town To Open Democratic Model, Push Back On Landfill Plan

People sit in rows of chairs in front of a podium in a field
Josh Landes
/
WAMC
The 2021 Lee, Massachusetts town meeting.

At a marathon town meeting Thursday night, Lee, Massachusetts voters used citizen petitions to return to an open democratic model after over half a century and to resist a controversial agreement between the town and General Electric.

The meeting, held on the school football field, was long and emotional. Tense words were exchanged, and at one point, a fight almost broke out. Residents expressed frustration and disenfranchisement in the wake of last year’s Rest Of River Agreement between the town and General Electric that will site a landfill for PCBs dredged from the Housatonic River in Lee.

That mistrust in town leadership was epitomized by an unsuccessful effort to vote against article 11, a collection of non-departmental appropriations that included $50,000 to update Lee’s master plan.

“2013 was the whole start of the PCB dump issue. And we were told we were going to be involved, but we were cut out of it. And we cannot have that happen again in our town," said District 2 representative Anne Langlais?. “I can't express enough how important it is to involve all the town voters, every taxpayer with what happens for our master plan for our town, not just decided between two or three different committees — because we've seen what happens. Our town ends up with a PCB dump.”

The article ultimately passed easily.

The first successful citizen petition on the warrant took aim at Lee’s model of representative democracy, which replaced an open, one person, one vote model in the 1960s.

“We all know why we want it," said resident Laura Murphy. "Because we got sideswiped with something that we don't want. And we are now trying to make a difference for ourselves. Because obviously, our select board does not want to help us with this.”

In one of many charged moments, Murphy made an out of order motion to recall select board member Sean Regnier, who campaigned against the Rest of River Agreement but stood by it once in office. Another townsperson suggested police may have to intervene after her remarks, which added to the tension.

“Oh, I'm sorry," said Murphy. "Was that a threat? Excuse me? Oh, anybody want to come with me?”

Resident Cindy Mathias also spoke out against the existent system.

“Just to show you how this district rep doesn't work, one person tonight abstained from every single vote," she said. "So how is he representing anybody in this town? Four people just decided to abstain. If they are not using their power to listen to the citizens of Lee, this needs to be dismantled immediately. Everybody deserves that voice. I don't need to beg, borrow and steal from representatives of my district that don't listen to my voice.”

Town rep Deidre Consolati agreed.

“I, 33 years ago, became a rep in order to have a voice," said the rep. "And it was Charlotte Davis, the legendary Charlotte Davis, who was the first one to say to me, we have to do away with the representative system. And that was 33 years ago, and we mounted campaigns, we've brought the article, brought things to the municipal ballot, we made motions on the floor, and all to no avail. It is time to go back to one vote. One person, one vote.”

That argument won out, with Consolati and town moderator Sarah Wright sharing a rare lighthearted moment at the meeting by acknowledging that the move was, in the words of town administrator Chris Ketchen, “highly irregular.”

“The only thing we need to do here right now is just what Monica says, is we, the reps, need to vote ourselves out of office,” said Consolati. “That's what we're doing. OK? We’re doing this right now.”

“I think that might be the highly irregular part of it,” laughed Wright.

The state legislature must approve of the transition out of representative democracy for Lee.

Three citizen petitions aimed at exercising some community control over the Rest of River Agreement also passed. They prohibit the storage of PCBs in the community, require toxic materials be removed from town by rail transportation and move that Lee holds a non-binding referendum on the deal at the next election.

But the town’s ability to express agency in the process at this point is unclear.

Town attorney Jeremia Pollard answered a question about the ability of a newly amended bylaw to retroactively impact the agreement brokered by the Environmental Protection Agency and agreed to by state, federal and local stakeholders.

“In those areas that are regulated by the state or federal government, the supremacy clauses is going to apply for the federal government and state government," said Pollard. "If they regulate the field, they call it, if it's pervasive regulation, it overrides. So it's really gonna depend on the substance.”

Tim Gray, of the Housatonic River Initiative – a citizen group suing to end the Rest of River Agreement – said the community would have to use every opportunity it had to resist the landfill.

“If this town does not oppose this dump, you will have it," warned Gray. "And this is a shame for the town of Lee, folks. You want to be known as the toxic center of New England? Is that what you people are talking about? What a shame to put this on our town. What a shame to put a toxic dump to the entrance to October Mountain State Forest, our greatest state forest. That's the simplest thing here. You put a toxic dump next to the campground? What's wrong with you people? I mean, come on people. This is our town. And you want to turn it into a toxic town. That's what you're doing.”

Voters approved traditional financial items like an almost $27 million spending plan for fiscal year 2022 before concluding the five-hour meeting.

Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018, following stints at WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Western Massachusetts, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. His free time is spent with his cat Harry, experimental electronic music, and exploring the woods.
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