I attended the Finance Committee meeting Thursday evening and I think a couple of things which came up there illustrate the points I have been bringing up on this blog. The first is that we have to consider all the consequences of the decisions that we make as a town. In response to a question from the Finance Committee, the school superintendent admitted that the costs for new teachers included in their override request did not take into account the benefits that go along with these new hires. These costs, including health insurance, are the very ones often cited as budget busters. So we are being asked to approve an override request that does not include the all the costs associated with maintaining those positions over time. I find this very disappointing given our recent history.
Secondly, the school administrator wanted to enlist the Finance Committee in recommending the school's override request to the town. He felt that they had the credibility to convince the voters to approve it. I happen to agree with him in regard to their credibility, but it is a sad commentary that the full time administrators paid by the town to run our business don't have the trust of the electorate.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
That's what I'm talking about
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4 comments:
Bill-T,
This will be my final post to your blog because I find the slanted dialog neither helpful nor enlightening. Bill-T I’m not sure how you will find the time to rescue Dartmouth, if elected, when you spend so much time publishing this tainted rubbish. You and your minion Barry see yourselves as public servants; well I’m part of the public and a taxpayer and gentlemen you are not serving me in anyway. You want to usher monies away from the bottomless pit, as you describe it, but all I see you doing is throwing the town in that same pit, in its place. With all do respect I think it is you who is misinformed. There is a silent majority who yearns to restore Dartmouth back to the beauty it once held. What qualifies you to decide what form our town should take? What qualifies you to claim to speak for all of us? You base your conclusions on discussions you have heard in coffee shops around town well you won’t hear anything from the silent majority because we are all busy working. And Barry please do not waste your time responding back with your rich man poor man bologna. My wife and I work hard for what we have. You somehow find it necessary to demonize people more successful then yourself. Although I will admit that government has made mistakes in the past and present, you Bill, will not stop this from occurring in the future as you would have us all believe. Part of the problem is having a governing body made up of part time volunteers. Everyone has a suggestion and an opinion no matter how misguided. I offer as an example Barry’s rant about the town’s IT infrastructure. Next time you question the purchase price of IT equipment here’s something you should know about it before you make a comment. Most capital equipment purchases are based on a 5 year cost-of-ownership finance model. In the case of PC’s the purchase price only represents 25% of the total cost. In case you don’t understand what that means to a budget, buying the blue-light special at Wal-Mart, be it cheap at the start, will cost the town much more in the future with higher maintenance costs and repairs. But I bet if Dartmouth blindly took your suggestions and purchased this level of equipment when the support cost went up you would forget it was your suggestion in the first place and blame the town and it’s managers for the rise in expense. The committee you are so proud of has how many members, maybe six? That represents .02% of the population and you dare to call yourself a public servant. You dare to speak of the voters as though you have some grand influence over them. You want to tear Dartmouth down and build anew. You want to reduce the services below acceptable levels and have a town lottery to decide what gets restored. Well here’s a concept folks. Let’s take the revenue projections for the next five years and bounce it against the projected expenses for running the town including the services we all enjoy. Let’s raise the tax base sufficiently enough so that perpetual over rides won’t be needed. Let’s not waste money but let us not start at the bottom either. Let’s preserve that in which we love by investing in it. If you choose not to want to invest in Dartmouth then please move to a community more suitable for you. But please stop trying to take away what so many Dartmouth residence have work so hard for. Lastly, I congratulate all current and past public servants and board members for truly trying to maintain the quality of our town as revenues began to dwindle. Like a parent not wanting their child to hear bad news they made poor decisions in spending down the town’s stabilization funds to maintain service levels and by doing so, gave residents the false sense that sufficient monies were being collected and later mismanaged. Their only sin being that they should have gone in front of the town sooner with the bad news that more monies were needed to maintain the status quo. In smaller doses the people would have gladly responded. We all agree that an over ride is necessary but Bill you speak as though you and you alone know how the town will vote. Is it possible you believe that the recent over ride defeat is a mandate? It failed by the smallest of margins. It failed because of poor communications and the loud-mouth drumbeats of misinformation your support group bombarded the public with. You intimidated the uniformed and elderly by preying on their fears. But I promise you, your propaganda will not be so successful in the future. The silent majority will not continue to be silent anymore. As far as your candidacy and the success of this blog, good luck to you. As I see it you have three or four loyal supporters, you got to be proud.
Kali, Goodbye, We all know who you are and it is truly unfortunate that our town leadership has come to this.
Kali, I am sorry that you haven't found the dialog here enlightening and informative. As it says at the top of the blog, I'd be happy to give you the necessary permissions to post here if you would like to add your view to the discussion as well as commenting :-)
Kali,
I would challenge you to find anywhere in this blog where I suggested buying any IT equipment. Your constant attempts to diminish the quality of this blog and the constant attempts to discredit me are dissappointing. Your claim of representing the silent majority is laughable. What you represent is a well oiled political machine that has no desire to listen to the public at large. The fact that you are so angry about the last override failure is a feather in the cap of democracy in action.
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