This is part of David Smith's editorial from the online wicked local today:
Editor's notes: How about a town hall complaint department?
By David R. Smith
Fri Aug 14, 2009, 07:00 AM EDT

   
Wouldn’t a full-time freelance mediator be a great thing for the town? Or maybe a town hall ombudsman to whom residents could address complaints, and to whom town officials were duty-bound to provide answers?

It would, of course, be difficult to ensure impartiality, although insulating such a person from the whim of certain boards would be a great place to start.

The thought of such positions came to mind after hearing that an arbitrator ruled in the suit/countersuit involving the Wareham Board of Library Trustees and the town (specifically the Board of Selectmen).

The ruling struck me as a true reading of the facts. Neither side completely lost, and neither side completely won. The library’s limbo status –was it private, public, a little bit of both? – was a valid issue to address, and the issue over funding for the Spinney Library project in Onset, long questioned by some, can, let’s hope, be put to rest.

The suit/countersuit was, as everyone knows, yet another costly legal expense. If both sides had agreed to mediation straight away, residents wouldn’t be saddled with a bill for a ruling that seemed fairly obvious from the beginning. It’s unfortunate that the issue became more about claiming a victory than finding answers and moving on.