The Town Meeting Moderator has appointed Mark Eisenberg and Frank Gracie to the Finance Committee to replace Jason Wentworth and Greg Lynam who have stepped down from that body. Thanks to Mr. Lynam and Mr. Wenworth for their service and thnaks to Mr. Eisenberg and Mr. Gracie for stepping forward to serve. Of all the town's volunteer bodies, the Finance Committee may require the highest commitment of time and energy.
A special thank you to Mr. Lynam, who has done yeoman's work on the Finance Committee during his tenure. Mr. Lynam basically took it upon himself to create a spreadsheet, which he called the MOB file, that could be used to analyze the town's finances. Mr. Lynam and the committee did not feel ...
... that the information they were getting was being presented in a consistent, understandable way. It was a herculean effort to create the file and to maintain it. Mr. Lynam did so and did it extremely well.
On a personal note, I owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Lynam for the time and effort that he spent in teaching me the ins and outs of the budget, state aid and many other issues. Mr. Lynam and I do not always agree on policy but I have tremendous respect for his insight and opinion. Thank you, Greg.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Changes on the Finance Committee
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25 comments:
Greg's departure is a great loss to the Finance Committee. While some had issues with his style and conservative views, I always felt he truly had the best interests of the town in mind when making decisions.
I'm not familiar with Eisenberg, but Frank Gracie seems like a detail-oriented person. He also appears to make decisions on the conservative side, so maybe he will take over where Greg left off!
While Dartmouth may not be in scalding hot water financially at this time, we still need to watch our spending because the economy is threatening to take many YEARS to recover, and may never reach the levels we experienced in the past.
Mark Eisenberg and Frank Gracie are both fine men. They will do well.
Bill could you please elaborate on the three quarters of million dollar error that Mr. Cressman made during a recent fin. com. and SB meeting. It was mentioned in Mr. Lynam's letter in the Chronicle this Wednesday. There seems to be a lot of secracy going on.
Thanks to Mr. Gracie and Mr. Eisenberg for stepping up to this very difficult job. A job that will be made more difficult than necessary by both Mr. Watson and Ms. Stone. I hope the voters will take into account the stress that both have placed upon the town with their aggressive "spend at all costs" approaches on the SB. While I understand Mr. Lynam cited more than conflicts with Mr. Watson (in particular) for stepping down, one need only to look at the very difficult personalities Mr. Lynam has dealt with in the past and ask why he could not deal with the SB now? Clearly we need more talent and ability than what Mr. Watson and Ms. Stone offer to assure ongoing fiscal responsibility for the town.
You have the advantage on me, I have no idea what was published in the Chronicle. Perhaps you can tell us what was said. Are you saying it is a secret but was published in the newspaper? How does that qualify?
I wouldn't call it "talent and ability" that Mr. Watson and Ms. Stone lack.
I'd call it a total disregard for the residents and their financial well-being. They are certainly not acting in a financially responsible manner, and apparently cannot see beyond their own backyards with respect to what the majority of residents face with respect to their personal finances.
There's a lot of activity going on in a certain part of town and even for a certain segment of the population. Interestingly, how quickly Ms. Stone acted to put forth her grandiose plans for the schoolyard that suddenly became a community park.
Just what part of the community did she speak to when she says she is often contacted by residents?
(And what does the other part of town get. Wind turbines.)
Selectmen Mike Watson is a man with a liberal slant on social and fiscal issues, a school teacher who feeds off the taxpayers. As a strong male, I've offend wonder how male teachers, match up with female teaching.
Watson reminds me of the medic in the movie “saving private Ryan” who failed to carry out an order to kill a German prisoner. The same German, along with other Germans return and kill several American soldiers. At the end, the army medic kills the German, he should have killed.
Maybe selectman Watson will wake up and understand that everything has a cost factor and we the tax payers are holding the monies.
Experience is the best teacher.
We need a system of electing town selectmen that will represent more sections of town. Watson, Stone, Michaud, all live in South Dartmouth. Trimble, McDonald, are from the North end.
The new charter appointed members should look at amending the charter and allowing the election of seven selectmen.
One selectman elected from each two precincts, and two elected at large. Example: Precincts 1 and 2 elect a selectman, 3 and 4 elect a selectman, 5 and 6....7 and 8....9 and 10 for a total of five selectmen and two selectmen elected at large, shall equal 7 selectmen.
Everyone should know that town elections results are determined by the number of people who vote. North Dartmouth has a very low voter turn out. South Dartmouth has a much larger voter turn out, resulting in more South Dartmouth people elected to the select board.
Time for change....yes we can.
Bill, I quote from part of the
letters to the editor from Greg Lynam.
"In a recent joint meeting, we were given the weekend to review the provided budget information. Mr. Cressman had applied School funding inappropriately resulting in a half million dollar error that was simply Paul-parroted without question." "In the same meeting Mr. Cressman offered a Chapter 90
highway figure that was Paul Parroted in a spirited diatribe by Mr. Watson, unfortunately it too was in error, this time by a quarter million dollars"
The Chronicle is on sale all week so hopefully you will get it and read the entire story.
I did not say that it was a secret about the article but among certain parties. What is going on?
We are all going to miss Greg as he has the interest of the town and it's residents.
The two at-large Select Board members should be made up of one from North Dartmouth and one from South Dartmouth.
I like the idea of a Board member representing two precincts. After all, who knows their section of town and their neighborhood better than those that live in it. And do Board members themselves really reach out to residents who live in the part of town that they don't (except maybe at election time when they go around knocking on all the doors they can, and have their supporters doing the same)?
Both North and South Dartmouth should be represented equally. Give the other side of Town a fair shot at what happens in Town and their neighborhoods. You can't call it discriminatory if both North and South are equally represented. And nobody can scream "foul."
I think that idea should be looked at by the charter committee, as Anonymous 8:21 suggested.
We need to review the two wind turbines finances and the statement made in the letter to the s-t on August 25,2010 . It looks as though wind turbine advocates are taking a second look at the economics in the proposal.
It appears people will become a little more vocal in opposition to these two turbines .
Check this quote from the news :
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100825/PUB02/8250413/1041
"What fool would undertake a $9.5 mil wind generator project having no previous experience with such things, with unproven and unknown revenue returns, all the while subjecting the town to the very certain liability of $1 mil a year in P&I costs without planning to offset that liability with adequate additional reserves? When we take on the additional liabilities of Full Day Kindergarten, Wind Turbines or other large projects in uncertain fiscal times we must adjust our reserves upward to compensate."
Not so much an attack on the turbines as it is on the failure to build adequate reserves to offset potential problems.
I agree with the post that includes additional selectmen. Dartmouth is the third largest town, per square mile, in Massachusetts. Our town population is approximately 35,000 thousand. In 1993 the select board was increased from three selectmen, to five selectmen. A town wide election elected three additional selectmen, all from South Dartmouth. Along with Bob Miller and Len Gonzales this gave the town five selectmen, all from SOUTH Dartmouth.
What happened during this period in time?
The birth of the Crapo hill landfill dump was positioned in the NORTH end of town. If you feel that wind turbines will effect your home value, try a landfill site.
Developers began purchasing large parcels of land for home construction........most in the NORTH end of town.
The DNRT, certainly a worthy group of conversationalist, and along with the financial help of Dartmouth taxpayers, and other land gifts have been actively purchasing large land parcels for preserving important land, and protecting our lands through stewardship. Here are a few land preserving acquisitions....Cornell Peter's creek reserve 20 acres, Crocker reserve 6 acres, Bogusky/Purdy 25 acres, Salt creek farms 87 acres, Tabors 11 acres, Golden 22 acres, Parson preserve 32 acres, Destruction brook, Allen's Mill, Smith farm, Slocum's river reserve, this is just a few mentioned locations that this fine groupnaturalistinaturalistic The only thing worth mentioning is the above land reserves are all located in SOUTH Dartmouth. The DNRT has purchased and preserved land from the NORTH end of town, but not where the Crapo hill landfill dump is located. The retired Russells Mills Landfill is capped and monitored, but God only knows where all that sludge is running off too. “WAKE UP DARTMOUTH”
If town meeting members agreed to amend the charter and allow the town representation by precinct board members, as mentioned by the poster, then and only then, will we witness a change in Dartmouth politics.
Bill, The Alternative Energy Committee (AEC), chaired by Dr. Ron DiPippo retired this year. I do remember that he said the town may be required to hold as much as $500,000.00 in some kind of a fund in order to get the wind turbine project off the ground.
Is this the $500,000 that Greg Lyman was talking about or is there another $500,000 figure in addition to the money to be set aside for the wind turbines ?
Is there any updates on the town website on the wind turbine funding and is the court case costing taxpayer any of the cash reserves ?
It seems that all my life I have heard the South Dartmouth vs. North Dartmouth debate. I have long supported regional representation on the SB as part of the means to end this nonsense. Having said that, it will never happen. No way the powers to be will give up the advantage they enjoy with the voters who actually consistently cast their votes.
No more mention of the Peninsula Compost Group?
Guess they've moved on from Dartmouth.
We certainly can't change our bylaws in enough time so that they will be able to build their facility in town. Too bad we discovered that bylaw after the visits back and forth by Peninsula Group's reps and our leaders and officials, to look into the feasibility of a facility in our area.
Is this another "oops" where someone didn't do his homework before embarking on what looked like a really worthwhile initiative for our town, and one that would not be intrusive in the manner of the turbines?
Does anyone know how much hurricane wind a turbine can withstand? Maybe not the entire turbine, just its blades?
How far would they travel, if they were to be damaged by wind?
After reading Mr. Lynam's response to Mr. Watson in today’s S-T, I find myself in 100% agreement with Mr. Lynam's assessment of where the powers to be in Dartmouth stand in stark contrast to fiscal responsibility. Mr. Watson was elected because enough of the voters felt he would be a strong advocate to increased spending. So was Ms. Stone. So far, one would have to be deaf, dumb, blind and uninformed to not be aware of this spending track record on the part of both of them. The additional points Mr. Lynam makes regarding Mr. Watson's and (on occasion) Mr. Cressman's lack of knowledge of the subject matter typically at hand also rings true. How annoying it is to have to listen to Mr. Watson babble on repetitively as if we are all incapable of understanding the subject matter being discussed the first go around. Well voters, you wanted liberal and free spending moonbats on the SB, and you got them. Get ready for the call of the override.
Mr. Watson is a history teacher. Maybe he feels he needs to yell at us because maybe he forgets he's not in class anymore when he's at a Select Board meeting.
How embarrassing it was to watch Mr. Watson's performance at the August 30th SB meeting. As he continued to argue on about how the SB should hire and fire employees that report to Mr. Cressman, he clearly showed how unqualified he is for the SB. All four other SB members attempted to educate Mr. Watson about the folly of his position. He obviously never got it. This isn't a grade eleven class Mr. Watson. This is the real world where managers need to have the final responsibility for their employees. As part of his harangue, Mr. Watson predicted his future electability. Sadly for the town of Dartmouth, he may be right.
Watson is just another Barney Frank. He thinks if he bullies people and talks over them, that means he wins the argument. It's time to leave the schoolyard Mr. Watson and join the rest of the adults.
Why doesn't someboady ask Ray Oswald if he would like to join FinCom. He seems to have some good idea's.
As he continued to argue on about how the SB should hire and fire employees that report to Mr. Cressman.
Well I hate to tell you Watson is correct, the majority of employees that you speak of, are "CIVIL SERVICE" employees. What does this mean, well these employees are hired and fired by the appointing authority, which mean the Selectboard, not Cressman. The Town charter and Human Resources Division Of Massachusetts, recognize only the Selectboard, as the appointing authority, not the all mighty CRESSMAN.
to: September 20, 2010 9:11 AM
Thanks Bob for checking in again. I know a lot of these people are your cronies and you certainly wouldn't want them held accountable for their job performance alone. Mr. Watson's ramblings held no substance whatsoever. Any management 101 course would cover basic issues such as accountability and performance. Perhaps you should enroll in that course and increase your knowledge? Mr. Cressman's plan to reform our system is just that, a plan. Frankly, I see a lot of logic in it.
I challenge anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes with Ray Oswald to still want to recommend him for the FinCom or any other key town post.
Thanks Bob for checking in again.
Barry I am not bob, but i do practice labor law and happen to know the ins and outs of Civil Service.
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