To the editor:

The choice between candidates for the Select Board, the Board of Health, and the five-year Planning Board position in Westport’s upcoming election is this: Do you want a stable, functioning town government with the will and ability to improve public health and environmental protection infrastructures? Or do you want the chaos that comes with electing people to town government whose sole expressed intent is to tear it down?

If you want a functioning town government, do not vote for Sherri Mahoney, Sam Mundel, Bill Harkins or Manny Soares, Jr. The four are running together as an anti-regulation pack sworn to do away with even the most basic measures that have been put in place to protect the health and welfare of our community.

Mahoney & Mundel rail against “government overreach” on everything from curtailing nitrogen seepage into our wells and waterways to a simple registry that informs BOH officials of where farm animals are kept in our community to dumpster, storage container, and porta-potty permitting requirements. Regardless of the collective benefits town oversight of such activities bring, they’re against it.

Harkins already had his shot at BOH and blew it. He takes credit for what others accomplished in spite of him—specifically, the establishment of the position of Director of Public Health and efforts to improve the oversight of farm animals. He was elected to the board six months before the sickening conditions of the Medeiros tenant farm were exposed for the second time. After the two senior BOH members resigned, he could have played a positive role in healing the town’s trauma. Instead he dug in with the old guard who’d failed to monitor the Medeiros property — or, more likely, who knew what was going on but chose not to do anything about it. Harkins fought against enacting measures to ensure Westport wouldn’t have the stench and blood of a Medeiros III on its hands.

Soares is running for a five-year spot on the Planning Board. His “experience” includes operating an allegedly illegal materials stockpiling and crushing business in Dartmouth. According to the New Bedford Standard Times, April 19, 2015, Soares "was arrested on charges for assault and battery on a police officer, disorderly conduct, damaging a police vehicle and resisting arrest." It is reported that he defied years of enforcement orders, first by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and then by the town. The court case against him has cost Dartmouth taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, and is still ongoing.

This foursome’s campaign is founded on jacked up outrage and divisiveness. Their primary tactic is misrepresentation of truth and reality. They fabricate ridiculously false narratives to stoke paranoia and fear in those susceptible to their hyperbole.

Fortunately we have the option of much better leadership on these important boards. Please join me in voting for Steve Ouellette and Brian Valcourt for Select Board, Donna Amaral for Board of Health, and David Cole for the five-year Planning Board position.

Constance Gee

Westport