About
Us
(Note to our visitors: This article appeared in the Salem Evening News on March 1, 2000)
By JULIE SCHUM
News staff
PEABODY -- Most people don't take an interest in local government until
something happens in their own back yard. One day it doesn't matter; the
next day they find themselves packed into a Planning Board meeting demanding
answers.
"We were all kind of dragged into it because an issue was thrust upon us,"
said David McGeney, a School Committee member and a member of a new
community watchdog group. "There was an issue that came knocking on our door
and recruited us."
For Patty Santos, that issue was the municipal golf course next to her back
yard. For Tom O'Leary, it was the threat of the city leveling his mobile
home to make room for business on Route 1. For George Smith, blasting to
make way for housing developments on Bartholomew Street didn't just knock on
his door, "it literally shook my house," he said.
Now, after years of attending meetings, filing lawsuits and wrestling with
city government, these seasoned veterans are working together on a citywide
government watchdog group that's gathering steam.
Membership in Peabody Citizens for Better Government has tripled since the
group formed in June. As many as 40 members attend the monthly meetings and
discuss just about every raging controversy in the city.
"We've all managed to come together and realize it's not only what goes on
in my neighborhood," said Bob Croce, a member of the group and former City
Council candidate. "We're all one city, and we all have the same issues."
The group first got attention last fall when it hosted a series of
well-attended candidate forums before the local election.
Now, in addition to planning more forums and voter education projects, the
group is tackling neighborhood and city issues.
Those include traffic, school building, controlling development, and the
landfill, among others. They read the newspapers diligently and communicate
daily on an e-mail group.
And they're not just talking. Members are prepared to come in as back-up
troops for any neighborhood group or citizen having a problem getting
answers from government. They are available to help citizens in a number of
ways, from simply explaining how the Zoning Board of Appeals works, to
showing up in force at city meetings.
"No (government) business should be done in the dark," Croce said.
Although members sometimes disagree on issues, they all agree government
should be open and responsive to its citizens.
"When government is allowed to operate without the spotlight of public
scrutiny, you breed that fungus of disconnect with the citizens," McGeney
said. "We're the antibiotic to that fungus."
The group is open to anybody, including elected officials like McGeney. The
only requirement for membership is being a registered voter in Peabody.
Members may also need to have at least a grain of a sense of humor, to laugh
off being called the "lunatic fringe." The Citizens for Better Government
have been criticized by some for being a negative organization with an
anti-government agenda.
But on the contrary, members say they believe in government and democracy,
and that's why they formed the group.
"We are the optimists," McGeney said. "We believe we can bring about the
change we want within the system. The fact that our group exists is more a
sign of a healthy city than not."
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