Select Board adopts policy on executive session minutes

Tonight the Select Board voted to adopt a policy for review, approval, and release of executive session minutes. You can read the policy at this link. The policy states,

The Select Board will review, amend and finalize, and approve executive session minutes as soon as practicable after each respective executive session.

and continues...

On a quarterly basis, the Board will review the minutes in the notebook in executive session and shall determine whether the purpose of each executive session topic addressed therein still exists

This policy is a step in the right direction.

Standard Times, Sharek and Friedman on Select Board races

It was a busy week in the paper for endorsements in the Dartmouth Select Board races. Today the Standard Times endorsed Diane Gilbert and Mike Watson for the two seats in contest.
The Town Meeting moderator, Mr. Sharek, endorsed Lara Stone in this letter
The chair of the Finance Committee, Mr. Friedman, endorsed Diane Gilbert in this letter.
We are fortunate to have 5 outstanding individuals who are willing to serve the town on the Select Board. It is a testament to our community and our democracy that people come forward in difficult times and ask their fellow citizens to allow them to serve. It makes the choice difficult and I think that all candidates have presented themselves well.
That said there are important policy differences among the candidates. I support Diane Gilbert in her bid for re-election and I lay out my reasons here. Ms. Gilbert has been part of the majority on the Select Board who has been working to put our fiscal house in order. For some time, Dartmouth's revenue and expenses have been out of whack. The solution to this problem is to bring our expenses to a sustainable level. Ms. Gilbert has been in support of that effort. Ms. Gilbert is a staunch supporter of historical and open space preservation, open government and a tireless researcher on issues before the town.
I was surprised when Ms. Stone declared her intention to run against Ms. Gilbert. They had worked together on school forums and don't seem to have many policy differences. Lara has endorsed regionalization, consolidation of town departments and contracting out services. All positions that she and Ms. Gilbert share. Ms. Stone has many more policy differences with Mr. Carney than Ms Gilbert but chose to run against Ms. Gilbert. There is one issue where the two disagree and that is overrides. Mr. Carney is a reliable vote for overrides, Ms. Gilbert is not. Ms. Stone has supported recent overrides and has said she felt that the $8.5 million dollar request in 2007 represented a good long term approach. I disagree and have written about why here
Mr. Carney, Mr. Gracie and Mr. Watson are running for the other seat. That seat is currently held by Bob Carney.
Mr. Gracie has been actively volunteering for years on committees working to solve the town budget crunch. He studied the town's budget in detail while on the Budget and Revenue Task Force, he studied the town's revenues while serving on the Tax Classification committee and he studied the town's departments when chairing the Privatization Study group. I believe Mr. Gracie has the experience and knowledge to contribute leadership on the Select Board on the first day. That is why ...

... he will get my vote. I think the Standard Times fundamentally misrepresented his position on the library in their endorsement letter. Frank has not said that library services should be contracted out. He and the committee suggested that there may be significant savings to be had by doing so and recommended issuing a Request For Proposal(RFP) in order to find out if that was true. Frank has addressed that in comments on this blog and I am sure will again if needed.
Mr. Carney has served the town on the Select Board for the past nine years and on other boards and committees for longer still. I thank and honor him for that service. Mr. Carney and I disagree on how to solve the town's fiscal woes. Mr. Carney does not support very many changes in the town government nor have I heard him suggest ways to put our house in order.
Mr. Watson is a newcomer to town politics, as I was a year ago. He is personable, enthusiastic and smart. I think he would be an asset on the Select Board in most circumstances. If he is not elected I hope he will run again.
As always, tell us your opinion in comments.

April 26th! Clean up and green up!

Dartmouth Clean Up Day is scheduled for Sunday, April 26th.
Now that the snow has gone and the leaves are not out yet, you may have noticed a lot of trash and litter lining our roads. Here's a chance to build our community and do a good turn for the environment. Here's how
Step 1 - Organize your cleanup team. It could be your friends and neighbors, your scout troop, church group or sports team. Any group
Step 2 - Choose a location to clean up. Contact the Department of Public Works (DPW) or choose your own location.
Step 3 - Pick up free trash bags to use on Clean Up day at the DPW offices at 759 Russells Mills Road
Step 4 = Get together, clean up and bring the trash to the DPW designated drop sites.
Step 5- Pat each other on the back, then have a cookout, or go for a walk and enjoy the natural beauty of our town. The Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust (DRNT) lands are great for a walk in the woods.

To contact the DPW, email mdefranco@town.dartmouth.ma.us or call 508-997-0740.

The global Earth Day site is here Be good to each other and to our home, the Earth,

Women who rock -Cristina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil)

Our truth- Lacuna Coil
YouTube embed after the jump

Library play tonight

The library will have a murder mystery dinner theater tonight. I will be playing the part of Sir Arthur Conan Hoyle in the production. The place is Southworth Library, time 6:30 PM. Tickets are $30 and available at the door. See you there?

My only previous acting experience was in the 8th grade production of Lil' Abner in which I had one line as the "government man" I still remember it, I think. "Well madame, we certainly wouldn't bomb any community that made a necessary contribution to society" Missed my cue to go on stage and everyone stood around until I could be shoved out there. Break a leg!

Dylan in Newport 1965

Love minus zero/no limit

Town Website policy adopted

Monday night the Select Board voted to adopt a policy concerning the town website. The policy had been developed by a committee at the library and revised by Town Counsel.
The policy was amended at the meeting and the amendment wordinghas not been finalized but the spirit of the final document...

... is reflected in this version.The policy can be found at this link.

Latest capital improvement plan

Mr. Iacaponi has sent along the latest Capital Improvement Plan. You can find revision 8 here.

Quinn window project wins state approval

Ed iacaponi emailed me this information,

Please be advised that the Quinn Elementary School window replacement project has been approved by SBA at their board meeting on Mar 25, 2009. They have placed it in the repair and renovation category. They will be issuing an approval letter shortly. We will be able to proceed with this project once assigned a project number.

Ed

Edward Iacaponi
Director of Budget & Finance / Treasurer
Town of Dartmouth

The Town Meeting had appropriated funds ...

...contingent upon the match by the SBA.
This project will now proceed.

Capital improvement plan

A draft of the 2010 five year capital improvement plan was presented to the Select Board last night. Mr. Iacaponi went over it briefly. The public is always at a disadvantage when this sort of thing is presented because you do not have the same information as we are seeing in front of us. I hope that some day everything that is in our packet will be available to you at the same time ...

... via the town website.
The draft plan has not been vetted by the Finance Committee as yet and will probably change significantly before Town Meeting. That said you can find the plan in MS Excel format at this link

Harbormaster term of office

Jackie B. emailed me with information to correct statements that I and some in comments have made that the Harbormaster has a lifetime appointment. Turns out I was wrong and Jackie had the scoop.
MGL Chapter 102, section 19 states,

"The mayor of a city, except Boston, or the selectmen of a town where a harbor is situated, unless otherwise specially provided, may, and for all harbors that have been improved by the expenditure of money by the commonwealth shall, appoint a harbor master and assistant harbor masters and fix their compensation,

The key phrase being, unless otherwise specially provided.
Jackie recalled a warrant article ...

... from the 2003 Fall Town Meeting which sets the term of the Harbormaster at three years. She was kind enough to forward me the wording which you can find at this link on page W2(E).(MS Word file)
Thanks for the information. Jackie.

Judge's ruling on Gagne's motion for injunction

I received a copy of the Fall River Superior Court decision on Mr. Gagne's motion for preliminary injunction and posted the decision here (in MS Word format).
The ruling denies Mr. Gagne's motion for a preliminary injunction to force the town to retain him.
The standard of review used in deciding the motion was,

"A preliminary injunction is properly granted when the moving party demonstrates: (1) a substantial likelihood of success on the merits; (2) there is a substantial risk of irreparable harm if injunctive relief is not granted; and (3) the balancing of the equities tips in favor of the moving party"

The decision on the motion considers ...

...two of the four issues raised by the town in their lawsuit for declaratory judgment.
The first issue was whether or not the contract was in violation of the Open Meeting law. The judge found the time for bringing an action on that basis had lapsed and therefore was not a reason to dismiss the motion.
The judge did review Chapter 358 of the Acts of 1992 which created the position of Executive Administrator in the town and ruled that the contract did violate that statute. The court said,

"For the purpose of this motion for a preliminary injunction, the court concludes that the renewal provision in Gagne's employment agreement violates Chapter 358 of the Acts of 1992 and therefore Gagne has not demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits."

While the ruling applies only to the motion of preliminary injunction, the ruling bodes well for the town's argument that the contract renewal provision is not valid.

Your thoughts on Rotary Club forum

This past Wednesday the Rotary Club hosted a candidate forum at theTown Hall which was televised on DCTV Channel 18. Their broadcast schedule can be found here if you missed it live. The next rebroadcast will be tonight at 6PM.
What did you think of the candidates? Leave your impressions in comments below. As always, I would ask that ...

... you make some kind of rational argument or give a reason for your impressions or choices. Saying , for instance, that Bill Trimble is ugly and stupid and nobody likes him, reveals more about you than it does Bill Trimble. What was said that you found enlightening and why do you think that? What position did the candidate espouse that is important to you?

Refutation of Mr. Raposo's letter

Saul Raposo had a factually incorrect letter in the Chronicle this week that I will briefly correct. Unfortunately, I can not find a link to the letter on the Standard Times website. If you find one, please leave the URL in comments.
First, the Select Board voted in open session on December 10, 2008 to ask the Finance Committee for a Reserve Fund transfer. Mr. Raposo stated that this discussion and vote did not take place.
The discussions on filing a lawsuit were in Executive Session and I believe properly so. This discussion would be exempted from a public meeting under the provision for discussion of litigation. Here is a link to a guideline for the Open Meeting law The minutes of the meetings where this litigation was discussed...

... will be made public when the issue involved(i.e.the lawsuit) is settled. The Select Board is now committed to prompt review and release of executive session minutes. There have not been executive minutes released for over three years before my election. That should not be allowed again. Minutes should be approved promptly and released expeditiously. Mr. Iacaponi has already taken steps to ensure that this will occur.
Finally, the Select Board voted on Feb 28th in open session to appoint Ed Iacaponi as interim Executive Administrator. Earlier, Joe Michaud and Diane Gilbert had met with Mr. Iacaponi to ask if he would accept the position. Mr. Raposo stated that the discussion and vote did not take place. He also said that two members had appointed Mr. Iacaponi which is not only untrue, but actually impossible. It takes three members of the Select Board to act on anything.
Those are the facts in these matters and you can look them up at the links given. I also will point out that Mr. Raposo led an effort to get a recall provision inserted into the Town Charter in order to remove members who voted not to renew Mr. Gagne's contract. That effort failed at a Special town Meeting in part, I believe, because the recall provision was so poorly written.

Floor Jansen

Sorry I missed my Friday Dylan. Here is Sunday's Women Who Rock. A metal singer with operatic range, Floor Jansen, who sings for After Forever, formerly Apocalypse.
You Tube embed after the jump

After Forever,s Floor Jansen rocks

Welcome back to James

This is a bit of personal business. My brother James who has been down in old Mexico for a while has asked for my email. Send me a note to trylaxnow@hotmail.com and I'll send along my phone and other stuff.
James Taylor- Mexico You Tube embed after jump

Hope you are well and enjoying the northern latitudes.

The orange icon signifies that the comment has signed in on a Blogger account

Sparse posting

I have been out straight at work, not much time to blog. I hope that will be done next week. That is the lot of a maintenance worker. When you have an outage, you have to get it done in the time allocated. I will post as I am able. Thanks for stopping by.
There have been lots of letters lately in the Chronicle and Standard Times. Sal Raposo, Lee Marland, and others. What did you think about what they had to say?

Stan Getz Quartet

These cats are way cool-Stan Getz
You Tube embed after the jump

Town Meeting members in the April Election

You can find a list of those running for Town Meeting at this link from the Dartmouth Public Libraries.
The Town Meeting is the legislature of our town. Only Town Meeting can appropriate funds, approve the purchase or sale of property, enact bylaws, and many other things. The Massachusetts General Law on Town Meeting can be found here. It is a vital civic function. Dartmouth has a representative Town Meeting. Although any resident can go and speak at Town Meeting, only those elected as representatives can vote. There are 39 Town Meeting members from each ...

...of the ten precincts of the town. Town Meeting members are elected to a 3 year term with 13 elected from each precinct each year. Some precincts have a full complement of town meeting members. Others are chronically short of members.
Looking at the list for this year, you will see that many precincts do not have 13 people on the ballot. The deadline for getting on the ballot has passed but you can still run as a write in candidate. If you would like to serve, have our friends and family write in our name for Town Meeting member. This modest number of votes is usually enough to get you elected to the Town Meeting.
There are usually two Town Meetings a year, one in the spring that is a full day and one in the fall which is in the evening. If you work during the day, as I do, you will have to take a day off to attend the Spring Town Meeting. The town budget is debated and enacted at that meeting. Give it some thought, you will be serving your community and will be up to date on what is occurring in town government.

Latest FY10MOB file

This MOB file reflects that latest information from Thursday's Finance Commitee meeting. Link here for the file

As before older versions have been deleted and only this most recent file has an active link.

Bonnie Raitt rocks

Another favorite Bonnie Raitt
YouTube embed after the jump

April 7th ballot

UPDATE Mr. Sharek emailed to tell me that I had misspelled Frank Gracie's name and that Ms. McDonald has withdrawn. I made the changes to the link below
Here is a link to a listing of the Dartmouth Town election ballot for the April 7th election. It is in MS word format. I tried to make it into a HTML document but the formatting is lost when I do that and it is not readable.
The polling places will change for precincts 1, 3 and 4 for this election. Precinct 1 and 3 did vote at the fire station on Cross Road. They will now vote at the Dartmouth Bible Church on Morton Avenue. Precinct 4 will vote at the Cedars on Old Westport Road instead of Smith Mills Church Hall. The town clerk will mail a notice to all registered voters informing them of the change.

Good luck to the candidates.
I also have been trying to get the videotape that I shot at the Grange forum online. I can't figure out how to transfer the file from a tape to a electronic media. Still working on that and will post it if I figure it out.

Politics brings out the worst in some

In comments to other posts, an anonymous person has been asking me about an ethics charge against me. I'll bring it out to this post and state that I am not aware of any ethics charge filed against me. If that person has filed one or know of one that has been filed, they have the advantage on me as I have not been notified.

I think that the anonymous person or persons feels that it is unethical for me to comment on the lawsuit brought by taxpayers, who include my wife, on this blog. What the exact ethical violation that my posts on this blog would be is not clear to me. I invite the person or persons to elaborate. I certainly don't feel that being on the Select Board constrains me from commenting on matters of public record.
As the title of this post conveys, this sort of nonsense is what keeps many worthy individuals from becoming involved in the public sphere. In this campaign, Diane Gilbert has been characterized by mostly anonymous comments as uncivil, nasty and vindictive. The comments don't cite specific examples that illustrate these characterizations. The comments are just thrown out there to be nasty in my view. When challenged to provide specifics, these commenters go on about Ms. Gilbert's manner of speech or their perception that her body language is somehow rude. I have not seen even one comment that gives a single instance where she was rude or nasty to anyone. I believe that is because Diane has not been rude or nasty. I believe that this is just a talking point ...

... put out by some who oppose her re-election. They hope that continuous repetition of the accusation will cause it to become an issue rather than debate the real issues. I believe that most people understand that an anonymous comment which is not backed up with example is not to be treated seriously. It is not unexpected, just unfortunate.

There are now and will always remain differences of opinion among the Select Board members and the general public. There is a big difference between having a difference of opinion and being rude or nasty. We can debate these differences without resorting to name-calling, demonizing the opponent, or nasty comments. The issues can be debated in open forum and the people can weigh the arguments given, and decide whom they want to vote for. I hope that can happen.

I call upon those running for office to disavow the nasty comments, rumor, and innuendo. So what about that , Ms. Gilbert, Ms. Stone, Mr. Carney, Mr. Gracie, and Mr. Watson. Will you come out and publicly state that your opponent is a good, honorable person who has taken the important and daunting step of putting themselves forward to the public for consideration? Will you focus your campaigns on the policies that you hope to bring to the board and forgo personal attacks on those people running in opposition to you? I hope that you will. It is the right thing to do for the town and the public.

Better late than never- Friday Dylan

Knockin' on Heavens Door


This is the first of Bob's commercial ventures. This song was for a movie, Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, I think.
I have to admit it does violence to my concept of who Bob Dylan is to hear his music on teevee commercials. We all live in our own personal reality.

Finance Committee financial data and analysis

Find the latest information on town budgets and finances in this recent MOB file from Mr. Lynam. Link to it here. As I have posted before, I removed the previous MOB file from my web host because I get limited space with a free account and the file is large.

If you try to access the file from previous posts, you will get a "file not found error".

UMass students study Dartmouth

Professor Shannon Jenkins at UMass Dartmouth, who serves on the Dartmouth Finance Committee, asked me to post this request here. Her class at the campus has a project that will help the town and Prof. Jenkins would like us to help them.

Here is what she wrote,

This semester, I am teaching PSC 400 which focuses on State and Local Policy. The class has been divided into two teams, and each team is going to be doing an applied policy analysis for the town of Dartmouth. Because this class is cross-listed with the Sustainability program, one team will be looking at ways to make the town more green and to save money at the same time. The second team will be focusing on openness and transparency; ...

... they will be working with the Web Site Development committee in finding ways to more effectively provide information to town residents.

Each team will be interviewing people inside and outside of town government and looking for examples of best practices in other communities, locally and across the state and country. For both of these projects, we are interested in finding out what people in town have to say. For the sustainability project, we're interested if folks have ideas on how to make town operations more green (keeping in mind that ultimately these green projects also have to save us money). For the openness and transparency project, we're interested in what kind of information people look for from town government (both generally and on the web) and what they would like to see added to the town website. If your readers would like to post suggestions to your blog entry, we will review them.
******************************************
Shannon Jenkins
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science

If you would rather email Prof. Jenkins with your comments, send me an email and I wil give you her contact information.

Divisive?

I find it somewhat puzzling that Ms. Gilbert is being accused of not being civil and being out to destroy the town. These seem to be the talking points put out against her. Read down the comments on several posts here and you will see nearly identical language used in them and in Mr George's letter in today's Standard Times.
A remarkable coincidence, don't you think?
I have not found Ms. Gilbert to be rude either in her dealings with the public or other board members. She is opinionated and speaks her mind but not in my experience rude or uncivil. I think that some people are confusing disagreement with incivility. There are differences of opinion between members on the Select Board. Of that, there is no doubt. Ms. Gilbert is not shy about expressing her opinion. Neither, I will point out, are any of the other Select Board members. Certainly it takes two to disagree and singling out one party in a disagreement for charges of not being civil seems unfair and biased. I am glad that Ms. Gilbert is willing to challenge the status quo. I think that taxpayer is well served by that.
Another puzzling aspect of this election ...

...is that Mr. Carney, who organized a campaign to recall his fellow board members and voted for contracts that are clearly against the town's interest, has not been criticized for that behavior. The recall campaign and the automatic renewal contracts are big issues and I have not heard any that compare to those laid at Ms. Gilbert's feet. So why campaign against Ms. Gilbert as uncivil and not Mr. Carney? Just saying.
The idea that one candidate or another will somehow bring Dartmouth together is fallacious in my view. There are very real divisions in the town. You can pretend that there are not but there are undoubtedly differences between those who would raise revenue and those who would cut expense instead. There are good people on both sides of any issue. They have valid reasons for their stances. Can you accept that and not assign bad motives to those on the opposite side? That is how the town will be brought together.

Gagne suit ruling issued

A Superior Court judge has declined former Executive Administrator Michale Gagne's motion for a preliminary injunction to force the town to retain him in his job and has ruled that his contract was invalid due to its conflict with the Special Act which created his position. I was informed of the decision but do not know if the judge issued a written decision. I will post the information here as I get it.
This is a significant victory for the position ...

...taken by the town and will stand unless appealed by Mr. Gagne.
At this time, I don't know if the judge addressed the open meeting argument which would also shed light on the status of other contracts with this renewal language. I don't think the decision used that argument as a basis for ruling the contract void.

Candidate night at the Grange

Just got back from the candidate forum at the Dartmouth Grange. It was very well attended with over a hundred there to hear from candidates for the Select Board, School Committee, Planning Commission, Park Board and Library Board of Trustees. I think I covered them all and apologize in advance if I missed anyone.
John Fitzpatrick moderated the event and did an admirable job. Citizens in the audience asked questions directly ...

... to the candidates for various offices who were then called upon for their answers.
I thought all the candidates gave a good account of themselves and their positions on issues. I videotaped the forum and I will look at what I captured and if it is audible and not too jumbled I will try to post it here.

Mr. Lynam on our prospects

Finance Committee member Greg Lynam writes in an opinion letter in today's Standard Times that Dartmouth is making progress toward fiscal stability. I completely agree with what he writes. Mr. Lynam warns ....

...that we must continue to reduce costs at every opportunity and to spend wisely. I hope that the election in April will not compromise the progress we have made. I believe that Frank Gracie and Diane Gilbert are the candidates that support our present course and I support their candidacies

Equipment down.

Not many posts lately because my router has been down. Just got it going.
Heard this guy on NPR today, Rudresh Mahanthappa
I like! :)
YouTube embed after the jump

Fiscal reasons for change

For the past few years, the budget process in Dartmouth has generated quite a lot of turmoil, as is the case this year as well. The reason for this turmoil is that the town does not have sufficient revenue to support the expense of its operations.

In reality, that situation had been going on for some years prior to it becoming as salient as it is now. As the rapid growth of the town slowed in the early part of this century, the town first cut funding for needed capital improvements in order to fund yearly operations. As the gap between revenue and expense widened, the town used some funds from its enterprise accounts to plug the gaps. The state took a dim view of that and stopped the practice. Then two years ago, the town instituted fees for trash pickup. Finally the town asked for and got an override last year. But the gap between revenue and expense keeps growing and the trash fee and override funds have been swallowed up by the ever widening gap between revenue and expense. Dartmouth’s revenue will fall short of expense for the foreseeable future. The point is that the budget woes are not a temporary situation caused by the recent economic downturn, but are a persistent and systemic imbalance.

The root cause of this situation is that the rate of growth of Dartmouth’s expenses exceeds the rate of growth of revenue. Notice that I stated the problem as rates of growth rather than specific amounts. That distinction is important because it points to the solution. Increasing the rate of growth of revenue requires increased development of the town or yearly Proposition 2-1/2 overrides, neither of which the townspeople have shown a propensity to support. That leaves the expense side...

... and reducing the rate of growth of expenses.
Now some will point to health care, energy, or other factors as the culprit. Those items have contributed to the problem but some 70% of the town’s expenses are due to the people that we employ. The cost of health care, energy, etc. are also outside the town’s control. Any solution on the expense side must address the cost of the services that the town provides as it relates to people costs. Over the past few years, the town has reduced personnel costs by not replacing retirees and some limited consolidation of tasks. Those measures are no longer sufficient as the gap between revenue and expense widens each year. Dartmouth is now faced with layoffs of the people who provide town services and the loss of those services to the taxpayer. In addition, every year going forward will see a further reduction in our workforce and further loss of services. All the while, the taxpayer will pay the same amount (actually 2-12% more each year) for less and less in the way of town services.

Something must change. The choice is to slowly wither away or do things differently. Mr. Michaud, Ms. Gilbert and I have been pushing for consolidation of town departments which reduces management costs, privatization or contracting out town services which can reduce our long term costs for health care and pensions while also reducing the cost of the service through competition for the contracts, and regionalizing services with other towns which can result in increased efficiency. Some have labeled it the CPR approach.
This CPR approach has itself generated controversy. I am not surprised that it has. By their nature, bureaucracies try to maintain the status quo and grow their funding. The current Select Board majority seeks to change the status quo and reduce funding. The push by town departments to maintain the status quo is self defeating. If departmental appropriations for the library, Youth Commission, crossing guards, Parks, Recreation, Conservation, Natural Resources, and others survive this year’s budget, next year will find them on the chopping block again. That cycle will continue year after year.
It is in the interests of the town departments and their administrators to find creative ways to reduce costs. All the town departments must be enlisted in the effort and understand that they will have fewer direct employees. The same is true for members of the Select Board.
Dartmouth doesn’t have sufficient resources to fund the town’s operations on a continuing basis and the town must find different ways to deliver services. That is the message I want to convey to the voters, taxpayers, town employees and town departments. The town government must become more efficient and lower costs at every opportunity including reduction of personnel. Failing to do so will result in jobs AND services provided being lost. Not one or the other but both.
What I have said so far is pretty grim but there is reason to be hopeful. The first step is to get our current operations to a sustainable level. Budget reductions in the town departments have slowed the rate of growth of expenses. This has required some layoffs and more will probably be necessary. If we continue on the path of fiscal discipline that the majority of the Select Board support, if the town consolidates, contracts out and regionalizes where we can, if we use information technology to improve productivity, and if we spend one time revenue wisely, the town will soon have a sustainable operation. But the things that I have listed must be done or the the town will continue in financial crisis.
This year's election is as important as any in my memory because it will determine whether or not the town finds fiscal stability. That's the reason that I support Frank Gracie and Diane Gilbert. Both have the knowledge, experience and fortitude to stay the course and bring a brighter future.

Jack Spillane on regional services

Jack Spillane has a column in today's Standard Times about the conference on Wednesday where local municipalities met to explore ways to regionalize services. He correctly points out that the barriers are high. Towns don't want to give up local control or are worried that their particular viewpoint will be lost when services are delivered regionally.
There were some interesting revelations on the regional front at the meeting. For instance, Rochester and Mattapoisett share a Town Accountant. Achusnet and Fairhaven share a variety of services including animal control. These small co-operative efforts are a beginning and I think that even greater savings could be found by expanding the scope.
Why not have a county or region wide animal control district? Could coastal towns save money and get more service ...

... by having a regional solution to Natural Resources (Shellfish wardens)? Perhaps a savvy entrepreneur would be willing to form a company to provide health inspections to local Boards of Health or building inspectors to local building departments. My idea on that concept is a fee for service arrangement by which aggregating the inspection workload from several communities, then makes it profitable for companies to bid on providing the service. It is quite possible the towns could get better and more timely inspections and reduce costs as well.
There are also ways to reduce costs within towns. Barnstable town and school district business offices are combined as well as their human resource functions. Dartmouth could save thousands of dollars by making this move and reduce the traditional distrust between the town and school financial departments by increased transparency to both sides.

Woman who can rock- Joan Jett

Joan Jett - I love Rock n' Roll
You Tube embed after the jump

Iloverock

The never ending story (final emails)

The materials I have posted so far bring us up to Feb 9th, 2006. On that date, Attorney Bartulis met with two members of the Select Board, Ms. Copley, Mr. Gagne and Mr. Iacaponi. This link shows the emails that went back and forth following that meeting and up to the point where Att'y Bartulis forwarded the automatic protection language to the town along with caveats ...

that he didn't think it a good idea. The italicized blue wording at the link is mine and not in the original. The post about those warnings is here.
As you can see from the final email, even though the job protection clause ended up in 5 additional contracts besides Ms Copley's, Att'y Bartulis does not seem to have crafted those contracts. Which begs the question, who did? I know that it was not the Town Counsel and I asked Mr. Gagne who drafted them at a Select Board meeting but got no answer.

Warren Zevon-Roland the Thompson Gunner

Some one suggested Warren Zevon. He is one of my favorites.
Zevon did this song on Letterman many times. This is the first of those appearances.
You Tube embed after the jump

DCTV seeking new home

DCTV, Channel 18, has been asked to move out of their space in the Middle School to free up that space for students. The question now is where to move the operation. I talked to Ms. Cynthia Marland about what sort of space requirements she felt were needed. She thought that about 1700 sq. ft would be needed.
Our interim Executive Administrator has identified two possible solutions for a new home for DCTV. The first is to move them to town hall and provide office space and use the Select Board meeting room as a studio. This would require relocating some of the space used by boards or commissions to make room for DCTV. The other suggestion was to have the TV operation move ...

... into the old Town Hall located next to the police station. That building is used occasionally by the Recreation department which would then need to relocate the functions that are now held there.
What do you think should be done? Let us know in comments.

Friday, must be Dylan!

Dylan and the Band- Basement Tapes - Please, Mrs. Henry


The squeaky stool gets the grease?

Dartmouth schools to receive federal stimulus funds

Part of the stimulus package proposed by President Obama and passed by the Congress includes direct aid to local school districts. The aid amount directed to Dartmouth's school department can be viewed at this link.
More after the jump
The amount is $250,870, a welcome addition in these tough economic times.
A caveat regarding these funds is that they are probably one time revenue. There is no assurance or expectation that the aid will continue in future years. As such, I think that the funds should be used for capital spending, not recurring expense such as salaries.
And here is the rest.

Taxpayers file lawsuit regarding contracts

A group of taxpayers have filed a lawsuit asking the courts to declare the automatic renewal clauses in the contracts of some town managers are not enforceable. The text of the complaint, filed in Bristol County Superior Court, can be found here.
The complaint names the contracts of Michael Gagne, Edward Iacaponi, Doris Copley, Joel Reed, and Deborah Piva as those having perpetual employment clauses and asks the court to declare the contracts expired ...

... and continued payment under those contracts illegal. Massachusetts General Law chapter 40 section 53 is cited as the basis for the suit. That Chapter and section allow ten taxpayers to petition the courts to declare appropriations or obligations illegal.

Regional summit

Dartmouth hosted a summit of local towns on regional municipal services yesterday. The meeting was well attended with representatives from Dighton to Wareham. Our state reps were there as well. The Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD) reported on a regional purchasing cooperative effort, mainly by the town DPWs, that seeks to reduce costs by aggregating the purchases of towns for items like sand, salt, asphalt and chemicals. SRPEDD will be circulating a survey to towns in order identify areas where towns are willing to try regional solutions. Areas mentioned for that effort...
...were health and building inspections, landfill monitoring, conservation, animal control, and shellfish warden. There was a discussion on state regulations which burden the towns. Representative Canessa reviewed legislation that he was introduced to fund a study of regional solutions. Representative Quinn spoke on health care and retirement issues and urged local towns to join the state insurance and pension plans as ways to reduce costs.
There was some discussion about regionalizing emergency dispatch services. It was noted that South Shore and North Shore communities are looking at that as well. Western Mass already has a regional dispatch solution. Local town police have expressed reservation about losing command and control capabilities or note that the only person in the police station at night is the dispatcher.
All in all, I am encouraged by the turnout and the positive comments on all sides. Another meeting was scheduled for April 9th.

Lots of news this morning!

The Standard Times print edition and website has news this morning that the Library Board of Directors has decided not to renew the contract of the Library Director and also in this article on the decision, and that Mr. Miller has withdrawn from the Select Board race for Diane Gilbert's seat as reported on Curt Brown's blog. That leaves Ms. Gilbert, who is running for re-election and Ms. Stone as candidates.
The op-ed page had a letter from Mr. Sedgewick and a letter from Ms. Morris-Grime criticizing the Select Board. Mr Sedwick feels the Select Board ...

... has failed to set a direction for the town. I would maintain that the board has done so and offer as examples the two items he singles out, non-renewal of the Executive Administrator's contract and the decision not to fund the Youth Advocate position. He may disagree with those decisions but they do represent policy decisions by the board.

Town's Response to Motion for Preliminary Injuction

I did not realize until tonight that I had not posted the town's response to Mr. Gagne's motion for preliminary injuction. You can read the Town's response at this link.
My post on the counterclaim and motion for injuction is here.
My post on the original complaint can be found here.
More after the jump.

Wikipedia article on the doctrine of laches
Wikipedia article on the the doctrine of unclean hands
Obviously Wikipedia is not an authoritative source for legal advice but I think that the articles have given me an understanding of what these legal terms mean.

Slots and privatized lottery

State Treasurer Tom Cahill has proposed allowing slot machines to help the state with is budget deficit. The gambling machines would raise revenue in licensing and taxes. He then went on to advocate for privatizing the lottery. See this post on the Blue Mass Group about the proposal.
I personally am opposed to gambling and ...

...wish the state would get rid of the lottery. The benefits of this gambling are easily measured in the budget but I think the costs are not that easy to quantify. I believe that if the costs could be measured accurately, they would outweigh the benefits. What do you think about the state running or licensing gambling operations

Gilbert and Stone in the Standard Times

The Standard Times had an article today about their meeting with the condidates for one of the two Select Board seats in this year's town elections. Ms Gilbert and Ms. Stone attended and Mr. Miller did not.
There are a few sentences that I think are illustrative.
First, Ms. Stone critcizes the Select Board handling of the non renewal of Mr. Gagne's contract. She feels a one year contract without the renewal clauses should have been offered. This misses the point entirely. Mr. Gagne's contract said it automatically renews. How then is a one year deal with different terms possible? Also it appears that the HR person that she references...

... was the very person instrumental in getting these contracts instituted in the first place.
Second, Ms. Stone is quoted in the article

Stone defended her support for an $8.5 million override in 2007, and called it "a well-crafted, long-term solution."
She said the override would have cost about $150 more in taxes, and now taxpayers are paying "$150 in fees and services are being gutted."

The $8.5 million override proposed in 2007 was irresponsible and wrong headed. It was not a solution to anything but rather an attempt to continue business as usual. It would have ultimately made matters worse. Ms. Gilbert was correct in opposing it. The 2007 override propsal would have raised property taxes more than 20%. I have to question where the $150 amount that Ms. Stone quotes came from. Look at your last tax bill and see if 20% is an additional $150. Mine would be $490 more. But aside from the numbers, I think the above statements show a fundamental lack of understanding of what the problem is and where the solutions are to be found.
The article also says that their exchanges sometimes became testy. Perhaps it is not as easy to reach a consensus between differing views as Ms. Stone has suggested.

Gracie fundraiser Wednesday night

Just a reminder that Mr. Gracie will have a fundraising supper Wednesday night at Shawmut Diner on Hathaway Road. Tickets are $15 and are available at the door.

I will be attending to support Mr. Gracie's candidacy and I hope that you will too. Frank has extensive knowledge of the town's finances from serving on the Budget and Revenue Task Force, Tax Classification Committee, and Privatization Study Group. I think he has a lot to contribute to the board.

Town Meeting member vacancies

Refer to this Curt Brown blog post listing Town Meeting vacancies by precinct. It is too late to get on the ballot but a write in campaign of your friends and family is usually enough to get elected. Of course, you have to attend the Town Meeting too. Give it some thought, Town Meeting is June 2nd

See you there!

The Foggy Dew- Sinead O'Connor with the Chieftains

I love a good republican song.
For the great Gaels of Ireland
Are the men that God made mad,
For all their wars are merry,
And all their songs are sad.
You Tube embed after the jump

Diane Gilbert Website

Ms. Gilbert has a website where she has posted information about herself and her positions on issues in Dartmouth. The site can be found at this link or by cutting and pasting this URL to your browser, http://dianefordartmouth.com/Page_1_.html
The result of this town election is important given the candidates and their positions on issues.Ms. Gilbert, along with Mr. Michaud and me, ...has been working to change the culture and functioning of the town departments. I hope that we can continue on that course after April.

Contracting out is not new.

Did you know federal government requires that departments and agencies of the national government allow private companies to compete to provide the services that government employees provide?
The federal departments must request bid proposals for services although the government employees may also submit...

...a bid to continue to provide the service. Lower bidder gets to do the work. Google "Federal A76 competition requirements" or look at the link here. This procedure has saved billions of dollars for the federal government. I don't see why it would not work for municipal government as well.

The never ending story (email edition)

Today's edition consists of email between the Dartmouth paralegal and Attorney Bartulis and his first attempt at contract language leading up to the Feb 9th meeting in Dartmouth which I posted about here.
Apparently the town had some communication problems which prevented the emails and contract language from getting through until Feb 7th. I posted the Feb 6 emails here, the proposed contract language here, and the Feb 7 emails here
Even at this time, Att'y Bartulis was warning that ...

...this language was unusual. He says on Feb 7,

"While I am usually in the position of affording management, not the employees, with the most protections, and while I am not usually asked to bind a Town with more restrictive contractual language, since you have indicated that the Select Board wants to accommodate your concerns regarding funding, just cause protections, negotiable wages and job security, I have drafted some clauses which you and the Board might find useful to meet your shared objectives."

Another interesting point is that the contract provision requiring the EMPLOYEE to give the TOWN 90 days notice if the employee wants to end the agreement didn't make it into the final wording.

Library trustee pens opinion letter

Ms. Lorraine Carey has a letter to the editor in today's Standard Times here Ms. Carey is on the Dartmouth Library Board of Trustees. I am not sure what facts, positive suggestions or constructive criticism that she is looking for. What has been asked ...

... by the Select Board and Finance Committee is that the Library Board of Trustees issue a Request For Proposal (RFP) to LSSI and any other interested parties to determine if contracting out library services could save the town money. We don't know what the result of that RFP would be, so we lack the facts needed to make a decision on whether or not contracting out the services is a viable option or not. THe Board of Trustees had apparently made the decision that it is not. I submit that they don't have enough information to determine that without issuing the RFP.
Curt Brown also had a brief article in today's paper that the Trustees met in executive session to discuss non-union contracts.

Heart Rocks

The Wilson sisters rock - Barracuda by Heart
You Tube embed after the jump

Heart Barracuda

The never ending story (Paralegal involvement)

UPDATE - I have fixed the link to the 12/21/05 letter
One curious aspect of the story is the involvement of the municipal paralegal throughout. In the packet of materials that I received, most of the correspondence was from or about the paralegal. I am more than a little puzzled why so much time and attention was devoted to the contracts and work situation of this one employee. The correspodence with the earliest date in the packet is a memo from the paralegal to the Executive Administrator where she appears to be inventing a new job since the Town Counsel no longer needed her services or she no longer wanted to be paralegal, I can't tell which it is and have no first hand knowledge...

... of any of the circumstances involved. This memo and many of the others just seem to me to have an odd tone about them. The May 30, 2003 memo can be seen here
It appears to me from the correspondence that the paralegal was unable to convince the Personnel Board or Finance Committee that her job was new and different and warranted a higher salary.
I do know from personal experience some of the next part of the story. As a Town Meeting member in 2005, I was somewhat perplexed to find an article on the warrant which was sponsored by the paralegal and sought to reclassify her job salary range from the one published in the bylaws to negotiable. The article failed at Town Meeting. That ends my personal knowledge of the story.
Which brings us to the next two pieces of correspondence, a letter on November 17,2005 asking for permission to have Attorney Bartulis draft new contract language for her contract. Handwritten on the bottom of the page it says, Permission granted by unanimous vote of the Board on 11/21/05
Next is a letter to Attorney Bartulis from the paralegal dated December 21,2005, While the letter says it is regarding several positions, it seems to me to be about only one, the paralegal. It is also odd that the Select Board is trying to find a way to bypass the Town Meeting and bylaws if in fact that is what happened.

State and municipalities

Jack Spillane's article in today's Standard Times on the relationship between the state legislators and local towns points out a real problem. They don't communicate with each other.
I hope that the towns and legislators can get together on this Thursday at Town Hall and really listen to each other. I think the towns have legitimate concerns about unfunded mandates ...

... but I am hopeful that the session will not turn into a long gripe session. If the towns can present not only their concerns but what they see as solutions or remedies, the session will be more productive.
Frank Gracie, who is a candidate for Select Board, made a good suggestion to me on a way to find common ground for possible regional solutions. If each town would come with a list of the top three budget items that they will struggle to fund next year, a comparison of the list may identify areas for co-operative effort.