Isabelle Andersson

Wow, you have to hear this girl sing. Isabelle Andersson


I was bowled over when I read her bio. 17 years old! Listen to her rendition of Joe Hill. I was looking for Joan Baez singing Joe Hill when I found this. Not Joan Baez, but pretty good.
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Chapter 90 Road Funding explained

Mr. Lynam of the Finance Committee has sent me his primer on Chapter 90 road repair funding. Here it is:

On Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 the Fin Com meet with DPW officials. During this meeting the Chapter 90 Highway funding was explained.

As I understand it :
Chapter 90 qualified roads are any public roads greater than 500 ft in length.

Chapter 90 funding comes from “State funds derived from periodic transportation bond authorizations and apportioned to communities for highway projects based on a formula under the provisions of MGL Ch. 90 §34. “

In Dartmouth’s case, this amounts to about $700K annually in the form of a Revolving Grant “ that is cumulative from year to year. Whatever funding is not used this year can be carried over to the next. This allows for larger projects to be done.

How does a project become reimbursable under Chapter 90 ?
The project, or collections of smaller projects, are identified and the engineering done at Town expense. The application is then made to the State and the project(s) approved for Chapter 90 funding. The Town then completes the project at it’s own expense, either in-house or by outside contractor(s). The final bills are then presented to the State and reimbursed, debiting the Chapter 90 “Capital Projects Funds” account : [ shown under “Capital Projects Funds” at the following URL :] http://www.mass.gov/Ador/docs/dls/mdmstuf/MunicipalActualExpenditures/srfrevolvingfunds06.xls

In some instances, the town will be required to ‘invest’ it’s own resources in a project whereby the State will pick up a large percentage of the project ...

...and the town a smaller percentage. The funding portion attributable to the Town is budgeted in the “Highway -Chapter 90 “ line item of our Town Budget.

How is the money accounted for ?
The monies paid back to the Town through this sort of “Revolving Grant” are accounted for in the “Town of Dartmouth 2005 Annual Report” [ the latest available at this time ] under “Revenue Received ~ Special Revenue ~ Revenue from State “ [ Note: For FY05, it totaled $ 611,701 Page #25 ]

The Questions is ?
When the DPW is budgeted, the amounts shown as expended for road repair, et. el. are not true insofar as those monies are actually returned to the General Fund by the State. Therefore an overall budget showing as ‘balanced’ ( or in deficit ) may actually be positive by some portion of the value of the Chapter 90 funds reimbursable. Since these are considerable in size [ $ 1,064,188.00 in FY06 ] and for the most part known ahead of time, it might behoove us to keep a closer eye on these funds in order to ascertain exactly what our ‘cash’ position is at any one time ; especially as it pertains to potential ‘free cash’ at the fiscal years end and leading into the fall.

As far as I can tell, these monies are not shown to us on the '‘Revenue Re-cap” that we are given. I suspect that they are simply booked as received [as are fees and other misc income ] , used as a slush fund of sorts to balance out shortfalls in other expected revenues, the balance then certified as free cash at the start of the next FY. This might account for why the sale of the Smith Neck school not materializing is not being heralded as such a big deal. [ Just speculation on my part ]

The Problem :
Because the numbers are so large, it leaves an unusually cloudy picture of the actual cost of operating the DPW.

Greg




Massachusetts Department of Revenue Chapter 90 Highway Funds page
Chapter 90 Funds :

State funds derived from periodic transportation bond authorizations and apportioned to communities for highway projects based on a formula under the provisions of MGL MGL Ch. 90 §34. The Chapter 90 formula comprises three variables: local road mileage (58.33 percent) as certified by the Massachusetts Highway Department (MHD), local employment level (20.83 percent) derived the Department of Employment and Training (DET)(now called Department of Labor and Workforce Development, BillT), and population estimates (20.83 percent) from the US Census Bureau. Local highway projects are approved in advance, then later on the submission of certified expenditure reports to MHD, communities receive cost reimbursements to the limit of the grant. Under the formula, communities with a larger number of road miles receive proportionately more aid than those with fewer road miles.

That's it in a nutshell. Thank you, Mr. Lynam
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Quincy Patriot Ledger on regional services

The Patriot Ledger had an opinion piece here about regional services. Some of the services which they mention as having been regionalized are 911 dispatch, health inspections, ...

...and fire departments. They end by advocating for increased regionalization.
As the budgets tighten around the state, more voices will call for regional services. We have an opportunity here to cut costs and increase efficiency. I think that animal control, conservation and other departments might also be a good candidate of regional efforts.
The state is also looking to have school districts regionalize to cut administrative costs. Another idea whose time may have come. One incentive for regional schools is that teh state picks up a large portion of the busing. That could save our town about $2million dollars and reduce admin costs. Something to think about. What do you think?
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Michaud proposes interim Executive Administrator

Select Board Chair Joe Michaud is quoted on Curt Brown's blog (see here) as seeking to hire an interim Executive Administrator at the end of next moth when the contract of the current Executive Administrator ends. The search for a new administrator is underway ...

...but is unlikely to be completed by March 1. Mr. Michaud and the Select Board have not discussed the hiring of an interim. I think the decision will come down to the time needed to find a replacement. If it is a few weeks. I wouldn't go with an interim. If the time frame is more than that I would support Mr. Michaud's proposal for an interim administrator.
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Blowin in the Wind

Day by day, good people are working to find the answer.
Justice, peace, community with others



This organization can help you take action for peace. Click here. Make your voice heard.
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Finance Committee meets with town department heads

Last night, the Finance Committee met with the heads of the town departments to kick off their review of the town's FY10 budget. The evening began with the presentation of the budget numbers agreed upon by the Finance Committee and Select Board at a meeting on Tuesday. See my post here. The goal is that each department will go back and prepare their 2010 budget based upon the amounts presented. Mr Lynam went over the prioritized budget amounts. Nearly all departments will see a substantial reduction in funding.
Mr. Friedman asked the department heads to come to their session with the committee...

... prepared to discuss the impacts of the proposed budget, a five year outlook for the funding of their departmental budget and a capital needs list for the next five years. Mr. Friedman proposed that the budget impacts be presented as a bullet list. Mr. Friedman also suggested that capital items which provide long term savings, either through increased efficiencies or cost avoidance, would be given precedence.
Mr. Iacaponi spoke about the need for department heads to closely control spending for this fiscal year. He also gave a summary of the anticipated FY10 revenues.
Mr Gagne asked those in attendance to write to our state representatives in support of the Municipal Partnership act which will provide alternative means of revenue by taxing telecommunications property and providing a local option for a meals tax.
Mr Friedman asked for questions and comments from the department heads and getting none, adjourned the meeting.
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Roy Orbison

Off to a FinCom meeting tonight, enjoy!
When I was 10 or 12, I wanted to be Roy Orbison. Turns out I can' sing a lick but I think I still look good in the Orbison shades.
You Tube embed after the jump


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Voke assessment numbers. Implications for budget

One hand gives, the other takes away. I posted here yesterday about a smaller than expected Required Net School Spending (RNSS) number for the Dartmouth School Department in FY 2010. That number was more than $1.2 million below the budget projection.
Now it appears that our Greater New Bedford Voke Tech (GNBVT) assessment is up by $377,680 for FY 2010. The budget estimate for that increase was $91,246, a difference of $286,434. One reason for the Voke jump is ...

... that Dartmouth has 22 more students attending than we did a year ago.
The net result for our budgeting process is that we have over-estimated our school spending requirements by around $900K.
The question now is what to do with the money that we are not required to spend for the schools. I think that an equitable way to divide it up is by the percentage of the school spending to the overall budget. In other words, school spending is about 52% of the total town budget. We allocate 52% of the $900K to the schools and the remainder to the non school departments. In round numbers then, $468K would go to the school department and be provided above the RNSS amount. The remaining $432K goes to the non-school town budget.
My reasoning here is that even though the attendance numbers are down at the school department, the cost is not exactly proportional to the student population. We must still heat, light and maintain the same number of buildings and, in most cases, have the same number of classroom teachers despite having 140 fewer students. Providing some level of spending above RNSS softens the blow to the school budget while the School Committee and administrators work out the new budget realities based on their reduced student census.
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Preliminary school budget numbers. Surprising!

The state has issued their preliminary FY2010 required net school spending (RNSS) amounts and the result for Dartmouth is quite surprising. The total increase over last year is only $215,373. The FY2009 appropriation was at RNSS and totaled $33.011 million. FY2010 RNSS is $33.227 million. The town has budgeted for $34.458 million as the FY2010 school appropriation.
I have not been able to analyze the underlying numbers yet,...
...but I think that the lower than expected increase is due to the decrease in student population. Dartmouth schools had 140 fewer students enrolled. 140 students times roughly $9,000 per student comes to 1.26 million. That is about the difference between the budgeted amount and the RNSS projection [1,260,000(student decrease)+215,000(RNSS increase)=1,475,000, 34,458,000(FY10 estimate)-33,011,000(FY09budget)=1,447,000]
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Seek and ye shall find. SRPEDD!!!

Mr. Michaud sends this email.

All,
Looks like SRRPD can help us in working toward regionalizing certain services. My thought is to have them attend the regional summit to provide technical and practical assistance.
The first meeting is set for February 10th at Apponequet HS at 6:00 to kick things off. We anticipate involvement from the majority of communities in southcoast.
Can you respond if you intend on attending as I would like to forward a number to them for accommodation.

Joseph L. Michaud, Esq

This Microsoft Word information from Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD) is in regard to the District Local Technical Assistance (DLTA) program to assist the cities and towns. The DLTA program is ...

... funded by the state according to the bulletin. The areas where assistance is available are sustainable development and municipal partnerships such as cooperative agreements/collaboration among communities, regional 911 service, joint purchasing, operating budget management (energy cost control, staffing, benefits) and other municipal activities that can be delivered more efficiently at a regional level.
Great work by Mr. Michaud and we have a meeting on February 10th already.
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DOR DLS 2010 state aid projections

The Department of Revenue Division of Local Services has posted the Governor's proposed 2010 local aid amounts to their website. Following is the email notice:

From: DLS_Alerts
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 11:43 AM
Subject: FY2010 Local Aid Proposals

The FY2010 local aid estimates based on the Governor’s budget proposal have been posted to the Division of Local Services’ web site at the link below:

http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=dorsubtopic&L=5&L0=Home&L1=Local+Officials&L2=Municipal+Data+and+Financial+Management&L3=Cherry+Sheets&L4=FY2010+Cherry+Sheets&sid=Ador

Please be advised that these estimates are based on the appropriation levels appearing in the Governor’s FY2010 budget proposal (House 1) and may change as the legislative process unfolds and proposed appropriation levels change.

The Governor’s FY2010 budget proposal makes substantial changes to some of the major local aid accounts appearing in section 3 of the budget. For more information on these changes please see: http://www.mass.gov/bb/h1/fy10h1/exec10/hbudbrief6.htm.

Charter School assessments and reimbursements reflect a change in methodology where facilities payments and first year reimbursements of new charter school costs will be paid directly to the charter schools and not reflected in assessments and reimbursements. For more information, please see: http://www.mass.gov/bb/h1/fy10h1/prnt10/exec10/pbudbrief3.htm.

...

...Please note that Charter School and School Choice assessments may change significantly when updated to reflect spring enrollment data and final tuition rates.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) has published the Chapter 70 aid calculations, minimum contributions and net school spending requirements on Office of School Finance website at:

http://finance1.doe.mass.edu/chapter70/chapter_10.html

To review additional information about how the estimates were determined and what may cause them to change in the future, click on the link at the bottom for and index of the FY2010 programs and links to individual explanations.

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Details on FY2009 local aid cuts from the DOR

The Department of Revenue has posted the FY2009 local aid reduction numbers in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The notice can be read here.
The Municipal Data Management and Technical Assistance Bureau has posted the local aid reduction for each city and town on our website at: http://www.mass.gov/Ador/docs/dls/mdmstuf/StateAid/fy099creductions.xls.
Dartmouth's reduction from the spreadsheet.
DARTMOUTH $305,727 Click here to read on!

Mr. Gracie on our fiscal problems

Today's Chronicle has a letter from Select Board candidate, Frank Gracie, on the financial situation of our town. Read it here. Mr. Gracie points out that our current situation was entirely foreseeable. Mr. Gracie says,

"there was no disagreement on what was the root cause of our problem. Our projected rate of expense growth was 3% higher than the expected revenue growth."

I agree with his assessment...
...He goes on to say,

"We have been far too reactive and not proactive at all. Drastic cuts will be in order because of not planning, and if we don't fix our expenses soon we will just lose service after service after service."

Again I couldn't agree more.
Finally he concludes,

"I applaud the progress our good-intentioned leaders have made, but it isn't nearly enough to make our budget stable and sustaining. If we had passed the $8.5 million override we would be still be in the same situation, except our taxes would be higher. We need to "light a fire" or each year will just be deja vu over and over again."

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Regionalization summit proposed

The Standard Times ran an article yesterday about a summit to explore regionalization of services proposed by Select Board Chair Joe Michaud. Click here to read the article.
The current economic downturn is affecting all communities across the state and nation. The resulting budget crunch is impetus to look at cost saving measures that may not have been considered previously due to parochial interests. I applaud Mr. Michaud stepping forward to lead on this issue...

... and I hope that other communities will participate.
Some areas where regional services may be desirable are dispatch services, animal control, conservation, natural resources, procurement and purchasing, and schools to name a few. The exact arrangement of new service will have to be fleshed out. For instance, the county might run a regional dispatch or animal control might be provided by the larger cities and towns to others on a fee for service or yearly fee basis.
Representative Canessa of New Beford has proposed a study by the state to identify areas where the approach makes sense. I posted about it here.
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Finance Committee budget priority update

The Finance Committee and Select Board went over the FY2010 budget last night and looked at funding targets for town departments.
The first change discussed was to increase the Snow and Ice Removal budget which has been set at $45,000 for some years now. Dartmouth typically spends well over $100,000 on this item. The reason that the amount has not increased in the budget is that this line item cannot be reduced, but can be overspent without any appropriation. So we have been setting aside a separate reserve for the item to cover the difference. The decision was to budget that line item at $100,000 for FY 2010.
Most departments are looking at a substantial reduction in funding. The police budget was level funded...


...with no cuts to personnel.
The DPW, Library and Parks budgets will be cut 15%.
It was proposed that the Conservation Department will take over the functions of the Soil Conservation department and the Harbormaster and volunteers take over for the Natural Resources (shellfish warden). Those two departments, Soil Conservation and Natural Resources, will not be funded.
The Recreation department will not be funded and will sustain itself from fees. This department was been fee funded for some time but the appropriation was made and then the funds returned as the fees were paid. This budget changes that arrangement. Finally, the Youth Commission and school crossing guards will not be funded in the FY2010 budget.
To get more information on the funding for particular departments, look at the Finance Committee MOB file here and open the priorities tab at the bottom. Not listed is about $71,000 for crossing guards which, in any case, had the funding zeroed out.
I would like to see the funds from the Youth Commission and crossing guards used to restore some of the cuts to the DPW budget. The 15% reduction to their budget is crippling to a few of their functions.
As always, leave your comments below.
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Latest MOB file from Mr. Lynam

The latest information on Dartmouth's budget can be found here. I have deleted the previous file from the server since I have limited storage space on it and these are very large files. This particular file will be used by the Finance Committee tonight at their meeting to set the amounts ...

... for the departmental FY2010 budgets. Select Board members will also be attending and between the two groups we hope to have budget numbers for the department heads when they come before the Finance Committee in the next few weeks to hash out the FY2010 budget
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Mike Watson to run against Carney and Gracie

Curt Brown's blog entry here reports that Mike Watson of Slocum Farm Drive has taken out nomination papers to run for Select Board for Bob Carney's seat. Frank Gracie had previously declared his intention to run for the seat. Click here to read on!

Uriah Heep - Wizard

Song from 1972 Demons and Wizards album. Video from BBC.
You Tube embed after the jump


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Executive Administrator Search Committee reports

The chair of the Executive Administrator Search Committee came before the Select Board tonight to report that they had interviewed and selected the company that they wish to recommend assist them in their efforts. By unanimous decision of the committee, they recommended the firm, Municipal Resources, Inc. Ed Goulart and ML Nunes of the search committee also were at the Select Board meeting. The Select Board voted to approve the recommendation...

... of the Executive Administrator Search Committee to hire Municipal Resources.
Mr. Eisenberg, the chair of the Executive Administrator Search Committee, also asked the Select Board to meet jointly with his committee and Municipal Resources to define the qualifications for candidates. The Board agreed to do so.
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Attorney Greenspan's letter of Aug 11, 2008

At tonight's Select Board meeting, I committed to posting Attorney Greenspan's letter of August 8, 2008 on this blog. After I got home, I found that I did not have an electronic file copy of the letter. I have scanned the letter with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software and converted it to html. This process resulted in loss of some of the formatting but the text is as presented to the board. You can read the letter here. This letter was given to the press tonight and earlier in executive session, the Board voted to waive any privilege for the document. Click here to read on!

Pioneer Institute on regionalization

The Pioneer Institute, a Massachusetts public policy think tank, has published a white peper about regionalization of municipal services here It is a critical look at what has worked and what has not. Worth the read. This white paper details two instances of regionalization of dispatch services among other themes.
A good resource for those interested in how governments have privatized services ...

...to control costs can be found at Privatization.org A good place to start is this report, GAO Report on Privatization and Lessons Learned
Take a look at the two papers and let us know what you think about these issues in comments
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Finance Comittee considers budget targets

The Finance Committee will meet on Tuesday at 7PM to talk about budget priorties and how to set the departmental budgets for FY 2010. To help them in that task, they will use a spreadsheet with the FY09 appropriations and departmental turnbacks listed on it. If you would like to try your hand at it, the spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel format can be found here, You will need to have Excel or Open Office to open the file. Open Office is freeware and can be downloaded here.
The historical percentage of increase for the School department and Voke budgets are between ...

...4 and 4-1/2 %. A good number to use would be 4.3% for each. The pension and health care costs have historically risen at about 5%. Use that for predicting those budgets. Overall expense in all the town departments rises at about 4%.
The Budget Direcror has asked for across the board reductions of 15% from the department heads. I would allocate teh cuts in a more directed fashion. The Police Chief said last Thursday that he can keep his present staffing levels with level funding, no increase. I am inclined to fund the Police at last year's level which will allow him to keep all his staff. That means other departments will get cut more. Those are the kinds of decisions that must be made.What are your thoughts or comments?
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Molly Hatchet-Dreams I'll never see

This southern rock band isn't as famous as Lynard Skynard or Allman Brothers but they are pretty good.
You Tube embed after the jump


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Governor details local aid cuts for current year

Yesterday Governor Patrick announced local aid cuts for the current fiscal year which started in July of 08. The Governor said that $128 million would be cut from local aid. Details in this Standard Times article here While the cuts are not welcome, they are smaller than I feared. I thought that the cuts may approach $300 million.
Governor Patrick also proposed allowing local communities to assess a tax on restaurant meals. The proposal has two parts, statewide and local increases of 1%, The article states,...

...

Gov. Patrick is also proposing ways to help municipalities raise money other than the property tax. He will file a new Municipal Partnership Act next week that calls for an increase of 1 percentage point in the state meals and hotel room taxes.
The current meals tax is 5 percent. The current hotel room tax can reach 9.7 percent, with 4 percent going to municipalities.
The statewide meals and hotel tax hikes, which need approval from the Legislature, would be distributed to cities and towns through the Lottery formula. A small portion would go toward tourism promotion.
On top of the statewide tax, Gov. Patrick is again proposing to let cities and towns raise both the meals and rooms taxes by another percentage point. And he wants to lift the century-old tax exemption on utility poles and wires.

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Paul Cuffe mentioned at the US House

PAUL CUFFE: VOTING RIGHTS PIONEER -- (Extensions of Remarks)

[Page: E108]
---

SPEECH OF HON. BARNEY FRANK OF MASSACHUSETTS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2009

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, Saturday, January 17, is the 250th birthday of Paul Cuffe. He is not well known, but he should be. I was not myself familiar with his important role in our history and as one of those who fought against the terrible racist pattern that mars our early history until it was called to my attention by a constituent, Brock N. Cordeiro of the Town of Dartmouth. Mr. Cordeiro wrote to me and called my attention to Mr. Cuffe's role. As Mr. Cordeiro notes, in 1781 ``Paul Cuffe sought the franchise or relief from taxation without representation'' and he played a major role in the fact that this happened in Massachusetts in 1783. Many years later, in 1864, as the Town of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, celebrated its centennial, people noted that ``it was his determined and manly efforts, and his refusal to pay the taxes assessed upon him, on the grounds that he had no voice or vote with his neighbors, that finally secured from the Legislature of Massachusetts equal rights of suffrage for the colored man with the white man.''
Madam Speaker, I am very proud as an American of the role that America has played as the first vibrant self-governed Nation, but the racism that marked our early years is the source of trouble which we are still fighting to overcome. It is therefore entirely appropriate to recognize as his 250th birthday approaches the pioneering work of Paul Cuffe. It is very difficult to imagine from our safe haven today what moral and physical courage it took for Mr. Cuffe to defy the racist consensus which confronted him, ...

...and his example should be widely hailed.
I am grateful to Brock Cordeiro for calling this to my attention. Mr. Cordeiro noted in his letter to me that he came to this through his academic studies, and because of his own history in the need to confront our racist past and to mark the progress we have made in overcoming it, he wrote a master's thesis on Mr. Cuffe.
Madam Speaker, as you know, and as I advised Mr. Cordeiro, we do not issue proclamations on people's birthdays, but given the great historical example that Paul Cuffe has given, I am very proud to insert this tribute to him on his 250th birthday into this Record.

http://www.house.gov/frank/cuffe012109.html
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Dylan and Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower

Off to Mermaids, a new seafood restaurant in Fairhaven. Here's today's Dylan
Dylan wrote and sang it.

Hendrix after the jump

Hendrix sang and rocked it.

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John Fogerty-Joy of my Life

Another of my favorite artists. From his Blue Moon Swamp album
You tube embed after the jump


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Public Input at Select Board meetings redux

Back on December 15th, I had a post about allowing public comment at our Select Board meetings, tonight I had an opportunity to raise the issue and I moved that the Select Board change their policy on hearing from the public. Unfortunately, I did not have a copy of my post with me but I think that ...

...I got the general idea in my motion to change the policy. Happily I think, the motion was seconded and passed. I will try to remind the chair from now on about this policy and ask him to follow it. The policy is roughly the same as at this link.
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Suit seeking ruling on Executive Administrator contract

The text of the complaint can be found here. Contrary to the characterization by Mr Gagne tonight, he will be given an opportunity to respond to the suit. The service of notice and the scheduling of the hearing of the suit will be handled by the Bristol County Sheriff's Office and the Fall River Superior Court. Mr. Gagne will be given a chance to respond in court as is the right of a party in any lawsuit. For all I know, the Sheriff may not ...

... serve Mr. Gagne at all since he acknowledged that he visited the court and picked up a copy of the complaint.
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Buena Vista Social Club - Candela

Ry Cooder went to Havana in 1997 in search of the musicians who had played at the Buena Vista Social Club in the late fifties. He found a few of them and recorded their music. The album generated a documentary in 1999. I don't speak Spanish but good music is good music.
You Tube embed after the jump

Buena Vista Social Club - Candela

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Greg Jones to run for School Committee

Mr. Greg Jones has announced his intention to run against John Nunes for School Committee. Curt Brown has a post here on his blog breaking the story. From the blog post,...

...

He (Mr. Jones) said his aim is to improve academic performance through a different allocation of existing funds.
Mr. Nunes, who will have served 19 years on the School Committee in April, has also taken out nomination papers and said he welcomes Mr. Jones’ participation in the race.

Another contested position in the town election. That doesn't leave many uncontested races. The Library Board of Trustees and Town Meeting Moderator incumbents are among those still uncontested for re-election
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Statement of Candidacy from Frank Gracie

Frank Gracie, Candidate for the Dartmouth Select Board, 4/7/09

I am running for the Select Board because I believe that I can have a positive influence on the things that trouble our town, and help build consensus in our community. ALL decisions should be based on what is best for the town and the taxpayer, not individuals. Government should serve the taxpayer, not the other way around. We cannot forget who pays the bills.

For the last 3 years we have had serious financial issues bubble up to the surface and be apparent to everyone, but the foundation for these issues started years earlier. While many of the issues are and have been caused by external stressors such as large reductions in State Aid, I believe our internal response has been sorely lacking, crawling at a snail’s pace when running is called for. I also believe that the early response was inappropriate, as we borrowed money from our own Water Enterprise Fund, and used up Free Cash that would otherwise have been allocated to Capital improvements and fortify our Stabilization Fund, as well as taking money from the Stabilization Fund itself.

No one likes change, and we must be careful about what and how we change, but change is needed none-the-less. Our situation is getting more dire each year. Many costs are additive, and the longer we wait to implement real change the more painful the task becomes. This won’t be easy, but we need action to start the process. Waiting and talking won’t get us anywhere. It is time to be proactive and stop being reactive.

In my opinion, we have been running on the “let’s get through today” approach, and if we do that 365 times we get through the year. What we need is vision, planning, and most of all action. We talk everything to death but rarely actually make significant change. We can never solve our problems with this approach. I am personally tired of someone else driving our bus, and it is time to grab the wheel and turn away from that cliff we are heading off of. It is time for us to influence and control our own destiny, stop hoping for things to get better at the state level. I am willing to help steer us in a new direction, and towards a more prosperous future.

We need to break down traditional walls and think about what mechanisms and structures give the taxpayer the best value for the money we spend. Overrides are only short–term fixes, they mask the problem for a year or 2, but don’t fix the underlying problem. Overrides at this point don’t make sense mathematically or realistically. There is only so much money taxpayers want to spend, and can afford to spend. We may or may not need an override eventually, but if so, only after the rate of increase of our expenses has been brought in line with the rate of increase of our revenue. Then a value judgment can be made by the taxpayers on what that extra money would buy us.

There is no better example of our problem than the fact that in addition to the Prop 2½ tax increases, we have added approximately $4M to the General Fund over the last 2 years through the PAYT trash/recycling program and the $2.1M overrides that were passed, and that money is all used up due to rising expenses. All fees have risen dramatically. For FY10 we AGAIN have a budget gap, currently estimated to be $400K to $800K, and this is without any raises projected for our loyal and hard working town employees, but the deficit is sure to rise as State Aid falls further in the coming weeks and months.

We have to keep an open mind, and all things need to be considered, including any sources of new revenue that will be stable and sustaining, but we cannot count on that, so the only thing left is to trim expenses and run our government more efficiently. We need to try and preserve as many services as we can, and find the best ways to fund them. Let me again say that this won’t be easy, and I will be the first to admit that I don’t know all the answers, but I DO know we have to attack the problem with our brains and our hearts. We need to all work together for the common good. We all live in this town because we love it, and it is well worth the effort to preserve it. If we continue on the same path then service after service will just disappear.

If you agree with my thought process I ask for your consideration on election day. I need your help. Let’s fix Dartmouth together, and put some trust back into our government. We need to make headway one decision at a time… one smart decision at a time.
More after the jump. Click below to read on

Contact Info:

If you would like to help with the campaign, including donations, sign placement, fundraisers, ideas, etc., please use the following information to make contact.

e-mail – FrankLovesDartmouth@comcast.net (preferred and best contact vehicle)

Background

· Married to Yvette, father of 2 grown children, proud grandfather of 2
· Third generation town resident, graduated from DHS in 1967
· Attended S.M.T.I./ S.M.U. – Electrical Engineering program,certified as a Process Engineer while at Polaroid
· Employed by Polaroid 33 years, leaving as an Advanced Manufacturing Engineer
· Early retired in 2005, started doing volunteer committee work for our town:
o “Tax Classification Committee”, “Missed Opportunities” sub-committee
o “Budget and Revenue Task Force”
o “Privatization Study Group” – Chairperson
· In addition, vocal advocate for the split tax rate being appropriate and needed for Dartmouth. Have spoken at all recent tax classification hearings.
· Besides my Engineering function, was a Project Leader, Trainer, and Supervisor. Member of the Applied Skills Review Board. Well versed in computer technology both hardware and software. Very proficient at math, including advanced statistics. Have written computer programs for statistical process control.
· Non-technical training: Managing the Business, Team Building, Mediation and Dispute Resolution, Ethics, Total Quality Ownership (TQO), Total Quality Management (TQM), Train the Trainer, Effective Listening, Left Brain/ Right Brain, Myers-Briggs Personality Type Testing

Help out if you can.
Click here to read on!

Maya Angelou - Still I rise

A favorite of mine - both poet and poem
You Tube reading by Maya Angelou after the jump


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Select Board meets Thursday

The Select Board will meet on Thursday Jan 22nd at 6:30PM. The meeting will review the funding for the Police Department in light of next year's budget shortfall. The agenda for the meeting is after the jump.

Select Board’s Agenda
John Marland Meeting Room
January 22, 2009

6:30 p.m. Commence Meeting
Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
Moment of Silence

I.Appointments:

6:30 p.m. Meeting with Police Chief Mark Pacheco re: 2010 Police
Department Budget.

II. New Business:
A.Vote to request any and all documentation from Murphy Hesse concerning the (8) eight contracts drafted by Attorney Bartulis.

B.Vote to request any and all documentation related to the litigation and subsequent settlement of the Bernier and Hickox vs. Town of Dartmouth.

C.Review of the status concerning the production of the primary executive session notes related to the February 2006 Contracts.

D.A review and discussion with the Executive Administrator and Town Counsel of the provisions of the Town Charter Article 4(MS Word file), Sections 4 –1 a. and b. concerning the reorganization and consolidation of town agencies and departments.

Item A of new business has to do with management employee contracts from 2006.
Item B is regarding the settlement of a lawsuit completed in 2006.
Item C is regarding the chairman's request for the executive session notes.
Item D is in reference to the Select Board's ability to reorganize the departments of the town.
Click here to read on!

Bob Miller joins the race

According to this Standard Times article and these Curt Brown blog entries here and here, both Lara Stone and Bob Miller intend to run against Diane Gilbert for Select Board in April. What are your thoughts on this development? Once again, I will ask that ...

...you be specific in your comments. Calling names or spreading innuendo are not productive and don't change any minds. Tell us why you think the candidate you like is best(what qualifications or ideas of theirs that you like), or specifically what it is that a candidate has done that influences your decision not to vote for them.
Click here to read on!

Finance Committee MOB file 1/15/09

UPDATE I deleted this version of the file from the server. The latest can be found at this link
BillT 1/27/09

Mr. Lynam of the Finance Committee puts together a town financial spreadsheet, which he calls the MOB file, from numbers given him by the Budget Director, Mr. Iacaponi. It is unfortunate that we don't get this sort of clear information from the Finance Department. In fact, that DOR recommended that in their July 2007 report on Dartmouth's finances. From that report, Page 9:

Whatever form such a plan takes, it should contain the following core elements:
1. Multi-year outlook (3-5 fiscal years)
2. Inventory of revenue sources and projected increases/decreases
3. Expenditure projections that reflect labor, expenses and planned service levels
4. Impact of financial goals/policies are assigned a specific dollar value
5. Integration of infrastructure investment based on approved capital plan
6. Current-year revenue and expenditure monitoring
7. Presentation format that facilitates meaningful communication to the public

Mr. Lynam has trouble at times getting the information to compile and getting the numbers to add up, but overall this is the clearest picture of our financial situation available. The MOB file goes out to many people in the town,...

... the Finance Committee, the Select Board, administrators, and interested citizens (the cast of Ben Hur in Mr. Lynam's words).
A couple of caveats are in order about this file. These are unofficial numbers, only the Budget Director can publish official financial information for the town. The tabs in the spreadsheet which have all lower case titles are analysis done from the underlying data which is on the tabs with upper case titles.
There are several macros which Mr. Lynam has included in this Microsoft Office Excel format file. When prompted to enable macros, select disable. When prompted to update select No.
You will need to have Excel or Open Office to open the file. Open Office is freeware and can be found here.
The information presented in this spreadsheet, the MOB file, is comprehensive and taking a number out of it here or there is not indicative of the overall picture in most cases. When you look it over at first don't get hung up on the percentage changes or details, it is best to get a broad overview and then go back and look at the specific items of interest. As always, leave your comments below.
Click here to read on!

Celebrate Dr. King day and listen

Our country was blessed to have Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. King was a giant among men for his courage, his oratory, and his compassion.
The following is a You Tube video of his speech in Washington DC on August 28, 1963.


I hope we can all embrace his dream and each other in justice and peace. Yes, we can! Si se puede!
Click here to read on!

Ms. Gilbert on contracts and open government

Diane Gilbert had a letter in Sunday's Standard Times on the process by which the now infamous employment contracts were made. She advocates for openness...

...and transparency in municipal government. I agree with her that the process was closed and the town suffered for it.
Click here to read on!

Heavy Weather - Birdland

Jazz fusion from Weather Report. These guys sometimes lost me and seemed to degenerate to unconnected noise. But when they hit it right, the music was fabulous. This tune will be in your head all day. Check out the You Tube embed after the jump.

Birdland by Weather Report from Heavy Weather album

Song ends at 5:54, the rest is blank
Click here to read on!

Lara Stone throws her hat in the ring

Lara Stone has announced on her website that she will be running for Select Board in the April election. I am told that she will run against Diane Gilbert but I have not confirmed that with the Town Clerk.
Ms. Stone has this to say about her reasons for running,

I am running because I believe I have a moral obligation to myself, my family and my neighbors to restore a sense of community in Dartmouth and to find solutions that make that possible. Of course, finding the solutions is only the beginning. If I win your confidence at the election in April, I’ll have three years to work with others on implementing these solutions. I know I can help ...

...change the tone of things in Dartmouth, too. I’ve spent my whole life and my professional career bringing people together, building community and inspiring others to serve a common vision. I am a thoughtful, even-keeled leader who draws people in with good sense,inspiration, and competence.

As it stands now, Bob Carney is opposed by Frank Gracie and Diane Gilbert is opposed by Lara Stone. Do you think other candidates will be taking out nomination papers? Click here to read on!

School census raises concern

The school population in Dartmouth is changing and that will have an effect on funding. The school census for 2010 is going to reflect about 140 fewer students than the 2009 budget. The school department funding is calculated from the number of students attending. Our average per student spending is about $9300. That means the drop in student population of 140 students translates to reduced funding of $1.3 million.
Adding to the picture, Dartmouth's Voke student numbers are up. Students who attend Voke do not reduce the town's school obligation ...

...but do reduce the funds available to the Dartmouth schools. This is becasue the school funds for each student follows the child. When kids go to Voke, the town pays the per pupil assessment to the Voke budget and not the Dartmouth school budget. The additional twenty or so students who have chosen Voke reduces the local funding about another $200,000.
Given the falling student population and increased Voke attendance, our local school district may have $1.5 million less to spend next year.
Reduced school population does not reduce many of the costs of running the district. Building must be heated and maintained, buses run, classrooms manned by teachers, etc. How will the school department deal with the reduced budget from falling student population? What do you think should be done?


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State and local officials look to regionalization

The current municipal budget crunch in our town, state and nation presents problems and opportunities according to an op-ed letter from Lawrence Ashley, a Selectman in our neighboring town of Freetown. I agree with Mr. Ashley on most points especially that the budget crunch presents opportunity as well as problems. The crisis may force communities to look at regional solutions where they would not have in the past. Many feel that will result in savings to the taxpayer.
State Rep. Stephen Canessa of New Bedford has introduced legislation to study regionalization, ...

...its benefits and barriers to its implementation. The Standard Times article can be found here Representative Canessa says,"What we are looking to do is find greater efficiencies from government, to provide more services for people's tax dollars." The article also quotes Governor Patrick from his State of the State speech, "encouraging as much regionalization of local services as practical."
What are your thoughts on regionalizing services and which services do you think would lend themselves to that option?
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Friday Night Dylan

Perhaps my favorite Dylan album, Blood on the Tracks. Here is my favorite track from that album. You Tube embed after the jump

Tangled Up in Blue

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Town lists economic stimulus projects

Curt Brown's article lists some of the projects that Dartmouth has submitted to the Governor for funding if the federal government provides economic stimulus money to the state. The projects are not listed in order of preference and the state would have a say in ...

... which projects are selected if the funds end up being available. I will post a full list later tonight.
Click here to read on!

Eva Cassidy, not David

For those youngsters out there, David Cassidy was the front man for the Partridge Family.
Eva Cassidy was an artist who was so shy that she rarely performed in public. She passed away at a young age in 1996 from skin cancer. Her recordings are beautiful, soulful, powerful and wonderful. I posted her cover of Sting's Fields of Gold below the jump to save space on the main page. If you listen, you'll become a fan. You Tube embed below...

I also recommend her cover of Cindi Lauper's Time After Time Click here to read on!

Select Board and Finance Committee meet

The Finance Committee and Select Board met tonight at Town Hall. The topics were budget priorities for FY2010 and the impact of state aid cuts and falling local receipts on the current FY2009 budget. There were two distinct points of view on both issues. One view was that the town should try to get by for this year and take actions to address the shortfall in the next year's budget. The opposite view was that the town should make significant cuts immediately and more in FY2010.
I share the latter point of view. Governor Patrick is moving aggressively to cut state jobs and spending in this year and I think the town should do likewise. If we do not take action now, the impact on the FY2010 budget is exacerbated by our inaction. Using our reserves and patching holes now ...

...will only leave us in a deeper hole next year. We need to stop digging. We must start getting the rate of growth of our expenses in line with the rate of growth of revenue. Currently the town's finances are not sustainable even to next year. Somehow pulling a rabbit out of a hat for this year will not prevent the shortfall next year and in fact leaves us worse off.
Those on the opposite side of the argument want to wait and se what the local aid reductions will be and then take action. As I said above, we know that we are facing shortfalls next year. The state aid cuts and falling local revenue have only hastened the time when making the necessary cuts is imperative.
The Finance Committee had planned to start allocating funds to town departments next week and start to meet with the department heads in two weeks, The Select Board would like to meet with the Police Chief and DPW Director before the department budget amounts are allocated. The board and committee decided that the Select Board will meet on Thursday, Jan 22nd to get the Police Chief and DPW director's input and the Finance Committee will meet on Tuesday, the 27th, to allocate the budget and then start meeting with departments on the 29th. Click here to read on!

The Temptation was too much

The sixties were turbulent times



We made it through then and we will today.
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Select Board meeting Jan 12th

Curt Brown's article in the Standard Times about Monday's Select Board meeting and falling local receipts and potential state aid cuts can be found here
I had committed to posting some of the handouts that we received and I have done so. You can find the FY 09 budget status handout here, the Strategy to Obtain Fiscal Sustainability handout here, and the Issues and Subects that the Select Board should discuss with the Finance Director and Executive Administrator handout here.
As is typical, we were handed these at the meeting...

... which leaves the Select Board unprepared to have any discussion or reach any decision since we have only just received it. Even so, I thought that we had a good start on the issues and I will be better prepared on Thursday at the Finance Committee.
Another item which was passed out was a list of projects that was submitted to the Governor for consideration to be funded with economic stimulus funds. I will post that tomorrow.
Click here to read on!

Letters to the editor-Carney and Lynam

I was struck by the difference in tone of the letters from Selectman Bob Carney and Finance Committee vice chair Greg Lynam Link to Mr Carney's letter here and Mr.Lynam's letter here. Mr. Carney seems to feel that our problems either ,,,

...behind us or can be solved by meeting with town department heads. From what I know of our town finances, neither of those is the case. I agree with Mr. Lynam's assessment that we have been draining the town's resourcees to pay for on-going operations for quite some time and that has made our situation and the task at hand much more difficult. Click here to read on!

Busy day,

A long day at work and no time to blog. Will post the materials from the Select Board meeting tomorrow. Peace.

"Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love."
St. Francis of Assisi
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Select Board budget info

I will scan and post some of the info given out at tonight's meeting tomorrow after work.
Good night. I realize it was a bit hard for those at home to follow along when you don't know what the Board members are looking at.

For no particular reason,


Click here to read on!

Music on this blog

Some commenters on this blog have liked the music I post and some haven't. I listen to many genres, rock, pop, jazz, classical, opera, bluegrass, gospel, world music and more. I don't listen to much hip hop or country. I don't know what makes a good song, some I like the lyrics, some the beat, some the melody. What do you think is the difference between a good tune or a bad one? Tell us in comments.
Here is a beautiful song by Alison Krauss, who owns a record 21 Grammy awards


Robert Pirsig explored the question I posed, "What makes something good?" in his book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which is not about Zen or motorcycle maintenace but what is "quality" and how do we recognize it. The book may be the top selling philosophy book of all time. I think that Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar may eclipse it.
Click here to read on!

Marley and You tube

Only ourselves can free our minds.
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Methods of amending the Town Charter

There are three different ways to make changes to the Dartmouth Town Charter.

1-The Town Meeting can petition for an Act of the General Court to change the charter.

2-A 2/3 vote of Town Meeting can put a change on the ballot for decision by the voters (this has some limitations, can’t change form of government or change some offices) The voters then vote on the proposed changes. Our town charter currently calls for an appointed charter commission that makes recommendations for changes to the Town Meeting every 10 years.

3-get 15% of voters to petition for a charter commission, get approval for commission from voters and elect a charter commission (at the same election when the charter commission is approved). The charter commission can make changes and go to voters with an amended or new charter. (No restrictions on what they do, change form or do whatever)

Here is how I arrived at that ...

Our Town Charter says this (MS Word Doc) about charter commissions

SECTION 6-7: PERIODIC REVIEW, CHARTER AND BY-LAWS
(a) Charter Review - At least once in every ten years, beginning in 2010, and thereafter in each year ending in a zero, a special committee to consist of nine members shall be established for the purpose of reviewing this charter and to make a report, with recommendations, to the town meeting concerning any proposed amendments which said committee may determine to be necessary or desirable. The committee shall consist of nine members who shall be chosen as follows: the select board, the finance committee and the school committee shall each designate two persons, the planning board shall designate one person, and two persons shall be appointed by the town moderator. Persons appointed by the said agencies may, but need not, be members of the agency by which they are designated. The committee shall meet to organize forthwith following the final adjournment of the annual town meeting.

Massachusetts General Law (MGL) section 43B contains the procedures for charter revision and says this about Town Meeting recommending charter changes

Ch 43B section 10 Amendments to a city or town charter previously adopted or revised under this chapter may be proposed by the city council of a city or the town meeting of a town by a two thirds vote in the manner provided by this section; provided, that amendments of a city charter may be proposed only with the concurrence of the mayor in every city that has a mayor, and that only a charter commission elected under this chapter may propose any change in a charter relating in any way to the composition, mode of election or appointment, or terms of office of the legislative body, the mayor or city manager, or the board of selectmen or town manager. The section continues with more, read it at the link above. Actually you need to read sections 1 through 12 of Chapter 43B to get the full picture

The state constitution Article LXXXIX says this

Section 3. Procedure for Adoption or Revision of a Charter by a City or Town. - Every city and town shall have the power to adopt or revise a charter in the following manner: A petition for the adoption or revision of a charter shall be signed by at least fifteen per cent of the number of legal voters residing in such city or town at the preceding state election. Whenever such a petition is filed with the board of registrars of voters of any city or town, the board shall within ten days of its receipt determine the sufficiency and validity of the signatures and certify the results to the city council of the city or board of selectmen of the town, as the case may be. As used in this section, the phrase "board of registrars of voters" shall include any local authority of different designation which performs the duties of such registrars, and the phrase "city council of the city or board of selectmen of the town" shall include local authorities of different designation performing the duties of such council or board. Objections to the sufficiency and validity of the signatures on any such petition as certified by the board of registrars of voters shall be made in the same manner as provided by law for objections to nominations for city or town offices, as the case may be.

Within thirty days of receipt of certification of the board of registrars of voters that a petition contains sufficient valid signatures, the city council of the city or board of selectmen of the town shall by order provide for submitting to the voters of the city or town the question of adopting or revising a charter, and for the nomination and election of a charter commission.

If the city or town has not previously adopted a charter pursuant to this section, the question submitted to the voters shall be: "Shall a commission be elected to frame a charter for (name of city or town)?" If the city or town has previously adopted a charter pursuant to this section, the question submitted to the voters shall be: "Shall a commission be elected to revise the charter of (name of city or town)?"

The charter commission shall consist of nine voters of the city or town, who shall be elected at large without party or political designation at the city or town election next held at least sixty days after the order of the city council of the city or board of selectmen of the town. The names of candidates for such commission shall be listed alphabetically on the ballot used at such election. Each voter may vote for nine candidates.

The vote on the question submitted and the election of the charter commission shall take place at the same time. If the vote on the question submitted is in the affirmative, the nine candidates receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected.

Within [ten months] after the election of the members of the charter commission, said commission shall submit the charter or revised charter to the city council of the city or the board of selectmen of the town, and such council or board shall provide for publication of the charter and for its submission to the voters of the city or town at the next city or town election held at least two months after such submission by the charter commission. If the charter or revised charter is approved by a majority of the voters of the city or town voting thereon, it shall become effective upon the date fixed in the charter.

Section 4. Procedure for Amendment of a Charter by a City or Town. - Every city and town shall have the power to amend its charter in the following manner: The legislative body of a city or town may, by a two-thirds vote, propose amendments to the charter of the city or town; provided, that [1] amendments of a city charter may be proposed only with the concurrence of the mayor in every city that has a mayor, and [2] any change in a charter relating in any way to the composition, mode of election or appointment, or terms of office of the legislative body, the mayor or city manager or the board of selectmen or town manager shall be made only by the procedure of charter revision set forth in section three.
All proposed charter amendments shall be published and submitted for approval in the same manner as provided for adoption or revision of a charter.

There you have it my explanation and some or all of the links to check it for yourselves. Do you think we should from a charter commission? If so, an appointed or elected one? Remember the appointed one is restricted on what it can propose as amendments (e.g. cannot change in a charter relating in any way to the composition, mode of election or appointment, or terms of office of the legislative body, the mayor or city manager or the board of selectmen or town manager)
Click here to read on!

Friday Night Bob Dylan blogging

I think I will make Fridays Bob Dylan days. I still have 14 albums on vinyl by Bob. For you youngsters, that means record albums made of vinyl and played on turntable, 33-1/3 LP if you know what I mean.



Bob Dylan would get kicked off American Idol but he is one of my favorite artists.
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Bridge closed - next Tuesday 1/13

TOWN OF DARTMOUTH

PUBLIC NOTICE
PROJECT SUBJECT TO WEATHER PERMITTING

BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION

APPONAGANSET BRIDGE AT GULF ROAD WILL BE CLOSED

Tuesday, January 13, 2009
9:00 AM-12:00 PM

WE ARE SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE THIS MAY CAUSE
PER ORDER OF:
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS

Don't pay the ferryman, don't even fix a price, don't pay the ferryman until he gets you to the other side

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Budget calculus

The 2010 budget preparations are currently underway and the instructions to the town departments are to cut by 15% across the board. See this post. While I agree that a 15% reduction is prudent, I would not apply it across the board. The town has some functions which are required. Paying our notes, keeping records, assessing and collecting taxes, managing our accounts, educating children, and serving our veterans are among these. The town has some functions which are needed for public safety. Policing, health inspections, building inspections, and clearing the roadways are examples. Other activities of the town are optional. My preference will be ...

...to fully fund those activities which are required first, that are needed for public safety next, and if any funds are remaining the optional activities in some order of preference. We have to be honest and take a hard look at all town activities as well. Can we regionalize dispatch, animal control, conservation, Council on Aging and other activities? Can we outsource trash hauling, library services, road construction, building maintenance, snow plowing, etc? Then there is the question of union contracts and wage increases to be balanced against layoffs and consolidation. There is much to do and little time. We'll see what we can get accomplished.
Click here to read on!

Sly Stone, not Stallone

Dance to the music, all the squares go home!
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Town Meeting passes on recall provision

Town Meeting voted to indefinitely postpone consideration of a petition to the General Court to insert a recall provision in our Town Charter. The Finance Committee recommended that the article be postponed, the Town Counsel stated that, while legal, there were several areas of the proposed article which may be problems, and ultimately the Town Meeting members decided to delay action on the measure Click here to read on!

Special Town Meeting tonight 7PM

Tonight at 7Pm in the middle school auditorium, the Town Meeting will vote on a petition to the Great and General Court, our state legislature. The petition asks for a provision to be added to our town charter which allows recall of elected officials. If passed by Town Meeting, both houses of the legislature, and signed by the governor, the recall provision would be added to the Town Charter. Here is an email from Mr Hawes regarding ...

... our First Amendment rights in the US Constitution and recall.

*From:* Brian Hawes
*To:* Friends of Michael
*Sent:* Thursday, January 08, 2009 10:45 AM
*Subject:* Town Meeting tonight --- 7:00 PM

Hello ---
Just a reminder that Town Meeting is tonight --- 7:00 PM --- Middle
School Auditorium --- please attend even if you are not a Town Meeting Member ---
Recall is one of the five basic freedoms granted by the First Amendment to the Constitution --- which reads ---
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
ratified 12/15/1791
The recall process is a common final step in the democratic process; it provides the traditional checks and balances, providing citizens with the right to remove an elected official from office.
See you all tonight ---

Brian

There are so many things that are wrong with Mr. Hawes' email, I don't know where to start.
The first words of the 1st Amendment are "Congress shall make no law". How does that apply here?
His first sentence begins, "Recall is one of the five basic freedoms" First, he is equating redress of grievances with recall of officials and they are not the same and secondly, the ability to recall is a procedural rule, not a freedom. Where is recall in the US Constitution?
And that's just a few phrases from what he said. OY!

Click here to read on!

Judgment sought on Executive Administrator contract

In this morning's Standard Times, Curt Brown has an article about a suit for declaratory judgment filed in Bristol County Superior Court on the validity of the Executive Administrator's contract. The text of the complaint can be found here.
The four count complaint alleges that the contract is invalid because ...

...it is in conflict with the terms of Chapter 358 of the Acts of 1992 of the General Court which established the position of the Dartmouth Executive Administrator, is in conflict with M.G.L. Chapter 41, Section 108N, is in violation of Section 4.4 of the Town Charter(MS Word file), and was executed in violation of the Open Meeting Law Civil Chapter 39, Section 23B. Session laws of the General Court are not available before 1997 so I could not provide a link here.
The Select Board is trying to resolve this issue once and for all by asking for this judgment. What do you think?

Click here to read on!

Rush - not Limbaugh

These guys rock!
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Library forum - Jan 21 at DHS

I received this announcement from Audrey Quail at the Dartmouth Public Library

State of Massachusetts Libraries Public Library Summit
Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 6:30 P.M.
Dartmouth High School Auditorium
555 Bakerville Road
Dartmouth, Massachusetts 02748

Concerned about the funding of public libraries in your city or town? Are there better funding alternatives? More cost - effective possibilities? Let’s start the conversation. Be sure to attend this informational program that will focus on how public libraries are funded and the regional services, collaborations and resource sharing that currently exist.

The panelists for this program will include:
Robert Maier, Director of Mass. Board of Library Commissioners
Cindy Roach, Regional Administrator, Southeastern Mass. Library System
Deborah Conrad, Executive Director, SAILS Library Network
Sharon Weiner, Dean of Library Services, UMass Dartmouth
Laurie Dias-Mitchell, Director, Library Media Center, Dartmouth H.S.
Rosemary Neto Hazzard, President of the Dartmouth Library Foundation, Inc.
Marcia Beardsley, President of the Friends of Dartmouth Libraries

These panelists will provide an overview of the unique interaction between local, regional and state library services in Massachusetts and the outsourcing and regionalization of services

more after jump ...

...

currently practiced by our public library
systems. A question and answer period will follow the presentation.
This summit is being sponsored by the Dartmouth Public Libraries Board of
Trustees.
For more information, contact Denise Medeiros 508-999-0726 ext
371 or email denisem@sailsinc.org.

I will try to attend and see what I can learn. How about you?
Click here to read on!

Oregonians happy with LSSI library

Frankg has sent me an article from the Grant's Pass OR Daily Courier written by Howard Huntington. The Jackson County library system had been closed due to budget constraints and Library Systems and Services (LSSI) was contracted to reopen them on a reduced budget. You can find the article here. The article begins,

Officials and citizens had almost nothing but praise in interviews about the job Library Systems and Services has done running the local library and 14 others in the Jackson County system. “We couldn’t be more pleased. They’ve met and exceeded all the aspects of our contract,” says county Commissioner Dennis “C.W.” Smith

More after jump...


...

“They are very creative with their personnel and all the employees seem to be very happy,” Smith says. “While the hours are limited, we are almost where we were” before all 15 libraries closed in April 2007 for lack of funds.

Jackson County is operating 15 libraries on a $3.5 million budget at reduced hours. In contrast, our library, Southworth, is open 63 hours a week at a cost of almost $1 million.
Click here to read on!

Principals and Athletic Director retiring

Curt Brown has news in today's Standard Times on the retirements of two principals and the high school athletic director. The middle and high school principals and the high school athletic director will be retiring after the end of the school year. Click here to read on!

Mr. Raposo and Mr. Ventura on recall

There were two letters about the Town Meeting warrant article to insert a recall petition in the Town Charter in today's Standard Times. Mr Raposo wrote in support of it here and Mr. Ventura wrote to urge that the article be postponed for further review here.
While I could support some sort of recall ability being added to the Town Charter, I think that the article proposed is faulty for reasons which I wrote about here, here, and here In his letter, Mr Raposo ...

...says,

The citizens of Dartmouth do not currently have the ability to hold any of our elected officials accountable to we the people.

Actually, we do have that ability. The regular elections provide that.He also says,

So on Jan. 8, I implore all Town Meeting members to attend and to support the recall petition without any special amendments or provisions

The article as proposed has several conflicting and confusing passages which would cause problems if a recall were to be attempted. From the first section, which is unclear as to the number of members of any board that can be recalled, to the second, which requires either 200 or 500 signatures on the recall affidavit, to the following sections on the timing of actions by various parties, which are not clear as to the start of the time periods, this article cries out for revision. I think that sending this article to the legislature, as is, would be an embarrassment to the town given its obvious failings. Click here to read on!

Late night thread

I love these guys!!

THEY ROCK
Click here to read on!

Gracie to run against Carney

Frankg emailed,

This message is going out to a large group of folks, those that I have had contact with about town issues, those that I have worked with on committees, friends, and especially those that have haunted me to run for the Select Board. If someone does not want to be on this list, I apologize in advance, and just let me know and I will remove you promptly.

Today, I took out my nomination papers to run for the Bob Carney Select Board seat. I have no personal issue with Bob, and in fact thought he was not going to run again. I feel that with the issues that face our town more progressive thinking is needed by our leaders. What we have done before is not good enough anymore if our town is to flourish. We need to figure this all out to ensure a prosperous future for Dartmouth. As a 3rd generation resident it really pains me to see all that has happened, and I want to be part of the rebuilding process.

(more after jump)

I have been serving on committees to try and help, starting with the Tax Classification Committee, worked on the Missed Opportunities sub-committee, got appointed to the Budget and Revenue Task Force, and currently am the Chairman of the Privatization Study Group. Much of this work has been frustrating, and my most satisfying venture was the work I did on my own, digging at the history of the split tax, doing the research for why and when it is appropriate, and fighting for its implementation. It clearly is called for in our town's situation, especially in light of all the business growth that has transpired over the years, and the lack of equal assessing practices with residential properties.

I have been toying with running for a SB seat for more than a year, and many of you know I have waffled on occasion. What the decision came down to was that it is probably less painful to do that job than it is to sit on the sidelines without much power to influence, and watch some folks do it incorrectly despite their best efforts. I think the evolution that has taken place with the SB over the last couple of elections is clearly a step in the right direction, and I look forward to being able to lend a hand. Government should serve the taxpayer, and be accountable to them, not the other way around. We need to change things in our town, and the longer we take to make real change the more painful things will be. The clock is ticking, and has been for at least the last 3 years.

Given all that, I first need to win an election, so my intent of this mailing and future ones will be for communication, and asking for some help occasionally to get through the process of getting elected. The first 2 items on the agenda are getting the signatures needed for my nomination, and thoughts on fundraising. If anyone has a desire to sign my papers let me know and we can make arrangements to do so. Even better, if anyone knows some other folks who would like to sign I would gladly provide you with a sheet to accommodate them too. I have already had an offer for this and I am very grateful for the help. 50 signatures are required but the town wants 60 to make sure there are at least 50 valid registered voters on the list. I wouldn't mind turning in many more than that to be absolutely sure the requirement is covered, and as a show of support. If anyone has some good ideas on fundraising please pass them along to me.

If you also know anyone interested in my campaign, wants to ask questions, or offer comments, I have created a separate e-mail account to try and keep things sorted. It is FrankLovesDartmouth@comcast.net, so feel free to pass it along. Anyone reading this is of course welcome to use my main e-mail address, the one tied to this note, if they prefer. My plan is to always be honest, respectful, and be available. Everyone in town will never agree on everything, but as long as we all treat each other with respect and honesty we should be able to put some of our differences aside and work towards a common goal.

I appreciate any and all help, so please let me know if you have any interest, and to what extent. Even helping to spread the word is a big help.

Thanks, and best regards,
Frank

Please support Mr. Gracie's candidacy in any way that you can. I understand that some people will support or oppose every candidate. I hope that you will not only tell us who you support but also, why you support their candidacy. Please tell us what issues are important to you and why you think a particular candidate will serve that agenda. Thanks.
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Governor endorses local tax option

The Standard Times had an article by David Kibbe today in which Governor Patrick endorsed the Municipal Partnership Act. This legislation would allow towns to impose a 1-2% tax on restaurant meals. The article quoted the governor,

“I think we have greater urgency to look at that and other options from the Municipal Partnership Act because of the inability of the state to sustain the same kinds of levels of local aid,” Gov. Patrick told reporters in response to a question on whether he would refile the municipal bill. “That’s just the economic reality we are facing.”

The bill failed to pass in the last session ...
(hat tip to Wally for calling my attention to S-T article in comments)

...of the General Court. I think that towns with large commercial sectors, like Dartmouth, may have to agree to share the revenue generated with other towns which have little or no commercial development in order to get this act through the legislature. My take is that a share of increased revenue is better than no increased revenue. The Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) and Boston's mayor Menino is a strong proponents of the act.
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Mr. Sharples on recall

Robert Sharples has a letter in today's Standard Times in which he sharply criticizes Select Board members Dias and Carney. His conclusion is that perhaps the town would be better served if the two of them would be recalled.
I do not support the recall of elected officials for any reason other than criminality or immorality. Taking unpopular positions on votes or issues, being ineffective, or other failings can be addressed in the normal election process.
I hope that this will be done in April and ...

...that Mr. Gracie and Ms. Gilbert are elected to the board. I don't think I could state a case more eloquently than Mr. Sharples has.
One additional point I could make is that Ms. Dias said it was the intention of the former Select Board, on which she and Mr. Carney served, to give all town management employees what are essentially lifetime contracts. That statement still has me flabbergasted.
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Meeting Minutes and Open Meeting Law

Citizens and even Select Board members have been stymied when trying to obtain the minutes of public meetings. Massachusetts has several laws that govern access to public records and that provide for open government.
The Public Records Act has requirements for the maintenance and availability of records. The Public Record Act can be found here. The Attorney General's guidelines can be found here. The maintenance and production of public records is not an optional activity. Governments within Massachusetts are required to follow this law. There is no exemption for executive session minutes. They are also public records and must be released when the need for the confidentiality of executive session has passed.
The Open Meeting Law was passed to ensure ...

... that governments act with transparency and accountability. The Open Meeting Law can be found here. There are only a few exceptions that allow meetings of government bodies to be held out of public view. They are listed in the law and in this guideline in section D
I am aware of several instances where requests for information have not been handled in accordance with these statutes and in my opinion, there is no excuse for that. Some have pointed out that the town employees are busy. While that may be true, it does not excuse the town from complying with the law.
What do you think?
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