I want to thank those who helped me run for Select Board. You know who you are. I will be contacting you personally to say, thanks. To the voters of Dartmouth who supported my successful run for the Select Board, thank you for your vote. I am humbled by your confidence in me and I will do all that I can to live up to your expectations.
I have said here that we have difficult work ahead of us. I hope that our community can set aside our past differences and come together in co-operation and compromise to move our town forward to a brighter future. If we embrace our common interests and join together, we can overcome our present troubles and become a stronger, better community. Thanks again.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Thank you! I am humbled
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
33 comments:
Bill, congratulations on your win! I must ask once again, how do you rank Dartmouth's priorities? You have said many times that you intend to rank Dartmouth services and then cut from the bottom but I haven't really heard you talk about exactly how that priority list goes. I am very interested in hearing your thought on this issue. Thank-you in advance for your time.
Select Board has the responsibility of finding revenue. How will you find revenue to fund education, stabilization, CIP and other mandated or otherwise priorities? You realize if you reverse the split tax the lacrosse and other parents will be paying around $150 plus HS fees, trash, override for general govt, library, police. Is this right? Will you be pressing for education funding reform with John Quinn or others? In the meantime, how will our kids get money for school needs. And in your eyes they are wants, but in educator and national standard's viewpoint they are needs. Justifiable facts and needs? Show us the comittment to find the revenue? What is your strategy?
Bill, Congratulations, on your successful run. I am looking foward to the town uniting to solve our problems. Lets look at the things we have and work together to make the most of them and live within our budgets.
Congratulations! Now the hard work begins! Our town is very divided...I hope the leadership in the town can bring people together for the common good of all.
I look forward to watching Select Board Meetings and staying informed with progress. Thank you!
Congratulations, Bill! Thank You for bringing information on the issues to light. I feel I was a more informed voter this year because of you.
Thank You
The important question is what are the town's priorities, what are your priorities?. That is the discussion we need to have now. The general government override will only fund us for one year at current levels. We need to start to make changes and to start to collectively decide where we will spend our resources. What are your thoughts and what information would you like to see to help us set those priorities?
Mr. Trimble, Congratulations and "may the force be with you" :)
I do hope that we (the town) can look forward to not being subjected to the constant "doom and gloom" attitudes and body language that we have been subjected to with those heading our town. This town is just a reflection of the what the country has become and we need to start fixing "it". A tough task, yes, a doable one, yes. I am your age and managed to be educated in this town's school system and there was nothing that I didn't have that affected my outcome, only what I did have. Creativity is the answer. We have intelligent AND creative minds in this town and both of those resources need to be tapped!
Best to all
Congratulations!!! Couldn't be happier. Anonymous are you asking the school committee about pushing for ed reform? Are you asking them about getting the money for the schools and why they are unable to convince the voters?
Thanks Mr. Trimble! I know you are only one of five members, but your presence will make a difference! One of the things I think would be very helpful would be to try to get more people involved in volunteering. The schools, COA, Town Hall, etc. Also, internships with students from UMASS, BCC, and even the high school. What about if every high school student had to do some community service? What do you think?
Hi Bill! I noticed that someone mentioned the split tax. I heard you say (on the radio) that you are for the split tax and would vote that way during your three year term. Is that correct?
Bill, I hope you have some sense of what a blow this is to our schools, students, staff. You seem confident in inspiring volunteerism in our community, and I have a suggestion. Our curriculum needs, capital improvement needs, etc. are frozen by yesterday's vote. Would you be willing to spearhead a volunteer effort to uplift the schools on the physical plant side? There are issues at our oldest schools (Middle, Demello, Potter) that could be remedied to provide a less dismal learning and working environment for their populations. Especially, in view of the additional impact these structures will experience as their populations are forced to increase.
With a donation of materials and manpower to lead a student-assisted effort (possibly our National Honor Society students who have community service requirements to maintain their memberships among others) things like peeling wall surfaces, paint-stripped-to-rust tables, chairs, desks, ventilation vents, etc. could be painted and refurbished, water-stained ceiling tiles and missing ceramic tiles replaced, old worn and mildewed window treatments and rugs replaced, court-yards cleared of brush and landscaped, etc... Maybe Barry with the contacts he has in his trade would be willing to tour facilities, create a punch list, and lead such an effort. Certainly, reasonable people would realize the need for such an effort and the impact it would have on morale. Is this something you're interested in doing and implementing immediately?
To the 11:51 am anonymous poster - are you saying that a "punch list" of these projects and materials has not already been created? Then how did the school department know what amount to ask for in the override? Scary!
Mr. Trimble, I am SOOO happy you won! My family and some friends watched the DCTV results together as a group (23 people) and there was such a huge roar when the final results were released! I congratulate you, and know you will do a wonderful job!
To anonymous commenting on punch list - these would be regarded as mostly cosmetic needs school dept. would not dare ask funding for in this political climate. Do you think you could drop your arrogant attitude as this was a sincere request of Bill, and I hope he responds favorably as a gesture of inspiring a worthy volunteer effort.
To the anonymous comment about sprucing up the schools. I can contact the school board, school administration, and can contact the community through my appearances at the Select Board. I don't know how this work idea will be received at the school department. Have you brought it up with the School Committee or administration. It seems a good idea to me.
I do have a full time job during the day which limits how much time I have during most business days to do this kind of work. I am more than willing to work with you on this effort. If you would like to pursue this with me, send me an Email to pokanoketlax@hotmail.com
Hi Bill, Just a thought...the inmates(Bristol County House of Correction) do painting and such. Maybe during a school vacation they could get in the school and help out.
ndmom, I think that's a great idea. Joe Michaud has been in contact with the sheriff about getting help for the town and he would be the person anonymous should contact to get that moving. I'm sure that would take care of most of the punch list. Also anonymous have you contacted the other SB members, school committee, or involved parents to ask for their help?
anonymous, you have brought forth some great ideas for improvements needed in the schools. I'm sure reasonable people will be happy to help. However reasonable people should also be willing to advocate for changes within the schools that would divert more money directly to the students. There are existig problems with administratve positions, salaries, & benefits. Would you be willing to lead in that effort?
Reasonable people...that's an interesting thought. I just read a post from jimbos (a Dartmouth cop, no less) indicating the following:
"get serious, have you heard of bargaining?? The town cannot simply exert it's will on the employees, everything needs to be bargained on. Do you really think the labor people will give up everything they have worked so long to gain? Stop fooling yourself, town employees will do what is best for the town and themselves, they will not give away the farm."
So, I guess it IS NOT all about the kids. It is all about the fat salaries. Maybe some of the school department employees will VOLUNTARILY give up some of their pay so the kids can have books and computers.
I'm not holding my breath.
Frankg posted on this blog and gave an explanation of why the split tax was enacted and how it applies to Dartmouth. I agree with his analysis and I support the split tax rate. You can read his post here
To School Parents, If you are so upset about DHS why not send your child to New Bedford Voke? It's a great school! No fees for sports, a resource officer or two, plenty of social workers and new powerful computers! A state of the art facility! They're putting a windmill at the school soon! What a deal!
Voc gets a huge sum of our town money so it should be great. Who is investigating blog commenter identities, like Jimbos'-did he say he was a cop or did CFRG uncover this, I know CFRG leader was trying to find out identities of blog people to pinpoint them, the current town officials (and now Mr. Trimble are aware), the Standard Times is aware too.
Calm down Anonymous - no great conspiracy here! JimboS has identified himself in postings as a Dartmouth Police Officer numerous times. Frankly, considering the tone of his posts, that's actually pretty scary!
To suggest administrative positions, salaries, and benefits are not being addressed and as Frank G. (seen as a "friendly" blogger) has pointed out will "take time" to implement is to misrepresent the issue, especially when your effort fed the public sentiment against this issue at the start with inaccurate data as pointed out by many on this blog. Apologies are in order for these misrepresentations in order to facilitate moving forward and working together.
To the anonymous comment. How are administrative salaries and benefits being addressed? Whose contracts are we talking about? There are several personal contracts that have expired already. They have not been addressed to date. Why not? What is your view of an equitable solution to personal service contracts? I want to have a discussion and if you want to contribute, please do.
If you feel that an issue has been misrepresented here, please state some specifics. I cannot address your complaint without you saying what it is. Correct the misrepresentations if you have the correct information and let's get on with it. I have posted here what I think should be done. I will bring this proposed bylaw change before the Select board and I will bring it before the Town Meeting. What are your thoughts?
Anonymous, it is understood that these issues will take time to implement. What is not understood is the denial that these issues exist as reinforced by your comments. Refusing to admit to the data is not moving forward and there is no need to apologize for facts. Some of the pro school override people have admitted there are problems but no one seems to be willing to step forward to force change. If these issues are being addressed, have new contracts been drafted? Is there a plan ready for when it's time to sit at the table for contract negotiations? For that matter, what about question 3 which included new salaries? Were there any changes for the new hires or was everything to remain the same? The school committee and administration need to start listening to other view points if they want to make progress. Thinking within a bubble has not served them well and most importantly it has done nothing for the children.
Among the measures taken that I'm aware of is discussed by Frank G.'s earlier comment (copied below)
frankg said...
In fairness to the Personnel Board they have recently had members added, and have been trying to figure out exactly what is expected of them. They were a bit shell-shocked at first, and were also trying to fill the seats.
Let's also be clear about who does what. It is not the PB's job to create or negotiate contracts, their job is to examine contracts for parity across bargaining units and also non-union. As you heard them say, they will be looking for a balance between efficiencies for the Town and fairness to the employees. They WILL point out things and make appropriate recommendations. They are contract examiners not contract creators.
What takes a long time is the creation of the contracts, primarily the union ones. The Town still needs to hire a negotiator, and then the process will start. It can take the better part of a year to handle the negotiations, especially if there really is give and take involved.
That part of the process hasn't started because the current contracts are not due for a renewal just yet, but should begin shortly. What the PB will be doing in the short-term is getting acquainted with current contracts, and also looking at some non-union ones that have expired and need to be dealt with. They are also getting acquainted with the Town structure, and who works for who. This can be pretty convoluted and confusing.
March 11, 2008 2:25 PM
I trust this process and others to play out, will be patient enough for it to do so, and feel there's no point in undermining it. I don't think it's wise, Bill, to seek opinions on equitable solutions on things from those not fully knowledgeable about them
Also, you've asked for specifics on misrepresentations before and then dismiss them without response. That will change now that you have a highly visible position requiring more accountability, and that's a good thing. You have many comments you can review for specifics to "get on with it" as you put it.
To insinuate the school department is not open to assistance from volunteers or prison labor is more of the same misrepresentation that has gone on with this group since this blog started. The prisoners in fact have been put to good use already in fact they were instrumental in getting the Quinn School in decent shape last summer before the big move. Others have offered and been taken up on volunteer assistance all year long. If compromise is what you want stop the snide comments and insinuations.
Whoever said the schools were not open to help from the sheriff or any other help? What are you talking about???
Don't apologize for facts - apologize for your misrepresentations and stop the rhetoric and denial about it. You're getting nowhere with people who know better. There's no denial issues exist - the very reason for an expanded PB to focus on them and my support of it! Some here are like dealing with alcoholics - full of denial and refusal to repair the harm they've done regardless of the evidence. I would suggest to Bill that he break away from the CFRG. If he can't recognize how this group has contributed to divisiveness in our town, it's a strike against him. We need a fresh start, and if Bill's ready to do that - go solo!
To all, it is time to get past the anger. If you don't agree with someone's comments, then by all means make your case. The bitterness and accusations are doing no one any good. I have seen several comments containing good intentions that have been taken negatively. If you feel the intention of the poster was not in the best interests of moving forward, then the best thing to do is ignore it. Have a discussion with another poster who is interested in progress.
to the 12:14 anonymous poster. What is scary is that you do not even know what the school portion of the debt exclusion was for. It was not for 'punch list items' such as painting and ceiling tiles and all the other crappy conditions the schools live with, it was for elevators at the Quinn School to make it comply with the law and it was for replacment windows also at the Quinn School so that we don't throw our heating dollars literally out the window.
Congratulations to Phil and Joanne!
I hope more people can get to SC meetings and become better informed about what goes on in the schools. They have their work cut out for them. Good Luck!
Post a Comment