Author Archives: dunster

Town Meeting ’10 Session 1

Out-of-town readers: Yeah, it’s Town Meeting time again. That means you get more Arlington information than any reasonable non-resident would want.  I’ll see if this gets me in a writing groove and it turns me on some more non-Arlington writing, too.

I take notes during Town Meeting. They are not official in any way. As I listen to people speak, I scribble notes. I’m sure that, at times, I mishear or misunderstand the speaker, but my notes represent what I hear at the time. I then publish the notes every night after the meeting. I do go back and make a few edits as errors are pointed out to me.

I do not try to reproduce my entire notepad for this online version. Sometimes I relay a quote from a specific speaker. Most of the time I only summarize the discussion. At points I give a purely personal opinion; those are clearly labeled like this: Personal note.

Town Meeting was called to order at 8:05PM.  The Menotomy Minutemen (in Revolutionary War garb) led the meeting in the Star-Spangled Banner.

Town Moderator John Leone announced that his plan was to have a single invocation at Town Meeting, not every night.  Town Meeting Member Richard Phelps gave the invocation.

Moderator Leone gave some remarks.  He noted the importance of brevity.  He has copies of Town Meeting Time available for sale.  There is an information session on the “stretch code” tomorrow at 7pm.  There are 6 vacancies in town meeting, in precincts 5, 6, 11, and 12 that are all available for appointment.

Selectman Greeley and Sue Sheffler gave an introduction of our guests from our sister city in Japan and gave an overview of the schedule of events.

The new and re-elected town meeting members were sworn in together.  In the past, the new members were sworn in separately, and received a round of applause from their new colleagues.  Even though it’s a small thing, I always thought it was emotionally powerful.  As a new member, you feel welcome and special.  It loses a little of the “specialness” when the swearing is done in one group.  I hope that Leone returns to the two-group process in the future.

We approved the rules of the meeting. We permit specific non-town meeting members who are members of committees, town employees, the press, etc. to sit in the “enclosure” aka the main meeting floor.  Most  non-members must sit in the gallery above the floor.  We did a couple other minor items including noting that the meeting had been properly announced to the town and that we would reconvene on Wednesday.

Article 2 – State of the Town Address. Chairman of the Board of Selectmen Diane Mahon gave the state of the town.  She kept it brief, less than five minutes.  She thanked retiring Town Clerk Corinne Rainville for her service. She touched on personal financial hardship and the town’s financial hardship. She encouraged further work on regional flood planning.  She encouraged a “collaborative” approach on controlling health care costs.  She talked about the town’s strengths.

Article 3 – Announcements and resolutions and reports were heard.  Dick Smith proposed a resolution endorsing “Stand Against Racism” that was endorsed.  The Board of Selectmen’s report, the Redevelopment Board’s report, and the Finance Committee’s report were accepted.  FinComm Chair Al Tosti spoke for a couple minutes about the budget processes and challenges.

Article 4 – John FitzMaurice was appointed Measurer of Wood and Bark.

Article 5 – James O’Conor of Precinct 19 and Bill Logan of Precinct 2 were nominated for Assistant Town Moderator.  The election will be on Wednesday.

Article 6 – Variance Application Review. Voted no action on Redevelopment Board recommendation.

Article 7 – Bracket Signs. Planning Director Carol Kowalski explained that the proposed bylaw change would make it permissible for businesses in certain districts (East Arlington, the center, the Heights) to have signs that stick out perpendicularly from their buildings.  It would make it easier for pedestrians to see the stores, especially on side streets.  There were several questions about sign dimensions, possible town liability, grandfathering, and how they would look.  One questioner suggested this change would be anti-business – that was a boggler.  The change was approved 162-21.

Article 8 – Research and Development. This article is the first of several that would get Arlington designated as a “green community” and be eligible for state grants.  This article would explicitly permit research and development of “green” industry in certain zones.  After a question about fire protection, it passed 178-5.

We took a 13 minute break.  The short break was great!  I hope we continue to be that disciplined.

Article 9 – Land-based Solar Panels. State law already permits solar panels to be on roofs.  This would permit them to be on the ground in industrial areas.  The change was approved unanimously.

Article 10 – Fencing Used as Screening. I’ll start by saying this was a botched presentation.  The presentation of the article included written, verbal, and pictured descriptions of “property owners and abutters.”  The obvious implication was that this was changing the regulation of fences between neighbors.   However, this was actually a change for something called a space buffer: “6.16  Screening and space buffers shall be required in any industrial (I) or business (B) district which abuts certain buildable residential lots.” The ensuing debate was largely spent sorting through this confusion in some cases, and was never understood by many people in the meeting. Roland Chaput gave the presentation. The proposed change would make it so the wall portion of those buffers could be more than a “solid” wall – it could be wood, iron, coated chain link, etc. if the abutters and the building inspector agreed to it.  Really, that’s a very narrow change when properly explained.  I’m scrapping all my notes on the debate because they’re just confusing. Change approved, 142-10.

Article 11 – Illumination for Signs.  Andrew West gave the presentation.  The proposed change would make explicit that signs must be “interior lit” like a plastic sign with bulbs concealed inside it or directly lit, like a spotlight shining on the sign on the wall.  Signs cannot be a “visible light source” like neon or LED.  In the discussion it was explained that neon “open” signs inside the building are still permitted.  Several speakers complained that if the intent was to regulate the lighting brightness, we should do so directly, and not try to tackle it through this indirect means. I had some sympathy for this argument, but my experience has been that trying to make technical regulations like that are also difficult.  The noise ordinance debates of the past are examples.  How and where you measure things and in what conditions makes it very difficult to write well. It was said that marquee signs (like at theaters) would still be OK.  This change was apparently driven by a LED sign at a gas station that the building inspector thought was legal, but the planning director did not, and this would clarify the rule.  Leo Doherty was concerned that the Chamber of Commerce hadn’t had the opportunity to weigh in, and moved to postpone debate for a week, which failed on voice vote.  The change was approved 116-32.

Article 12 – Zoning Board of Adjustment Bylaws. Bruce Fitzsimmons gave the basics.  The current board has 3 members, and a ruling requires all three to agree.  The change would increase the board to 5 members, and a ruling would require 4 to agree. Clarissa Rowe explained that the Board of Selectmen wanted the change on the advice of the people they had interviewed for the position during recent vacancies.  There were several questions about quorum and vote requirements.  The change was approved 147-4.

Someone who’s name I didn’t catch gave notice of reconsideration on article 12.  Brian Rehrig gave notice on articles 9-12.

The meeting was adjourned at 11pm.

The Taste of Star Wars

Everyday, I marvel at wonders of the internet.  Today’s is extra special, because apparently hundreds of thousands of Germans watch this for the fun of it.

Supersonic

Totally cool video here of an Atlas V launch.  The first 30 seconds are pointless, the next 60 seconds are interesting, and the 1:30-2:00 are just awesome. Hit the little button in the lower-right and watch it full screen.

Running the Boston Marathon for Autism

I know a handful of you read that title and said, “DAN IS GOING RUNNING?”  Don’t worry – I’m not that rash.  I’m just blogging about someone else who is actually doing the running.

My friend Melisa Thorne (former colleague at eRoom) is doing the hard work.  She’s running in the Boston Marathon.  She’s running for the Flutie Foundation for Autism.  She’s collecting donations to support their work for families with autistic children.

I know you all give to charities, and I know you all pick worthy ones.  But it can’t hurt for me to give this one a nudge.  Melisa is a great person, and she’s running for a great cause.  If you haven’t done your charity donations yet, I hope you consider sending a few dollars her way.  You can make a donation at http://www.firstgiving.com/melisathorne.

Here’s Melisa’s latest update:

My training has been going well and I am feeling strong and healthy.  I have 18 miles scheduled for Sunday.  While I’m a little nervous, I’m pleased that it looks like the temperature will be greater than 20 degrees. Finally!  Heck, I may even be able shed a layer or two.  If you’re in the Stoneham area on Sunday morning, honk if you see me.
I wanted to personally thank everyone who has donated to The Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism in support of my run.  It us such a great cause and I am honored to be part of their team.  Because of your generosity, I am halfway to my goal. I still have a little more funds to raise to secure my spot on the team.  If you’re interested or know of anyone interested in supporting my run, there are a few ways to help.
The easiest way, is to make a secure donation online at:
http://www.firstgiving.com/melisathorne
Or a check can be made payable to:
Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism
[Ask Dan for Melisa’s address to send the check to her]
No amount is too small.  Donations are tax deductible.  And ask your employer if they match!

Finance Committee 2/17/10

Black text is mostly objective, red text is mostly subjective in nature.

Our meeting for 2/10 was canceled by the snow-storm-that-missed-us.  Today was mostly about the Town Meeting warrant articles, with a few extras.

Our first hearing was the Vision 2020 (Jane Howard et al) and the DPW (Teresa DeBenedictis) asking for $15,000 for treatment for water bodies.  Back in 2006, Town Meeting (via home rule legislation in Article 24) created a special fund to manage water body expenditures.  The expenses are irregular – every 3-5 years there is a big sum.  Since then, the town has allocated $15,000 each year.  This year, they plan on expending $55,000 which would entirely drain the fund.  It was noted that the  Upper Mystic and Menotomy Park pond are done with private dollars; the $15,000 doesn’t cover all 7 water bodies.  After reviewing the details, the request was closer to $18,000.   There is unpredictability in the annual expense – but is there enough data to predict on the long term?  Yes on Spy Pond, but not enough data for the Res.  $150,000 every 10 years on Spy Pond is the rough number.  Donations were discussed, evidently received from all over town, with a cluster around Spy Pond.  Later in the meeting, we discussed and unanimously approved $15,000 for recommendation to Town Meeting. I was originally opposed to this special fund back in 2006, but it has exceeded my expectations.  I voted in favor of this recommendation.

The second hearing of the night was on an Uncle Sam market study.  Laurence McKinney spoke for several minutes.  He is asking for $2500 to do graphics and make some prototypes to put in stores.  Promises money back in 2 years with profit.  Did not have a budget or outline of how the money would be spent.  He was asked if he went to the Chamber of Commerce – he had not.  There was a later discussion about coordination of the various town tourist activities, and the article was tabled. I expect that I’ll be voting against any money in this area.  The pitch was all about seed money for tchotchkes.  Find a private investor!  If there’s profit here, great.  The town isn’t in the business of seeding businesses.

The third hearing was on restoration of trees on Summer Street by the rink.  Jeanne Leary spoke and provided before and after pictures of the trees.  Summer St reconstruction took the trees down.  Cut down 1000 treas in 2 days.  Now there is no barrier between rink/fields and neighbors.  She complained of two lit fields during spring/summer until 10pm and later, hockey rink until 1am. She reported multiple police complaints.  She has tried Sens. Havern, Marzilli, and Donnelly.  Rep Garballey tried and almost got $100,000.  She found $46,000 in trees that the contractor missed, but Park and Rec put them in McClennan instead of at the rink.  Some money has come from the Town Manager and DPW, but not enough.  CDBG said no.  So they are trying warrant article.  Town took the trees down – not state – so we can’t go after them.  We discussed this and there was hesitancy to set the precedent of FinComm involvement at this level.  We agreed to talk to the DPW and Town Manager, consider funding sources, and tabled it for now.

Al Tosti reported on community budget meetings.

Feb 22nd is next Budget and Revenue Task Force meeting.

Al reported there is a 5 year plan draft coming.  I was surprised to hear this.  This will be tough to do without a real plan to get into the GIC.  I’d been assuming that we’d do FY11 without a 5-year plan, and try again next year.

We reviewed the warrant in detail and identified articles that we wanted to have hearings.  Articles that might have interesting hearings:

  • Asking for home rule legislation to help get the unions to agree to the GIC
  • State law changes on pension funding might have big impact
  • Sale of schools – depends on School Committee.  It was noted that some people want to sell the schools and use the money to pay for this year’s operations.  That sounds totally insane to me – you just don’t use capital to fund expenses!  I hope that was just bad information.
  • We agreed to hear about changes to the dog rules.
  • We agreed to have a hearing about proposed changes to Selectman compensation
  • Vacation rollover.  If you need a vacation extension, who would approve it?  Maybe FinComm.
  • Minuteman.  There are many questions about the capital proposals.

We voted 5 committees and commissions – level funded.  Asked for more info on recycling.

We discussed the annual vote to increase pensions to 50% of the current position.  There are several questions about this that haven’t been raised in past years, and we’re investigating further.

Next meeting on Monday.

Two Arlington Finance Meetings

Black text is mostly objective, red text is mostly subjective in nature.

Monday was the Arlington Budget and Revenue Task Force meeting; tonight was the first Finance Committee of the year. I have a notes from both here.

At Monday’s meeting, it started with better-than-usual news that the Governor’s proposed budget had more money for Arlington than originally anticipated, and a couple other numbers had updated in the right direction. In total, the town is $2.5M better off next year than it thought. That’s still a bad year, but not as bad.

The most interesting part of the meeting was watching the Town Manager and Annie LaCourt grill the state legislators (all four were there) about how they’d help Arlington get into the GIC. The Manager is proposing a home-rule petition that will force the unions into the GIC if certain conditions are met, specifically if we get an actuary to certify that the employees are actually getting benefit at the end of the day. If we get the actuary to say that the deal is a financial win for employees, we’d force them into the GIC. Annie asked them yes or no if they’d help us. Will Brownsberger said yes – not an ounce of ambiguity. Kaufman and Garballey both said a lot of words that might have been yes, but there was a lot of “no” in them too. Donnelly thinks there should be an arbitrator – a death knell if there ever was one. When pressed, he agreed to the Manager’s home rule proposal. I frankly doubt he knew what he was saying. Given his past statements on the issue, I would be shocked if he actually agreed.

The second most interesting part of the meeting on Monday was the school department. They said that their deficit was reduced from $6.8 to $4 million. At that level, they might lay off 25% of the teachers. Other members of the task force pressed for more detail, specifically around snow removal costs, substitute teachers, grant money, and declines in fee revenue. The details were unavailable. My read on this is that the school numbers are weak. Very soft. Not on solid ground. Example: they say that the snow removal costs will cause cuts in ’11, but are unable to say how much they paid for snow removal in ’09. Really? It just started snowing this year? I’m betting that it’s always been paid for, they just haven’t figure out which bucket it came out of. The question then becomes, why are they circulating such weak numbers? I think there’s a few things going on. First off, it’s a brand-new CFO, and she’d rather be more conservative than not. Second, it’s an interim Superintendant, same conservative bias. In that case you’d hope the School Committee would call them to task and ask them to be more realistic in their predictions. Sadly, the school committee is paralyzed by other issues and doesn’t have the political will to challenge the numbers. The result is some very scary numbers that I think will not be sustained in future, more detailed budgeting.

Tonight, We started with the Town Manager. He reviewed the draft FY11 budget.

The summary is that the draft budget has an increase of 1.1%. Once fixed costs etc. are applied, that results in a 2.5% decrease in departmental budgets. The budget does use some reserves to prop the budget up, including the end of the savings from the now-expired 5-year plan. He noted that ;ocal receipts revenue is budgeted at a 10% increase, based on good experience in the current year.

He hopes on Feb 22 have a list of add backs in light of the Governor’s budget (see notes from Monday).

He reviewed the GIC issue. He noted that basic level of going into the GIC includes higher co-pays and premiums, and the town would cover that no question asked. Even after that, there is $5M in savings. The town is offering to give part of that savings to employees – win-win. But the teachers union is still backing out. So we’re going to do a home rule petition where we can force the unions into the GIC if certain conditions are met, specifically if we get an actuary to certify that the employees are actually getting benefit at the end of the day. If we get the actuary to say that the deal is a financial win for employees, we’d force them into the GIC. Of course, teh state legislature may act without the home rule, including permitting truly unilateral action into the GIC.

We have no contracts for FY10. Police ranking officers just got an agreement (not ratified) at a 0% increase.

The Manager made the case that the town has made brutal cuts in personnel already over the last decade. He also notes that the town has grown at a smaller pace than the schools for each year in the five year plan, and that will happen this year too. He has heard calls to cut the town to save the schools, and he will do what he can and resist the rest. He said that public safety had reached the lowest point that safety permits.

Last year Town Meeting had a request to look at PAYT. He has a proposal that will save us $500,000 if town meeting approves. There was a discussion about the revenue from that program and what it might be.

He reviewed the cuts in the budget. Youth Services got a fair amount of discussion. They lost the schools revenue last year, and they need to go after Medicaid etc. as a new revenue source. There are a lot of layoffs there. Some people think we should fund it while the department is rebuilt on a model that is closer to self-sustaining. The Manager thinks he’s leaving enough money for the department to rebuild.

Public Safety – these cuts will result in lower minimum manning. Some police shifts under minimum manning – won’t backfill with overtime. It also removed captain, less administration and internal affairs etc. Fire dept has some manning options using the quint so that it has a less impact on service levels – some, but not so much. Maybe take a piece out of service intermittently during off-times in the summer. Police has 11 vacancies at one point – 4 or 5 are open right now. The police chief managed the retirement costs inside his budget.

State is likely to change the deadline for our pension funding from 2018 to 2040. Not much effect this year, but might be a big saver in a few years.

There was a discussion about my proposal to use fully loaded budgets. The Manager was “concerned about putting the actual money in the budgets.” He wants to make it so that it’s not in the budget, but they are on the hook for the additional costs. I think the manager made my point for me when he was talking about schools and special ed. I’m not sure what he’s afraid of – this should make his budgeting job easier in the long run. There were some concerns about a couple minor items like current v. past employee costs and the fact that some budgets are bigger than others. Maybe do it as grey bill system? What about the budget distortions for inconsistent department retirements? I think the concerns expressed are pretty easy to manage. There is a big picture, and the other details are much more minor. (Newton does it this way I was shown afterwards. And Windham NH. And I need to check Belmont).

Symmes update: The question is, how much is the bank willing to eat on the loan. The result might be a lighter density housing.

No update on Peirce Field costs.

He might seek authorization to sell unused schools from Town Meeting.

MSBA we are in the queue. They approved our project manager and architect for Thompson. We’re about to sign a feasibility study contract with architect. The architect will review pros and cons of renovation v. reconstruction.

We reviewed several warrant articles briefly, including vacation policy change, capital committee hearing March 15th, Minuteman 22nd or 24th. (Minuteman looking for capital feasibility. First pricetag is $98 million which is insane). Retirement board on the 10th – Mr. Bilafer. Uncle Sam, Water Bodies, Traffic Supervisors, Restoration of Trees were discussed. The Reorganization Committee has 2 articles. One article to request to allow for consolidation of school town functions. That would still require TM and SC to agree to changes. Compensation of Selectman to grandfather them with benefits and don’t give any future ones befits. On the reorg committee, one group is looking at personnel, payroll, accounting; IT; regionalizaiton; collective bargaining and legal.

Transfers from reserve fund. BoS requesting transfer $55,456 for the 2 elections . Special Town on $2000. $57,504. BoS approved by vote of 14-3, paid as the bills come in – some members wanted to wait for the bills to actually arrive. Clerk wants $2608. Approved.

Treasurer – reserve fund transfer approved.

The school budget’s numbers were discussed.

We talked about a plan for our departmental meetings on budgets and how to evaluate add-backs into the budget.

Next meeting is Wednesday, focused on the warrant.

How Much Do I Care About Amazon and Macmillan?

As I was reading my daily blog circuit, I asked myself, “How much do I care about this Amazon and Macmillan thing, anyway?”  After thinking it over for a while, I decided that I care quite a bit.  Enough for a blog post, even, and everyone knows that if it’s blog worthy, then it is vital.

So what is the Amazon-Macmillan thing, anyway?  The short version is that Macmillan said that it wants to sell its ebook-for-the-Kindle at prices up to $15, and that’s $5 more than Amazon has set the price at.  Amazon’s reaction was to pull all Macmillan ebooks, hardcovers, and softcovers from its store – no sales.  After a couple days Amazon publicly relented, but the store still isn’t back to normal.

First, I’ll give two reasons that I don’t care about.  I don’t care about is the Kindle.  I hate the Kindle’s DRM, and I’m mildly surprised that so many otherwise-astute customers are willing to go along with it.  Why on earth would you “buy” a copy of a book that Amazon can remotely remove from your possession without your consent ?  You can pry my books out of my cold, dead hands is the way I feel about that type of thing.

The second thing I don’t care about is the price increase.  One company is trying to keep prices low so that it can create a huge marketshare useful for future profits.  One company wants to have a higher profit margin on bestselling books.  I couldn’t possibly care less which one wins; they’re both trying to extract money out of me.

Here’s what I do care about: my relationship with Amazon.  I’ve been their customer since 1998.  (I even worked for them for a while in ’98-’99, when they bought PlanetAll.com).  I use them because they’re easy and they have a decent price.  I use them for their recommendations.  I use them to let me know when my favorite authors and bands have new releases.  I use them to complete trilogies and to find the early releases of my new favorite bands.  I order from them so much that I bought Amazon Prime for $79/year, which gives me free shipping.  Think about what my order volume is, given that I would spend more than $79 in shipping!

But I love my John Scalzi.  I love my Charles Stross.  I love my Orson Scott Card, Vernor Vinge and Neal Asher.  And Amazon isn’t giving them to me!  What kind of book store would I go to that wouldn’t sell me these authors?  What kind of recommendation engine would skip these authors who have provided me with so many hours of amusement?  The answer is: not one that I want to spend a lot of time in.

I’m not going so far as to boycott Amazon.  When they have what I want at the right price, I’ll still buy it.  But they’re no longer my go-to vendor.  They’re no longer the place I go to find the new album or the new book that will keep me interested.  I don’t trust them to give me the right answer anymore.  I now know that they’re willing to throw away 1/6 of my bookshelf in order to wield pricing power on a product that I’ll never buy. Amazon broke my trust this weekend, and I’m no longer interested in what they think I’ll find interesting.

I logged in to Amazon tonight and set my Amazon Prime to non-renewal status.  They didn’t ask why.  I guess I know why not: they don’t care about what I want, anyway.