Credibility and the public interest
Given the opportunity at Monday night's Board of Selectman meeting to explain recent reports concerning tax and voting registration conflicts involving his York Harbor and Boston properties, York Selectman Len Dorrian chose instead to attack this paper and its editors. Curiously, Selectman Dorrian chose not to mention the name of one of the region's largest daily newspapers, which ran the story as well, having independently corroborated all the facts stated in the original story which this paper broke last Wednesday.Meanwhile, word comes to us from the City of Boston Assessor's Office that on last Friday, April 6, two days after our story was published, the residential exemption for Selectman Dorrian's Boston property was cancelled at the request of the taxpayer, and the residential exemption amounts received by the taxpayer for 2007 were refunded. No mention of this was made by Selectman Dorrian during his public comments, despite his claim that he would be researching the facts and that, if action on his part was necessary, he would inform the public.
Indeed, when asked directly by local resident Jack MacDonald if he received tax exemptions from York and Boston at the same time, Dorrian responded, "I'm not going to answer any questions until I've had a chance to look into all the facts. I just as a general rule am not going to do that. I just got back today after being away, so I haven't even seen the article in the paper form so I am not going to answer anything until I have a chance to look over the facts."
The news media always walks a fine line between what is necessary and what is not in terms of serving the public interest. In important stories such as this one, issues of credibility are everything, both for those being reported on, and those doing the reporting. At this paper, we wrestle with these issues every day.
In the present case, we have a sitting selectman, running for reelection, who has actively involved himself in setting the tax policy of this town. During this entire time, public records easily available to anyone concerned - including Selectman Dorrian himself - unequivocally show that he has been receiving significant residential tax exemptions from another municipality. His cancellation last Friday of his residential exemption status in Boston and corresponding refund of the tax benefit received from that city are a clear admission that the practice, whether inadvertent or not, was ongoing. His failure to admit to these actions last Monday night is inexplicable.
Furthermore, review of town records in York clearly shows that the existence of these exemptions remained unknown to the town of York primarily through an act of material omission by Selectman Dorrian, which can only be described as glaring at best, on a form signed under penalty of perjury.
All this, in our view, is news that is in the public interest and we stand by our story. And for Selectman Len Dorrian, we suggest that it is high time for him to start coming up with a better one.
