Recall Spell

What do you think of the attempt to recall the Chelmsford selectmen?  A resident there has spent some $90,000 — some of it on “professional signature gatherers” — to push a recall vote.

The gentleman is angry because he thinks the selectmen are corrupt.  Check that — he thinks a former board was corrupt, and he is mad that the current board isn’t pursuing an ethics investigation.  Seems as though there was a land deal that had a questionable outcome and the former board members helped it along.

Cries of corruption sound awfully familiar, don’t they?  Next door, here in Billerica, we’ve heard it, too.  At least this fellow in Chelmsford was willing to name names.  (Previously he tried to recall a couple of Planning Board members, unsuccessfully.)

I suppose most people following this story have already taken a side.  Either he is a nut-job or a hero.  I look at it differently.

I think the gentleman asking for the recall is angry at the wrong thing.  Instead of being mad at the volunteers (unlike Billerica, Chelmsford selectmen are not paid), the real problem is the accelerating loss of interest in local politics.  There is a real shortage of people who care enough to vote, and a dearth of qualified candidates.  Therefore seats on boards of selectmen are not taken by the best and brightest.  And once elected, they can do whatever they want, since no one bothers to pay attention to actions they take.

And by the way, hasn’t this man every read Animal Farm by George Orwell?  What if the recall is successful?  What then?  Who will these corrupt people be replaced by?  As Orwell taught us, the new regime is much like the one but with different names.

Were these selectmen corrupt?  I don’t know.  Forced to guess, I would probably say they were not.  But keep in mind, there is a grey area between helping out political supporters and outright Blagojavich corruption.  So you can argue that this is a subjective question (until an authority like the Ethics Commissions proffers a ruling, which they have not in the Chelmsford case).

There are some lessons for us here.  While the recall has supercharged local political interest in Chelmsford, it is not at all positive attention.  It has divided the town.  Its long-term affect on trust of elected people will be severe.  Voter turnout will suffer.

There are ways to build community without bringing individuals down.  We live in small towns.  We should be supporting one another.  We should be governing ourselves in such a way that we feel good about the direction the town is taking.  We should not pick fights for the thrill that the battle gives us or to avenge a personal wrong.

It’s more evidence that the small-town, self-governing way of life is in terrible danger.  Are we smart enough to save democracy on the local scale?  Or does it not even matter to us anymore?

This Summer on the Blob

It’s vacation time for most of us. You have probably seen your neighbors hitch up the boat to the Suburban on their way to the summer house on the lake.  (As always, more proof that we are mired in a deep, deep recession.)  That means our town will mostly empty out for the summer. Talk of local affairs will get going again once school starts back up. Until then we’ll chat up baseball and maybe a water ban here of there. Otherwise, we’ll snooze away the rest of June, July, and August away.

Except here. There is still a ton of work to do with regard to improving our quality of life, and like before I offer this space as a hub of progressive thinking when it comes to the future of the Town of Billerica.

Readership has exploded this year — May 2011 was double any previous month, continuing a growing trend that began after the long winter.  I hope that means there is that much more interest in the open exchange of ideas.

Now that the sour taste of Spring TM has faded away, I’ve had some time to think about what the next steps are and when they come.  You may remember that the John Curran, the Town Manager, told TM last fall that he would be bringing a new set of zoning changes for the town center to TM in October 2011. But after the last TM, I believe fully that TM is not ready to accept any zoning changes. With a “Distrust Bloc” against Mr. Curran building after May, anything submitted by the Town Manager requiring a 2/3 majority has little chance when it comes time to vote. Therefore it is prudent to wait.

Mr. Curran, his town center visioning committee, and NMCOG will continue their work. We may see the second visioning meeting, hopefully coming in September. In the meantime, we at the “grass roots” level can supplement this work with our own, creating a support structure for staff. We can also do our own brainstorming.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had some new ideas of my own. I’ll be sharing those with you and asking you to add yours. I’ve also found a model project for us, one that is even more appropriate than the other success stories that I have written about many times before.

I feel pretty good about where this is going, in spite of the negative direction elected bodies (TM and BOS) have taken in this regard this year. It looks like there are many roads to success, some that may not even go through elected government at all. We’ll explore that.

In addition, it looks like Billerica Blight has bottomed out. We have a great new company coming in (E Ink — thank you, Assessing Department staff) and the Billerica Mall (er, Shops at Billerica) has new infrastructure, tenants, and a snazzy sign at the entrance. Even Inverson Ford has a new tenant, Habitat for Humanity. Aside from one less vacant building (on our main drag, no less), this store should be a good resource for the community.

Finally, my second child is due in August, after which I will be away from the blob for a while, of course.  Can’t Get There from Here is almost as old as my first, and when I look at her I’m reminded of why I want to rid our home town of all the trash and blight that surrounds us.  As I watch her grow I realize how little time remains until she needs a place nearby that she can go by herself, meet her friends, and have a safe and happy childhood.  I was bored most days when I was growing up, and mostly it was because we had no where to go.

Keep active.

Trust or Consequences

My wife left me a telephone message for me when I got home.  The Billerica tax collector called for me, it said.  Uh-oh!  Are we somehow behind on our property taxes?

The next morning I called Treasurer/Collector John Clark.  I had completely forgotten that I had placed a hold on one of his budget items at Town Meeting the night before he called.  He wanted to know if he could help with my question.  He spent almost 30 minutes of his day cordially explaining bond ratings and interest on our debt service.  Very professional.

Not everyone in Town Meeting shares my opinion that we have competent, well-prepared, motivated staff.  Recently a published commentary said after a town-run public meeting: “we have a corrupt system.”  And at Town Meeting last month, a representative at the microphone accused the Town Manager and other officials of benefitting from the contracts they were negotiating.

But that wasn’t even the low point.  That was when a motion was made to cut longevity pay from the Town Accountant, Paul Watson.  At that moment Mr. Watson was standing at the podium a few feet away.  He had spent the evening (and most of the previous session as well) working up a sweat chasing numbers buried deep in a dozen binders to answer multiple questions from TM about the budget.

As Bernie Duggan of precinct 5 pointed out, how embarrassing it must have been for Mr. Watson.  The amendment failed, but what if it passed?  How would he explain to his wife after working another 13-hour day for the people of Billerica that they cut $1800 from his pay?  I don’t know about you, but in my family budget that’s real money.

Why do so many people – many of whom are elected representatives of Town Meeting – truly believe that government employees always act in their own personal self interest and never that of the community they serve?  One theory I have is they had a bad experience at the RMV in 1982 and never forgot it.

Town Meeting should never blindly accept everything they are told by staff.  It is TM’s job to ask tough questions, and they do.  But often the answer is bad news, and staff takes abuse for being the messenger.  Like:  “Local Aid is down this year.”  “That’s a state law and we must follow it.”  “Town Meeting itself approved that expense just a few years ago.”  “The information you accused me of hiding from you is included in the orange book we provided to you and which you have been carrying with you for three-and-half weeks.”

Here is a partial list of people in Town Hall who have helped me directly in the short time I have lived here: Town Assessor Rich Scanlon, Police Chief Dan Rosa, DPW Director Abdul Alkatib, Town Clerk Shirley Schult, Executive Secretary Susan Michelini, Principal Clerk Kathleen Vogan, Council on Aging Director Donna Popkin, Town Engineer Kelley Conway, Town Planner Peter Kennedy, former Town Manager Bill Williams, current Town Manager John Curran, Assistant Town Manager Cathleen O’Day, and Economical Development Coordinator Stephanie Cronin.  The last six people on that list met with me (some on more than one occasion) in person to field my questions and listen to my crazy ideas.  It’s too bad some citizens – especially TM representatives – don’t spend time talking with staff about what is bothering them.  They are here to help us if we give them a chance.

Since John Curran has taken over as our Town Manager, he has vastly improved the availability and distribution of information, outreach to TMRs (as evidenced by the call I received), and the quality of the Town Meeting presentation. What else do TMRs want staff to do?  Come over and tie their shoes for them?

I choose to believe that our town employees care about the people of Billerica and that they want us to have a high standard of living and quality of life.  I sincerely hope that most citizens feel the same.

But if we don’t trust each other, we will always be competing for space, money, and attention.  It will be “every man for himself” — the opposite of community.  In an atmosphere of distrust, Billerica will not succeed.

No Mas

Town Meeting Ends Mercifully After Seven Plodding Sessions

The final night of Spring 2011 TM came at last on May 24.  Session #7 took all of 30 minutes, and the body dissolved amid a chorus of sighs.

Today I will summarize what (if anything) TM actually accomplished during this odyssey and explore some of the hidden costs of TM.

Sunken Costs

Many TMRs complain about how much things cost or about how government steals the taxpayers’ money.  These are fair complaints, but did you ever consider how much of a waste of money Town Meeting itself might be?