Tewksbury Rejects Switch to Town Council

About 650 people in Tewksbury showed up last week to open town meeting to vote against a change in the form of government.  The proposal would have started the process to switch to a 9-member town council.  It lost in a laugher, 561-51.

I was rooting for this one to pass.  Tewksbury has about 30,000 people, but they are still clinging to Open Town Meeting.  Had they made the switch, I think it may have gotten attention of some of the leadership here in Billerica, which has roughly 10,000 more people.

New England towns, many of which would easily be cities were then in any other region, do fine with Open Town Meeting until they run out of physical space.  I remember growing up in Acton there were years that the high school auditorium (which held about 1,000 people at the time) filled up and they had to open the gymnasium and wheel in an audio and video feed to handle the overflow.  (Acton was at about 17,000 population at the time.)  They don’t have that have that problem anymore.

And neither does Tewksbury.  Critics of the existing form of government lament that no one shows up anymore, giving a hundred people or so the power to decide what happens to the entire town.  Selectman Scott Wilson, the only elected person to support the change, said this:

“The problem with town meeting in my opinion is that people don’t show up,” he said. “And the people that do show up aren’t representative of a community of 30,000 people. It’s a small group of people who have very strong opinions about certain things. The only time other people show up is when a particular issue has their attention.”

Sound familiar?

You might be thinking, after reading this story, that Billerica isn’t the the only town that has trouble with progress or change.  But look at these quotes.  First, another from Wilson:

“I think that this was a fantastic way to begin a conversation,” he said. “We had 600 people there and they were engaged, they were curious. If town meeting were always like that, town meeting would be more effective.

When did you hear anything like that from anyone in Billerica leadership?

And this:

Wilson said that with key town boards aligned against the plan, “I knew it wasn’t going to pass. But still it was a great discussion. I think people got educated a little. Many of them came up at the end of the night and said, ‘Scott, I really learned a lot. I’m not ready for this yet, but I can see what you are saying makes sense.’ They just need to be comfortable with it.”

Those are the words of a man who was badly beaten but has hope.  “I really learned a lot”?  Gee, why is it that the people of Tewksbury can have a rational discussion about an important issue and we can’t?  Does their open town meeting work better than our representative town meeting?

Speaking of the two forms of town meeting, let’s face it: Billerica’s form is “representative” in name only.  If we switched to open town meeting for this fall, how many people do you suppose would show up?  I put the over/under at 200, a few more than we get today.  We TMRs are supposed to represent our constituents, but we don’t.  We represent ourselves.  Why?  Because unlike other representative bodies, we have no fear of losing the next election.  It’s foolish and even a little dishonest to call it “representative” town meeting.

So there’s Option 2 for fixing Billerica’s legislative branch: switching to open town meeting.

Athletic Sports Closes

Despite the optimism of the Town Meeting buffoons who would tell you that there is nothing to worry about in the local commercial economy, the truth is that our retail health is circling the drain.  As Rob wrote here on the blog the other day, a TMR countered to my comments at the microphone by pointing out that we’ve added Peppercorns (will this be the restaurant that finally survives in that hideous space next to the hobby shop?) and Liberty Bell.  Local roast beef chain Liberty Bell is a fine establishment, but it’s a sandwich place, folks, and a step down from the funky — even hip — Coffee Emporium it replaced.

This morning on my way to the train I noticed that Athletic Sports, Liberty Bell’s next door neighbor in the historic town center, is shuttered, dark, and vacant.  And it does not look like it is moving since there is no note on the door directing patrons to its new location.

In 2009 Mike “Uncle Rico” Rosa made emotional appeal to the Finance Committee objecting to my mixed use warrant article, presumably feeling that by suggesting that the place could be improved a little I was saying his town was crap.  Near tears, he told FinCom that Sportstown USA was great just the way it is.

Now Sportstown USA is without a sporting goods store.

Seven Hundred Words to a Hostile Crowd

For what it’s worth, here is the text of the speech I delivered to Town Meeting last Tuesday.

Two and a half years ago Town Meeting considered updating the zoning code in the town center.  Opponents of the article said everything was fine the way it is.  Just leave it alone, we don’t need to do anything.   Everything will be OK.
How is that working out for us?  Here are some highlights of our business landscape since then.

OfficeMax. 26,000 square feet. Gone, from the Towne Plaza along with Fashion Bug.  There are now 5 empty storefronts in Towne Plaza.

Friendly’s Ice Cream. Went bankrupt but kept its stores open in Lexington, Stoneham, Tewksbury, Chelmsford, Woburn.  Closed the one in Billerica.

Lincoln Liquors. Conditions were so bad in its old space that it had no choice but to flee to a more acceptable space at Treble Cove Plaza.  We were lucky to keep them in town.

Coffee Emporium.  Long gone from the historic town center.

Kmart.  Kmart isn’t dead yet, but it’s getting beaten badly by Target and Walmart.  Industry experts believe it’s just a matter of time.  Two stores in New Hampshire have already closed.  At 84,000 square feet, it is the largest space at Billerica Mall.  It would be a devastating loss.  By the way, while the Mall is looking better lately, there are still 8 empty store fronts there.

We have to replace these businesses with new ones, but it’s not going to happen by magic, and it’s not going to happen by itself.  We have to take action.

Yes, we do have a few new retail businesses since 2009.  A dollar store, a down-market gym, a nail salon, and a five-dollar haircut place.  Most people in town are not satisfied with this.  In fact many of them are embarrassed that this is the best we can do.

You can’t blame on the bad economy.  Neighboring towns are building new infrastructure and attracting new businesses despite the recession.  Panera Bread is an example of the sort of business people want.  It was rumored to be coming here, but went to Wilmington instead.  Fashion Bug, which we lost, also opened a new store in Wilmington.  Market Basket has a new store in Wilmington.  Chelmsford built a brand new Stop and Shop.   Wegman’s, the number one grocery store chain the country, was looking to expand to New England, chose Burlington.

Those big developments would not be appropriate in our own town center, obviously.  But it does illustrate a problem we are having that our neighboring towns aren’t.  Here are some example of developments that would be appropriate here.

One Church Street in Wilmington, which has four stores and three offices.  The Blake Block in Bedford Center, under construction now right across the street from their historic town green.  And Lexington Place on Mass Ave in Lexington, a small development that replaced the blighted Battle Green Inn.  These are modern developments attracting modern businesses.

Businesses want to move into modern spaces.  We need to make it easier for landowners to improve their property.  If we don’t, these businesses will continue to choose other towns that are.  Here tonight we have the owner of 5 Andover Road, which wants to invest money in their property.   That’s investment in the town center and in Billerica that we desperately need.  Why would we stand in their way?

Opponents of this article say that we should be afraid of new residences.  But because the height limit in this article is the same as the existing zoning, any new apartments built would represent a fraction of a percent of the 12,000-plus households we already have.

They want you to be afraid of density.   But we don’t want sprawl, either.  Somewhere between urban density and sprawl is a village, and that’s what this new zoning is designed to do.

My question to those who rise to speak in opposition to this article tonight is, what is the plan exactly?  How do you propose to attract new businesses, or even keep the ones we have?

Almost all of the new building space created by this new zoning would be small and would attract locally-owned office and retail businesses.  So this article is not just pro-business, it’s pro small business.  We should be doing everything we can in a bad economy to help small businesses.  Please support article 31.

Billerica: Good Return on Your Investment?

In order for any governing body in a city or town to make the right long-term financial decisions, its members must have a working knowledge of the following:

• The time value of money
• Benefit to cost ratio
• Compound interest
• Return on investment and payback period
• Repair or replace point and useful life
• Basics of risk assessment
• Basics of economics (supply and demand, fixed and variable costs, opportunity cost)

I didn’t learn any of the above in high school (except maybe compound interest).  It was college economics that taught me most of this material, and I often take this education for granted.  I recognize that not all people in elected positions — particularly volunteers — know these concepts.  I would guess that a large portion of our own 240-seat Town Meeting — and maybe even a majority — don’t grasp these concepts.

Yes, there is something to be said for governing with common sense, which much of our representative democracy is built on.  In particular, the town meeting form of government (and especially open town meeting) relies heavily on common sense since not everyone has attained this level of knowledge of economics and finance.

However, arguably the most important part of common sense is, as Donald Rumsfeld might say, “knowing what you don’t know.”  And when dealing with an issue you know little about, you must listen to the advice of those that do.  That might be professional staff (who are specially trained in these areas) or other respected elected or appointed leaders.

Some Billerica Town Meeting Representatives have a problem admitting their own knowledge is limited in some areas.  (I don’t mean to pick on just TMRs in Billerica — millions of people across the country are very much the same.)  This prevents them from learning anything and often leads to decisions that hurt the town.

This leads me to my larger point about one of those concepts, return on investment.

All Billerica taxpayers own a piece of the town, however tiny.  We are landowners, but also, in a sense, shareholders.  The town’s market value, as it were, affects our individual financial well-being.  For most of us, our single largest investment is the Billerica property we own.

The value of the property rises and falls over time, of course.  The value of our home, like the balance of any savings, checking, or investment account, is always important whether we are selling the property or intend to hold onto it for years. Each principal payment you make in your mortgage — aside from paying back a large loan — is an investment in the town.  So is spending money to improve the property: renovating a kitchen of bathroom, building an addition or garage, for example.

Middlesex Zillow Home Value Index

Middlesex real estate info

Anyone who reads the paper know that the values of all houses is down since the housing boom.  The recession has affected the value of all houses, but some communities have been hit harder than others.  On this graph you can see a comparison of area home values courtesy of Zillow.com.  In the past year Billerica has seen a big drop in values: 5.7%, which is among the largest in the region.

Money is not the only investment we make.  Time is another.  Many visitors to this blog are elected or appointed Billerica officials.  Among them they have logged hundreds (thousands?) of person hours trying to improve both the financial health of the town and the quality of life for its inhabitants.  We are lucky to have dozens of talented and intelligent people in these positions pushing the rock up the hill.

And for me personally, I have made an investment as well.  I began soon after I moved here in 2006.  I began writing about these issues for the newspaper in 2008.  The blog came along shortly after that. Because I like to be thorough and base my opinions in the facts, I have conducted mounds of research.

This is my third year as a Town Meeting Representative.  I have also attended about a dozen public meetings.  This all took me away from other things I like doing.

One thing I have never liked doing (and still don’t) is politics.  At any level.  For some, the competition makes it a sport.  I prefer actual sports.  I see politics as an irritating means to an end.  The end result (such as getting a bike path built) is worthwhile, but the means of getting there is tedious and at times infuriating.

But with this town meeting, which shows near-zero interested in spending money on quality of life improvements and no acumen for slam-dunk investing decisions (see water meter replacement), what is all this investment getting us?

One final skill I forgot to add to the list at the top: when to cut your losses.  Maybe I need to learn that one myself.

Grumpytown Forever Stuck in Mud

We have before us (as the Moderator would say) another reason to do some self-reflection.  Not only did Billerica Town Meeting pass on the opportunity to improve its own center — at a private land-owner’s expense, no less — it also looked small business owners squarely in the eye and spit in their faces.

I guess some members of our town’s venerable leadership group don’t realize that the region is watching us, particularly the business community.  They see that the owners of 5 Andover Road hired an attorney, surveyor, and an architect — at considerable expense, I’m sure — only to have their plans torn up by a Billerica’s paranoid governing body.  Zero return on their investment.  We are becoming the Chernobyl of the Merrimack Valley business landscape.

Now for the sickening irony.  The owners of 5 Andover Road could used the dreaded 40B law — which opponents used as part of their argument against the overlay district — to build their residential units after all.

Discuss.

Back to the May 8 meeting.  It’s not so much the result that bothers me so much.  It’s the way TMRs arrived at their decisions. To wit:

• Many expressed strong support for mixed use in concept but spoke against the article.  These people don’t like the article as written, but offer no amendments and show no interest in working on a compromise article.
• Facts that clash with beliefs and fears about the article were rejected out of hand.  The proponent supplied a three-page FAQ to TM before the meeting started, but did people read it?  When no one is even open to a rational conversation, where does that leave the proponent?

Town Meeting is an obstructionist, immovable object.  No form of progress can puncture it so long as a two-thirds vote is required.  Obstructionist TMRs cannot be removed by the voters, because no one will challenge them for their seats and even if there were, there aren’t enough voters to oust the buffoons.

And forget mixed use for a second.  Anything of consequence that we want has to pass through TM, too.  Take the bike path.  The committee is working their asses off trying to get abutters along the path corridor to sign on.  But when it gets to the TM floor, the obstructionists will say “finish the sewer first” and that will be the end of it.  Quality of life means nothing whatsoever to this voting bloc.

What to do?  Brainstorm time:

• Get new people to run for TM.  Problem: already tried that.  This year with all 240 TM opened up after redistricting, every seat was there for the taking.  But just 203 people stepped forward.  TM is a product that is nearly impossible to sell.
• Put the mixed use question on the ballot.  Problem: It’s not clear this is legal.
• Got after TM itself by slashing the number of seats.  Problem:  Good luck.  Expecting TMRs to risk losing their own seat in an election will be harder than asking Congress to pass on a pay raise for themselves.  Reading TM last week rejected an article that would have reduced its size from 192 to 144 seats.  The vote: Six in favor, 121 opposed.  Ouch.
• Put together an education campaign.  Problem: Education only works on people who want to learn, and the obstructionists are not interested.

Town Meeting is hopeless.  I hate to say that — honestly, I do — because there are dozens of good people in this town who want to govern, are good at it, and put in a tremendous amount of time into it.  Start with the Finance Committee, the hardest-working group in town.  But what good is a top-notch FinCom if TM never takes their advice?

I’ve written before that no government can excel unless the people in it trust each other.  (It would also help if the voters trusted the government, but I think we’re losing that battle a little more every day.)  Aside from the budget, TM has almost no trust in the Finance Committee, which voted 10-1 to recommend Article 31.  It certainly doesn’t trust the Planning Board (6-0), despite member David Kinsella assuring the crowd that he would be very tough with all proposals coming to him.  And there is some trust with BOS (3-2) members (particularly Mike Rosa, who delivered the minority report), but even if the BOS had voted 5-0 to recommend, I still don’t think you would get 120 Yes votes.

So where does that leave us?  Mired in the backwater.  We have left the business community no with no tools and little incentive to improve their properties.  Every year, properties are going to get older and older, and little by little, businesses are going to decline to renew their leases in favor of updated spaces in neighboring towns.  That leads to a drop in commercial property values.

What is the effect of declining property values?  Someone has to make up the difference in a budget that’s climbing by a few percentage points every year.  And who might that be?

Why, you of course, the residential property taxpayer.

Enjoy.

Correction: Mixed Use Article Did Not Receive Majority Vote

I made an embarrassing reporting error yesterday, inverting the results of the Article 31 vote Tuesday night.  I’ll let Town Clerk Shirley Schult, who confirmed my fear by e-mail today, break the bad news:

The standing count was seventy-one (71) in favor and ninety-four (94)
opposed.  Thus the motion LOST

Yes, and thank you Ms. Schult for the all-caps zing at the end.  I apologize to you readers for my error.  I have updated yesterday’s post accordingly.

Interest in Mixed Use Still High

Traffic to the blog smashed a record yesterday, and judging by the search terms used, it suggests that there is still a high level of interest by the general web-surfing public in this subject.  And looking at the comments, a fair amount of outrage, too.

Janet mentioned that she is drafting a letter to the paper.  This is a great idea.  If you are looking for a spot to channel your displeasure with Town Meeting where people will actually read it (I doubt I get many buffoons visiting the blog), you can address a letter to the Billerica Minuteman at billerica@cnc.com.  It will be worth your time; Minuteman editor Liana Measmer makes every effort to run every letter she gets.  No need to be verbose, either — 100 to 150 words would do the trick.  The deadline to make next Thursday’s edition is Friday at noon.

Remember, the buffoons believe, as suggested by  Anthony Ventresca (of the Finance Committee and lone minority voter during his report), that most people in town are against any improvement to the town center.  A show of strength in the paper next week would go a long way to dispelling that notion.

Once again, that you all for your interest and support.

Hopeless: Buffoonery Sinks Town Meeting

One anecdote from last night neatly sums up my five years in Billerica politics.  As the Buck Auditorium was emptying out, I was talking with Michael Belleri, the petitioner of the zoning overlay warrant articles and owner of the commercial building at 5 Andover Road.  I was apologizing to him for Town Meeting denying his chance to turn a profit improving his vacant property and asking what’s next for him.  A man I don’t know abruptly interrupted our conversation and told me, very incoherently, that he was upset with something I wrote in the newspaper — two years ago.  By the time I finally figured out what this person wanted from me, Mr. Belleri had disappeared.  The punch line: the angry interrupter sits on our Zoning Board of Appeals.

That was right after Town meeting voted 71 in favor, 94 opposed to the mixed use article.  It was the worst vote result of the three attempts, falling far short of the 2/3 majority needed to pass.  Somehow we lost 20 Yes votes since May 2009 and 28 Yes votes sine October 2009.  The trend is supposed to go up, not down.

Although the vote was very different, it was the same forehead-slapping debate.  The same people spoke against the article and they carted out the same fears about parking, 40B developments, strangers, density, spiders, traffic, disability access, and robot attacks.  Ralph McKenna (7) made the same joke about the Planning Board being the best money could buy, and it got the same laugh.  I live in an Andie McDowell movie.

It it abundantly clear, based on the questions and comments made by opponents, that there are still dozens of TMRs who have no idea how zoning works and what an overlay district is.  That’s the definition of buffoonery.

There are optimists out there that say with enough education we can show people that it’s good for the town.  I strongly disagree.  You would have to assume that opponents are receptive to education, i.e. facts, ideas, information, knowledge, and wisdom.  But some people just aren’t, and there’s nothing we can do about that but boot the buffoons out of office.  And I think we know how likely that is in a town when one in 12 adults vote.

The exclamation point came from a member of the Board of Selectman who supported the article.  On his way out of Town hall he told me, “it’s too bad,” but that “it’s dead.”

Yes, but let’s be honest.  It was dead in 2009, which is when TM made up its mind.

Town Center Zoning Showdown Tonight

At Session #3 of the 2012 Brillerica Spring Town Meeting tonight, a mixed-use zoning overlay district will be on the agenda.  Article 31 will come up third after the remainder of the budget and the electronic voting committee article.

As it was in 2009 (twice), this is an important night in the town’s history.  In addition to the result of the vote itself, the tenor of the presentations and the debate will be something to watch.  How does town leadership react to new ideas?  With healthy skepticism?  Or paralyzing fear?

I was the petitioner of this article in May of 2009.  I was not a TMR at the time.  After my presentation, a TMR said — at the microphone and on TV for all to see and hear — that I was only doing it for my own personal financial gain.  To his credit, the Moderator told the man he was way out of order, but you can’t put that toothpaste back in the tube.

The second time the article was submitted by the Planning Board, in October of 2009.  That debate was a little more civil.  I watched that debate alone in the balcony (although future Town Manager John Curran was also watching from the other balcony).  Some of the questions were silly, some were strange, and some were outlandish.  Here are the highlights.   More response from me here.

Tonight marks attempt #3.  This time we have a private citizen petitioner again, but rather than a resident, it is a business, the owners of the vacant 5 Andover Road.  Their attorney (Steven Lentine, who also represented Home Depot and is a former Selectman) will make the presentation.  The building at 5 Andover Road is vacant, and they have not been able to attract office tenants.  They think they cam make money converting some of the building to residential.

Most towns in the known universe would be jumping for joy that a private entity (i.e. not the taxpayers) wants to invest money in their property.  Anyone who owns a house knows that if all the neighbors fix up their places, the value of your house goes up.  The same is true for commercial districts.  This is why municipalities have facade improvement programs and other community development resources to help spruce up the shopping districts.

Will TM look the small business-owner petitioners in the face and tell them to hit the bricks?  If so, what message will that send to our business community?  “You’re on your own, suckers”?

Article 31 requires a 2/3 vote and a minor miracle.

First Two Spring TM Sessions Occur

BORED.

There’s little else I can say about Spring 2012 so far.  Five hours of unanimously voting yes on department’s budgets leaves me…….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I have been spending a lot of time around here trying to convince people to run for Town Meeting, and then I sit though one myself and I forget why I even run.

Aside from about 30 minutes of ceremony between the two nights this week, we spent almost all of our time on Article 4, the budget, and we aren’t even done yet.

Newly-reelected Moderator Gil Moreira took a new approach to the budget this year, reading only the bottom line for each department rather than reciting every single item.  Good idea, but it still takes way too long.

Here are a few notes that I will try my very best to make interesting for you readers:

• Worst question of the meeting (so far) goes to Rep. Howell (9) who asked at the microphone, “What does the Engineering Department do?”  DPW Director Abdul Alkatib gets credit for answering the question with a straight face.  (Note to my fellow members of the American Society of Civil Engineers: we need to do a much better job of outreach.)
• Two amendments to the budget were made.  The first by Dave Johnson (8), who is offended the Water Department’s report is printed in color (really!), to reduce the water budget by $5,000.  The second was by a very confused Brad Porter (6) who wanted to reduce the school budget by $390,000 because he felt he was given two different salary numbers by new superintendent Tim Piwowar.  I guess Mr. Porter is not aware that even if his amendment passed, if would not come out of salaries, since labor contracts have already been negotiated.  No, that money would come out of something else, like, say, cutting the drama club or leaving the thermostat in the Kennedy at 61 next winter.  Sal Dampolo (5) sagely called each question immediately, sparing us from silly debates (thank you Sal) and each amendment failed.
• Huh? The Sequel.  Despite the money the Town Manager spent improving the audio system, people in the back constantly complained they couldn’t hear speakers.
• Speaking of the back of the auditorium, maybe it’s hard to hear in part because everyone is talking.  I arrived on the late side and settled into to back, and believe me when I tell you there are about a half-dozen conversations going on at any given time back there.  The bright new lighting installed under the balcony hasn’t made a difference.

I feel more strongly than ever, after the May 1 and May 3 sessions, that we need to reduce the size of Town Meeting.  The Moderator announced that there are a mind-blowing 31 empty seats (out of 240).  Dozens of TMRs in that room are not interested in governing.  For many, it is just a social event, which is why they talk so much.  Others run because someone asked them (or begged) to run and they have a hard time saying no.

Whatever the reason, the TMR “tourists” get in the way of the people who really do want to make a contribution.  It’s time to cull the herd.

But that’s a discussion for another day.  Up next, which should be far more exciting than the first two nights, the electronic voting article and mixed use is due up Tuesday.  Appointment viewing.