Author Archives: dunster

Finance Committee Kicks Off

Last night the Finance Committee met for the first time this year. You can see a few photos from the meeting on Tabblo. The town has been working on the fiscal ’08 budget for months, but FinComm doesn’t really start until January.

Over the next few weeks the FinComm subcommittees will meet with the relevant departments and discuss the department budgets. The subcommittees will report to the full committee and the budgets will be voted. Similarly, any budgetary warrant articles have a hearing before the committee and are voted.

I plan on writing periodically about FinComm meetings. My goal is to give Arlington residents a bit more visibility into the budget process. If you’re not an Arlington resident, you might consider ignoring posts about FinComm. They may get a bit dry. But maybe I can make even budgeting sound fun! (It’s possible, right?)

There were no budgets to hear last night, but the Town Manager was there. He reviewed a series of topics, and a few others were discussed after he left.

  • Union negotiations – The library employee contract for FY07 was voted last year at Town Meeting. Since then, agreements have been reached with the 680 union and NAGE (now SEIU). The key points of the new deals are a 2.5% cost of living increase in ’07 and a 3% increase in ’08. There is an increase in medical visit co-payments that, when implemented, will trigger another .5% increase (the co-pay change will kick in when the town can implement a two-tiered co-pay system, which it can’t do yet because of other agreements and limitations within the insurance company agreements). And, starting in FY08, new employees within these unions will pay 25% of their insurance premium, higher than the 15% paid by the current union members. The library union is likely to go along with this as well. These agreements cover approximately 200 employees. The Town Manager is asking the School Superintendant to exercise the “re-open” clause and ask the teachers’ union to accept the 25% for new hires. Of course, these agreements have not yet been approved by Town Meeting, and there was not enough money set aside to cover them, though the sums involved don’t appear to be a large obstacle. There was no agreement with the fire or police unions. To me, this is exhibit 1A in the reason to fight coalition bargaining. If we were in coalition bargaining, we wouldn’t have made this progress. In coalition bargaining, we’d be stuck without any agreements until the fire and police union negotiations were completed.
  • The five-year-plan is looking more like a six-year-plan, which is a very good thing. The current predictions are that costs are controlled and the state has provided a bit more money than expected. This avoids a large deficit in the 6th year, although the 7th year (FY11) is predicted to have a large deficit. There were no significant changes since the summit.
  • Symmes will hopefully close in March. The lawsuit significantly altered the economics. Not only are there 30% fewer units, but the slump in the housing market has affected the price. It appears that may result in the units being rented until the housing market recovers. The rented units will pay significantly less in taxes. That leaves the town paying off the debt until 2013 or 2015. The town is not a skilled real estate developer, and now it looks like we will pay the price. For a while it looked like we would get lucky and get out almost-even, but the lawsuit dashed those hopes. We’re looking at more than a decade of property taxes that will go towards paying off the debt rather than paying for services or reducing the tax rate.
  • Evidently the lease with the state for the ice rink is “not executed” which was news to me.
  • FY08 budget notes
    • The use of unencumbered funds (“free cash”) is lower because FY07 “borrowed” they Symmes building permits from FY08.
    • Warrant articles are high becuase of $300k for the 10-year cycle on house inspection, $375k of Medicare Part D funds going to the healthcare liability fund, and $150k for an item that I forgot!
    • State funding levels are still unknown. Gov. Patrick has signaled that there isn’t much coming. There is concern about low lottery receipts.
    • There was discussion of the current state house debate about whether or not to let towns join the state health plan. It was noted that that would require accepting coalition bargaining.
    • Payroll may be moving from the school budget to the treasurer’s.
  • Pierce Field – Nothing new. Open question as to how much the industrial parties think the town should pay.
  • Minuteman Regional High – The school is looking for a new superintendant. The in-district enrollment declined from 504 to 456 students. Arlington’s enrollment dipped similarly, but not as much. The drop in enrollment hits their budget hard. Arlington’s assessment is anticipated to go up 10.9%, more than $300k. This was the worst news of the night. I guess I should be glad that the worst is only $300k, but $300k is still bad. Arlington is looking at sending 10% fewer students, but paying 11% more overall. After town meeting last year I said I was going to do more research about per-pupil costs at Minuteman, and that to-do item never made it to the top of the list. It just moved up several notches.
  • Park Ave Fire Station – Construction not going as quickly as planned, but still on-budget. Looking at fall occupancy.
  • Fire department overtime budget is “not great” but is “well documented” with several injuries causing budget issues.
  • Unemployment compensation was discussed and needs more research.
  • The Town Manager is talking about regionalization of some services with 12 towns.
  • Schools – Special Ed budget will likely use most of the fund created for cost overruns. As previously discussed, the budget is $700k short for ’08. At the same time as FinComm the school committee was having a hearing about fees. There was a question about curriculum tracks at the high school, and how many people were in each.
  • School renovations – The group is still working. One path getting a fair amount of discussion is to rebuilt Thompson in a few years with state aid, and renovate Stratton over several years on our own. It appears that Stratton is unlikely to qualify for state aid.
  • Fire station rebuilding – The group is contemplating four options:
    • Move the HQ to Summer St, and build a 2nd station on Broadway, and close existing stations.
    • Rebuild both where they are, which leaves Morningside response times as a problem. That might be mitigated by serving medical calls out of Winchester.
    • Rebuild HQ, move Highland to Summer St.
    • Rebuild HQ, have a joint station with Winchester.

The question of where to build on Summer St., or if Winchester would go along with the plans, are very much open. The group is in progress and has taken no votes.

The next meeting scheduled is Monday the 5th at 7:30PM to hear warrant articles. Keep an eye out, though; if we can’t schedule anyone to come, the meeting gets cancelled.

Fios Installed!

…..

I worked from home today while Verizon installed Fios service into the house. Did we really need to upgrade our internet service? Of course not. But since we could, of course we had to! I actually think we’ll save money in the deal, too.

On the left you see what’s in our basement now. The black cable coming down from the top is fiber. It loops into the white box, and the white box spits out a regular phone line and an ethernet cable that is plugged into a router. Below the big white box is a battery backup. The smallest thing there is just a powerstrip – Verizon felt like it had to install it’s own.

I think back to the late 90’s living in East Cambridge dialing into MIT when I wanted to check my email. The cable company (Comcast?) had a map of Cambridge divided into zones. White meant no coverage, pink was in progress, and purple meant that broadband was available. I must have reloaded that map 200 times over most of a year, waiting for my zone to light up.

Less than 10 years later, and I have a F******* FIBER OPTIC CONNECTION IN MY OWN BASEMENT. I love progress.
… See more

Patrick, Legislative Raises, and the Tools of Power

I was distressed by today’s Globe article about Governor Patrick offering legislative leadership pay raises in exchange for power over existing quasi-governmental agencies. It’s a bad idea. I question whether or not he understands the effects of what he’s doing, and not necessarily for the obvious reasons.

According to the article, Patrick is offering raises for certain legislative leadership positions in exchange for advancing his agenda with the legislature. The first reaction is one of distaste: “He’s bribing them to do what he wants!” I suspect that most people read it that way.

The second reaction is not as widely held, but still common. If you support Patrick, you probably said to yourself: “Well, if that’s what it takes, it’s worth it. ” When you said those things, you used one or more of the following reasons:

  1. It’s only $80,000 in raises.
  2. It’s unfortunate that Patrick takes a publicity hit, but it’s better to do that early in your term than during election season.
  3. If that’s what the legislature wants, if that’s the price of progress, it’s totally worth it. Let Patrick lead!

I’m thinking about something different. In 2003, Finneran tried to do something very similar. He tried to pass raises for his leadership. It was vetoed by Romney, and the veto was not overriden. Opponents to the measure included Common Cause and the Globe.

The problem with these raises is the narrow group of people that are rewarded. These raises are a tool of power. Oppose the speaker or senate president? Lose your leadership position, and lose your big raise. Do what you’re told? Maybe you, too, can get the raise. These are the same tools that Finneran used to maintain his power.

Does Patrick understand that he’s further entrenching the leaders of the General Court? I don’t care if you trust in DiMasi and Traviglini, because neither is there forever. In a different state, leaders change because of party and policy. In the Massachussets legislature, there is only one party. Leaders don’t get chosen because their policy choices are rejected. Leaders change because they are indicted, have a health issue, or run for governor.

I’m not thrilled with Patrick trying to buy legislative support. Legislators may be underpaid, but let that argument stand on it’s own merits.

If Patrick is trying to buy legislative support, I want him to buy all legislators. Don’t provide one more tool to an already-powerful set of legislative leaders. We have enough one-party problems already.

A caveat: I carefully note that the Globe didn’t run any actual quotes. Five different times the Globe attributes statements to “sources” or “one source.” If it turns out that this is all a distortion, I’ll take it all back. And I’ll feel better about the state’s leadership.

Party and Power in Massachusetts

Massachusetts is a one-party state. The effects of that are hard to catalog and harder to prove. But this week’s Globe story about the cascading effect of Kerry’s decision to stay in the Senate adds an interesting item to the list.

Read the quotes from the story.

Philip W. Johnston , chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party: “If John had left the Senate, it certainly would have set off a game of musical chairs. Now that he’s not running, I think most people will stay where they are and wait.”

Scott Harshbarger , a former Massachusetts attorney general: “. . . you are losing the opportunity to have new people, new faces become involved at all levels of state and federal offices — as well as what it does to enliven and energize the party and the activists.”

When you have more than one party in action, seats are won and lost on a more frequent basis. Seats change hands because of conflict, ideas, and coattails. The power of incumbency is strong, but some seats change in the general election.

When you have only one party, seats are only lost in the primary. Because a primary is an election among “friends,” the stakes are high. Anyone who runs a primary challenge and loses is forever branded. In a state with only one party the loser is ostracized, never to return. People don’t mount primary challenges because, perversely, the stakes are higher than mounting a challenge in a general election.

One more quote: “‘Upward mobility is a lot more difficult in a state where one party is so dominant,’ Johnston said.” Taking it further: not only do we lose the opportunity to see new faces, but the old faces are mostly just standing in line. There is no disruption, no “rolling boil” that brings good, new faces to the top. There’s just the current office holders, grimly clinging to what they have and waiting for someone above them to move along.

Looking at the current landscape, only one of Massachusetts’s 10 representatives has retired in the last 10 years, and the senators are at 22 and 44 years in office. Are these really the best people for their offices? Or did they just get there first? With no real second party in the general election, and the huge risk/reward ratio in the primary, the status quo continues. Looking at the future, there isn’t really a prospect for change until 2012. That’s the year that Massachusetts will lose a congressional seat to population shifts and Kennedy’s eighth term ends.

Six more years of Kerry isn’t just six more years of Kerry. It’s six more years of everybody else, too.

Wilkerson Rides Again

The Globe has another story about the woman who’s never seen a deadline that she can’t miss. Senator Dianne Wilkerson’s legislative agenda is on hold because she failed to file her proposed bills with the clerk on time. If I was one of her constituents, I’d be ticked – but that would be old news. Reviewing a few high points:

  • November 2006: The Office of Campaign Finance (OCPF) referred her 2003 and 2004 campaign finance filings to the state attorney general for prosecution. This happened on November 1, before election day, but was only reported on November 15th, after she had been re-elected.
  • June 2006: She fails to appear in court to respond to a suit filed by her condo association for failing to pay her bills. The court rules against her – but the case is kept in the judge’s office for three months, not released until September, after she survives a write-in campaign (see May 2006).
  • May 2006: She misses the deadline to file her signature petition to get herself on the ballot for re-election. She decides to run a write-in campaign to retain her seat.
  • 2005: The Office of Campaign Finance (OCPF) referred her 2000 and 2001 campaign finance filings to the state attorney general for prosecution.
  • 2001: Fails to disclose $20,000 in income from consulting.
  • 1998: As part of a deal with the OCPF regarding questionable expenditures, agrees to pay an $11,500 fine.
  • 1998: serves 6 months of house arrest as part of a guilty plea to tax charges for the years 1991-94.

I can only imagine that her constituents see something in her that I’m unable to perceive. It is easy for me to understand making a mistake and learning from it. But if I had been investigated by the OCPF, I would bend over backwards to make sure there wasn’t a whiff of a controversy going forward. I can’t imagine putting myself in a position where I got investigated for 5 different years. To me, that demonstrates that she is simply unable to meet the basic requirements of her job – like filing bills on time.

At least she’s not a felon, I guess.

I Can Spend Hours On This

The web provides such powerful ways to display data, and I’m delighted when people take advantage of this.  It looks like this one came out almost a year ago, but it’s new to me – and maybe new to you.

Gapminder let’s you look at various statistics about countries.  It’s incredibly rich.  Press play and you are simultaneously looking at how each country fares in two statistical measurements, the relative population size, the geographical region – as they vary over time!  Make sure you click on the axes and see the different statistics you can see, click a couple countries for highlighting, and more – the 1-minute demo you get from the help link shows a number of features.

And once you get over the data display, you can even learn from the data.

ITAC Milestone

On Thursday the Arlington Information Technology Advisory Committee reached a significant milestone. We’ve been working for more than a year on a “technology needs assessment.” We interviewed department heads, town employees, and citizens, wrote reports, collated data, and synthesized common themes. Without claiming that it’s finished, we reached a point where we could share the work we did so far and make sure we were on track. So, on Thursday, we discussed the results in a meeting of the town’s department heads.

Here’s a quick rundown on the process:

  • We asked people what they wanted in technology and what they already do with technology. We didn’t stop there; we also looked at what people actually do and worked to find things that they might not have thought of.
    • We looked at information. What information do they store? What do they share internally? With other departments? With citizens/customers? With the state/federal government?
    • We asked about applications and technology currently in use.
    • We collected copies of forms used.
    • We asked about disaster planning? Fire? Power outage?
    • We asked about attitudes towards technology.
  • Based on these interviews, we wrote up a needs assessment for each department.
  • At this point, we were able to identify some common themese with confidence. We outlined the categories, and then went back through each needs assessment. We classified the various deparment activities into one of the categories.
  • We looked at the resulting categories and department activities. You can see them here. The categories are across the top, the departments are listed down the left, and the individual activities are bulleted. Some of them need more explanation. If you look at the columns, you can see some commonalities. For instance, many departments collect small amounts of cash, and most log the information by hand – that might be a place for the town to add technology and improve efficiency.
  • We outlined several areas where the town could invest that would help several departments at once. I’m going to list the bullets here, and I’m looking for the longer explanation.
    • Training
      • Utilizing existing software
      • ITAC has identified a need from all departments for more training, especially in the software packages that are already installed throughout the town and school.
    • Support
      • Software
      • Hardware
      • ITAC has identified a need to provide more support to all departments both on software issues and hardware.
    • Cross-departmental Business Analysis
      • ITAC has identified a need for all departments to work regularly with each other and the Information Technology Department through a collaborative process on identifying common technology needs.
    • Data and Applications sharing
      • Based on address
      • Later based on people
      • ITAC has identified a need for a common depository of information that each department can use in unique ways. An example of this is a shared GIS system.
    • Information Technology Department
      • Business analysis
      • Requirements gathering
      • Synergies – departmental
      • Data and application sharing
      • Internal customer service
      • Technology planning (budgetary)
    • Continuity of Operations
      • ITAC has identified a need to improve the Information Technology Department in the above areas.
    • Empowerment (culture change)
      • ITAC has identified a need for the employees to participate in the changes that, through technology, will improve the work product.
    • Small monetary transactions (automation)
      • ITAC has identified that several departments deal with small monetary transactions which could and should be reviewed for automation.
    • Customer Service Response
      • ITAC has identified the need to enhance our customer (internal and external) service response through technology.
    • Hardware
      • ITAC has identified the need to constantly review the hardware available to the employees to insure that it can perform the functions that we require of them.
    • Records Management
      • ITAC has identified the need to insure that our records comply with the state law and that every record is also in an electronic version for back-up and retrieval.

We shared all of this with the department heads. We got good feedback in return. They showed us a few places where we had missed things. We quizzed them on what they perceived as the priorities. I think our only notable failure was that we’d managed to omit several of the library functions (I’ve got the updated information and will put it on the grid shortly). Overall, the meeting was a successful exchange of ideas.

Most of this needs assessment and analysis will find its way into the report to Town Meeting. It will also be used to help inform the to-be-hired town information officer. I also intend to make it a part of the budget process for ’08 and going forward.

I think at our next meeting we’ll review what we learned with the department heads. Then I think we’ll start fleshing out how to meet the highest-priority needs that the process has identified.

I have two disappointments. The first, as always, is speed. I wish we were moving faster. Some progress is better than no progress, of course, and we’re definitely making progress. The second disappointment is that some departments did not attend the meeting. There are some offices in town that desperately need technology updates, and they were the ones least likely to attend. I hope that they will notice the improvements as they are implemented and get involved.

Updated 1/30 with detail on the draft priorities

Weather on Mt. Washington

Most of you know that I enjoy experiencing the extremes of weather – particularly when those are the winter extremes. I’ve always been fascinated by Mt. Washington in particular. I remember being a freshman in 1990 and finding that I could get up-to-the-hour weather updates from the mountain, and configured my Athena account to tell me the weather. Now, I’m a regular reader of the Mt. Washington Observatory blog. And maybe I’ll go on one of those EduTrips some day. . .


Until then, I’ll have to visit vicariously with YouTube. Here are 2 minutes and 6 seconds of frozen hilarity: