Roughly a month after the public voted in favor of a non-binding referendum to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, the Wellesley Select Board declared by a 4-1 vote that the second Monday in October would now honor Indigenous Peoples in town.

The Board’s discussion and vote followed comments by more than a dozen citizens, some familiar public commenters on this topic, others not. Most spoke against the change.

Campaigns for and against the change have made for plenty of political drama in Wellesley over the past few years, complete with lawn sign stealing and many letters to the editor.  The Unite Wellesley group argued for celebrating Italian heritage on the second Monday in October and honoring Indigenous People on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Those in favor of replacing Columbus Day have denounced the actions of Christopher Columbus and called for recognizing native people.

During Monday’s Board meeting, among the citizen speakers was 10-year resident Kenneth Largess, who said Columbus Day has always been a day of pride for his large extended Italian family. He compared it to St. Patrick’s Day for the Irish. “This attempt to cancel Columbus Day in a town in which over 30% of the population claims some Italian heritage is only going to further divide us at a time when we should all be trying to become unified,” he said, urging the board to show “courage” in not jumping aboard the cancel culture train.

Speaking in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day was Nova Biro, who read a World of Wellesley statement that included: “Replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day on all town calendars will reinforce the Select Board’s recent Statement on Anti-Racism and Anti-Bias, will begin to remedy the harmful effects of racist policies, and will begin to acknowledge the contributions and ongoing presence of Indigenous People in our community.”

Beth Sullivan Woods opened the discussion among Board members by saying “I’ve lived here my whole life and I find this to be such a sad, sad day for us.” She described the issue as being “divisive” and “polarizing,” and questioned whether the matter of addressing a state holiday was really within the Board’s purview. Sullivan Woods, who voted against the change, urged her fellow Board members to hit the pause button on this subject and figure out a better path forward.

Board Member Lise Olney, who joined the rest of the Board in voting for the change, said “I believe it’s time to honor the request of Indigenous People that we not only recognize their place in history but also that we no longer choose not to honor and celebrate the man, Christopher Columbus…” Olney said she’s come to learn over the years that Columbus Day for Indigenous Peoples “is a painful reminder of 500 years of oppression by European settlers.”

Board Chair Tom Ulfelder, who didn’t vote in favor of this change at Town Meeting, said he’s “deeply concerned about the impact on Italian Americans in Wellesley, and others are very concerned about multiculturalism generally.” Ulfelder said he’d prefer to see “a negotiated outcome,” but that he can’t ignore the democratic process that took place.

Town Meeting voted in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day in summer of 2020, after a citizen petition advocating for Indigenous Peoples Day was withdrawn from Town Meeting the previous year. That 2020 vote led to the non-binding referendum vote by the public in March (49% of voters said “yes, “43% said “no,” and 8% left ballots blank), and ultimately Monday night’s Select Board vote.

Wellesley joins Arlington, Newton and other Massachusetts communities, as well as more than a dozen states, that now recognize Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day. Columbus Day remains a federal and Massachusetts state holiday.

Mercifully, we’ve completed our tax filings and now it’s up to the IRS to do its thing. But going through that exercise reminded me of a post I’d been meaning to write a while back on the issue of long-term personal property tax account balances that the town of  Wellesley was attempting to collect from business owners. With the tax deadlines for businesses unchanged and for individuals looming though extended to May, I’ve circled back to it.

We’d been shown an ad last fall that the town paid to run in a newspaper, and because it ran in a newspaper instead of on a site like ours that people actually read, hardly anyone would have seen it. We’ve decided not to republish the list here, since the roster of 50 businesses on it could be outdated by this time.

But suffice it to say that it featured many familiar business names, from fashion retailers to restaurants to property owners (not to mention one business that stiffed us on paying for ads a few years back). Some on the list, like Bertucci’s and Pinkberry, are now long gone from Wellesley.

Just to clarify what personal property even means in the context of this tax, the town website states that it “consists of tangible, movable assets such as merchandise, furnishings, machinery, tools, animals, and equipment. The tax is primarily incurred by businesses and is assessed separately from real estate in the town where the property is situated.”

I had asked Marc Waldman, while writing a post on his retirement in November as the town’s longtime treasurer, what all this personal property business was about. Does Wellesley take such an approach to collecting delinquent personal property taxes every year given that the money does contribute to the town’s general revenue?

“No. Personal Property Tax, unlike Real Estate Tax has very few mechanisms for collection.  The law requires that we advertise delinquent Real Estate Tax bills before going through a Tax Taking process and that is done every year,” Waldman said. “No such rules apply to Personal Property Tax.  We can turn over delinquent bills to an outside collection agency  known as the Deputy Collector and that is what this advertising effort is in preparation for.  Many of these bills are small, particularly in comparison to Real Estate Tax bills.”

We’re talking an $18.89 tab from 2019 from one retailer to a high of $7,911.41 from one since departed fashion retailer that stemmed from the 2014 tax year. Some of the bills go back as far as 2010.

In all, Wellesley usually collects about $1.45M in personal property taxes, despite the deadbeats.

Changes brought about by the pandemic spurred the town to address unpaid personal property taxes this past year, Waldman said.

“With the reduction on staff priorities due to us not being open to the public and the greatly reduced volume of parking ticket work, we finally had time to concentrate on these delinquent Personal Property accounts.  Businesses tend to be very transient and we have had to do a lot of research to identify the proper ownership and mailing information for these businesses,” he said.

Reasons for why these taxes don’t get paid vary. The town doesn’t always have the correct billing information because there is no real process for most businesses to register with the town, Waldman said. Though when the town does have information on the businesses, it sends them bills, demand notices or delinquent letters. Some business owners ignore all this. Others, which perhaps don’t get the notices, don’t realize they’re obligated to pay them in Massachusetts.

Waldman’s successor as town treasurer, Rachel Lopes, confirmed that the town is still actively looking to collect on delinquent personal property taxes, and you can expect another big effort come fall.

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