ABET, don’t change your name. It’s perfect just the way it is.

ABET (the Angry Boaters of Elmwood Township) both proclaimed its existence at last Monday night’s Elmwood Board of Trustees meeting and at the same time announced that it was changing its name. We think they shouldn’t change a thing.

Let’s have a look at Websters New International Dictionary, 2nd edition (the good old prescriptive version of 1934). It says by way of defining “abet”:

“To incite, encourage, instigate, or countenance; -- now used chiefly in a bad or a disparaging sense; as to abet the commission of a crime.“

That pretty much sums up ABET, in our view. What and whom does the organization abet? First and foremost, it abets the four holdover members from the old Elmwood Board of Trustees – Terry Lautner, Jim O’Rourke, Connie Preston, and Debbie Street--in their attempts to slow or halt reforms in Elmwood township. These relics from the administration of Noel Flohe have been on a mission, literally beginning before the board’s new members took office in 2004, to reverse the effects of that election. The recently defeated recall attempt was only the most recent episode in that campaign. Now a group of disgruntled boaters are providing political cover for the holdovers to try to take away a few more of Supervisor Deri Smith’s statutory responsibilities and to politically weaken the most effective force for reform Elmwood has seen in years. (What, you thought the recall was over and Smith won?)

In return, the Board abets ABET. Ever since the 2004 election the holdovers have used every method at their disposal—and remember, they are a majority on the Board—to frustrate any attempts to bring some measure of accountability and openness to the way the marina is operated. Last Monday, they decided to “suspend the rules” at the Board of Trustees meeting in order to turn the floor over to a raucus, jeering crowd of “angry boaters” from ABET. And now, in exchange for the boater’s political support, the holdovers are promoting policies that allow for, um, flexibility in the matters of how fees are assessed at the marina and how the facility’s famously long and competitive waiting list is managed.

The fact is, the Elmwood township marina has been mismanaged for years. We can’t blame the boaters for howling when they are told that the various advantageous arrangements they have enjoyed may be taken away by enforcing the rules as they are written. But the Elmwood township marina is ultimately a resource for the whole community, not just the people who happen to have their boats there, and special attention should be paid to the long term interests of Elmwood township and its citizens. Deri Smith, Bob Doughty (whom ABET spokesman Jack Kelly wants to have expelled from the marina for “disregarding the Township Board’s will”) and a few other individuals have courageously stood up for the simple idea that the rules apply to everyone and should be followed. In our view, ABET stands for subverting and undermining it.

ABET, don’t change your name. It suits you to a tee.