Town salaries on the web

Curt Brown has a post at his blog and points to a listing of all the town employees and their pay for FY08. He asks for your comments ...

...at his blog and I'd like to know what you think too. But please let's not get personal. If you want to refer the list, would you please use the person's title and not their name. There's a big difference between Bill Trimble is not worth what they pay him, and the Select Board member is not worth what they pay him. Or how can a patrolman make $100K, not how can Patrolman Trimble make $100K? I think you can see what I am saying here.
I have not had to delete very many comments in the history of this blog, but I can. Please keep it to positions, and not to people.
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Lincoln Park Project Town Meeting article proposed

A Town Meeting article will be placed on the warrant by petition of ten or more voters. It is sponsored by Joseph Delgado, Curtis Mello, Jay Williams and ten Registered voters. This article seeks to create a quasi governmental district that would construct, operate and maintain infrastructure ...

...within the Lincoln Park project. The article follows:

PROPOSED WARRANT ARTICLE FOR 2008 DARTMOUTH SPECIAL TOWN MEETING-HOME RULE PETITION FOR THE CREATION OF THE LINCOLN PARK IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT

ARTICLE : To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to petition the General Court to enact special legislation establishing the Lincoln Park Improvement District, a body politic and corporate, which will assume all financial liability for the capital and operating costs associated with certain existing, proposed and future public improvements within the boundaries of the District, and be empowered to purchase, own, maintain, construct, reconstruct and operate such public improvements, including, but not limited to, storm drainage systems, sewage treatment plants, sewers, water and well systems, roads, bridges, culverts, tunnels, streets, sidewalks, lighting, traffic lights, signage and traffic control systems, parking, including garages, public safety and public works buildings, parks, landscaping of public facilities, recreational facilities, transportation stations and related facilities, shuttle transportation equipment, fiber and telecommunication systems, facilities to produce and distribute electricity, including alternate energy sources such as co-generation and solar installations, to borrow funds for capital improvements and to assess betterments, assessments, special assessments and fees in relation thereto, and to support operating expenses, to enter into such contracts as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of the District, and to exercise such additional powers as shall be defined in the special act, a summary of which, including the District boundaries, is available at the office of the Town Clerk; provided that the General Court may make clerical or editorial changes of form only to the bill, unless the Board of Selectmen approve amendments to the bill before enactment by the General Court, and authorizing the Board of Selectmen to approve amendments which shall be within the scope of the general public objectives of the petition, or take any other action relative thereto.

I have a couple of disagreements with this article.
First, when a special zoning district was authorized by Town Meeting for this project, all the above infrastructure was going to be the responsiblity of the developers. Second, there is already a mechanism for the developer to provide, operate and maintain the infrastructure without a special act. It is called rent. The town has received money from the state for this project and may have to repay it if the developers can't meet the required timetable for the project. The deadlines are fast approaching. I have to believe that in the current economic situation, the developers are having some difficulty getting financing. I don't know that, I just think it may be true.
What are your thoughts on this article?
UPDATE I had posted about this project earlier here Note that I said in the earlier post that

The permit requires that the development forever remain private and the Town will not ever be responsible for roadways or parking areas, storm water management facilities, snow plowing, landscaping, Trash and recycling removal, street lighting, building maintenance or sewer and water services beyond the individual meter pits.

While I don't think this article makes the town responsible. it is not private ownership. If anyone reading here has a better understanding of the issue, let us know in comments, won't you?

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Fiscal Projections and wage increases

I have put together a spreadsheet here(in MS Excel Format) which shows the effect of wage and salary increases on our budget deficit. It assumes normal, historical increases in other expenses, school funding at minimum required net school spending, and varies the wage increases from 0 to 3%. Even with no salary increases, our finances will be about $460K in the red in FY10. We are currently in FY09 ...

...and the town's fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. Every 1% increase in salary and wages in FY10 adds about $111K to that $460K deficit (i.e 1% adds $111K, 2% adds, $222K, etc.). FY11 with no salary and wage increases in FY 10 and FY11 is projected to have a $914K deficit. Adding various salary and wage increases percentages results in additional red ink between $224 to $681K, resulting in budget shortfalls of $1.14 to 1.6 million. The picture gets even worse in FY11. What are we planning to do about this impending sea of red ink? As far as I am aware, we have no plan. Does that seem like prudent stewardship?
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Fall Town Meeting Appropriations

The Fall Town Meeting is set for Oct 21 at 7PM in the Middle School auditorium. There are several appropriations on the warrant which may generate some controversy. The first are appropriations (articles Z and AA in the draft warrant)from FYO8 surplus revenue for settlement of contracts for the Police and Dartmouth Town Employees Association (DTEA). The DTEA contract is before the membership and may or may not be resolved by that time. These two unions have been working without contracts on FY08 and FY09. I believe that surplus revenue from FY08 is the proper source of funds for these two settlements since the obligation was incurred in FY08. Some, notably Mr Lynam of the Finance Committee, disagree.
The next appropriation which may generate some discussion is the article labeled O-1 in the draft warrant. It uses line item transfers from FY09 accounts ...

...to provide funding for wage increases in the negotiated contracts mentioned above. The Finance Committee has pointed out that these contract increases are putting the town further in the hole. I can't argue with their assessment. The increases result in a greater deficit in FY10, which was already projected to have a shortfall. The reason that I and the rest of the Select Board agreed to the increases was that it aligns the expiration of nearly every collective bargaining agreement in the town with the end of FY09. The hope is that the town can get reduced increases in wages and benefits at that time which can help our efforts to reach fiscal health. The Select Board has hired a labor negotiator and will initiate discussions on FY10 contracts with town bargaining units as soon as possible following the Fall Town Meeting.
Also in draft article 0-1 are appropriation requests for $20,000 for employee training and emergency heating oil for seniors. The Select Board wants to require non union employees to identify and complete a continuing education course every year as part of a merit based salary increase program. No funds were set aside in the FY09 budget, hence included is $10,000 for the purpose at this Town Meeting. Another $10,000 included in this request to continue training for various town departments in disaster preparedness. This preparedness program was begun several years ago but dropped due to budget constraints. I discussed the emergency oil program in this post (read the paragraph below the split).
The final appropriation, article CC, is for $300,000 for the school department to purchase a Reading Literacy and Textbook Package. The funding source is surplus revenue from FY08. While I support it, I believe that this article is in contravention of the adopted policy of both the Select Board and Finance Committee against the use of one time revenue for operating budgets. The Finance Committee has taken the position that this purchase is a capital expense so that they don't have to admit it violates our policy. I am willing to acknowledge it violates the policy but is of such importance that we will make an exception in this instance. But my support is for this sort of appropriation is for this one time only. I will oppose any further use of one time revenue for such use. The school department is going to get minimum required net school spending for the foreseeable future. They need to plan accordingly to live within that appropriation.
Avoiding the use of one time revenue is an important principle because it prevents us from carrying forward unsustainable expenses. If the school department had to buy these instructional materials from their normal budget, it would require them to cut budgets in other areas. By providing these one time revenues to make the purchases, they are relieved of the need to make the cuts, at least for this year. In subsequent years, they will have to do so or will find themselves short of funds. The school department must realize that and start planning now on how they are going to fund purchases within their normal budget.
I am usually surprised at Town Meeting by which articles generate discussion and those that do not. What are your thoughts on these articles?
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Statistics are slippery things, Per pupil spending

School Committee member, Phil Lenz, has a spreadsheet on his website showing the per pupil expenditures and other information by district. Let me use that information to illustrate a few points. I posted here that I was disappointed that the school department included a slide in their three year plan presentation which I thought was superfluous. It showed that Dartmouth's per pupil expenditure was below the state average.
Dartmouth's per pupil expenditure is $9,284.43. The state average is $11,858.79. Taking that as a percentage, Dartmouth spends 78% of the state average per pupil. That number, in and of itself, tells you something but it is not the whole picture. If you take the per pupil spending as a percentage of each category, ...

...you can find out how Dartmouth compares to the state average spending in each those categories. If we spent the same proportion of our budget in the same way as the average district, all the percentages for Dartmouth in each category would be 78%, but they are not.

Areas where Dartmouth spends more than or equal to the state average include out-of-district tuition which comes in at a whopping 241%, guidance counseling and testing at 101%, and pupil services at 100%.

Areas where Dartmouth spends less than the state average but more than the 78% (78% is the amount that we spend per pupil to the state average)are administration at 90% and classroom teachers and specialists at 86%.

Areas where we spend less than 78% of the state average include other teaching services at 77%, operations and maintenance at 73%, instructional leadership at 68%, instructional materials and technology at 54%, insurance and retirement 51%, and professional development at 33%.

Now remember that 78% is the percentage of the state average that Dartmouth spends per pupil. Percentages above 78% are areas where we spend a greater proportion of our budget than the average district does. Below 78%, we spend less than the average district does.
Even these comparisons, while giving more insight that a simple overall per student expenditure comparison, can be misleading. Dartmouth has a higher percentage of highly qualified teachers than the state average. That may be one reason that our professional development spending is very low and it may not, the numbers can't tell us that.
As I said, statistics are slippery things. I posted here, using the Water Department as an example, that the important measure is results, not spending.
One final note before I hear about it in comments, I am not calling anyone slippery. I am pointing out that while statistics are useful tools, they don't tell the whole story, and we must realize their limitations when discussing them.
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Schofield Farm deadline Oct 17th

The Finance Committee met Thursday and discussed an article for the upcoming Fall Town Meeting. Attorney Matt Thomas presented about the sale of the Schofield Farm on the corner of northwest corner of Faunce Corner Road and Old Fall River Road. You can download an application to purchase it here. This property was acquired by the town with CPC funds and has been split in two. One part includes the house and outbuildings on about 2 acres. The other parcel is 20 acres ...

...of land that will be under an agricultural restriction. The town is accepting applications for sale of the property as affordable housing until October 17th. Applicants must be 1st time home buyers and meet income criteria. The income limit for family of 4 would be $68,500.
Qualified applicants will be entered into a lottery with the winner being granted the right to buy the property. Those applicants who intend to use the property for agricultural purposes will be given preference, said Mr. Thomas.
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Contracting out library services

The chairman of the Privatization Committee emailed me a series of questions and the response he received about the experience of other towns with library service contracting. I thought the responses were worthy of discussion and he has agreed to

... let me publish them on this blog.
The questions and answers follow:

My name is Frank Gracie, and I am Chairman of the Town of Dartmouth Privatization Committee here in Massachusetts. Our town, as many other communities, has been fighting severe budget issues for the last several years, and this is expected to continue. One of the things that we are considering is the outsourcing of our library service with LSSI. They provided your name to me as a reference. I don't want to take up much of your time, but I was hoping that you could share any insight that you deem helpful.

We are a Select Board/ Town Meeting structured community, and the Select Board has empowered my committee to try and find ways to help the budget crisis. Since libraries tend to be at the forefront of cuts, police and infrastructure are clearly more important, we have had some feeling-out discussions with LSSI. Quite naturally, our present library administration has great opposition to this path, and has thrown out all types of scare tactics that we need to sift through.

What I am most interested in is a few simple questions:

1. Has your association with LSSI been everything "as advertised"? Better than advertised. Regardless of the issue, they address it in a professional and timely manner.
Were there any "surprises"? The only surprises came from the former library provider and the City of Memphis. LSSI worked with us as we had to deal with each surprise. They stood behind us, and their network of libraries and professionals came to the rescue every time.

2. Has your community saved significant money, which is always good for the taxpayers? In the first four years of operation by LSSI, we have saved a documented 2.6 million dollars. At the same time, we increased hours, increased programs five-fold, doubled the amount of dollars dedicated to new materials, and the customer service at the library increased significantly.

3. Are the library patrons happy? Did they notice a large difference in service, either positive or negative? Our residents love the “new” library. They find it cleaner, more professional, easier to navigate, friendlier employees, more popular books, better programs and I could go on and on. Add the $ savings above and it makes our city administration and board of mayor and aldermen look pretty smart. Our last city-wide survey showed 96% of the residents were satisfied or highly satisfied. In our line of work, that is a winner.

4. Do you have any reason to regret the decision to go with LSSI, and do you expect your association with them to continue long-term? After our success with LSSI, four other cities in the area contracted with LSSI; Collierville, Millington, Arlington and Jackson. Our city is presently going through managed competition in all of our departments. The library is a perfect example of successful outsourcing. After all, our job is to provide the service level requested by our citizenry in the most effective, efficient manner possible. LSSI has made us and our library a shining success of providing a high level of service in an efficient manner.



Germantown is a AAA-bond rated city by both Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s and the expectation level by our citizens is very high. The library is very important to our educated citizenry and we are very proud of the current operation. Our original contract with LSSI was for three years with two one-year extensions. Unfortunately we are in the last year of the last extension and will have to go through the procurement process in the next few months. While we are open-minded in this process, any other provider considered will have to exhibit the same level of competence that has been demonstrated in our library the last four years. I should also let you know that a couple of years ago we had the opportunity to acquire the Genealogical Library collection of over 15,000 books and with the help of LSSI did so and now in addition to the Germantown Community Library we have the Germantown Regional History and Genealogy Center which LSSI also operates for us.



Lastly I am very familiar with the opposition of the library establishment and the “world will end” mentality of the traditional library employee towards outsourcing. I attended the American Library Association Conference in Anaheim, California this year to learn more about libraries as we look towards an expansion of our library. I saw this “attitude” first-hand and it puzzled me. It is contrary to what we try to do as a city, offer high quality services in an efficient manner. The way cities and towns provide for citizens is changing, but it seems the majority of the library world is happy to stay entrenched in the 60’s and 70’s.
( Sorry for the editorial)
Assistant City Administrator
City of Germantown

The Executive Director told the Select Board at the last meeting that the Library Trustees have not issued a Request For Proposal (RFP) about contracting out our library services. He also said that the Library Trustees had contacted Library Systems & Services (LSSI) and that they were no longer interested in responding to an RFP. The reason he stated was vague and had something to do with bargaining units, but I don't recall exactly what it was. LSSI says that they still want to see the RFP and will bid on it.
The potential savings from the contracting out of library services is in the hundreds of thousands. Why wouldn't we pursue that given our fiscal problems?


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Lantz named to Finance Committee

Curt Brown has news on his blog about Ms Lantz's appointment. She is named to fill the vacancy left when Mr. Fox stepped down.

Thanks for volunteering your service
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Draft Fall Town Meeting warrant for download

You can download a draft of the Fall Town Meeting warrant here.
in Microsoft Word format. There have been a few changes from the earlier drafts and I will highlight a few here.

-The Personnel bylaw article has been dropped.

-The funding source for employee continuing education and disaster preparedness training has been changed from FY08 surplus revenue and combined to a single line item transfer of $20,000 from the group health insurance FY09 account.

-The elderly emergency oil funding has been changed from FY08 surplus revenue to a line item transfer to a newly created line item in the COA budget(Heating Oil Emergencies) which will also come from the FY09 group health insurance account.

more below...

...

-Added other line item transfers within FY09 accounts to pay for the cost of increases in wages due to new police and Dartmouth Town Employee Association contracts

-Added an article to transfer $625,000 from the Water Enterprise retained earnings to pay a settlement of a suit arising from the eminent domain taking of land near the town wells.

-Sets $300,000 as the amount of FY08 surplus revenue sought in an article to purchase a Reading Literacy and Textbook Package

Take a look and comment. Feel free to leave any questions that I may be able to answer in comments as well. This is not the official final warrant but it is getting closer to what the Town Meeting will get.

Click here to read on!

School plan 09-11 for download

UPDATE
Here is a link to a version of the presentation that earlier versions of Power Point can open.
Phil Lenz's website has the school plan, presented last night to the School Committee available here for downloading. It is a Power Point presentation ...

... and requires the Office 2007 version to open. What do you think of it?
I don't have Office 2007 so I will have to wait for conversion to an earlier version or a hardcopy.


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More on the Akin House. CPC meeting tonight

Jack Spillane of the Standard Times has written a post on his blog here on the need for preservation of the Akin House. He also has a link to...

...a transcription of a letter from Jonathan Akin in 1778 to American officials (Franklin and Adams) in France asking for their help in returning him to Dartmouth following his capture and imprisonment by the British. He was pressed into service on an English ship and subsequently captured by the French. Jonathan was son of Elihu Akin the original owner of the 1762 structure on the corner of Dartmouth and Rockland streets.
The Community Preservation Committee will meet tonight to consider project funding recommendations including preservation of this house at 6PM in Room 103 of the Town Hall.
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Friends of the Elderly fundraiser this Saturday

The Dartmouth Friends of the Elderly will have a fundraiser at Colonel Green's mansion at Round Hill this Saturday. Details can be found in this article from the Standard Times The proceeds will be ...

... used for the Dr. John C. Bullard Wellness Center and programs provided by the Dartmouth Council on Aging. See the article on how to obtain tickets for the event.
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School enrollment decreases

The Dartmouth school population has shrunk by over 120 students from just a year ago. If you factor out the Voke enrollment (which we pay for but don't have to provide classroom space or teachers for those students) the enrollment is down over 140 students. These number represent about a 3% reduction ...

...in the student population year over year.

School .........07-08......08-09.......Change
DeMello ......... 428.........453...........+25
Potter........... 469.........465...........-4
Quinn............ 965.........873......... -92
Middle........... 1,065.......1,029......... -36
High............. 1,245.......1,213......... -32
Pre-School...... 61........56............ -5

Local School Enrollment > Local Change Yr/Yr > -144
Total.................4,233.......4,089

Dartmouth Voke [Sept] Enrollment> Voke Change Yr/Yr > +23
Voke..................188.........211

Total Dartmouth Student Population > Total change -121
Total..................4,421.......4,300

The elementary schools have 71 fewer students. Increases at DeMello and decreases at Quinn are due to reallocation of students for the purpose of reducing the population at Quinn.
The net effect on budgets next year is that our required minimum net school spending will decrease (because we have fewer students) and our Voke assessment will increase (because we have more students).
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Town Master Plan on web

I have been a critic of our town website but that does not mean that there is not a lot of good information on the site. One such example is the town's Master Plan which is linked from the site. This is the Master Plan link. (This is a large file, 5MB+, 289 page PDF document) If you have any need to reference the Master Plan,...

...it is available on the web. I feel the same should be true of most documents that the town holds. What do you think?

Those of you who will comment that no one has time to do it. Let me point out that I hold a full time job, volunteer on the Select Board, have a family, hobbies, read widely, and still find a few minutes a day to add content to this blog. It is not rocket science, what it takes is a commitment to do it.

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Select Board meeting scheduled Monday 9/22

The meeting schedule for town boards and committees can be found on the Town website here. I have posted the agenda for Monday's Select Board meeting here.

I couldn't find the agenda on the Town website.
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Please contact Representative Frank

The Bush Administration has floated a plan to bailout Wall Street to the tune of at least $700 billion. Our representative, Mr Frank, will have a lot to do with what eventually is done since he heads the House Banking Committee. One provision that the Bush people want is this, as Glen Greenwald details on his blog.

"Decisions by the (Treasury) Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency" [Sec. 8]
Put another way, this authorizes Hank Paulson to transfer $700 billion of taxpayer money to private industry in his sole discretion, and nobody has the right or ability to review or challenge any decision he makes.

The Congress should attach as many strings ...

...as they can think of to this bailout. Please contact Mr Frank and ask him to make sure the people's interests are represented. You can email him at this link.
One condition that I would require is that the President's appointees must show up and testify at Congressional oversight hearings. Many current and former administration officials are now under subpoeona and refuse to come before the people's representatives in the Congress. Before turning over $700 billion to an administration which has proven itself unable to do anything right, the least that should be insisted upon is rigorous oversight by the Congress. We can start with the issues being stonewalled right now.
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COA addresses elderly hunger

I received a letter from our Executive Administrator about hunger and the elderly in my weekend package for the Select Board. An excerpt from that letter follows: ...

What can citizens of Dartmouth do to address this growing need?
The Dartmouth Council On Aging (COA) and Town Officials have established a Dartmouth Senior Citizens Food Pantry, which is administered through the COA Facility at 628 Dartmouth Street.
Through the financial help of various generous businesses, individuals and civic organizations, the program has been able to purchase food for seniors. The program has been able to assemble packages of food, which are tailored specifically with the help of Coastline Elderly Services nutritionists to senior citizens needs. Each year, financial donations are made to this program and foods are purchased through various sources and dispersed to those in need. Due to the high demand in our community, funds are needed to replenish these food stocks. Donations can be made in care of the Dartmouth Senior Citizen Food Pantry, and sent to the Dartmouth Council On Aging.
Further volunteers are needed to assist the COA in assembling food packets and delivering these packets to individuals who may not be able to get out of their homes. As we head into the upcoming winter and heating season, it is our expectation that the need and demand will increase. Your help in both financial assistance and volunteering to work with the program is desperately needed. Anyone wishing to be considered with the program or have any questions can contact my office by calling 508—910-1813. Let us show we really care about our senior citizens.

Michael J. Gagné
Executive Administrator
Town of Dartmouth

Can you help? Please give of your time or donate what you can.

Also in my packet was a flyer for the FoodSource Hotline which may be a longer term solution for those in need. Follow this link to the flyer.
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Proposed Fall Town Meeting articles

This is not an official warrant but is a draft of the proposed articles. You can view the draft of the proposed warrant for the Fall Town Meeting at this link.
These articles may or may not be on the warrant and the wording may change before the final version. Articles O1 and O2 have no...

...dollar amounts assigned as yet. Article M in this linked draft will not be presented at the Town Meeting.
As always, let us know what you think in comments.
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Scullers, rowers and paddlers head for Dartmouth Saturday

Grab your oars or paddles, throw the canoe or kayak on the truck or atop the car, and head down to the Lloyd Center to register from 8 to 9:15AM Saturday for the Slocum River Regatta. You don't have to be a serious rower or paddler. This from the Registration page of the Lloyd Center website.

The emphasis of the Regatta is on good fun and enjoyment of the scenic Slocum River. A post-race light lunch and awards ceremonies will follow the race.

I couldn't find the cost on the website but I may have missed it. Take a look at this link and see if you can find it.
The Standard Times has the details ...

...in an article here.
My wife and I often paddle our kayaks in the Slocum and it is a breathtakingly beautiful spot.
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My Finance Committee meeting report

The Finance Committee met last night and were presented with info on warrant articles for the Fall Town Meeting. The Director of the DPW, Mr Hickox, went over articles to transfer funds from the sewer and water enterprise retained earnings to the operating accounts of the enterprises. The need for the transfer was increased utility, chemical, and fuel costs for the sewer enterprise and increased chemical cost for the water enterprise. Mr Hickox was not sure ...

...whether the rates would be need to be raised to cover future operating budgets. He indicated that he and the Budget Director will meet this week to go over the numbers.
The committee discussed the need for more information when presented with Reserve Fund transfer requests. Noting the departmental turn backs from departments such as the police, Mr Lynam questioned whether a different decision would have been reached by the Finance Committee on Reserve Fund transfers for cruiser repair at the end of last year. The town administrators may move funds within a line item appropriation by town meeting without any action by the Finance Committee or Town Meeting. In the case cited, the funds needed for repair could have been transferred within the police expense line item to cover the cost. The police expense line item finished the year under budget.
The Finance Committee voted to support the use of FY08 surplus revenue to cover the settlement of collective bargaining contracts which require retroactive increases for FY08. The town is currently in FY09. They also discussed that all increased labor costs would have to be provided out of the current FY09 budget. This will require action by town meeting to transfer funds within line items of the budget. Some budget items will have to be reduced and the funds transferred to salary line items. The Budget Director is still looking at current line item budgets to decide where these transfers would come from.
The Finance Committee took a dim view of proposed articles to use FY08 surplus revenue to provide funds to set up an employee education account, a disaster preparedness account and a emergency fuel assistance account. Each of these three requests was for $10,000. They cited their policy of not using one time revenue for recurring expense.
Not discussed in that vein was an article to transfer $300,000 or more for instructional materials from surplus revenue to the school department. I believe that the instructional material article is also against our policy of not using nonrecurring revenue for recurring expense. The Finance Committee is claiming these materials are one time capital expenditures. I think not. There may be good reason to provide the surplus revenue for instructional materials and I probably would support the measure. However we must acknowledge that it is against our policy and state the reasons we feel compelled to provide the funds anyway.
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UMass Dartmouth event listing

Our town is home to a university that is growing in reputation and student population. The college has many events that are open to the public but not well publicized. I have added the weekly event schedule ...

... from the UMass Dartmouth website to the Useful links listing on the left side of this page. Go to a sports contest, seminar, panel discussion or lecture. Many are free! Go Corsairs!
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Candidates sought for FinCom vacancy

Interested in serving your community? Read the Chronicle article at this link for details on ...

... volunteering for the Finance Committee.
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DCTV meeting broadcasts for Sept 21-27

From the Chronicle, here is the broadcast schedule of town meetings for DCTV, Channel 18, for September 21 through 27. Full schedule is linked here at the Chronicle website. Click read on for schedule.

Sunday, Sept 21
4:00 pm, Dartmouth Planning Board Meeting

Monday, Sept 22
1:00 pm, School Digest: Meet the Asst. Superintendent
6:30 pm, LIVE Dartmouth Select Board Meeting.

Tuesday, Sept 23
5:00 pm, School Digest: Meet the Asst. Superintendent
11:00 pm, Dartmouth Select Board Meeting

Wednesday, Sept 24
7:00 pm, Dartmouth School Committee Meeting

Thursday, Sept 25
5:00 pm, School Digest: Meet the Asst. Superintendent
7:00 pm, Dartmouth Select Board Meeting.

Friday, Sept 26
10:00 am, Zoning Board of Appeals Meeting
2:00 pm, School Digest: Meet the Asst. Superintendent
5:00 pm, Dartmouth School Committee Meeting
8:00 pm, Zoning Board of Appeals Meeting.

Saturday, Sept 27
1:00 pm, School Digest: Meet the Asst. Superintendent
4:00 pm, Dartmouth Select Board Meeting

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Select Board workshop session today 9/18

There will be a Select Board Workshop session today at 4PM in room 301 of the Town Hall. I noticed this morning it is not listed on the town website even though we scheduled it well in advance.
The agenda will be review and update of the policy and objectives that were put out last year before I joined the Select Board. Currently, this document is mostly a list of possible cost saving ...

.. measures and I think it is of little value. In my view, the goal, objective if you will, is simply stated, the rate of growth of our expenditures must be equal to or less than the rate of growth of our revenue. That is the task which we must give to our administrators. The policy which leads us there should be broadly stated. It should include a prioritization of the town's expenditures. The top priorities will be funded and the lower ones cut or eliminated. I think that it should be along these lines,

-School Department spending will be kept at minimum net school spending as required by the state

-The next priorities are core functions and statutory requirements such as police, plowing snow and filling potholes, assessing property, processing tax, water, and sewer bills, paying bills and administering contracts, permitting and inspecting buildings, administering elections and maintaining records, and Veterans Affairs.
I would also include providing water and sewer service, and collecting trash in this category. Since they are enterprise funds, I did not list them with the others. The enterprise funds need to be self sustaining from their fees.

-The remaining expenditures should be level funded, see reduction in the rate of growth of expenditure, cut or eliminated. In this category are the library, COA, Park and Recreation Department, Conservation Commission, Youth Commission, and any other expenditure

In listing these priorities, I am not precluding reduction in the higher priority budgets through cost saving measures. We must reduce the rate of growth of expenditures in those departments as well. I am just suggesting that those budgets are functions which we are required to have. We must assess and tax property. That is the law and the source of our largest revenue stream. We are required by law to have a Veteran's Agent. We have to issue contracts and pay bills. We have to patrol the streets and maintain the streets. These functions should not get a pass on the reduction of spending but will be given first priority. Other spending necessarily must have a lower priority.
It is along these lines that I think the Select Board should be making policy. It is then up to those who are paid to run our town departments to reconcile our spending with our revenue. Dare I mention that we need a plan for implementing these reductions. We know right now that our revenue will not cover our expenses next year and in future years. As a Select Board member, I do not have intimate knowledge of the workings of the town departments. It is not the role of the Select Board to run the departments. Those who do and are paid to administer the town should present a plan to the Select Board that balances revenue and spending.
I am sure to get comments that overrides are needed to fix this problem. Overrides are a short term fix and does not resolve the underlying problem as I posted here. Post you comments below.
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CPC considers projects.

The Community Preservation Committee (CPC) will meet on Wednesday Sept 24th in Room 101 of the Town Hall to consider funding for seven projects. Dan King of the Chronicle ...

...has an article here about the seven candidates. He also has written more details at this link about the proposed acquisition of property on the Paskamansett on the south west side where Russells Mills Road crosses the river.
Being a kayaker myself, I like the idea of public access to the Pasky. It is a very nice paddle along the river both up and downstream from that property.
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Finance Committee meeting Thursday 9/18

The Finance Committee will meet on Thursday in Room 315 of the Town Hall. The topic will be articles under consideration ...

...for the Fall Town Meeting.
On a related note, the Chronicle had news today that the article to revise the zoning bylaw to allow building on undersized lots will be withdrawn from the warrant for the fall.
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Akin House funding sought

The Dartmouth Historical Preservation Trust (DHPT) is seeking funds for stabilization and conservation of the Akin house on the corner of Dartmouth and Rockland streets from the Community Preservation Committee (CPC). The CPC has funds from a surcharge on our property taxes that are then matched by the state. At least 10% of CPC funds are set aside for historical preservation. Diane Gilbert, a member of the Select Board and president of DHPT ...

...emailed me about the effort to fund the work. The CPC can recommend funding but in our form of town government, the Town Meeting must approve all appropriations. She said,

DHPT has applied for Community Preservation Act funding for the Akin House. We’re asking for about $275,000 and it is intended to do “emergency” stabilization work and to complete the conservation work. At a preliminary meeting I attended of the Community Preservation Committee, they indicated that “it will be a tough sell” for them, the Finance Committee, and ultimately to Town Meeting on October 21. DHPT NEEDS the necessary recommendation from CPC before DHPT can appear before FinCom so that we can make our case at town meeting. Without getting over the first two hurdles, town meeting won’t even have a chance to vote yes or no.

A public hearing of the CPC to discuss the Akin House is scheduled for September 24 at 6 p.m. in Room 101 of the Town Hall. Diane also pointed out,

CPA has already INVESTED $185,000 to reimburse Waterfront Historic Area League (WHALE) who agreed to buy the property. WHALE has raised funds toward its conservation and unfortunately funding sources went dry for WHALE. In this tough economy where non-profits are struggling along with everyone else, we are fortunate that Dartmouth had the foresight and vision to pass CPA back in 2002. 1. No CPA funds were used for any restoration to date. The CPA funds were exclusively used to fund the acquisition of the property (actually they were paid to WHALE, which advanced the funds based on reassurance of reimbursement.)

2. Historic preservation is necessarily an expensive and unpredictable process. It always costs more, often substantially more, than the cost of simply constructing an equally functional structure from the start. The value of the expenditure comes from the preservation of community history and character, and not simply the recovery of the building’s function.

3. Far from being a handy man special, the Akin House is currently the most significant preservation project occurring in Dartmouth. It has received $180,000.00 in private and foundation gifts, evidencing both its widespread support and the community’s apprehension of its value. There is no other preservation project now occurring or on the horizon that comes close to it in either historical or architectural significance, or in receipt of private monetary support.

4. The Community Preservation Act mandates the expenditure of 10% of CPA funds on historic preservation projects. The fund has accumulated over $350,000 plus there are other funds that aren’t earmarked for a particular purpose that we can compete for. Exactly what is the Committee waiting for? Why would it hold onto these funds and let the Akin House be the victim of demolition by neglect?

Please make sure that you attend this important hearing and that your strong voices for preservation are heard. Haven’t we been through enough already just trying to preserve our heritage?

What are your thoughts, Is this a worthy project? Leave your comment below.
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More on Fall Town Meeting articles

I have posted on a few of the article being proposed for the Fall Town Meeting here. Here are some of the other articles under consideration.

An article to raise the fee when the Town Collector has to send out a demand for payment letter due to nonpayment. The fee would be raised from $5 to $20.

An article to amend the Dartmouth Water Regulations to allow for restriction of non essential outdoor water use from ...

...May through September if a drought occurs.

An article to amend the zoning bylaws to allow the Zoning Board of Appeals to grant a variance to build on a lot which is not big enough by combining it with other lots if certain conditions are met.

An article to amend the personnel bylaws.

An article to amend the zoning bylaws on temporary signs and banners.

An article to petition the General Court for a Special Act on Dartmouth police promotions


Click here to read on!

Fall Town Meeting articles

The Finance Committee went over a few of the articles for the Fall Town Meeting at their meeting on Thursday. I will post all the articles under consideration in a future post.
One of the articles being proposed provides $10,000 for continuing education for town employees. The genesis of this article is with the Select Board's discussion of non union employee merit pay increases. One facet of that merit increase would be that each employee ...

... would identify and commit to some sort of continuing education goal each year. It was pointed out that there are no funds budgeted to pay for the courses. This article provides a funding source.
Another proposed article asks for $10,000 to update and continue training of town personnel in emergency preparedness. Some employees have received training and certification from the federal government but have not kept up or continued that certification because the training has not been funded. This article would provide those funds.
A third article would provide $10,000 for emergency relief to senior citizens who run out of heating oil. The monies would be administered by the COA Board and Director. They would be allowed to provide a small amount of oil to elderly residents if they ran out. This is not a fuel subsidy program but an emergency measure. The person receiving the oil would then be assisted in enrolling in a subsidized program but would have received a few days of heat to tide them over until the subsidy program took effect.
Another article that was mentioned was an appropriation of $300K or more to fund the elementary level core reading program acquisition by the school department. I have posted about that here.
I think that all proposed articles that I just mentioned run counter to the recommendation of the state Department of Revenue (DOR) review and the adopted policies of the Finance Committee and Select Board not to use non recurring revenue for recurring expenditures. As adopted by the Finance Committee the policy states:

One‐time revenues should only be applied to: 
Capital improvements, 
Property acquisitions, 
Contributions to the stabilization fund
Single year casualties

Departmental turn‐backs available in the fall town meeting should be
 deposited in the stabilization fund or applied to single year payments of capital
 improvements.  These purchases should not take on debt schedules that require 
future appropriations beyond what can be funded from the recurring revenue stream.

What's your take on these articles? Let's discuss it in comments below.
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Budget processes explained and more

Some time ago I posted about how the town arrives at its budget. You can find those posts here (town budget) and here (school budget). I posted on the tax levy and how your tax rate is set here. For an explanation of why our fiscal woes continue. ...

...look at this post. And to find out what I think we should do about it look at this post and this and this.
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Turn backs and overrides

The town has announced the final results for FY08 and the news is good, nearly $2 million. You can get an idea where those turn backs came from at this post. I also find that amount troubling because the taxpayers approved a $1.5 million override for FY09 based upon dire predictions of mass layoffs and reduction of services if the override failed. Some of the money returned ...

...came from health care and insurance accounts so they are not direct labor costs, but the townspeople have every reason to wonder why an override was needed. I do. I have not noticed a drastic reduction of services and since $178K was returned from the unemployment insurance account, I don't think there has to be wholesale layoffs.
What I think is that this state of affairs highlights the need for a multi year financial plan as I called for in this post and this one. What are your thoughts on unspent revenue amounting to 5% of the tax levy?
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Finance Committee meeting Thursday 9/11

The Finance Committee will meet on Thursday, 9/11 at 7PM in Room 315 of the Town Hall. They will be going over the FY08 year end results and the projection for FY09. Mr Iacaponi will be there to present and several Select Board members will be in attendance as well. Also on the agenda are a few line item transfers to cover the increased cost of new contracts reached ...

... with town collective bargaining units(CBUs). These contracts cover some CBUs whose contracts had expired at the end of FY07 and have recently been finalized. The expectation is that we can provide for the increased costs within the FY09 budget. The contracts in question have been negotiated to expire at the end of FY09 to coincide with the expiration of other town CBU contracts.
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Select Board working session 9/8

Prior to the televised meeting yesterday, the Select Board held a workshop session to go over suggested changes in the Personnel Bylaws. Unfortunately, we made little progress.
One suggestion that we have been kicking around for some time is to offer all employees the opportunity to cash in some of their accumulated sick time at some per diem rate. $50 per day has been suggested. I think that is a great idea and should be adopted. We have had a large turn back from many departments this year and I think that the redemption of the sick days would met the criteria of a one time expense that we have set as our policy for unspent revenue. I'd like to hear what the community thinks of this idea. Let me know in comments.
A major sticking point in moving forward on other issues...

... is that they would apply to only those employees not currently covered by a collective bargaining agreement. We have to start somewhere and the ultimate goal would be to extend the changes to the bargaining units during negotiations. In the interim, the non union employees would have reduced benefits as compared to the union employees. I don't think that is unfair. Not having to punch a clock or live by contract rules for everything is by itself a benefit in my opinion. This gets back to my premise that all sides are going to have to make sacrifices in order for the town to return to fiscal health. The taxpayers have done a part in providing an override. I think the employees are going to have to show that they are willing to contribute to the solution as well.
I had a 401K plan where I worked. The union employees had a quite generous pension plan. My wife worked as a union employee and her employer paid all her health care insurance cost. Her sister worked for the same company in management and shared the cost of health insurance with the company. I don't think it is uncommon practice in private industry to have different benefit plans.
What are your thoughts on this? Do all employees have the same benefits where you work?
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Move over, there's a new blog in town

Phil Lenz has created a new blog for discussion of town issues.
You can find it here.

Phil also blogs about school issues here and has a website with much useful information here
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Another beach sticker dust up

I have not written here that Mr Gagne was getting beach stickers for free. I am sure that he is not.
However, I am not offended that Mr. Carney would question something written here. If you want to see what he was talking about look in the comments of this post which had nothing to do with beach stickers and who buys them. If you are new to blogs, look here for some tips on how to navigate. The whole point of having discussion here is that sunshine is the best disinfectant. If I or someone else here makes an assertion that is not factual, then they should be willing to back it up with facts and documentation if necessary. On the other hand, I welcome everyone's opinion...

... and I want people to freely express them. for that purpose,I made the decision not to moderate (i.e. prescreen comments) and to allow people to post comments anonymously. The downside of that decision is that anonymity gives people license to say things that they might not if it was to be attributed to them. After weighing the two sides, I decided to go with the method that allowed the most free wheeling discussion.
That said, you need to evaluate what you read here carefully. Is the person willing to publicly stand behind it? Is a factual claim made and if so, has information been provided (e.g. a link to a definitive source)so that you can go and look at the underlying information yourself? If not, you will have to decide whether or not the claim is true.
Much of what is expressed here is opinion and therefore needs no backup. It's just an opinion and everyone is entitled to their own.
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Town websites lauded (but not ours)

The Massachusetts Municipal Association(MMA) publishes a magazine called Municipal Advocate. The latest issue examines Municipal Web Sites. One article points to 91 communities that have been recognized by the citizens group, Common Cause of Massachusetts, for promoting transparency in Government by posting government records online. Dartmouth is not among them.
Another article details the objectives ...

...that excellent municipal websites strive to achieve. These objectives include informing and empowering citizens, raise the level of government accountability, provide financial and bond market disclosure information, deliver government services more efficiently, encourage communication, and attract business and tourism.
I think that a good website can help Dartmouth with all these objectives. And before you comment about how we just don't have enough people or resources to have an excellent website, let me point out that some of the towns cited by Common Cause are tiny. Becket and Egremont have fewer than 1,800 residents. Local towns recognized by Common Cause, Westport, Lakeville and Carver, hardly have large staffs. In the town of Douglas, Selectman Mitch Cohen uploads meetings to the town website. I think the time required to have a decent website is not that large, what is missing is commitment and the vision to get the most out of the website.
I looked for links to the articles online but did not find them. Sorry I can't give you links.
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Select Board meeting Monday 9/8

The Select Board will meet on Monday. There is a working session to discuss and vote on personnel policy at 5:30 in Room 301 and a public session at 6:30. The agenda for the televised meeting is...

...
- signing of a Resolution declaring September 21 as an International Day of Peace.
- Hearing on application of Trio Cafe for a Alcohol license (located in former Opus)
- Meeting with Bank Five on expansion project on Faunce Corner and Cross Road
- Hearing on application of Big Boar Harley for a class I Motor Agent license
- Appointment with Budget Director to report on FY08 year end status and FY09 Revenues and Expenditures
- Petition by NStar to obstruct and disturb the surfaces of streets
- Application of ADM Food Service (Subway in WalMart)for a common victuallers license
The Select Board will meet in executive session following the public meeting

Once again, the meeting schedule has not been updated on the town website. The agenda page is two weeks behind on the website.

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Select Board work session 9/4 and future meetings

The Budget Director, Mr Iacaponi, updated the Select Board on the status of departmental turn backs from FY08. I want to first caution that the state DOR has not certified these numbers and there may be some change after the DOR review. However, the final results should be close to these amounts. The total amount of the unspent funds from FY08 will be in the neighborhood of $1.9 million. The breakdown of which accounts those funds were ...

... received from is:

Health Insurance - $521K primarily due to a large number of employees choosing PPO and HMO plans over more expensive plans

Unemployment benefits- $178K there were fewer claims against the town than anticipated.

Police Department- $148K

DPW Highway Department - $127K Some positions were eliminated in this department

DPW Construction Department- $125K due to ability to charge expense and manpower to Chapter 90 projects

DPW Engineering- $74K Due to charges from this department to enterprise and Chapter 90 projects

School Department - $300K This is a Reserve Fund transfer from July that was unspent and returned to the town.

Future meetings
The Select Board agreed to meet at 5:30PM on Monday, 9-8, for a work session to discuss and vote on personnel issues. This session will precede our public meeting at 6:30PM. Mr. Iacaponi will present the FY08 turn backs along with the projected FY09 and future budget adjustments. One item of note is that the current year and future year revenue projections have been revised downward at the behest of the state DOR.
Some Select Board members will attend the Finance Committee meeting on Thursday, 9-11 at 7PM where Mr. Iacaponi will present the town's financials to that committee.

The Select Board will meet for a workshop session on September 18 at 4PM to discuss and update the Policies and Objectives document that was developed in 9/07. I find this document woefully inadequate as a planning document as it is basically a list of possible cost cutting measures. In my view, what is lacking is a statement of what the ultimate goal is. I will propose that the goal we are seeking is for the town to have a budget which is sustainable as soon as possible. As I have framed it before, the rate of growth of expenditures must be reconciled with the rate of growth of revenue. Beyond tasking the town administrators with that charge, I think the role of the board is to provide policy direction in the form of which departmental budgets have priority over others.

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Interesting developments

I was over at Phil Lenz's website and looked at a couple of pages he has up on textbooks and technology issues. You can take a look here and here. Pay particular attention to...

...the status column at the right side. The elementary level core reading program cost of $360,000 was supposed to be partially funded by a Reserve Fund transfer of $300,00 in July but the schools were not ready to issue a purchase order to encumber the funds. The money had to be returned to the General Fund as free cash. I think that an article to fund these materials should be brought to the Fall Town Meeting for consideration. The funding source should be the certified free cash available from departmental turn backs. While I would support an article to use the unspent funds this year, I do not, in general, support using this non recurring revenue for recurring expense. What I am saying is, this one time only, don't expect more next year.
What I find interesting about the textbooks and technology information and the reopening of the North Dartmouth library branch is that these items were put forward on override questions which failed or didn't make the ballot. Yet the library and school have managed to fund them anyway. What do you think about that? Comment below.

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Select Board meeting-Thursday 9/4

The Select Board will meet for a workshop session on Thursday at 4PM in Room 301 of the Town Hall.

Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes.
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