Letter to the Editor: Westport Board of Health meeting was more a charade than a meeting

On Sept. 11 a special Westport Board of Health meeting was held allegedly to listen to public input on establishing an animal site registry. We use the word “allegedly” because it was a bait and switch both in terms of topic and purpose.

We were told at two previous public meetings and during private meetings with health department staff that this was to be the second of two “public hearings on the animal site registry.” Instead, BOH Chairman Bill Harkins opened the meeting stating that we were there to discuss “plot farm regulations.” (We fully support regulations for tenant livestock operations, but we do not see such regulations as the only action required for more effective animal/public health oversight.)

As for the concept of a “hearing,” it was clear from the beginning that Harkins had not come to listen. A tape of this meeting can be viewed at vimeo.com/289570865. We encourage all Westport residents to watch it.

Sixty people squeezed into the meeting room; twenty more stood in the hallway. Anyone who has attended other meetings for public input on a particular issue will know that having 80 people show up at 7:30 on a Tuesday night is a very impressive turnout. Yet Harkins exhibited little interest in what people had to say, as he shuffled through his papers, jaw set, face ruddy with anger.

Person after person stepped up to the microphone and spoke in favor of establishing a registry. The speakers were varied and impressive: two infectious disease doctors who spoke about the critical importance of monitoring animal health and the serious consequences of viral transmissions from poultry and other farm animals to humans; a Westport farmer who described an effective registry in another town in which she had raised sheep and poultry; a rescue worker who helped to remove animals off the Medeiros property and labored for months in their rehabilitation. A Westport police detective who was a lead investigator in both the 2010 and 2016 Medeiros cases spoke forcefully in support the registry. Applause filled the room after each pro-registry speaker spoke.

The chairman of the Westport Agricultural Commission was the only person to speak in complete opposition to the creation of a registry. Silence filled the room after he spoke.

At the meeting’s end, two people asked the board to take a vote on whether they agreed with the concept of a site registry. That went nowhere as Harkins flatly refused, and the other two BOH members declined to rock Chairman Harkins’ boat.

This charade is not what democracy looks like. It’s what this-is-the-way-we’ve-always-done-it-we-run-this-show cronyism looks like.

We’re sick of it. We’ve played by their rules; we’ve attended their meetings. We have spent over two years and way too many hours earnestly offering ideas and options — all while beseeching the BOH and AgCom for their help figuring out this mess.

Westport needs an animal site registry. Westport will have an animal site registry. We will remember this duplicity and condescension come next election cycle. And we are not alone.

Constance Gee

Susan and Larry Rollins

Westport