Having spent over 35 years involved in local matters on the North Shore before coming to Plymouth, I have always operated under a simple, fundamental belief: local government is a non-partisan workshop. In those decades, it didn’t matter if you were a Republican, a Democrat, or an Independent; once you stepped into a meeting, you were simply a neighbor. We came together to roll up our sleeves and hammer out what was best for the collective good of the community. It was about fixing potholes, managing deficits, and finding a compromise that worked for everyone.
However, the recent Plymouth Town Meeting was a wake-up call. I didn’t realize the hornet’s nest I walked into.
The vote to implement a modest 1% budget cut failed by a mere 10 votes. While that razor-thin margin shows that nearly half the room still values fiscal common sense, the debate revealed a troubling shift. It appears a rigid, “ultra-liberal” ideology has taken hold, prioritizing the expansion of bureaucracy and “government as the end-all” over the practical needs of the taxpayer.
In all my years of service, I’ve seen that the system only works when two sides meet in the middle to hammer out the best path forward for the town. Today, it seems some are more interested in “saving the galaxy” with grand narratives than managing our town’s structural reality. When local governance becomes a platform for ideological purity rather than practical results, the entire community loses.
That 10-vote margin is a sign of resilience for those of us who still believe in pragmatic management, but it is also a warning. We need to get back to the basics and remember that we are here to serve the people of Plymouth, not an abstract political agenda.
Respectfully,
- Al DiNardo
DiNardo is a Town Meeting member representing precinct 17