YACK on: Citizen Kopko
Grant Sanders
It was one year ago this week that Michael O'Brien Kopko beat Patricia Roggeveen handily in the race for a single selectman's seat. No need for a recount, thank goodness. He won easily by 231 votes. And on that evening, he stood before a video camera and a number of supporters at a not-sosecret meeting at the Nesbitt Inn and said, "Now it's time to kick some [expletive] and get government to do the job it's supposed to do!"

(I wish I had that as a beep sound on my computer…)

How well has Mr. Kopko made good on this promise? How much [expletive] has been kicked? I thought it would be fun to look at Mr. Kopko's first year as a selectman and see.

Before I do, I have to disclose that I count Michael Kopko as a friend. We speak about politics often. And he and I share many of the same views. Not all of the same, but many. I say this lest the reader feel he or she is being duped into reading an unbiased account of Mr. Kopko's performance. This is not the case. My account is completely biased. Just so you know.

Michael Kopko ran for selectman during a time of uneasiness with regard to the people's feelings about the Board of Selectmen. I ran a poll on YACKon.com in February of 2006 that showed that the vast majority of people felt the board was doing a poor job. Actually there were some people who emailed me and said the poll was unfair because there was no choice "e" that they could click to indicate that they thought the current Board of Selectmen was doing "the absolute worst and most pathetic job possible and certainly the poorest job ever in the history of local government in the known universe."

Suffice it to say, the electorate was ready for change and when it was disclosed that two of the sitting Board of Selectmen were supporting Patty Roggeveen, both with contributions and by publicly displaying signs and bumper stickers, the electorate reacted rather predictably and chose Kopko.

(It is worth noting that due to the time lag inherent in newspaper publishing, I'm writing this column prior the Tuesday April 3rd election, so I have no idea if Patty Roggeveen has been elected to the BOS this time around. Secretly, I hope she has won. It will make for a more "interesting" BOS from which to draw for my columns. But I'd also be happy with an Atherton/Reinhard one/two victory)

Here's a run-down of the accomplishments of the board spearheaded by Mr. Kopko.

Kopko pushed for the formation of the sewer advisory committee. As you'll recall, back in July, selectmen Glowacki and Chadwick fought tooth and nail to keep this initiative from going forward. They blocked it at every turn. They claimed the work had already been done. It was kind of funny, really. They claimed we didn't need a sewer advisory committee, and yet for the previous three years no one had developed a workable sewer policy for the town to consider. It was kind of like Glowacki and Chadwick were saying to the people of Nantucket, "Uh, well, the dog ate our sewer policy."

As it turns out, the sewer advisory committee had plenty of work to do and came up with a number of crucial recommendations, several of which we will consider at next week's annual town meeting. Personally, I'm hoping Article 60 passes so the town can finally have a clear policy and complete control over how the sewers expand and how we pay for them.

Kopko also invited our dysfunctional planning board to attend a BOS meeting and gave them a chance to explain, before the TV cameras, where they were in the 41-81D master planning process. Apparently the dog has eaten that, too.

Kopko pushed to form the committee charged with looking at auto limits, not because he thinks we need them (he doesn't. I disagree with him there.) but because it was clear that's what the people wanted. The committee came back with a workable, albeit controversial, proposal for the Board to discuss. I can't wait to see where that goes.

Kopko and the board under Chairman Whitey Willauer pushed for several important affordable housing initiatives, including the idea of allocating money to purchase or improve town housing assets, money to be used to lobby for the housing bank program, and town employee housing initiatives at 2 Fairgrounds Road.

The board, with Kopko acting as major catalyst, has also championed and supported the harbor plan, including the idea of bringing the Commonwealth into the tent on the plan which gives it more weight. In addition, they've pushed the ball forward on the Brant Point shellfish research facility.

Kopko also took steps to gain the public trust and opinion with regard to the SBPF situation, much to the semiprivate chagrin of the SBPF supporters.

And he spoke out about the Park and Rec decision to allow Jetties Beach to become a bar, and had the contract reconsidered so that the town could maintain a family atmosphere there.

And since December, the Board helmed by Chairman Willauer and with Michael Kopko as its most vocal and proactive member, has put a number of important initiatives on the warrant for next week's town meeting.

Nice work, Citizen Kopko. I dare say that's the most productive first year I've ever seen a selectman put in. And a recent YACK poll agrees, showing that now most people feel the selectmen are actually doing a good job. But don't rest on your laurels. There's still plenty of [expletive] out there to kick.

YACK on. I

Grant Sanders is the host of YACK, th Nantucket Online Commnity at YACKon.com and he knows the difference between micromanaging and just plain managing. His views are his own and do not reflect the editorial stance of The Nantucket Independent. His wife, Barrie, agrees with this column, he's pretty sure.