Open Letter from the Friends of Bassing Beach

Despite careful preparation and review by many qualified lawyers, including a former Attorney General, the Cohasset Navigation Bylaw, which would have kept all of Cohasset Harbor open for public use, was rejected by Attorney General Andrea Campbell.

Friends of Bassing Beach and the Cohasset Select Board filed suit in the Norfolk County Superior Court seeking to overturn the Attorney General’s refusal to validate the Cohasset Navigation Bylaw. Instead of defending the decision on the merits, the Attorney General’s office filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that the Cohasset residents who proposed, supported, and passed the bylaw lacked standing to defend it. A judge of the Norfolk County Superior Court agreed, effectively holding that only the Town itself could bring such a challenge.

Following a closed-door executive session, the Cohasset Select Board subsequently withdrew its case and entered into a settlement agreement with Scituate that left the disputed oyster operations in place, thereby ignoring and abandoning the will of Town Meeting voters.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has accepted our appeal (No. SJC-13915) of the trial court's decision to deny us our day in court and is now soliciting opinions from legal scholars on whether citizens who successfully enacted a bylaw through Town Meeting have the right to ask a court whether the Attorney General acted lawfully when invalidating that bylaw. In taking our case, the Supreme Judicial Court is paving the way for it to create new case law that will define whether voters have recourse against elected officials who fail or refuse to enforce the voters’ actions.

We need your financial support. We also ask that you let your elected officials know how you feel about their inaction. Listed below is contact information for members of the Select Board, as well as information on how to support us financially.

Cohasset Select Board:

 Ellen Maher, Chair                                              emaher@cohassetma.org

Paul Grady                                                           pgrady@cohassetma.org

David Farrag                                                        dfarrag@cohassetma.org

Julie Rollins                                                           jrollins@cohassetma.org

Chris Plecs                                                            cplecs@cohassetma.org

To continue the fight to successfully keep Cohasset Harbor open, Friends of Bassing Beach needs your financial support.  Please consider a donation to our non-profit, 501(c)(3).  You may send a check to:

FOBB

257 Atlantic Ave.

Cohasset, MA  02025

Thank you for your support.

Or Contact Tim Davis for more information about how you can support our efforts.  

www.timothycdavis143@gmail.com