Cape Commission Does Not Equal "Good Government"

Regarding the Feb. 2 Cape Cod Times editorial "Good Government," I would like to point out a few of the Cape Commission issued misrepresentations and inaccuracies which were relied upon to illustrate the Commission's worth and value.
 
In the order provided, the following were the claims made by the Times and the Commission, along with a rebuttal to those claims:
 
1. If the CCC is a good value and lives within its means, then why has it continually increased its budget and staff size over the years?  Last month, it requested a 2.5 % increase for the purpose of adding staff.
 
2. Since 2007, the Commission has has approved 96 percent of the 55 substantive Development of Regional Impact projects. Why did this not include the projects which took place between 1990 and 2007? This is data manipulation and misrepresentation of the facts.
 
3. The Commission encourages Growth Incentive Zones, and several unproven examples were given. It failed to state that such efforts are actually creation of regulations which must be enacted in order to alleviate the Commission inspired excessive over regulation which currently exists on Cape Cod. This means creation of more Commission regulations to deal with the mindless regulations which they themselves had originally enacted. When does it all end?
 
4. The Commission saves Cape towns money and points to the millions of dollars in extortion funds it has collected from developers. What failed to enunciate is the fact that in many instances the Commission continues to retain a strangle-hold on those funds instead of turning them over to the towns. The funds collected for the BJ's Project serves as a case in point. It has been nearly ten years, and the Commission continues to hold on to substantial amounts of those monies. These claims ring hollow!
 
5. The Commission saves the region money and regional trash contracts are indicated as an example. However, this neglects to mention that the towns do nearly the exact same thing on their own via inter-municipal agreements on many other issues and matters. They do not require the Commission to do this. Again, the CCC tries to pull the wool over people's eyes.
 
6. A vague reference and claim is made that the Commission attracts state and federal money in the form of grants. What are the specific grants and the exact amounts? Why does the Times and Commission bureaucrats hide behind deceptive generalizations? This is only senseless Commission smoke and mirrors at work again.
 
7. The Cape towns are the Commission?  Despite having enormous power over the Cape Cod residents, CCC representatives are not accountable to the populace of this peninsula. They are appointed, and not elected by the voters. Furthermore, the 50 or so bureaucrats are appointed by county officials, not the towns. The Commission behaves as if it is answerable only to itself, which is the case.
 
8.  The commission's regulatory program represents less than 10 percent of its staff? However, the Commission neglects to say that it is still more than four times as larger than the number of staff dedicated to economic development. It has one person responsible for that portion of its legally mandated mission. Again, the Commission provided misleading data and information.
 
Reviewing the Commission’s 2013 Annual Report will illustrate the disturbing dearth and noticeable lack of little if any concrete accomplishments of redeeming value. The Times and Commission have built their defense on a house of cards which lacks any true empirical evidence to back up the claims of achievement.
 
Residents have nothing to lose by signing their town’s Commission withdrawal petition. It is nothing more than good democratic dialog at its best, which is something the Commission seemingly wishes to avoid at all costs.
 
Local autonomy dictates that we take back local control that has been undemocratically usurped by that non-transparent regional bureaucratic monstrosity, the Cape Cod Commission.