It’s both humbling and gratifying when one’s advice is taken to heart, even if it’s for the wrong reasons and after the horse has left the barn.

In this space last June, I wrote: “One of the Environmental Sustainability Committee’s Guiding Principles is, ‘Reduce, reuse, recycle and compost.’” I added, “They could start by reducing their number of subcommittees.”

Four months later, the ESC apparently saw the wisdom of those words. At its October meeting, the Environmental Sustainability Committee voted to disband all of its countless subcommittees.

The Waste Reduction Subcommittee was laid to waste. The Green Business Subcommittee is out of business. The Climate Action Subcommittee has been deactivated. The Community Engagement and Outreach Subcommittee has disengaged. The Green Space Subcommittee has been displaced. And the Community Education Subcommittee has been placed on permanent sabbatical.

If only they had acted sooner, they could have spared themselves a lot of trouble.

In September, resident Scot McCauley filed an Open Meeting Law Complaint involving one of the ESC’s subcommittees.
McCauley’s complaint alleges that between Aug. 10 and Sept. 14, 2023, a subcommittee of the Environmental Sustainability Committee met in secret to formulate an article for the November 2023 Town Meeting seeking approval of the Specialized Opt-in Stretch Energy Code. The Specialized Energy Code includes net-zero building performance standards and other costly requirements designed to achieve strict greenhouse gas emission limits. The ESC-sponsored article was approved at the Nov. 18, 2023 Town Meeting by a vote of 109-33.

In his Open Meeting Law complaint, McCauley points out that there is no record of the ESC subcommittee that created this Town Meeting article and no agendas or minutes of such meetings were ever posted.

The OML complaint is still pending with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.

Also in September, the leadership of the ESC was hauled before the Town Council after several councilors watched some of the ESC subcommittee meeting videos and were alarmed by what their appointed committee was up to.

It turned out that the ESC had replaced its assigned mission statement with one of its own creation, and its various subcommittees were busy formulating town policies based on the goals the ESC had assigned itself. At the Town Council meeting, the ESC leaders acknowledged that one of their subcommittees had been working on a “town-wide climate plan,” a policy that would apply to all homes and businesses as well as municipal departments.

“Have we tasked you with that?” Town Council chairman Mike McLane asked.

The ESC leaders were forced admit that they had not been asked to create such a plan.

McLane urged his fellow Town Councilors to watch the ESC meetings, noting that subcommittees of two or three individuals had been busy putting together town-wide policies.

The ESC’s self-assigned mission statement was duly nullified and replaced with the original charge.

These are dark days for the net zero crowd. A few short weeks ago, they thought the phrase “Drill, baby, drill” had been consigned to the compost heap of history.

And now that Wakefield’s Environmental Sustainability Committee has jettisoned all of its subcommittees, who will “do the work” of saving the planet from incineration? Who, at long last, will hold back the rising tides?

ESC members lamented the fact that without subcommittees, the full board would now have to do everything, meaning longer meetings and limiting the amount of work that can be handled. One member groused that she wasn’t able to attend Town Day or the Electric Vehicle Showcase because if her fellow subcommittee member showed up, it would constitute a quorum.

To avoid running afoul of that pesky Open Meeting Law in the future, one ESC member suggested a catchy alternative to subcommittees: “individuals with initiatives.”

I guess it’s better than “members on a mission.”
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[This column originally appeared in the December 5, 2024 Wakefield Daily Item.]