Kevin White and the Importance of Leadership

Kevin White died Friday.  I am not old enough to remember his time as mayor, but over the past few days I have been reading about him and about the city of Boston.  I particularly enjoyed Brian McGrory ‘s column in the Globe.

White was major for 16 years, from 1968 to 1984.  A difficult time in history, to be sure.  But something else struck me about his time as mayor, and it’s the physical changes the city went though during that period.

Imagine Boston without Fanuel Hall marketplace.  Seems like it’s always been there, right?  No, Kevin White built the place.  The Four Seasons Hotel across the street from the Public Garden?  That used to be a McDonald’s.

Boston is a tourist mecca now.  But it wasn’t always that way.  But White worked hard at it, and he was not dealt an easy hand.  When he was elected, Boston’s politics were disjointed and polarized.

Sound familiar?

I think so.  It made me think about my own town, and how people see it the way it is today.  You don’t hear many people expressing a vision the way White did in Boston — and then execute it.

Like Boston in the middle of last century, Billerica has many areas that can be vastly improved.  White (along with two mayors before him, as McGrory explains), worked hard to turn blighted areas into useful, beautiful places.

Billerica can do that, too.  But we can can’t do it without leadership.  Who will step forward to be our Kevin White?  Who has the wisdom, the influence, and the guts?

MBTA Budget Plan Working to Perfection

A few days ago I predicted the the MBTA would enact neither of its two scorched-earth budget plans.  They are using those plans to scare riders into thinking they might lose service unless the T gets more money from the state.  I outlined this devious plan as follows:

1. In the upcoming fiscal year, costs cannot be covered with anticipated revenue and/or regular-sized budget cuts.
2. Pick a bread-and-butter service or other service that taxpayers are emotionally tied to (e.g. teacher positions, firemen, police, library) and write a budget that slashes it.
3. Announce your plan.
4. Give constituents plenty of time, space, and opportunity to unite, assemble, and express anger.
5. Plenty of media coverage follows, gaining the sympathy of observers.
6. Ask for more money.
7. Panicked constituents fork over the cash, averting disaster.

I presumed that ordinary T customers would deluge their representation on Beacon Hill, begging for more cash for the T.  But I never imagined that one of state’s mightiest pols would lend a hand.  Today the Globe reported that the mayor of Boston wrote a letter to Massachusetts leadership asking to raise the gas tax.  Step #6 in the plan could not be going better.  Can you picture the high-fiving yelps of joy in the T corner offices this morning?

Also from the Globe story:

Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo noted the letter’s receipt but otherwise declined to comment.

Patrick said recently that the state transportation system needs a permanent financing fix, though he has no immediate plan; Murray and DeLeo have said they will wait until MBTA public hearings conclude in March to weigh in.

In other words, “Once the T creates enough angry constituents in all the neighborhoods it serves [Step#4], there should be enough momentum to force a higher gas tax.”  This is related to a political lesson I learned early in my own career in the public sector: Don’t do anything until the people ask for it.

Of course, the Globe story itself (front page, above the fold) contributes nicely to Step #5.  Well done, MBTA!

Town Meeting Speaker Waiver System

In this year of possible large-scale Town Meeting Representative turnover, electronic voting, and a race for the Moderator’s seat, this is the year to think creatively.  So I bring you my proposal of a”waiver priority system” for speakers at TM.  In brief, this will be a way to fairly and objectively choose the order in which speakers come to the microphone, while cutting debate time way down.  With this system used in concert with electronic voting, we may be able to dispatch an entire warrant in two nights.  The 21st century is here.

Statement of the Problem

In my short two years as a precinct 5 TM representative, I have found the following annoying at best and a hindrance to the quality and efficiency of TM at worst.

1. TM takes too long.  The Fall 2011 session clocked in at just under 24 hours total.  There’s no reason we can’t get that done in half the time.
2. The Moderator must arbitrarily choose who speaks and in what order.  After an article is presented, TMRs begin raising their hands.  With the TV lights in his face, it can be hard to see people, especially in the back under the balcony.  I have even seen TMRs in the fifth row waving their arms like crazy people when the Moderator appears to be looking right at them.  Additionally, the Moderator will always say that he takes hands “in the order that he sees them.”  But when 20 TMRs all put their hands up at the same time, who gets to go first?  Who goes last?  This can be critical because one good speaker can sway a vote on way or another.  (We have had some close votes as you know.)  We have seen speakers passionate on an issue left out because they are down on the list when the question is called.
3. Too few voices are heard on the TM floor.  In the Spring of 2010, there were a total of 192 trips to the microphone made by TMRs.  Of those, 50 — over a quarter — were made by just four TMRs.  Only 68 TMRs spoke at least once.  There are 242 total seats.  Interestingly, only 16 women spoke for a total of 52 times.  Precinct 3 was only heard from 3 times.  A body as large as TM only works well if we hear from as many different people as possible. If just a few TMRs are dominating “air time” at the microphone, other TMRs don’t get a chance.  (See my full report.)
4. Too many frivolous questions and comments.  Some TMRs take full advantage of their right to comment on any article or budget item.  It does not matter if the TMR makes an invalid point or asks a question that has already been answered.  He or she has three minutes, even if it is a waste of time, and these add up.  The Steve Wetzel Show last spring is just one example.

The TM Speaker Waiver System

In brief the Speaker Waiver System is a virtual queue in which all TMRs are always waiting to speak.  Once a TMR takes a turn at the microphone, he or she goes to the end of the line.

The Financial Benefits of Mixed-Use Development

When I was attempting to make my case for mixed-use development to the town at large a few years ago, I searched for (but never found) a study that focused on the financial advantages of mixed-use development.  It made sense that such developments produced more in property taxes than, say, a mammoth strip mall.  But I wasn’t able to show it with fact.

A sprawling Walmart store produces far less in property tax revenue for Ashville, NC as compared to a mixed-use building

A recent story at Planetizen has done just that.  Here is a chart comparing the financials of a Walmart vs. a mixed-use building.  The small building is much more lucrative, and it’s not close.  The 0.2 acre parcel generates 100 times more money for Ashville, NC than the Walmart per acre and more than 10 times more jobs.

How do our own strip malls fare?  In 2005, O’Connor’s Plaza paid $175,000 in property tax.  The parcel is 11.6 acres.  This works out to just over $15,000 per acre.  And the Zombie?  In the same year, RD Management forked over just $16,000 more than O’Connor’s, and it is almost 3 times larger.  So in ’05 the Zombie was worth a pathetic $6,400 per acre, or even less than the Ashville Walmart.

When you hear people talk about the “cost of sprawl,” this is what they mean.  It is, in part, an “opportunity cost” — in other words, the money we surrender by not having a higher-value development on that land.

Could a mixed use development make over $600,000 per acre in Billerica?  Maybe not.  But let’s say it’s worth just one third of that: $200,000 per acre annually.  It would earn us about $6,000,000 in revenue.  So, the opportunity cost of not redeveloping this land is just over $5.8M every year.

Mind-blowing, no?  Could Billerica use an extra $5.8 million?

I say yes.

Taxes, the MBTA, and Paying for What We Use

Forgive the diversion of talking regional politics, but there is a lesson to be learned from the MBTA’s desperate money situation and their threat to make a massive cut in service.

A speaker protests proposed service cuts and fare increases at an MBTA public meeting

The T doesn’t have enough money, so it either needs to reduce its spending, raise its revenue, or both.  The problem is so bad, they have put two awful proposals on the table that would indeed do both in a big way.  Shown at left is a photo from one (in Newton) of 20 planned public meetings.  This meeting is so full you can see people overflowing onto the balcony over the speaker’s shoulder.

The T’s service cuts call for an end to weekend commuter rail service, all ferry service, and many less-used bus routes.

Since you live in Billerica, you probably rarely use the T.  We have no T bus service (we are served by the Lowell Regional Transit Authority in that regard), although we do have a commuter rail station.  Chances are that you drive to work, so whichever plan the T goes with, it won’t affect you, right?

I suppose, except when you consider that the T carries 1.3 million people a day.  And if service is cut, where do you suppose those displaced people will end up?  You got it: on Route 3, in front of you.

But that’s not the point of today’s post.  No, I’m speaking up on this because while I support public transit in general, the T is playing a dirty trick on its customers and taxpayers.  I believe the T will withdraw both current proposals and go with a third, which will make much more modest service cuts and fare increases.  And I also believe this was the MBTA’s plan all along, before they even walked into the first public meeting.

If I am right, the T will not be the first government agency to pull this trick.  Towns do it with overrides all the time.  The plan goes like this:

1. In the upcoming fiscal year, costs cannot be covered with anticipated revenue and/or regular-sized budget cuts.
2. Pick a bread-and-butter service or other service that taxpayers are emotionally tied to (e.g. teacher positions, firemen, police, library) and write a budget that slashes it.
3. Announce your plan.
4. Give constituents plenty of time, space, and opportunity to unite, assemble, and express anger.
5. Plenty of media coverage follows, gaining the sympathy of observers.
6. Ask for more money.
7. Panicked constituents fork over the cash, averting disaster.

In the case of towns, #7 is usually an override.  (How many overrides have you seen that saves the library from losing accreditation?)  For the T, there is an extra step — the angry constituents turn to their state reps and senators, demanding that Beacon Hill come up with the money.

The MBTA is at step #4 of this insidious plan.  They are holding twenty public meetings.  Why so many?  To build a large, motivated horde of activists that will go to bat for the agency’s interests in the political arena. They could have had three public meetings in the middle of the day when everyone is at work if they wanted to.

The anger of the speakers at these meeting is directed squarely at the T, but it needs that anger.  All the T has to do is shrug its shoulders and say, “We have no choice.  We don’t have the money.  But if we did have the money…”

The T can’t ask for more money, but their riders sure can.

Is it underhanded?  Devious?  Manipulative?  Yes, yes, and yes.

But do I blame the T for doing it?  No.  Because the only way to raise revenues in our political environment is with fear.  Rather than have an adult conversation about matching taxes, fees, fares, and other costs to the services we want, there is no alternative.

Put another way, talking about raising taxes will get you stoned in this recession.  (I am hiding behind a stack of old volumes of the World Book Encyclopedias right now.)  So what if the state gas tax hasn’t been touched since 1991?  Can’t go near it.  MBTA fares haven’t changed since 2007?  Keep your damn hands off.

We Americans are becoming allergic to paying our own way.  Someone else should pay.  We pay enough already.  Can’t afford a penny more.

That’s a child’s fantasy.  Here is the reality: costs of anything go up.  Forever.  They call it inflation.  The only question is how fast costs go up and by how much.  So you are left with one of the following 3 options:

1. Pay enough to cover inflation, get the same services
2. Pay more than enough to cover inflation, get more services
3. Don’t pay enough to cover inflation, get less services

But wait, where is option 4, “Pay less and get more services?”  We believe in option 4 because people running for elected office have been telling us for years that it exists, like Atlantis or the Tooth Fairy.  Just cut “wasteful spending,” they say, which itself is imaginary.

Folks, we are grown-ups, not children playing “store.”  Real money, real debt, real needs, real choices.

About Those Other Priorities…

Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.  This helps explain why, instead of attending a fundraiser for Board of Selectman candidate Andrew Deslaurier, I ended up sitting on the couch watching Elmo lead a monster parade down Sesame Street Saturday afternoon.

Last week I wrote about the hurdles citizens must jump in order to serve in Town Meeting.  One of those is collecting signatures for the nomination papers, and I suggested that candidates attend events like Mr. Delaurier’s at the Country Club this past Saturday.  And then I didn’t show up myself, despite it being a 2 minute drive from my house.

After spending the morning painting the bathroom, making bread, and reconfiguring my home wireless network, I was in the shower by 2:30 or so.  After that I found both my kids (ages 3 and 5 months) sleeping.  At the same time.  This is about as common as a new store opening in the Zombie Mall.  Anyway, I got dressed and waited for everyone to wake up so we could go.  Finally a few minutes after 4, when the event started, the 3 year-old woke up, but she was crying.

In the bathroom, she looked up at me with pained eyes and said, “Daddy, I don’t feel good.”

At that point I wasn’t taking her to anywhere.  If I was president I would have postponed the State of the Union address.

After I cleaned up, I made her some ginger ale with the bubbles stirred out (which she didn’t like) and found some crackers.  And I took her downstairs to watch TV under a blanket.

A while later my wife told me I should go to the event myself.  I had made a commitment to go.  And I could have.  I could have jumped in the car and had a drink in my hand in five minutes, talking with my friends.  But that would leave my wife with two sick kids.  (The infant has a cold.)

In that last post I somewhat coldly cited “other priorities” as a reason why it is difficult for many citizens to get involved in their community, especially politics.  For parents, their priority is their kids, and nothing else comes close.

Maybe a generation ago, as the man of the family I would have attended that event and not looked back.  But my wife and I are about as equal as it gets when it comes to raising daughters.  We alternate overnight wake-ups, nasty diapers, bottle feedings, storytime.  We both attend doctor’s appointments.  On rare occasions we each get out of the house by ourselves to get some (vastly underrated) alone time.  But when one (or both, in this case) of the kids is sick, that would always supersede those plans.

The punch line is that it appears the 3 year-old was exaggerating her discomfort.  It would not be the first time she dialed up the drama.  She was fine the rest of the night and it’s even possible her “sickness” was the lingering aftereffect of a bad dream.  In other words, had we gone to the event, she would probably have been fine.  But you don’t take chances with your kids.

So I still have two lonely signatures on my paper — mine and my wife’s.  I’ll have to hit the cold bricks for the rest.  Here’s hoping for an extra warm Saturday or Sunday between now and February 27.

Jumping Hurdles on the Way to Town Meeting

I pulled my town meeting representative papers at the Town Clerk’s office Friday.  I always enjoy going to the clerk’s office — the staff are friendly and can answer just about any question you have.  So I left with my nomination paper and a smile on my face, but wondering just how many other people will do the same.

With redistricting this year we need at least 240 people divided into 11 precincts to give voters a choice.  The good news is that, flipping through the clerk’s log book for each precinct — anyone who pulls a paper for any elected office must sign it — there are a fair number of names in it with 6 weeks or so left until the filing deadline.  Most of the names are familiar — long-time TMRs who want their seat back.  (A few have even returned the document with the requisite 10 signatures already.)  I saw a few new names, too, but not enough.

You may have heard me say before in this space that 2012 will be a very important year for TM and that I am nervous that there is not enough interest to sustain such a large body.  I hope that I am wrong, but research (such as by Robert Putnam in “Bowling Alone”) suggests that older people are much more interested in civic engagement (including running for office) than younger people.  With each passing generation — and, indeed, each passing year — general interest in local politics is being lost by attrition.  Locally, look no further than the median age of a Billerica Town Meeting representative (55) as compared to the median age of all adults (45).  There are few TMRs under age 40, and fewer still who have school-age kids.

With every seat empty going into this year we have a chance to elect scores of younger people into TM, but will they even run?  The odds are against this for a number of reasons:

• Too many distractions.  When you have an iPod, iPhone, iPad, Xbox, on-demand HDTV, PSP, high-speed internet, and a host of other whiz-bang entertainment options available without leaving the house, who wants to go sit in town hall for 20 to 30 hours a year listening to people make sanctimonious points of order and grumble at each other?  Electronic voting will bring a little tech bling to TM, but it may not be enough to draw in the first generation that gets more excited about smartphones than cars.
• Other priorities.  Speaking of distractions, a majority of younger people in town are raising kids.  Between sports and other organized activities, school, fund-raising, and the PTA, parents can’t find the time to vote, much less serve in town meeting.
• Wrong time of year.  To get on the ballot, TM candidates must gather 10 signatures from registered voters in their own precinct.  Doesn’t sound like a burden — stopping by 5 or 6 houses in the neighborhood ought to do it.  But who wants to trudge around in January or February, banging on doors asking for nominations?  Who wants to have their door banged on, to stand out on the icy front stoop shaking out ink from a frozen pen?  It’s a shame the election is in April.  Were the election later in the year, TM candidates could hold an informal BBQ (or maybe organize a block party!) for hand-shaking, signature-gathering, and civic engaging.  A winter election season is very community-unfriendly.
• Full-time employment.  You must pick up your papers in person from the Town Clerk, and they are open during normal business hours.  If you have a normal-person, full-time job, when exactly do you pick up the papers (and then return them completed)?  No wonder so many TMRs are retired.

If we want a 242-member Town Meeting to survive Generations X (hello) and Y, we need to make running for a seat and attending 8-10 meeting a year as attractive as possible for our best and brightest citizens.  Just getting on the ballot is a hassle, and it shouldn’t be.  Aside from changing the time of year we hold our election, I’m not sure what other improvements we can make without breaking state election rules.  (Wouldn’t nomination by e-mail be great, for example?)

I do have one suggestion.  If you are running for a TM seat (and if you are reading this, I hope you are), one way to gather signatures inside a warm building is to attend a political campaign event.  They are crawling with registered voters.  One is coming up this weekend (Saturday the 21st) for BOS candidate Andrew Deslaurier at the Country Club on Baldwin Road.  I hope to see you there, and I’ll sign your papers if you sign mine.

We Have a Race for Moderator

In most local elections, there are often certain seats that are unopposed.  Town and City Clerks are rarely challenged, for example.  Moderator is another position that usually has just one candidate most of the time.

But not this year in Billerica.  Gil Moreira, who has been Moderator for two years, will be challenged by Finance Committee member Michael Moore.

Gil has brought notable innovations to Town Meeting is his first term.  For some debates, has used “pro” and “con” microphones, which guaranteed the debate alternated between supporters and detractors.  In a gesture of goodwill he put away the microphone “kill switch,” which remotely cuts off the speaker if he or she refuses to stop talking.  Gil has actively researched electronic voting and intends to deliver it to TM this year.  He has made excellent use of the 3 new flat screen TVs in the Buck auditorium along with PowerPoint.

Speaking of the new presentation technology, it’s his opponent, Michael Moore, is responsible for much of it.  For each meeting he mans the laptop,  deftly shifting among many presentations, spreadsheets, and other materials displayed to TMRs in attendance (and those watching on BATV).

You may also remember Michael from his Planning Board run a few years ago.  (He was not elected.)  Learn more about him at on his blog.

Both men are even-tempered, fair, and among the most reasonable, intelligent men I have have the pleasure of working with in town politics — all good qualities important for a Moderator.  We are lucky to have them both.

A longtime proponent of competition for elected positions, I’m thrilled that we will have a race for this seat.  With all 242 TMRs running fur reelection this year, 2012 may be the most important for Billerica Town Meeting in quite some time.  The direction the body takes over the next ten years may change entirely this year if there is turnover among TMRs.  The Moderator will also be a large factor as well.

It’s an ideal time to have two people running, each with his own perspective on what TM should be.  The Moderator appoints members of many committees, too, including the important and influential Finance Committee.

I will be talking as much as I can to Gil and Michael and following this race here on the blog to help you make the best choice for Moderator.

It remains to be seen if we will have a race for Selectmen (no one has been identified as an opponent to Andrew Deslaurier) or if there will be more than 2 candidates for 2 open seats on the Planning Board.

Town Meeting Nomination Papers Available Now

Readership and comments spiked here at the blog over the last quarter of 2011.  Items of discussion included Fall Town Meeting, the Yankee Doodle Bike Path, and the loss of retail businesses.  You are frustrated, angry, disenfranchised.

We can continue to find blame or we can stand up and take action.  Last month I posted some suggested ways to improve the town.  But there is something unique to 2012 that give us a golden opportunity to make a huge difference — a blank slate in Town Meeting, the town’s legislative branch of government.

Due to recent population growth (about 1,000 people), Billerica must redraw boundaries for all 11 precincts.  Although the changes will be minor, the Town Clerk has decided to empty out all 242 TM seats and start over this year.

So, if you are frustrated with what is (or is not) happening in town, this is your chance to step in and take a seat away from a TM representative in your precinct who does not represent your interests.

When I mention this opportunity to people, the most common argument against running is, “I don’t have time.”  But the time commitment is manageable.  TM meets just twice a year — once in May and again in October — and each Meeting is spread out over 3-4 nights on average.  And this year the Moderator plans to install electronic voting which he expects to cut a considerable amount of time that historically has been wasted counting votes by hand.  Each TM night begins at 7:30PM and end between 9:30 and 10.  Meetings are always on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Also, it’s OK to miss a meeting here and there — on an average night, about 70 TMRs skip the meeting.

Nomination papers are available now from the Town Clerk and are due back in on February 27.  You need only 10 signatures from adults in your precinct.  (If you are in Precinct 5 with me, we can collect signatures together to make it easier.)  Any questions, please comment below.

We need you.  Please run.