Divisions Building in Town Government

Session Five began slow but cordial last night, but it ended with more tension between TM and staff.  TM finally finished its time certain items, with mixed results, before moving onto approval of union contracts.

One Man’s Fix for Town Meeting’s Inefficiencies

Over the last two weeks (and, OK, the last year-and-a-half I have been a TMR), you have heard me complain at how slowly TM does its job.  And that often, votes are made without the body having all the information about the issue at hand.

Last December I offered one way to approach these problems: a new organization called a Town Meeting Representatives Association.  It would be a group of people that would be active all year round and would discuss upcoming warrant articles as well as other items of local political interest.  Long-time readers have seen my proposal already, but the blob has some new readers since then, so I’m going to bring it back now amidst our plodding, seven-session Spring 2011 Town Meeting.

Proposal for a Town Meeting Representatives Association (TMRA)

Radio Silence

Town Rebuffs Curran’s Try to Fix Water Infrastructure — Again

Last year Town Manger John Curran asked Town Meeting for permission to borrow $6M to replace all 16,000+ water meters.  TM said no.  Though the meters are years past their useful life, they wanted proof that the meters were broken.  And besides, we don’t really have to know how much water people use anyway.

So this year Curran tried to borrow a little less than half the money to do half the work: $2.8M to replace the manual meter read system with an automated, wireless radio read system (Article 28).  The system components include three radio repeaters and a transmitter installed on every meter.  The verdict?  This was a rare one I got right.  TM said no again, by a score of 100 for, 75 against (2/3 vote required, 17 votes short).

The Mall is Dead. Long Live the Mall.

RD Management, the NYC-based owner of the Zombie Mall, has removed the battered, old “Billerica Mall” sign from the main Boston Road entrance to the property.  If you miss the old sign already, you can see an old photo of it on the upper left-hand corner of this page. Here’s the punch line of this story.  If you look closely at the very top of the sign, in rather small lettering, you can see the Zombie has a new name: “The Shops at Billerica.” When I saw this yesterday, I burst out laughing.  This feeble attempt at rebranding is simply sublime.  Aside from a a hearty chuckle, here some other things we can take from this change:

Bright Spots in TM Session Three

Would you believe it can be good news when Town Meeting takes care of only one-and-a-half warrant articles in one three-hour session?  It was.  We also saw the human side of TM during the debate, ironically, of the “chicken article” submitted by a citizen.

The Budget, Part Deux

TM breezed through 33 budget lines in 1 hour, 45 minutes.  Bottom line: all lines were approved without any changes and not one amendment was made.  Notes on a calmer, gentler second half to budget talks:

• Lightnin’ Steve Wetzel (7) picked up where he left off, asking about longevity and sick leave on the first line held.  But for the most part he was quiet after that.
• Arthur Torrey (8) was merciful and passed on all but one of the lines he held to ask about open source software.
• The school budget drew the most attention. TMRs expressed some frustration that they were not able to debate each line as they can for the town budget.  But, those are the rules.  The best question of the night was asked by John Piscatelli (4).  He wanted to know what we risk if we spend $2M less than the school requested.  Dr. Serio revealed that some class sizes would increase.  Piscatelli followed up and asked how much it would cost to keep class sizes the same, and the answer was about $200,000.

Article 46… (Resist the Pun)

TM passed the “chicken article” by  a wide margin, 134-24 (85%!).  It is now legal to keep up to 6 hens (no roosters) in Billerica.

Credit goes to the petitioner, citizen Jen Croce.  She worked for a year on the project, making sure the article language was perfect, or at least perfect enough.  Her presentation was brief and very professional — certainly well-rehearsed.

Most TMRs appreciated the effort, but others would accept nothing but perfection.  Arthur Torrey (8) noted that turkeys and ostriches (really!) are also hens and so those animals would not be explicitly excluded.  There were two minor amendments to get it closer to perfect.  Both were accepted.  Bob Casey (1) asked what happens to families that already have more than 6 hens or a rooster.

None of this or the hour of debate flustered Ms. Croce, who calmly and competently answered each of the questions asked on the floor.  She was also very honest.  When asked why the limit was 6 and not 12 hens, she said, “I thought it would be easier to pass.”  I think TM appreciated her candor.  The Moderator, Town Counsel, Selectmen, and Finance Committee members alternately whispered in her ear throughout the debate.  It’s a lot for a newcomer to TM to take in, but she never lost her composure.

In short, she was great.  It was one of the few examples of true leadership you will see in this Town Meeting.  This was evidenced by no one saying on record, “I wouldn’t want chickens next door to me,” a lazy throwaway line that would have sounded silly after Croce’s meticulous preparation.

The room got so warm and fuzzy that at one point Rep. Musker (8) made a point of order to apologize to Ms. Croce for all the questions and for how long it was taking.  (The Moderator shooshed her, but the sentiment was expressed.)

So my hat is off to Jen Croce. I wish Town Meeting had 100 like her.

Session Three Grinds on Tonight

Spring 2011 Town Meeting continues Tuesday night.  Here are a couple of items to get you caught up.

First I want to pass along the time certain articles, which I should have done last week.  Time certain items are articles that have been “guaranteed” to be on the agenda on a certain date regardless of where they appear in the warrant.  I put “guaranteed” in quotes because when TM drags its feet on other matters (see Session Two), time certain isn’t so certain.  But here’s what TM approved last Tuesday:

• Articles 9 through 21 shall be the last order of business.  (These are all union contract placeholders that have no contract to vote on, so they will all be dismissed at that time.)
• On 5/10, Article 28 (Water meter radio read) shall be the first order of business
• On 5/10, Article 46 (Keeping of hens) shall be the second order of business
• On 5/12 the order shall be:

1. Article 32 (Fox Hill wireless tower)
2. Article 42 (Wireless tower zoning language change)
3. Article 43 (Day care center zoning language change)
4. Article 44 (Solar power zoning change)
5. Article 45 (Anti-giant garage and addition zoning change)

• On 5/17, the order shall be:

1. Article 29 (E Ink certified project)
2. Article 30 (PAREXEL certified project)

Notes:

• Not sure if we have to finish the budget (Article 4) tonight before we get to the keeping of hens.  Let’s hope for the sake of the citizen petitioner (Jen Croce) that she does not have to sit though an entire evening of budget nonsense before she gets to make her presentation.  In fact if we have to close out the budget first, we might not even have time left for her article.
• If we don’t get to the 5/10 articles tonight, do the 5/12 articles get bumped on 5/12?
• If TM is this grumpy about the budget and no line reductions pass, the water meter radio read (28) has no chance.

Cleaning up the Rest of the Budget

Of the 49 budget lines held, we only got to 16 of them last Thursday.  This leaves 33 more to go.  Here’s how they break down:

• Rep. Torrey held 8 lines.  A proponent of open source software, he will ask (as he did several times Thursday) eight more times if department heads are downloading free software instead of buying it.  (As police Chief Dan Rosa said when asked this question, “You get what you pay for.”)
• Rep. Johnson held 5 lines.
• Rep. Ramos held 2.
• Several lines were held by people who I didn’t see because they did not stand as the Moderator requested.

Can we plow through 33 budget lines and 2 time certain articles in one night?  My money says no, especially if Lighnin’ Steve Wetzel inspired any other TMRs with his show in Session Two.

Catch all the action live on BATV tonight!

Fireworks and Frustration at Town Meeting

I felt like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.  For nearly three hours.

Last Thursday Spring 2011 Town Meeting’s Session #2 spent all night talking about less than half of the held budget lines.  And although we ran though multiple departments’ budgets, the questions were always the same.

The theme of the night was two somewhat obscure benefits received by many town employees: sick incentive and longevity.  Our guide on this path to micromanagieral insanity was Representative Steve Wetzel of Precinct 7.

Mr Wetzel has a problem with these two small components of town employee’s salaries.  They are components that not all employees receive and they are earned only when they have excellent attendance or for years of loyalty to the town.

Before we get to Mr. Wetzel’s one-man filibuster, here is what we are talking about:

Sick Incentive

If an employee does not call in sick for a sustained period of time (details were not provided), that employee gets paid $500 or $600, depending on the union.

Longevity

When an employees passes certain milestones in their career with the town, they receive a one-time longevity payment, according to the following schedule:

•  5 years of service, $784
• 10 years, $1827
• 15 years, $2610
• 20 years, $3393
• 30 years, $3500
• 35 years, $3800

Fred Libatore (6) asked the question, what’s the total amount of the sick incentive and longevity benefits?  Staff did not have that answer on hand because even the Town Accountant couldn’t add it up for all 585 town employees fast enough.  But some rough math came up with a number in the neighborhood of $3M, or around 2.5%.  So for what it’s worth, that is real money.

Now, before I go on, I want to make it clear that I don’t have a problem with Mr. Wetzel questioning these benefits.  That’s the taxpayer’s job is to question if he or she is being governed or taxed fairly.  And it’s especially a TMR’s job.

My problem, however, is the manor and arena in which he chose to raise this question and his insistence that the answers we was being given by staff (and other TMRs) were inadequate.  Moreover, he hijacked Session #2, monopolizing air time and repeating his point over and over and over again.  He refused to be satisfied until TM voted to erase every dollar of sick incentive and longevity pay from the rolls.

Here are some highlights from the Steve Wetzel Show:

• Spoke a total of 10 times at the microphone.  Last Spring the highest number of “participations” was 13 by three TMRs.  Mr. Wetzel spoke 8 times over all 5 nights in 2010.
• Asked the same question (how many people under a union contract?) for every department a he held a budget.
• Had staff, the Moderator, the Town Clerk, and Town Counsel scrambling for chapter and verse of the personnel bylaw and other documents while TM sat and waited for minutes at a time.  By the way, credit Michael Moore of the Finance Committee for adeptly finding digital copies and displaying the sections requested by Mr. Wetzel on the PowerPoint so everyone could see.  Mr. Wetzel proceeded to read the publicly-available document at the microphone while the rest of us waited, hoping to catch staff in a “gotcha” moment.
• By the 7th or 8th time at the microphone, he was clearly winging it, making up questions to buy more face time.
• Vaguely accused staff of acting in their own self-interest (see the quote in the Lowell Sun story by Evan Lips).  Town Manager John Curran “took exception” to that comment.
• Said curtly into to microphone, “That’s not appropriate!” to someone on the Finance Committee while making angry statements about the Quinn Bill.  I was sitting about 5 rows from FinCom and I did not hear the comment that prompted this outburst.
• Became visibly emotional and agitated at the microphone as the show went on.  Also said several times, “This is a great discussion we are having,” to which TMRs in the audience audibly groaned after hearing it 5 or 6 times.

Mr. Wetzel made two motions:

• To cut the longevity benefit from the Town Accountant’s salary.  The timing of this motion was bizarre.  Paul Watson, the Accountant, had been frantically fetching information to answer questions Mr. Wetzel asked about other departments.  When he needed to defend his own department’s budget, Mr. Watson was standing alone at the podium not 20 feet away from him when Mr. Wetzel looked him in the face and moved to cut over $1800 from his pay.  Mr. Watson has a good poker face, but I can only imagine the, er, unhappy feelings has was having at that time.  How emasculating for him.  Other TMRs (led by Bernie Duggan (5)) said it was unfair to pick on one person in this way.  The motion failed.
• To refer the matter to a committee that doesn’t exist.  He proposed to make a brand new committee.  It would have 13 members — one TMR chosen by caucus from each precinct plus one Selectman and a Town Manager designee.  Town Counsel said the committee would be an advisory committee only and therefore would have no power.  I was thinking that there is already a committee for these sort of things, and Michael Moore got up and said it for me.  That includes his own group (the FinCom), the personnel committee, and the BOS.  This motion failed, too.

And now some of my favorite ironies from this pointless exercise:

• So wait, I’m confused.  I thought the stereotype of lazy government workers is that they bang in sick all the time even when they are healthy, and now we are upset that they are not calling in sick?  Which is it?
• The entire discussion was moot because these benefits are embedded inside negotiated union contracts, a tiny piece of which cannot be undone by a vote of Town Meeting.  Contracts that were approved by: you guessed it, Steve Wetzel and the rest of Town Meeting several years prior.  As Madeline Sargent (5) said, we promised to pay this money, and now we are obligated to pay it.
• There would be no conceivable way to populate a new 13-member committee (see below).

If you are smacking your forehead in frustration now and you’re asking why the Moderator didn’t put a stop to this madness, here’s why: he can’t.  Any TMR has the right to approach the microphone as many times as he wants and to ask any question or make any short comment he wants.  That is his right.  I could pull all 240+ budget lines next year and tell the same knock-knock joke at the microphone each time.  (That would make only a slightly bigger mockery of the proceedings than the Steve Wetzel Show.)

I am glad that Mr. Wetzel is thinking about these things.  Hey, the guy might save us $3M some day!  But TM is not the place to get this done.  It isn’t a brainstorming session.  Instead, he should have spend an afternoon at the library, a night a FinCom meeting, or 30 minutes on the phone with the Town Manager collecting facts before storming completely unprepared into Session #2.

This would have saved us 3 hours of wasted debate time.

The Committee to Form Committees Committee

Bob Casey (1) told TM about a sign on the student government office door when he was in school: “I was naked and hungry and you formed a committee.”  Voters routinely snipe at government, red tape, bureaucracy, and the like.  And here we have a citizen — Mr. Wetzel — who wants to do what many criticize government for: form another committee.

Why don’t we concentrate on the committees we already have?

Let’s start by trying to come up with some people who may want to serve on those committees.  According to a legal ad in the May 5 edition of the Minuteman, there are some vacancies.  OK, that’s an understatement.  There are a show-stopping 118 empty seats on about 3 dozen committees.  (Two of these committees had the number listed as “several,” so the actual number is even higher.)  That includes openings on some important ones, like the Finance Committee (4 plus one alternate), the Conservation Committee (2) and the ZBA (2 plus one alternate).

We need fewer committees, not more.  We just had an election with 13% turnout.  If people won’t even vote, how are we going to lure them into trading a free evening for sitting in a meeting once a month?

Which brings me to my final point.  Those of us who are not retired yet and and may have children at home do not have a lot of time outside work to just give away.  I have complained in the past that  younger people simply do not participate at Town Meeting (the median age for TMRs is 55 and their most common profession is “retired’).  After witnessing the Steve Wetzel Show, can you blame them?  When the town’s most important governing body spends an entire night having moot arguments on live TV, what fool would watch that and think that’s worth his or her scarce free time?

In Town Meeting is going to survive, we need smart-phone toting young people to replace the “civic generation” when they go.  And right now that is not happening.  TM has to be more efficient, or the YouTube generation is going to completely tune out.

Town Meeting to Dissect Budget Tonight

Session number two of Town Meeting will be tonight, and we will most likely debate just one article: #4, the budget.

Here is how it works:  On the first night, the Moderator reads six pages worth of budget line items, about 240 in all.  Any TM representative can place a “hold” on the item.  At the end of the first night, TM votes to accept the budget lines not held.  In the second session, the TMRs who held lines will have the opportunity to ask staff questions about them.  Then a debate and then a vote on each item.

There were 49 lines held this year.

Last year, 42 lines were held and a grand total of zero changes were made to the budget.  The few motions made to reduce lines were all defeated in 2010.

We’ll see tonight if TM makes any actual changes to the budget.  I want to recognize the Finance Committee for all the time, attention, and care the volunteer members took to write this budget.  They, along with the Town Manager and his staff, spend hundreds of hours on it and I feel it is very good.

Most of the 42 “holds” in 2010 were passed, meaning the TMR placing the hold decided not to ask any questions after all.

As was the case last year, almost all holds were put in by just a handful of TMRs.

I held one item, town interest on debt service.

I should also point out that the Town Manager and the Director of Business Operations for the School Department each did an outstanding job presenting the town and school side budgets.  It’s clear that a tremendous amount of attention to detail was put in to communicating our financial state.

Town Meeting 2011 Q&A

This year the Town Manager created an e-mail address (townmeeting2011@town.billerica.ma.us) to which he invited Town Meeting Representatives to send questions.  Both he and the Moderator, Gil Moreira, have said it is important that TMRs come prepared so that we avoid any repeated or unnecessary, time-consuming questions.  Excellent!  Last week I took advantage by asking a half-dozen questions, eagerly awaiting the answers.

And after the first session of TM, I am still waiting for a response.  Too bad.

So, we will attempt to address some of these questions in-house.  Today we have the help of a source,  Mary, who was kind enough to send along some comments to Monday’s post.  We also had a set of questions from Tony.  Let’s get started.

The Budget — Article 4

Mary says:

The town has had to ignore capital expenditures in light of fiscal realities, and try to get some funded with the use of Free Cash in the Fall.  Who knows if there will be any Free Cash?!  This Town Manager believes in trying to get some capital addressed during the Spring TM just as he believes that we shouldn’t use non-recurring revenue to balance the budget.  The School Dept. is even required to fund sick-leave buyback for retiring teachers IN THEIR budget – woo-hoo! – and they also have a capital reserve this year.

I understand the Capital Improvement Plan now.  The plan includes moderate-scale work (usually between $5,000 and $50,000) for each department goes out to FY16.  The Plan is in the back of the TMR’s orange warrant book, although I was not able to find it on the town’s web site.  The budget we are voting on now includes a new item to fund the plan, which in previous years was paid for by free cash and other sources, as Mary explained.  This is something TM has asked for in the past; Mr. Curran listened, and now we have an account started up where we can stow cash for minor improvements.  Well done.

Collective Bargaining — Articles 5, 6, and 7

Tony asks:

For the contracts, is there anything else being given away besides raises?

Yes, there are some additional items.  For details firefighters would get $70/hour (up from $50), more for watch duty, and a $500 signing bonus.  The alarm operators also get a $500 signing bonus.  There are a few other changes too minor to list here.  Details are in the warrant.

Mary says:

The AG’s office has ruled that town employees are allowed to be elected to TM.  You are correct – if folks don’t like this they can get off their complaining rear ends and run.

I’m with the AG on this one.  No citizen should be barred from participating in his or her own government.

Fire Trucks — Article 27

Tony asks:

For fire trucks, do they need both at same time?

I imagine we can wait on one or even both.  But we’ll be pouring maintenance money into aging assets for another year.  It’s like the advice they give people who own old cars: if the repair costs more than the car is worth, replace it.  Economically speaking, that is where we are with those two trucks.  In other words, the longer we wait, the more net money we lose.

Mary says:

The FinCom has been told that the actual figure will be $1.5 million.  I believe they had planned to have something else in the article but decided not.

Water Meter Radio Read — Article 28

Mary says:

This is about what it is thought TM will OK – we’ll see.  It adds the radio read component to the existing meters, and when the existing meter are eventually replaced the technology coexists.

Fair enough.  My gut tells me there is a lot of angst on the TM floor about water and sewer these days.  I think even the lesser amount for just the radio read will be a hard sell.

Certified Projects –Articles 29 and 30

Mary says:

Two awesome projects presented to the BOS and FinCom last week.  One is already here and expanding, the other coming from your base (Cambridge).  I’ll be you right now that at least one naysayer (I’ll bet it’s JW) will get up to badmouth the deals.  The TIFF amounts are only on the increased value, and thus are a win win.  Yet this TMtg may balk! Conspiracy theory.

E Ink is in a small brick building on Sidney Street in Cambridge near MIT.  This is a growing trend — trading high-rent city space for low-rent suburban space.  Good news for low-rent Billerica.

Cemetery Cell Tower — Article 32

Tony asks:

For Cell tower, where does income from it go? Anything to help neighbors who have to look at it each day?

I believe the money goes into the general fund.  Maybe Mary knows.  As for the second question, I would say no.  Hard to screen a structure so tall.  I hope we’ll see a rendering of what it will look like from the neighbor’s yards.

Mary says:

Yes, it’s clean, easy money which is desperately needed.  I would vote to put one on town land in my neighborhood if they asked.  I think it’s a no-brainer.  The bigger issue may be a legal claim re the deed restriction – you’ll hear.

I disagree with Mary on this one.  Although it is clean money, it’s ugly money, and I’d rather not take the unspoiled view away from anyone.  There are other ways to make clean money.  But, just out of curiosity, how much money are we talking here, Mary?

Giant Garages — Article 45

Tony asks:

Is article 45 to change zoning? What is allowed now?

It would alter the language of the zoning code.  Giant garages or additions are not restricted now, as long as they comply with the zoning rules for any building.  In other words, we don’t have “anti-McMansion” zoning on the books at all.

Mary says:

I supported this in FinCom because neighbors asked me to, although I was really torn.  The substitute motion was really pretty restrictive, and as I look at my neighbors one story, three bay(?) garage across the street I realize that would have been prohibited.  It’s harmless and he gets to do some work in his retirement and fool around with his Model T…what’s the harm?

I have a two-car garage (which would still be allowed under the new language I think), and I have to admit, I can’t imagine not having it.  A big selling point for me when we bought the place.  I am a hobbyist woodworker and it gives me plenty of space for tools.  I am waiting to hear back from Town Hall about what the abutters’ rights are without this zoning.

The Chicken Article — Article 46

Mary says:

With Jen 100%  She’s done a great job.

Let’s see if TM’s grumpy quotient can defeat the product of optimism and positive energy of the petitioner.  My money is on Ms. Croce, but if a TMR can get up and object to money being transferred to Veteran’s Services (as happened in session #1 Tuesday; more on this later), then I guess I should keep the amount of my wager small.  Really small.

Spring 2011 Town Meeting Preview

Town Meeting begins Tuesday night at 7:30.  There are 46 articles on the warrant.  Here are the articles I believe will draw some extra debate time and, possibly, many annoying amendments.

The Budget — Article 4

I am a big picture guy, so let’s fast forward to the bottom line.  We will be presented a budget of $125.4M.  Last’s year’s was $123.5M.  This represents an increase of about 1.5%.  I can think of a lot of things that have increased in cost compared to last year by more than 1.5% (gasoline, anyone?), so I won’t quibble with the total number.  The only line I have a question on is $125,000 allocated for “Equipment/Capital Improvement Plan.”  I don’t know what this is for. I have asked the Town Manager this question; once I get the answer I will share it with you.

Collective Bargaining — Articles 5, 6, and 7

We have a few contracts to consider this year (there were none last year).  The firefighters, civilian fire alarm operators, and administrative unit are set to get minor increases.  The bumps are small ($70k, $6k, and $30k), so I hope there is little discussion on these.  But since they are unions, there will always be at least a few TMRs who have a problem.

By the way, there are also TMRs who resent town employees serving on TM.  The solution to that is to have non-employees run against them for their seats, but that’s another post for another day.

Fire Trucks — Article 27

Two trucks, $2 million.  One ladder (1989) and one pump (1985) are old and need to be replaced.

I dislike articles like this because they always draw unnecessary debate.  You’ll have people get up and give all kind of ways that we can magically spend less money and get more out of the trucks we have.  Often they do it to show off how much they know about fire trucks.  But this is a basic engineering econ problem — when an asset costs you more annually to maintain than to replace, you replace the asset.

Water Meter Radio Read — Article 28

You may remember that TM unceremoniously stuffed the Town Manager last year when he tried to borrow money to replace the town’s water meters, many of which are no longer metering water.  This time he wants $2.8M to build a radio read system that will collect meter data without driving around town in a minivan.

I don’t know if he will ask TM to fix the meters again.  I asked and we’ll see what he says.

Certified Projects –Articles 29 and 30

In short, a Certified Project is a company that agrees to open up shop in town in exchange for some tax breaks.  TM has supported these in the past, but we’ll see if this changes now that some big-time slimeball companies have skipped out of Mass this year, taking jobs and the tax money with them.

Cemetery Cell Tower — Article 32

The Cemetery has submitted this article seeking to give some land in the Fox Hill Cemetery on Rangeway Road in North Billerica to the Selectman so that a cell tower can get built there.

I received a letter signed by 7 abutters asking me to vote no on this article.  They argue that they bought their properties assuming that the cemetery would always be one.  That’s a reasonable assumption, and I support the neighborhood.  Don’t know what the benefit to the town is of dropping a cell tower on the neighborhood is (aside from better phone service), although I assume it’s money.

Pawn Shops — Article 40

This one would establish a license requirement for anyone wishing to open up a pawn shop in town.  The Police Chief says he needs it to make it easier for him to recover stolen property.

Okay, but reading this article, it looks so strict, I don’t know why anyone would want to operate a pawn shop here.  Or maybe that’s the whole idea. Who knows.  I hope it will all become clear in the presentation.

Giant Garages — Article 45

Believe it or not, this is an anti-McMansion article.  Wha?  Billerica cares what it looks like?

Anyway, it seeks to limit the size and placement of additions or garages to existing houses.  It forbids the addition from

Snout House

being closer to the street than the house, also called a “snout house.”

I am conflicted on this one because while I am a harsh critic of McMansions and other oversized residences — especially when they don’t fit into the neighborhood — I don’t think making big garages illegal is the answer.

Besides, there are dozens of people in Billerica who run their businesses out of their garage (or at least store the business vehicles in it).  Abutters should be able to comment on the size of new structures on their neighbor’s property, and I am checking to make sure they have those rights even without this article.  I am leaning toward not supporting the article.

However, I am still strongly in favor of reasonably-sized houses.

The Chicken Article — Article 46

Very simply, the petitioner — citizen Jen Croce — wants hens to be legal in Billerica.  She wrote a letter to TMRs explaining her position.  My hat is off to her.  She has taken initiative to wade through the tedious and monumentally unfriendly article filing and vetting process.  Her argument is well reasoned and lucid.

As a TMR I am interested in connecting citizen taxpayers with what they want as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else.  And I don’t see a half dozen hens (roosters are prohibited) quietly making free and healthy eggs as causing any problem.  I wish Ms. Croce luck and I will be voting yes.  Run, chicken, run.