{"id":1463,"date":"2011-05-24T00:51:36","date_gmt":"2011-05-24T04:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/?p=1463"},"modified":"2011-05-24T01:03:35","modified_gmt":"2011-05-24T05:03:35","slug":"town-meeting-11-session-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/town-meeting-11-session-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Town Meeting \u00e2\u20ac\u212211 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Session 9"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>I take notes during Town Meeting. They are not official in any way. As I listen to people speak, I type notes. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m 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.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I do not try to reproduce my entire notes 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:\u00c2\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Personal note<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Jane Howard led the Town Meeting in the national anthem.<\/p>\n<p>Moderator John Leone asked for a moment of silence for the victims in Joplin Missouri.<\/p>\n<p>If we don&#8217;t finish tonight, we&#8217;ll come back Weds May 25.  <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">This vote was modified later in the night.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Announcements<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Harry McCabe invited everyone to a health fair on June 18th 12:30-4:30 in Town Hall.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Article 39, Crosby, continued.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>John Worden moved an amendment.  He would like to further restrict the sale of the property with additional deed restrictions.  He wants the deed to restrict use to educational use for at least 30 years.  He remains opposed to sale of the school.  He talked a lot about 40B.  He suggested that if town meeting wants flexibility, that we should amend his amendment to make it\u00c2\u00a0revocable\u00c2\u00a0by 2\/3 town meeting vote.  <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">I had asked about that earlier in this process, and I&#8217;m told it&#8217;s not possible.  The deed restriction is permanent and not revocable.  That is why I&#8217;d prefer to make the restrictions in a land disposition agreement rather than a deed restriction, and therefore opposed his amendment.<\/span> Harry McCabe is opposed to the sale.  He gave a nice speech, stating that everybody was acting in good faith.  He encouraged everyone to treat everyone else with respect.  <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">I really appreciated this statement.  It&#8217;s gotten a little hot in the seats up front this town meeting, and some of the jabs were sharper than I think is warranted.  His kind thoughts were very welcome. <\/span> Joyce Radochia spoke in support of the Crosby School.  She introduced Dr. Ted Wilson President of Schools for Children.  Dr. Wilson talked about the history of the relationship, the school&#8217;s finances, and the building&#8217;s condition.  He said that his school can&#8217;t afford increases in rent over the CPI.  Eric Berger moved an amendment that would give the right of first refusal to the current tenant.  He is in favor of selling the property.  <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">I hadn&#8217;t seen the amendment in writing.  I realize now that what happened is that it was distributed, but to the seats at the front of the room.  Mr. Berger came up and apologized for that afterwards, which was nice of him. <\/span> Paul Schlictman moved the question, and the vote failed, so debate continued.   A speaker was opposed to selling the property.  A speaker was in favor of selling the property.  Mr. Ruderman moved to terminate debate.  Terminated by voice vote.  Mr. Berger&#8217;s amendment was defeated by voice vote.  Mr. Worden&#8217;s amendment was approved.  125-44 permission to sell was approved.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 49 &#8211; Long Term Financial Planning Committee<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The motion of the Board of Selectmen was no action.  Al Tosti moved a substitute motion of the Town Government Reorganization Committee.  He explained that this committee would not have power, but would serve to make recommendations.  Alan Jones reported on the unanimous no-action recommendation of the Finance Committee.  They believe the committee would be redundant.  Gordon Jamieson moved to terminate debate, and it was terminated.  Substitute was voted down.  No action passed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 52 &#8211; Revolving Funds<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Town Manager Brian Sullivan noted that this is a regular article, with the addition of a small fund for $15,000 for cemetery chapel.  Gordon Jamieson had questions on ambulance funds and how they are used.  He asked other questions on three other funds.  There were a couple more questions.  Passed unanimously.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 53 &#8211; CDBG <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Annie LaCourt.  She noted Mr. Hurd&#8217;s contribution in the past.  She updated one change &#8211; there was in an increase in funds designated for high school athletic scholarships of $35,000.  Paul Schlictman noted that Town Meeting can endorse, but not change the numbers.  Question on the funding of planning positions &#8211; it has been in the budget for years.  The Council on Aging is concerned with their budget cut, but it was noted that there is reserve fund available if necessary. Carl Wagner moved to terminate debate.  Terminated.  Passed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 54 &#8211; Collective Bargaining<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Al Tosti said he was going to skip a long speech this year, and asked people to read the Chairman&#8217;s report in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.town.arlington.ma.us\/Public_documents\/ArlingtonMA_TownMeet\/2011ATM\/reports\/index\">Finance Committee report<\/a>.  <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Having spent as long as 20 minutes to debate a few thousand dollars earlier in the meeting, we subsequently approved $3.2 million in minutes.  It&#8217;s just the way Town Meeting works.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>He moved to table the article.  Negotiations are ongoing, with an approved breakthrough with the teachers&#8217; union already.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 55 &#8211; Position Reclassification<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Unanimously approved.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 56 &#8211; Budgets<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Al Tosti moved to postpone to June 8th.  Postponed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 58 &#8211; Sidewalks<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No action &#8211; did it in the special town meeting.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 59 &#8211; Sewer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Passed unanimously.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article\u00c2\u00a060 &#8211; Water Mains<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Passed unanimously.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 62 &#8211; Committees and Commissions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Passed by voice vote.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 63 &#8211; Town Celebrations<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Passed by voice vote.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 64 &#8211; Miscellaneous<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Passed by voice vote.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 65 &#8211; Water Bodies<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No action.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 66 &#8211; Water Bodies<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Approved unanimously.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 67 &#8211; Accidental Disability Adjustment.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Unanimously.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article\u00c2\u00a068 &#8211; OPEB<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Al Tosti moved to postpone to June 8th.  Postponed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 69 &#8211; COLA Base Pay<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Al Tosti moved to postpone to June 8th.  They might want to revisit in light of negotiations. Postponed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 70 &#8211; Survivors Benefits<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Passed unanimously.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 71 &#8211; Local Options<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No action.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 72 &#8211; Tip Fee Stabilization<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Approved unanimously.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 73 &#8211; Cemetery Fund Transfer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Passed unanimously.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 74 &#8211; Overlay Reserve<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Approved unanimously.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 75 &#8211; Stabilization Fund.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Al Tosti moved to postpone to June 8th.  It depends on the override.  Postponed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article 76 &#8211; Free Cash<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Approved.<\/p>\n<p>We adjourned until Wednesday June 8th at 8PM, the day after the override.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I take notes during Town Meeting. They are not official in any way. As I listen to people speak, I type notes. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-town-meeting-11"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1463"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1466,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions\/1466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}