Dartmouth Library receives certification (with reservations)

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners has announced a list of municipalities that sought waivers for the FY2010 Municipal Appropriation Requirement (MAR) and will receive the certification that is required for state aid to libraries. Dartmouth was one of 96 communities that sought and received such a waiver although our town was one of four whose waiver was granted with reservation. The state Board considers a waiver with reservation to indicate that a significant gap exists between library funding and funding of other departments.
Only the Town of Hull had their waiver request rejected and lost certification.
One consequence of state certification is that the towns can continue to participate in the state's SAILS inter-library loan program. The amount of state aid that is provided in modest about $40,000 but the ability to access the collections across the state is valuable. Given the financial strains faced by municipalities ...

... across the Commnnwealth, it is likely that funding will continue to be an issue for a few years.

I posted about the certification requirements here back in 2008. If the 96 towns who were not able to meet the commissioners requirements formed their own inter-library lending association, or joined one other than SAILS, I think that the state might decide to change their requirements. Back when I wrote the linked article in 2008, there was some thought of privatizing library services. I am still not convinced that privatization would be a bad thing. I am certain that the state's funding requirements are going to be a problem for Dartmouth in 2011 and beyond. Make no mistake, the Dartmouth Library Trustees are doing the best that they can in a difficult situation but the deck is stacked against them. The funding requirements do not consider cost saving measures that may be taken. They require increased spending year over year.
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Another candidate pulls Select Board nomination papers

Melisa Avila of Pardon Hill Road has taken out nomination papers for the Select Board seat now held by Nat Dias. Ms. Dias has announced she will not seek re-election. If the two candidates return the nomination papers, the race will be between David Gonsalves and Ms Avila. I don't know either Ms. Avila or Mr. Gonsalves or what their positions are on matters affecting the town.
No challenger has yet asked for nomination papers for the other Select Board seat held by Joe Michaud. Mr Michaud is running ...
... for re-election and has also announced his intention to run for the state House seat held by John Quinn in November. Mr. Quinn is relinquishing his long held seat to run for Bristol County Sheriff.
I am surprised at the apparent lack of interest in the Select Board races given the amount of sturm and drang that some issues have generated over that past couple of years.
What are your thoughts? Why are there so few candidates?
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Constitutional rights and terrorists

Matt Yglesias has an excellent post here about the fact that rights are not afforded to suspects when the authorities decide it is appropriate but to all people all the time. It is an essential part of our democracy and these rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights amendments to the Constitution.
The crux of Matt's argument is ...

... that the FBI and/or President do not decide to give a suspect rights. A suspect has rights that are guaranteed by our basic law, the Constitution, and the government is required to inform them of those rights.
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Select Board interviews Police Chief candidates

This afternoon, the Select Board interviewed two highly qualified and impressive candidates for the Police Chief position. The two candidates were narrowed down from 86 applicants. The Board met in executive session prior to the interviews to hear the report of Municipal Resources, the firm that was tasked with identifying and winnowing down the field. After hearing their recommendations the Board decided to interview the top two candidates out of the six who participated in an assessment center exercise the day before.
The first candidate interviewed was Captain Timothy Lee of the Providence RI Police Department. Captain Lee lives in Rehoboth, MA. Captain Lee currently serves as training officer for Providence. He is also the Civilian Complaint Hearing Officer. I was quite impressed with the breadth of Captain Lee's experience, his knowledge and associations with local departments including the UMass Dartmouth force, Sheriff's office and New Bedford and Fall River departments.
The second candidate was Chief Todd Miller of Texas. Captain Miller ...

... has been a Police Chief since 1976, mostly in the upper Midwest. He served as Chief in Terrel, Texas since 2003. Chief Miller was also an impressive candidate and has extensive credentials in his education, in forging alliances with many stakeholders in community policing, and in leading regional efforts in policing. He also has extensive contacts in the area through his work in promoting community policing.
After interviewing each candidate for more than an hour, the Board decided to think about which to appoint and return on our regular meeting on Monday, February 8 to deliberate and decide on a new Police Chief.
The interviews today were broadcast on DCTV Channel 18 and I hope that the taped program is shown again over the next few days. I don't see it on the schedule but I plan to call and ask for it to be added.
I am interested in what others think after seeing the candidates interviews. Let me know in comments.


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Town earns AA bond rating

Standard and Poor's (S&P) has issued a AA rating for Dartmouth's general obligation bonds. The bond rating company said this about our town's financial position,

"Based on a review of several key financial practices, Dartmouth's financial management practices are considered "good" under Standard & Poor's Financial Management Assessment. The town is thorough in its budget preparation and forecasting processes, conservative in nature with assumptions borne out by variance analyses. Along with the budget, management creates a five-year capital improvement plan that identifies funding sources and a three-year budget forecast. State statutes guide the town's investment policy. The town does not have any formal
debt management policies nor does it maintain a fund balance policy; however the board of selectman target 5% of expenditures in reserves, and has recently finalized a policy limiting one-time revenue uses solely to capital expenditures."

I think that this review accurately reflects the conservative approach taken by the town in financial matters and ...

... is a credit to the town administration, Finance Committee, and Town Meeting as well as the Select Board.
The rationale for the long term outlook from S&P was given as,

In our opinion, the long-term rating reflects the town's:
· Strong and stable economic base, which is anchored by the presence of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Campus;
· Strong income and wealth indicators, which are particularly significant given the high student population;
· Good financial management and good reserve levels heading into 2010; and
· Low overall debt burden, and rapid debt amortization.

To be able to have such a good report in tough financial times bodes well for our future.
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State lawmakers call for change

AmberPaw has a post at Blue Mass Group about eight courageous state representatives who are asking for increased democracy in our legislature. I call them courageous because it is very risky politically to go against the power structure. From an op-ed letter in Cape Cod Today, the lawmakers note,

"We clearly see that consolidation of power in the Speaker has given the Massachusetts House a less than democratic form of governance and we believe that the most important thing we can do as members is point out what is so obvious that it has been taken for granted."

In order to correct that situation, Representatives Matthew C. Patrick, Thomas M. Stanley, Lida E. Harkins, William G. Greene, Jr., Will N. Brownsberger, Steven J. D'Amico, Joseph R. Driscoll and John F. Quinn sent a letter to their colleagues asking them to support five initiatives.

To begin this process, we are focusing on five areas that we believe will begin to restore the balance of power in the membership and insure that issues will receive both proper consideration and debate. We have developed specific proposals to:
1. Ensure that Home Rule Petitions can be discharged from the Rules Committee in a timely fashion;
2. Make the state budget process in the House more transparent, and make the House operating budget specifics accessible to all members;
3. Provide a leadership election and committee appointment process that distributes more power to the members and less power to the Speaker;
4. Provide legislators with greater control of the operating budgets for their offices; and
5. Eliminate or narrow legislative exemptions to the open meeting law, public records law, and purchasing standards.

A group, Fix Beacon Hill, was trying to get signatures for a ballot initiative ...

... to change the state constitution and implement some of the changes that the reps are seeking in this case. I posted about the effort here. I think that the effort is now defunct as they were not able to get the requisite number of signatures.
Still the goal of reform in our legislature is a worthy one and I hope that the efforts of the representatives here will receive some publicity and generate interest in change.

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Lincoln Park Legislation on House agenda

From the Orders of the Day for Thursday February 4th, 2010 in the House of Representatives

214. [H611] Bill creating the Lincoln Park infrastructure financing district in the town of Dartmouth (House, No. 611).

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State's first public law school approved at UMass Dartmouth

The state Board of Higher Education approved the merger of Southern New England School of Law with the UMass system. That means that UMass Dartmouth will soon include a law school in their university offerings. Kudos to the many who worked to get this done. Congratulations to Chancellor McCormack, her faculty, and staff. The Fall River Times Herald article on the vote can be found here
No more after the jump


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Fairhaven wind turbine project proposed

The Town of Fairhaven has announced plans to put two commercial sized wind turbines near their waste water treatment plant. Like the Dartmouth project, Fairhaven will take advantage of the new net metering rules that pay retail rates for excess generation. This project had been permitted by the Fairhaven planning board as a commercial venture but stalled on threatened lawsuits by opponents. The municipal use may be considered an as-of-right use, ...

... so no special permit is required according to the New Bedford Standard Times.
The Standard Times article on the project is at this link. The article says the turbines will be 1.65MW macines and stand 460 feet tall including the blade height. That would seem to indicate that they are similar to Vestas V82 machines with a 41 meter blade on 100 meter towers.
I was talking to my brother this weekend and he has noticed that they are putting in a wind farm of some 30 wind turbines on a mountaintop near Cresson, PA.
Perhaps as the machines become more commonplace, they will gain more acceptance.
What do you think? Tell us in comments,
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UMass law school decision Tuesday

The Fall River Herald News reports here that the Board of Higher Education will decide on Tuesday whether to accept the merger of the Southern New England School of Law (SNESL) with the UMass system. SNESL has offered to donate their campus and assets to the UMass system.
Arguments were presented by both sides of the merger question at a meeting of the Board of Higher Education this past Tuesday. The Herald News report on that session is at this link. One argument put forward by Former Attorney General Tom Reilly, who is representing a group of private law schools, is that the method proposed for funding the school is illegal. The proposal is that the new public law school would be largely funded by student fees rather than tuition. Mr. Reilly argued that all payments should be remitted to the state rather than be retained by UMass. If his argument was to be adopted, it would turn higher education funding at UMass on its ear. Fees are currently about 7 times the amount of tuition at UMass campuses and represent the bulk of the system's funding. If the colleges could not retain the fees, it would throw their entire budgets into question.
Massachusetts' financial support of our public universities is among the lowest per capita rate in the nation. The trend of that support has been downward as well. Well educated citizens have much higher earnings (and pay more taxes as a result) over their lifetimes than those without college degrees. I think it is in the best interest of the citizenry to support affordable public universities for that reason. What do you think?

And here is the rest.
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