When asked what he sees as his election strongholds in the 15 Cape Cod towns that comprise Barnstable County and therefore elect the commissioners, Dupont sees “the Outer Cape and the Upper Cape” as the areas most likely to support him. Yet in terms of how he sees his support in his hometown of Bourne, he is cautious. “I believe I’ll do fairly well,” he says.

            Dupont, who served on one of Bourne’s last full-time board of selectmen – the Cape’s first town geographically was the last town in the Commonwealth to dispense with an elected full-time board of selectmen, who drew professional salaries totaling $135,000 for the three executives – lost his final bid for reelection in 1999, one year before the balloting that saw the creation of the Charter Commission, which ultimately led to the change to a part-time board and the appointment of a town administrator.

            His political career, however, did not end with his failure to gain reelection in his home town – Dupont, 52, a 1973 graduate of what is now UMass, Dartmouth, lives in Sagamore Beach, Bourne, the town where he settled 27 years ago with his wife, Charlotte Stiefel – but in fact his involvement in local politics has seemed to flourish through his appointment to the $14,000 a year seat on the Barnstable County Commissioners that O’Leary held.

            Now he is seeking election in his own right to the seat he currently holds. “Yes, I enjoy the work I’m doing (as a County Commissioner),” he states, “and I would like to continue.”

But of the three candidates seeking the position – Dupont, Gregory Milne of Hyannis, and William Doherty of Harwich - Roland Dupont is the only one who has yet to file paperwork with the state Office of Campaign & Political Finance. He explains that he has chosen to take a unique approach to his campaign, “and I haven’t raised or spent any money” seeking election, up to this point. Some weeks ago, however, Dupont did spend some $40.00 with the Barnstable Town Clerk’s office to purchase voter history lists – indicating which voters turned out for specific elections – but that expenditure has not been challenged or shown to involve the current race for County Commissioner.

Instead of holding traditional campaign fund raising events, such as local coffee gatherings and small public parties, Dupont has been holding “Meet & Greet” sessions where voters can talk to him and he can address them, yet any money they might contribute will go to non-profit organizations, such as the Housing Assistance Corporation, (HAC), based in Hyannis

But the funding issue will soon change, Dupont explains. “That will change by next week (October 13 – 20),” he says. “I’m filing a D104 form…but I’ve decided not to spend more than $5,000.00.”

- Broken Promises -

In his adopted hometown of Bourne, however, Dupont also faces concerns regarding what are perceived to be political promises that have been broken. 

Dupont is remembered as having publicly indicated that Bourne could receive as much as $1.5 million dollars from the state and Barnstable County, through its Assembly of Delegates, in reimbursement for town support – or its acquiescence – in locating the new Barnstable County Jail on Bourne land within the Massachusetts Military Reservation, MMR; i.e., the Otis Air National Guard (ANG) base, formerly known as Edwards Army Base.

The new jail is of course now a fait accompli, and Bourne has not received any compensation, nor is it likely to gain any.

“I, as an Assembly Delegate, placed an ordinance before the Assembly for $1.5 million for the construction of a new school,” Dupont explains. The new school, which was planned for the north side of the Cape Cod Canal, would have replaced a Bourne school located on the MMR. “But,” he says, “it never got acted upon; we held a public hearing in the community, and the idea was to have the community express an interest in a new school (as something of a quid pro quo for the new jail), but instead people (just) screamed about the idea of a jail.”

“After I lost the election (and therefore did not return to the Bourne Board of Selectmen or the Assembly of Delegates as the town’s representative),” Dupont reports, “people (in authority at the County level) came to me quietly and said there is no chance of this (million dollar plus funding) happening.”

The $1.5 million, Dupont says, “was a concept, an idea” that might have worked had the community provided more support for the siting of the jail. It was nonetheless an idea that was revealed by him as a strong probability, if not a likely eventuality, at a town meeting and at other public meetings in Bourne, leaving a number of people feeling that their acceptance of the jail concept might have been different if they’d known there would ultimately be no financial help for the town.

The “concept,” Dupont explains, was rooted in the fact it is not unusual for the Commonwealth or County governments to provide help to communities where regional facilities are located; in some instances, he notes, towns have been given new fire trucks and similar support, but in this instance such support wasn’t garnered.

“I said I would fight hard for that,” he states, “and I did, but it didn’t work.”

- Personal Involvements -

But as well as he may seek to explain the issue of a broken promise, there remains a great amount of skepticism in Bourne regarding Dupont’s political involvement in various projects within the town, some of which seem to also involve him personally. Yet the latter point is one he seems well prepared to refute.

            “I’m a little fish in a big pond,” Dupont says about his current role on the Advisory Board of the National Marine Life Center (NMLC) on Main St., Buzzards Bay. But his role in the lease of the NMLC has been increasingly controversial in Bourne, with a number of people feeling that the agreement binding the NMLC to the old Grossman’s Lumber property was overly generous and sweepingly broad in its provisions for the Marine Center’s expansion at the town’s expense.

            The controversy surrounds recent questions by the current board of selectmen, who discovered that the lease drawn by the previous board could be overturned because it had not been ratified by the state legislature. The current board announced that it found the lease untenable because it supposedly provided not only a 50-year agreement, but also the ability of the NMLC to renew for another 49 years without having to discuss the terms with the then board of selectmen. Further, the lease provided an option, for $1.00, allowing the NMLC to expand into what has been the Bourne Town Park in Buzzards Bay, home of the bandstand and gazebo and the location of the annual Scallop Fest.

Somehow it seemed as though no one knew about these provisions. But that only seems like collective and perhaps convenient amnesia to Roland Dupont.

            “The (state) statutes allowed us to give a 50 year lease, and it is at the discretion of the (town political) body that is in office (at the end of the lease), they would have the right to extend it another 49 years,” Dupont states. He notes that the current chairman of selectmen, James Grady, said “it appears that” the NMLC could automatically renew the lease, “but I disagree with that…”

            In further explanation, he notes that companies like the NMLC “are looking for long-term agreements, with some sort of control of the property,” which is why the lengthy lease was provided, with provisions to expand onto the Town Park.

            “The town meeting,” Dupont emphasizes, “in 1993 voted unanimously, with only one motion to amend, to allow the board of selectmen to use the park, to lease it…Jim Mulvey (of Buzzards Bay) was the only person who wanted to reserve a portion of the park, to keep the parking area and the gazebo.” He notes that at the time it was anticipated the town would seek to entice either a part of the Woods Hole research center or the group seeking to create the Whidah Museum, as a home for the relics retrieved from the ancient pirate ship, Whidah, that was discovered sunk off of the Outer Cape.

            But the approval was the same, whether it was one of those organizations or the NMLC, Dupont asserts, and it was agreed that another location would be found for the Bourne Town Park, perhaps adjacent to the town hall. In terms of the annual Scallop Fest, produced as the main revenue source for the Bourne Chamber of Commerce, he noted that the Chamber was “already talking about moving” and creating a permanent location for itself, but that since then the Chamber has apparently scrapped those plans.

            Confusion over how the lease was constructed, he says, is due to the fact that state statute governs how such agreements are developed, and therefore it isn’t necessary to spell every detail out. “Town counsel made it very clear” that additional language wasn’t necessary if the state statute stipulates the agreement must be in accord with current state laws and regulations. “You can’t just have an arbitrary contract,” Dupont explains, “but there are people who would suggest or argue that you should put everything in (the agreement) but the kitchen sink…” As it is, he notes, the agreement is some 150 pages.

            The board of selectmen at the time, he said, consisting of “me, (Haydon) Coggeshall and Tom Barlow,” did not feel additional language was needed, or that the lease had to be processed in a particular manner. However, Town Counsel Robert Troy recently emphatically contradicted that point, by telling the current chairman, Jim Grady, that he had advised Dupont and the other selectmen, in public at a town meeting, that the lease would have to be ratified by the legislature. Atty. Troy introduced and read a transcript of the town meeting to prove his point at a recent selectman’s meeting.

            It was the lack of legislative approval for the lease document that enabled the current Bourne Board of Selectmen to renegotiate the lease with the NMLC, changing the terms regarding the Town Park and other details. And a number of local residents saw the situation as one that indicated incompetence in the former board of selectmen, while at the same time it underscored just how questionable a lease had been entered into by Dupont and the former selectmen on the town’s behalf. Many people recently expressed relief that the lease could be renegotiated, and simultaneously pointed the finger at current County Commissioner Dupont as the architect of a giveaway.

- Board of Advisors -

            Also, the fact that Roland Dupont has since been associated with the Marine Life Center raised eyebrows further. Town political rumors declare that Roland Dupont is a member of the board of directors of the NMLC, but that is not true.

            “I’m not on the board of directors,” Dupont states. “but I was named to the advisory board.” He notes the appointment came “after the failed election,” when he lost his bid to be reelected selectman.

            When first asked his role with the NMLC, Dupont’s frustration over the rumors was palpable. “Who do you think is kidding who?” he asked. “It’s so easy to figure out who’s on the board of directors; the paperwork goes to the secretary of state.”  

            “The sad part (of this) is that when people commit to something, people have to try to cheapen it,” he states, adding: “There is no pay. I’m doing it because I want the center to succeed.”

His role, he explains, is to assist the NMLC in areas of expertise, which is the role of all the members of the advisory board.  He notes that in his case, the principal assistance he can provide is in dealing with local and state permitting procedures. Other advisory board members also bring their own expertise, “but there are very few local names,” he says, “this is no bunch of politicos.”

            Similarly, Dupont states that on the NMLC Board of Directors very few “are from around here,” although he is quick to note that one of the “seven or eight” members is Matt Trask, the owner of Communica, a Bourne company that describes its services as providing “software development and hardware design.” Trask is a very well known local businessman who has been a strong political supporter of Dupont, and remains a close associate. The NMLC directors, Dupont points out, are also unpaid.

            The expertise that Roland Dupont can bring to the NMLC is the same that he brings to his own company, the Canal Project Management Corp., CPMC, with offices in the Communica building at 536 MacArthur Blvd., (Rte. 28), in Bourne.

            “What we do is called owner’s representation,” Dupont explains. “We do everything from the (point of the) owner’s concept, through the design process, the permitting process, loan document review, and we help hire architects and engineering firms.” He notes that the work of his company “goes beyond (the duties of ) a clerk of the works,” and that “we do a lot of work in the recycling arena.” CPMC, he says, is staffed by himself and one full-time and one part-time employee, plus “seven associates” who work on a contract basis on specific projects.

            The Cape Cod Commission, of course, comes under the purview of the Barnstable County Commissioners for its budget review, and Commissioner Dupont is particularly sensitive to issues in this arena that may appear to be a conflict of interest.

            “I do not do any work in front of the Commission,” he flatly states. “If that was needed, the owner (of the project) would (have to) send it to another organization.” But then he notes that there was one exception.

“I was allowed by the state Ethics Commission to be involved in Communica,” he explains, noting he was “the owner’s representative” when it came before the Commission regarding plans for its new building, adjacent to the A&P complex off Rte. 28 in Bourne. Aside from that, Dupont says, “I’m not taking anything that comes before the Commission.” He adds, though, that “I’m proposing a project myself that will have to go before the Commission,” but that he will have to have another company represent him.

Other than noting that at some point in the future he hopes to “site an organic composting facility in Bourne,” he declined to elaborate on the project that would have to come before the Commission.

            Dupont explains that he and his company are currently involved in some five separate projects, but “they are all here in Bourne.” His CPMC is involved in the permitting process for a new Bourne subdivision, and is “doing some work” regarding Main Street, Buzzard Bay, seeking to bring business owners together to rebuild the retail center of the village, and is also working “with Joe Cubellis in plans for an office building on Main Street, where the old car wash used to be.”

            CPMC has also worked with another member of the Cubellis family – architect Len Cubellis – in preparing plans for the new Communica building. It was Len Cubellis, of course, who brought forward the extraordinarily controversial plans for Canalside Commons, a mammoth retail and housing complex that would have been located at the foot of the Bourne Bridge.

            “I have no involvement in that project,” Dupont states, explaining that “I was a supporter of the concept, but I thought it was too big. I liked it when it was getting smaller, and I have a concern about it now with all the housing” that is planned for the site in its latest incarnation.

- Barnstable County Hospital –

            The former Barnstable County Hospital, off County Road in Bourne’s village of Pocasset, is about to be destroyed and in its place an ‘assisted living’ complex for the elderly constructed. Locally well known, first as a hospital facility for the treatment of Tuberculosis and other ailments requiring specialized care, and later as everything but a general hospital - including a detox and alcohol and drug treatment center - the old hospital is a one and two story wood and brick complex that sits comfortably on spacious grounds surrounded by tall pines.

            “There will be 81 units of assisted affordable living quarters at the site, they won’t be market units,” Roland Dupont says, explaining that “there won’t be nursing home services, but the residents will have, for example, congregate meals available,” as well as whatever other services they may require. Some residents might need assistance with house cleaning chores, or in handling a regimen of medicines.

            When asked if he has had any involvement with the project other than that of a County Commissioner, Dupont emphatically says no. “All of this was done with an RFP (Request For Proposal),” he says, “and the County Commissioners don’t do anything but sign the final documents.”  And in answer to assertions that the managers of the project, an out of state development company and the Hyannis based Housing Assistance Corporation, might somehow bring assisted living residents from as far away as Maine to the Pocasset facility, he is equally emphatic.

            “It’s not going to happen,” he states. “If your mother or my mother needed care and we lived here, then they should have the ability to go there.” That this will be a local facility, he says, is largely assured by the fact “the majority of the marketing will be right here – people want to be where their families are, they want to stay around the rest of the family.”

            However, in any project in which federal funding is used, he admits that “you can’t discriminate (in terms of who may apply for admittance), but you don’t have to advertise and market it elsewhere.”

            The new complex, he points out, “will be owned by the 15 towns (that comprise Cape Cod and Barnstable County),” and he adds that in its last five years of operation, the County Hospital was used mostly by residents of Bourne and Provincetown, the two towns that comprise the beginning and the end of Cape Cod.

            Some local officials recently asserted that in his role of County Commissioner, Roland Dupont has not provided the current board of selectmen with the kind of in-depth background information needed; information that would help the town determine how to react to such a major change of use as the destruction of the old hospital and the creation of a large ‘assisted living’ facility. Dupont flatly rejects such complaints. Instead, he states, Bourne’s representative to the Assembly of Delegates, Sel. Wayne Covell, hasn’t asked questions, “and then would say ‘We have concerns,’ but wouldn’t elaborate on them…I say it’s the Assembly Delegate” who should be informing Bourne Selectmen about the ongoing discussions. Covell, however, has been publicly complimented by Chairman of Selectmen Jim Grady for his reports, and Covell himself has publicly complained that it has been hard to get information from Commissioner Dupont.

            Nonetheless, Dupont states, he has recently made a report to the town.

            When asked if he has any personal association with the Housing Assistance Corporation, HAC, Commissioner Dupont is quick to respond.

            “My wife, (Charlotte Stiefel), works as a grant writer for them,” he states. “She had 21 years of service with the County (and worked in the area of environmental inspections, including those relating to gas stations and underground tanks). “She’s a registered sanitarian,” Dupont says, “but she retired and took a pay cut, and now she works as a grant writer for Housing Assistance.”

            The fact Dupont is sensitive to the subject of conflict of interest was underscored when he observed, “I’ve asked, I’m going to ask, for a determination; I’ve got it all written up to ask the (state) Ethics Commission” whether there is any conflict of interest due to the fact HAC will be deeply involved in operating the Pocasset assisted living complex, and that HAC has been selected by the County Commissioners.

            “The standard is personal financial benefit,” he concludes. “If (my wife) was writing the financial grants for this (County Hospital project), I’d be a 100 miles away from it.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is provided in its entirety, rather than in a series, since in this format space is not a restraint and therefore it is possible to give a full airing of the key controversial issues surrounding the candidacy of Mr. Dupont for election to the Barnstable County Commissioners on November 5^th.