WHO RUNS BROOKFIELD?
If you don’t live here, why are you governing the people who do?
EDITORIAL | By Christopher Kelleher
Founder & Editor, The Brookfield Examiner
There is something fundamentally wrong when people can come into Brookfield from another community, exercise the power of an elected Brookfield office, vote on the rules the rest of us must live under — and then drive home to another town when the meeting is over.
Brookfield residents deserve better.
More importantly, Massachusetts law demands better.
Under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 41, Section 109, when an elected town officer “removes from the town or district in which he holds his office,” that person is deemed to have vacated the office.
Not might have vacated it.
Not should consider resigning.
The statute says the office is deemed vacant.
So why are questions about residency apparently so difficult for Brookfield to confront?
WE LIVE UNDER THEIR VOTES
Think about what an elected municipal official can do.
They can vote on policies.
They can participate in creating regulations.
They can exercise governmental authority.
They can make decisions involving how taxpayer money is spent.
They can participate in decisions that affect property owners, businesses and residents.
They can vote on matters that may ultimately increase the financial burden carried by the people who actually live here.
And those decisions don’t disappear when the meeting ends.
We have to live under them.
Brookfield residents remain here after the votes are cast.
We live with the regulations.
We live with the policies.
We pay the bills.
We pay the taxes.
We deal with the consequences.
So there is something particularly offensive about the possibility of an elected official exercising that power after moving somewhere else.
You shouldn’t get to govern Brookfield from outside Brookfield.
REPRESENTATION ISN’T A TECHNICALITY
Imagine someone moving to California and continuing to cast votes in the Massachusetts Senate.
Absurd?
Of course it is.
The principle doesn’t become less important because Brookfield is a small town.
Representative government starts with an extraordinarily simple proposition:
The people representing a community should actually be members of that community.
Brookfield deserves representatives who live here.
Representatives who drive the same roads.
Representatives whose households live under the consequences of local government.
Representatives who are part of the community whose future they are helping determine.
Residency isn’t bureaucratic trivia.
It’s the foundation of representation.
AND WHAT ABOUT THE TAXPAYERS?
There is another uncomfortable part of this conversation.
Some people who live outside Brookfield may own no taxable real estate here. Depending upon where their vehicles are principally garaged, their vehicle excise taxes may go elsewhere as well.
Yet an elected official exercising Brookfield authority can participate in decisions involving our money.
Think about that.
Brookfield homeowners receive the tax bills.
Brookfield residents fund municipal government.
Brookfield taxpayers ultimately absorb the financial consequences of town government.
Yet questions can arise about whether someone casting votes affecting those very taxpayers even lives among them anymore.
That should bother every taxpayer in town, regardless of politics.
This isn’t Republican.
It isn’t Democrat.
It isn’t liberal or conservative.
It’s basic representative government.
THEY CAN LEAVE. WE GET THE BILL.
Then there is the cost of controversy.
Municipal decisions have consequences.
Government officials can become involved in disputes. Decisions can produce administrative appeals. Enforcement actions can escalate. Conflicts can become litigation.
And lawsuits aren’t free.
Lawyers aren’t free.
Insurance isn’t free.
Staff time isn’t free.
Public resources aren’t free.
When government conduct helps drag a municipality into expensive conflict, the taxpayers ultimately live with the consequences.
And that makes residency matter even more.
An official who has moved elsewhere can go home to another community.
Brookfield cannot.
We’re still here.
The controversy stays here.
The legal bills stay here.
The administrative burden stays here.
The damaged relationships stay here.
And the taxpayers stay here.
WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY WANT TO SERVE?
There is another cost that doesn’t appear on a municipal balance sheet.
Volunteers get exhausted.
Good people walk away.
Residents decide that serving on a town board simply isn’t worth the aggravation.
People who genuinely want to contribute to their community can become casualties of endless political warfare and dysfunction.
And every seat occupied by someone who is no longer legally entitled to occupy it is a seat unavailable to a Brookfield resident who could actually serve.
That is not merely unfair.
It defeats the entire purpose of local government.
MOVING AWAY HAS CONSEQUENCES
Massachusetts law anticipated this problem.
People move.
Circumstances change.
Nobody should be condemned for deciding to leave Brookfield.
But leaving town while holding an elected municipal office has a consequence.
Under Chapter 41, Section 109, an officer who removes from the town or district in which that person holds office is deemed to have vacated the office.
That’s the rule.
If you move away, Brookfield doesn’t move with you.
The office isn’t yours to take along.
It belongs to Brookfield.
AND IF PEOPLE KNOW?
This is where the questions become much more serious.
What happens when other town officials have credible information that an elected official no longer resides in Brookfield?
What does the Town Administrator do?
What does the Select Board do?
What procedures exist to determine residency?
Who verifies eligibility?
How long can someone continue exercising governmental authority after moving away?
And if officials know that a colleague has moved but simply look the other way, why?
Silence doesn’t answer the question.
Neither does friendship.
Neither does politics.
And neither does attacking the resident who had the nerve to ask.
We would be careful about accusing anyone of deliberately “covering up” another person’s residency without evidence establishing exactly that.
But residents have every right to ask whether town officials knew, what they knew, when they knew it, and what they did about it.
Those are legitimate questions about government.
DON’T BLAME THE PERSON ASKING
Brookfield has developed an unhealthy habit.
Ask an uncomfortable question and somehow you become the controversy.
Request records.
Question a decision.
Challenge authority.
Ask whether someone followed the law.
Suddenly you’re difficult.
You’re an agitator.
You’re causing trouble.
The message becomes unmistakable:
Mind your own business.
Know your place.
Sit down.
Shut up.
No.
This is our business.
It’s our town.
It’s our government.
It’s our money.
And those are our elected offices.
Residents have every right to ask whether the people exercising the power of those offices are legally entitled to be sitting in them.
THIS SHOULD NOT BE COMPLICATED
Nobody needs a political witch hunt.
Nobody needs rumors.
Nobody needs Facebook speculation.
We need facts.
If questions arise about an elected official’s residency, establish where that official legally resides.
If the official remains a Brookfield resident, say so and put the issue to rest.
If the official has removed from Brookfield, apply the law.
No favorites.
No exceptions.
No selective enforcement.
No looking the other way because the person happens to be politically useful, personally popular or friends with the right people.
One standard. Every official. Every time.
BROOKFIELD SHOULD BE RUN BY BROOKFIELD
This newspaper will continue asking an extraordinarily simple question:
Who runs Brookfield?
Because the answer should be just as simple.
Brookfield residents.
People who live here.
People who are accountable here.
People who share in the consequences of the decisions they make here.
People whose authority comes from the residents of this town and who continue to satisfy the legal requirements of the offices entrusted to them.
Our elected offices are not honorary titles.
They are not personal property.
They are not souvenirs an officeholder gets to keep after leaving town.
They belong to the people of Brookfield.
And if you no longer live in Brookfield, you should not be governing the people who do.
Brookfield deserves representatives who actually represent Brookfield.
And Brookfield residents should never be afraid to demand exactly that.