I have taken out nomination papers to run for the Dartmouth Select Board. I am running on a platform of bringing fiscal responsibility, transparency and civility to the board. I have to confess that I don't really want the job but I feel that, as our school administrator said at his public input forums, "if nothing changes, nothing will change." Dartmouth needs to change the way we are running our government. Not just nibbling at the edges but real fundamental change. If you read the posts on this blog, you'll see that I am pretty critical of the leadership of the town. I don't think that the current leaders are bad people, they are just not willing, in my view, to shake things up. I will try to do that, to question and challenge the status quo until the taxpayers have confidence in the process. I will continue to post my thoughts here on politics in the town and I'll let you know how my candidacy progresses too.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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25 comments:
Good Luck Bill, win or lose, more people need to put their actions where their mouth is. You might find that it is more difficult than you think as I did. Interestingly enough everyone seems to run on the platform you have announced, myself, Joe, and Diane included!!!
Kathleen Horan McLean
Thank you Kathleen and good luck as well. I believe that I am going into this with my eyes wide open. I am under no illusions that the issues facing the town are easily fixed. It promises to be a difficult and very likely contentious few years for the town given the slowing of growth in the town and on top of that a general slowing of the economy which will limit the ability of the state to provide help. I noticed that you mentioned three of the five Select Board members, what about Nat and Bob?
Bill, I'm really not sure what their platform was so I did not specify.
Yours, Kathleen
correction to last post
If after one term on the board, Kathleen does not know the platform of all of the other board members, it is a sign of lack of communication among board members. no wonder we have problems in this town.
Mr. Rodrigues, I stated I was unaware of their specific platform when they ran for office and therefore did not want to mistate information. I hope you agree that misinformation is not helpful to anyone. I can assure you that I communicate extremely well with my board members, including Mr. Carney and Ms. Dias.
Yours,
Kathleen
Kathleen, welcome to the blogosphere. Blogs are sort of the Wild, Wild West of public opinion forum. Flame wars, blogswarms, trolls, and everything else. I don't know what your experience is in blogging but if you have your own blog or website, I'd like to link to it so that people can indeed be as well informed as possible. Just send me the URL. I am fortunate in the relative sincerity and civil discourse of my commenters to date. The anonymity of the format allows people to really speak their minds which they often do quite forcefully. I do moderate the comments after they are posted but have not removed any to date for content, just due to multiple postings.
Bill,
Good luck with your decision to run for select board. Your no- nonsense, civil style will be refreshing to voters. Perhaps you will be more responsive to the fiscally responsible types than our current chair. My request via e-mail to get on her agenda has gone unanswered for over a week.
Barry, I apologize for not responding to your email. As you know, any request to go on the agenda merely needs to be sent via email to Michael Gagne. I will advise him that you have my support. You forwarded the request to my work email, which I share with my office and do not check routinely. As the Selectboard is only a part-time position, I do have a day job to help send my child to college and pay my bills! Your statement about civility has me a bit perplexed. I do not recall one incident that I did not permit you to be heard or treated you with anything less than respect. Yours, Kathleen
Kathleen, Please don't take this personally. I wasn't questioning your civility. I guess you know how I will be voting. You ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and then supported perhaps one of the most irresponsible override proposals in the history of the Commonwealth. I'm not placing all the blame on you but you happen to be the first one up for re-election. Respectfully yours,
Deleted comment due to double posting
Bill-T welcome to the race and good luck to you. I see from the feeds in your blog that you are running on a platform of negativity, bitterness and discontent all neatly camouflaged as fiscal accountability, transparency and civility. Even your posted survey has no real positive choices. Where are your solutions? What would you do differently? How would you fix the problems facing our town? Endless finger-pointing and criticism will do little to help remedy the situation. How can you work towards the collaboration, and compromise needed to effect change if your attitude is so bitter towards those charged with the responsibility of managing our town? A negative candidacy will only attract the likes of Barry Walker who has apparently hitched his horse to your post. Barry is well meaning but again never offers solutions in his rants. So Bill-T please tell us how you plan to change the way our government runs. What fundamental changes are you proposing? We are all anxious to hear your platform. Oh just remember when you “shake things up” sometimes it stinks.
Sherpa, Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Who are you anyway? Just another attack dog hiding behind a screen name. Rather cowardly don't you think? If memory serves me, this approach didn't help your cause, which is contrary to mine, the last time. In fact, it turned many people off, so keep up the good work! When I question policy, issues and actions of elected officials, my identity is known. Those who hide their identity are usually hiding their special interests. So again, who are you and what is your agenda? You say I have no answers, so here is one. Let's march those six people who renegotiated their contracts to include job security clauses right back into the negotiating room to remove these clauses. This would help with the accountability issue. Our committee is also working closely with school administrators and parents somewhat effectively as we speak.
TheSherpa,
I am glad you have joined our discussions and look forward to your input on the issues. I welcome all points of view here. While I am not content with the current situation in our town, I don't feel I am bitter or negative. I am quite willing to work with anyone in the town who is wants to bring about positive change. One positive change that I would like to see is a town budget that is sustainable without serial overrides. Prop 2-1/2 limits the revenue growth and as new growth slows in the town, we need to make sure that our expenditures are in line with that revenue. There will have to be changes in the way the town is run to achieve this. Some possible parts of the solution are wringing greater efficiency out of the bureaucracy, privatizing the delivery of services, cutting services, and perhaps additional revenue from an override. Our current leadership has had some time now to implement some of the recommendations made by the DOR last year but have failed to do so. I will push to get those things done. For example, going to biweekly payroll will save the town money, multi-year revenue and expense forecasts will allow us to plan better, having fees paid to the town collector rather than in multiple offices in the town hall will reduce duplication of effort and save money, quarterly review of spending will allow us to respond to trouble areas quickly, limiting personal contracts will ensure equity and bring accountability to management and supervisory personnel, developing a means to upload school department's receivables to the town system will avoid duplication of effort, shifting retiree medical to Medicare will save money. This list is just from the DOR report. Additionally, we can reduce energy costs by joining a electric demand co-operative and making sure we get the best possible price for oil. We may reduce health insurance costs and be able to provide better coverage to employees by joining the state plan. The town is self insured for catastrophic injuries, someone has to manage the costs of care provided. As we are lacking expertise in that area, perhaps we need to contract that duty and it may save us money. Privatizing trash pickup and snow plowing could save money. Other services such as payroll, inspectional services, IT services, janitorial services, and others need to be evaluated to see if we can save by contracting for those services. Basically we need to look at all spending and challenge the status quo to see if we can tease out ways to reduce costs.
On the revenue side, we need to make sure to maximize revenue in granting TIF agreements to new business, we need to look at fees and whether they are appropriate to the service provided, and if we are still unable to balance expenditures and revenue, an override question can be put to the voters.
I am not absolutely opposed to any override. But I think in the current environment, the voters will not approve one. If the town shows progress in cutting costs and sets its priorities to basic services, I think the voters can be persuaded to provide additional tax revenue.
I hope this has begun to answer your questions. If you have questions about a specific item or area of interest to you, bring it up, let me know how you feel about it and we can discuss it.
Barry,
I’m no attack dog nor do I starve for attention as I believe you do. I’m sure as was true during the over ride debate you will bless us with many hours of dialog. Your committee has done some very fine work and I think they have presented many notable suggestions. My objection is the way in which you choose to advance your cause. You seek to bring down others, sometimes rudely, with the hope that in doing so you will elevate your own status. It’s all so counterproductive.
TheSherpa,
You have asked me what specifically I would do to remedy the town's fiscal situation and I gave you a reasonable answer. Your feelings about me or Mr Walker and our individual motivations are of no interest to anyone except yourself. If you care to comment on issues of public policy, feel free to do so. I am asking you to confine your comments to those policies and not personal attacks.
Sherpa, Nice try but you forgot to answer the question. Who are you and what is your agenda? Hope this doesn't confuse you and make you forget to answer the question again, but this correspondance is a lot like the one I had with a school committee member. Disappointing and jouvenile. You also forgot to address any of the real issues that bill t. brought up in his post. Another thing I don't understand is you say I never have solutions, then say our committee has done good work. Thanks for the compliment but which is it? Don't forget to answer the question.
Barry,
It's not the policy here on this blog that people must reveal their identities. I made a decision when setting this blog up that I would allow people to post under a pseudonym or even anonymously. I hope that being able to do so will allow people to speak their minds.
Given that, there will always be some small number of who use the anonymity to comment inappropriately. I have the ability to remove comments or even ban a commenter but I hope not to have to resort to that
Bill-T, I am sorry that I didn’t respond to your post sooner but the thoughtful effort you put into your response deserves a better answer than one shot from the hip. You say that you are willing to work with anyone in the town who wants to bring about positive change. However, from your comments it seems there are few in government who meet that criterion. Am I to assume that those in office today are agents for negative change and therefore want to cripple our town? I just don’t believe that. If there is one common thread it is that everyone on both sides of these debates truly believes they have the town’s best interest at heart. The problem with finding a solution to any of our problems is the fact that, without exception, for every view, every suggestion there will be two different polarizing viewpoints. It’s the nature of the beast. What I see happening in our town is everyone has a punch card list of what they believe will remedy the town’s woes and when our elected officials fail to address a particular idea then it’s off with their heads. The candidate that will get my vote will be the one that demonstrates that they are able to bring people together. Because that is what we desperately need. Outsourcing services (AKA privatizing) our implementing policies to reuse paper clips in the office will not fix anything. The sad truth of this debate is that our suffering will continue no matter who sits on the Selectboard. We will not see improvements materialize until things change on Beacon Hill or a much needed over ride is passed. I am please that you recognize that even when all that is possible to streamline has been done there will still not be enough revenue to adequately run our town.
TheSherpa, I am amazed at your clairvoyance. Apparently you can read the thoughts and motivations of those who comment here.
I don't think that those who work for the town are trying to cripple our town. I do think that they have a vested interest in the status quo. Since I want to change the way that we operate the town, they are probably not going to be enthusiatistic about my ideas. For instance, the town charter requires, and the DOR recommends, that the executive administrator prepare a multi year forecast of expense and revenues. That is not happening. The Select Board only needs to direct the town administrator to do it. Again, not happening. This will not solve our woes but will provide the information we need to make the right decisions. You make the unqualified statement that cutting costs will not solve anything. Apparently, you think that an override will. I submit that an override will not solve the underlying problem. Even if the override had passed last year, we would have been in the red again in FY10. That's because our expenses are growing faster than our revenue. Even an infusion of cash in the form of an override is quickly swamped by the differential in expense growth compared to the statutory 2-1/2% increases in revenue. Don't take my word for it. Ask the Finance Committee. Or take a look at this article from today's S-T. http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps
/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080128
/NEWS/801280340/1008/TOWN07
We need to cut spending and raise revenue. I don't think the voters are going to raise their taxes until they are convinced there is a plan to live within our means. We arrive at that plan by having a discussion with the electorate about priorities, what we can cut, what we can't, what services we can provide at current funding levels, and what it will cost in additional taxes to continue programs that the taxpayers want.
Blaming our problems on Beacon Hill is just a way to get everybody off the hook. Several members of the Finance Committee have been warning at Town Meeting for 5 years or more about the very situation that we now find ourselves in. It wasn't a surprise to anyone, we saw it coming, and did nothing. Now it's the states fault? I don't think so. They can read the reports up there on Beacon Hill too. Dartmouth has a relatively low property tax rate compared to other towns. So even if the state were to provide relief to towns, Dartmouth is not going to be high on the list. We own our problems and we need to fix them. Other towns are in the same situation as Dartmouth even though they assess higher property taxes. How does your belief that increased revenue will solve our budget problem square with that fact.
Bill-T, I was disappointed that you pulled my response to Barry whereby I identify myself. Barry don’t blame me I tried to answer your question but I guess the First Amendment doesn’t apply to private blogs. Bill-T I hope your view towards government is more open than your blog. If you are elected you will quickly see that your vote is only one of five, which greatly limits the amount of influence you realistically can have. Diane was supposed to be the great watch dog for the meek and uninformed and look at what a distraction she has become. If you want real change then run on a platform that supports the abolishment of town style government. Let’s have a mayor and city council and then you will have a form of government that is accountable. But until then who do we hold accountable? Is it the Select board, Town meeting, Finance Committee, School Committee? Should we just turn our government over to the mob and let them decide? I wish you well on your quest for a seat. God only knows why you or anyone else wants it. It has become, with the help of the mob, a position of so little consequence that not even Town Meeting felt it was worthy of funding.
TheSherpa, you have consistently characterized the comments of others here as negative but you seem to be the one without hope for the future. It is indeed "the mob", as you say, who will carry us forward and allow us to solve our problems. Its members are already doing most of the work toward this end. On the Budget and Revenue Task Force, the Privatization committee, the Personnel Board, the Finance Committee, other town boards, PTOs, and even on the Select Board and School Committee, town residents are giving their time and expertise on a volunteer basis to try to move us forward. I don't fear them or dismiss their efforts as futile. While you don't want to hear from them, I welcome their input and think it vital to our government.
You say that one voice, one vote, can't make a difference but I know a cabinet maker who showed great courage in voicing his opinion, took on the powers that be in the town, and found that many, many people agreed with him. His voice made a difference!
You have finally hit on the area where we agree. Accountability is exactly what is needed! From the Select Board, School Committee, town and school administrators, department heads, appointed and elected officials, and every employee of the town, all accountable to the taxpayers.
I don't see how changing our form of government changes the need for accountability, our right as citizens and taxpayers to demand it, or the likelihood that we get it.
Bill-t, I realize that your blog is censored and only comments that agree with your viewpoints or praise the cabinet maker will get published. If you add a candlestick maker and a baker to your advisory board you will complete the fairy tale. You both crow about the over ride failure but you succeeded by the thinnest of margins. I hope you watched the SB meeting tonight and heard the excellent presentation from our police chief. How would you make up the $500k deficit realizing that his department cut $300k out of the budget last year? Crime is up and services are down. You mentioned in your post many of the recommendations the DOR suggested had not yet been implemented. But as we learned tonight many of those changes need to go through collective bargaining and that takes time. There’s no monarchy in Dartmouth, no absolute rule I’m not sure your mob friends understand that. What I do know is you need a collaborative attitude to effect positive change. It starts by recognizing what is right with our town not just what isn’t working. Together we can make a difference if our agenda is to advance the quality of our community and its services not our own image and status.
Kali Ghimire said,
What I do know is you need a collaborative attitude to effect positive change. It starts by recognizing what is right with our town not just what isn’t working. Together we can make a difference if our agenda is to advance the quality of our community and its services not our own image and status.
I appreciate his endorsement of my candidacy but once again want to remind him not to get personal. I think his comment on our current leadership is unfounded.
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