Getting to the truth on the Voke

First published in the Wakefield Daily Item, August 29,2023.

I guess we struck a nerve with Mark Sardella on the new Voke project. Well, at least it provides him a much-needed break from writing about the high school logo.

Seriously, it’s rich for Sardella to call forest advocates “Voke truthers.” Arms flailing, he claims that we “cannot fathom how anyone could have a different opinion from [ours].” Actually, I totally understand how others might see things differently, so, in a measured way, I try to persuade them with my view of the facts and history. It is NEMT project leaders and Wakefield town leaders who stonewall, evade, and ignore with their silence.

And it is Sardella who resorts (in almost everything he writes, to be honest) to ad hominem attacks. In his column, he derides us as “truthers,” “true believers,” conspiracy theorists, “Save the Forest martyrs,” and “the tin-foil hat crowd.” It reminds me of how certain folks, when confronted with facts they don’t like, simply start shouting “FAKE NEWS!”

Sardella says he wants to “get a few things straight once and for all” regarding the new project.

He says we’ve given the impression that the hilltop site for the school is “part of Breakheart Reservation.” Really? Who has said that? No one that I know of.

With regard to the NEMT project leaders not being transparent and forthcoming about the hilltop site, he claims NEMT “officials did not try to ‘hide’ the location from the public. Why would they? Why would it even occur to them that anyone would object to their using this small, wooded parcel for their new school…?” Well, it is actually their job and responsibility as public leaders for this sort of thing to occur to them. And in fact, it seems obvious that it did occur to them that people would object to their plan to use the hilltop site, and that they acted accordingly to push their plan through without engaging appropriately with the Wakefield community.

Sardella cites one Con Com meeting at which a notice of the hilltop site for the new school was presented. But as was laid out clearly in an Open Meeting Law Complaint in March, NEMT officials were extremely spotty and inconsistent about posting meeting notices and agendas for meetings from 2018-2022. As I’ve noted before, how are residents supposed to know about a meeting if it’s not posted? How are residents supposed to know if there will be deliberations or votes on certain issues if no agenda is posted?

Sardella mentions the Town Meeting in November 2021. Thank you for bringing that up. This was the biggest public meeting at which the project would be presented, with the highest potential for bringing it to the attention of the general Wakefield voting population. But, wouldn’t you know it, the slide projector that would actually show attendees the planned hilltop site wasn’t working. This was a mere two months before the January 2022 funding vote. Just bad luck, I guess. (And before you shout “FAKE NEWS!” again, the person who reminded me of this glitch was actually a Town Councilor.)

Finally, Sardella plays the democracy card. In his view: you voted for it, it’s done, no do-overs. But democracy is only as good and effective as the leaders and processes involved in enacting it. And this is a clear case in which the process was, at best, extremely flawed; what seems more likely, and actually what seems obvious to me and anyone looking at how things have played out (especially those with any experience being involved in big public projects), is that the process was shaped in a way that downplayed the shift to the hilltop site, misleading voters and resulting in many Wakefieldians learning about it only after the funding vote.

In one sense, Sardella is right that there are no do-overs: if we destroy this beautiful, unique and priceless forest, this natural treasure of Wakefield, it will be gone forever. That is the ultimate, irrefutable truth of this sad situation.

© Jeff Kehoe