Don’t Blame Non-Voters for Low Turnout

What follows is the text of my guest commentary that appears in today’s Minuteman

Turnout for our local election this month was only 10.7%, down from 13.0% last year.  If the decline continues at this pace, by 2031 there will be only one voter in Billerica, retired mullet farmer and AMC Gremlin enthusiast Jim Nimby, who will write himself in for every seat open seat on the ballot.

Many observers have tried to explain why 11 out of 12 adults in Billerica did not show up to the polls April 14.  Here are some reasons they might have missed:

* The rising cost of voting.  According to the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office, the cost of voting has shot up 73% since 2000, much faster than inflation.  With the economy still in bad shape, many families simply can’t afford to vote.

* Inconvenient voting location.  When the Town Clerk moved the polling place of Precinct 9 to Timbuktu, Mali, in Africa, it created a terrible hardship.  Who has the time to take a plane, then a jeep, then a camel, then a donkey, then hike 14 miles in blistering desert heat just to vote?  No wonder only 196 votes (8.7% turnout) were cast in Precinct 9.

* Inconvenient time.  It was also a mistake for the Clerk to change the hours the polls are open.  Most citizens are busy between 3:35 AM and 4:05 AM.

* Terrible weather.  We New Englanders like to say that we are tough and can brave any conditions, but the brutal election day blizzard that buried Billerica in 3 feet of snow with hurricane-force winds kept hundreds of citizens at home.

* Still illegal for women to vote.  Turnout is sure to suffer when you exclude half of the population. There is a movement afoot to try to amend the US Constitution, which, as you can imagine, will take a tremendous effort and many decades.  If the effort is successful, it would be the 19th Amendment.

* It’s too patriotic.  Aside from baseball, mom, apple pie, flying Old Glory from the front porch, and “support our troops” bumper stickers, few things are more American than voting.  But people are embarrassed to be called “patriotic” these days — they don’t want to run the risk of being seen by someone they know at the polls.

* Literacy tests and poll taxes.  Some think it isn’t fair for the government to create impediments to voting and are protesting this practice.  In the meantime we will continue to have many disenfranchised voters.

* Too much violence at polling place.  As with Third World countries such as the Congo, Kenya, Senegal, and Ghana, voters in Billerica are in danger of being attacked in an elementary school parking lot by rebels.  Hard to justify taking such a risk.

* No way to register to vote.  According to census numbers, there are over 6,000 adults in Billerica who are not registered to vote.  While this sounds like a lot, there is a simple explanation.  The Town Clerk hasn’t been able to take new applications since 2006 because “the filing cabinets are all full,” according to the town’s web site.  Until the town can afford to buy more paper storage, these folks are out of luck.

* Taxes too low.  According to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, our average property tax bill of $34 has remained unchanged since 1909.  While citizens in surrounding towns are outraged about their soaring taxes and flocking to polls, we in Billerica have little to complain about.

The dismal turnout trend may seem like bad news, but I for one look forward to the Jim Nimby administration.  Besides, who needs representation in government when everything is going so perfectly?

Jeff Parenti is a Town Meeting Representative in Precinct 5.

The Importance of Town Meeting

Here is the text of my Guest Commentary, which ran in the Billerica Minuteman on March 29.

Are we losing interest in Town Meeting?  Looking at the ballot for the April 12 election, it sure looks that way.  There are just 203 people running for 240 available seats in 11 precincts.  Eight precincts have fewer candidates than open seats.  After the election there will still be 45 empty seats.  That means TM will be 19% vacant going into the March 29 caucuses.

This is a trend in Billerica, and it’s getting worse.  There were 30 empty TM seats after the 2011 election and 25 in 2010.  And it appears to be a problem unique to Billerica.  Area towns that also have representative town meeting, there will few, if any, vacancies this year.  In Chelmsford, there are 170 people running for 162 available seats; Burlington, 59 for 62; Lexington, 69 for 65; Winchester, 162 for 176.

Although interest appears to be eroding, Town Meeting remains Billerica’s most important and historic political institution.  It’s still vitally important that citizens vote and vote carefully.  You may be carefully considering your vote for Selectman (where 3 people are running for 1 seat), Planning Board (3 for 2 seats), and Moderator (2 for 1 seat).  But you might not give a second thought to Town Meeting Representatives until you step into the polling place.  But TM, and the people who serve on it, is just as critical to the quality of our government as those other positions.

It’s Town Meeting that authorizes the $130 million budget our property taxes fund.  It must also approve spending for capital projects such as the Yankee Doodle Bike Path, the Town Center road improvement project, and sewer expansion.

If we discover that the high school building needs to be replaced, TM would have to approve that, too.  This may be difficult since younger Billerica citizens – those that are likely to have school-age children – are poorly represented in TM:  in 2010 only 20% of Town Meeting representatives were under age 45.

In the three precincts with races (#1, #5, and #8), your vote will determine which candidates serve in TM.  Since only a few hundred ballots will be cast in each precinct, your vote truly does count.  And even in the precincts with fewer candidates than seats, your vote is still important because the Town Clerk will award the top third of the vote-getters a 3-year term, the middle third a two-year term, and the bottom third a one-year term.

Last year voter turnout in Billerica was a paltry 13.0%.  The quality of our leadership will not improve unless we vote and get involved.

In the 1800s French writer Alexis de Tocqueville said after observing American politics, “We get the government we deserve.”  What do you deserve?

See you at the polls.

Lost Again: Burlington Lands Wegmans

New York state grocery legend Wegmans is coming to Burlington. Yeah, it's better than Market Basket.

Chances are you have never been to a Wegmans.  Unless you are from upstate New York or have friends or family there, you probably have no idea what it is.  I certainly didn’t until going to college in western Pennsylvania.  No Wegmans there, either, but I did have a friend from New York who talked so much about the place we had no choice but to ridicule him constantly for it.

After all, it’s only a grocery store.

I was young and I did not yet understand the emotional attachment that some people have to stores.  It’s not a stretch to say that Wegmans has a cult following, and judging by local reports of the first Wegmans in New England recently opening in Northboro, it appears to be well-deserved.  More services than Roche Brothers and with lower prices, Wegmans — a family-owned grocery store chain — has done what the DeMoulas family couldn’t: create a phenomenon.

That phenomenon is coming to Burlington in 2013.  According to a Globe story, Nordblom Company is developing a parcel that will include a Wegmans grocery store and several locally-owned restaurants. These will not be down-market mall-town chain eateries, either, says the developer:

“We want the focus to be on getting the best operators, so we’re talking to independent and chef-driven restaurants, as opposed to chains,’’ said Todd Fremont-Smith, senior vice president of development. “We believe that’s what the market wants: something more experience-based than just a shopping center with a large food court.’’

Sounds nice, right?  When was the last time you saw a quote anything like this about a development in Billerica?

The project will be part of Northwest Park, currently a forest of old office parks and parking lots along Middlesex Turnpike.  You have probably driven by the site of Northwest Park hundreds of times on your way to Burlington Mall and thought nothing of it.  And why would you?  There’s nothing there worth seeing right now.  But Burlington is trying to turn this neighborhood into a large, mixed-use alternative to the office park and retail disasters that sprawl built.  The Wegmans is among the first real proposals that follow that plan.  (By the way, Newton is getting one, too.)

I wrote in a Minuteman column two years ago that the Iverson Ford site should be converted to big farmer’s market and that  Billerica should become a food mecca.  Burlington has beat us to the punch.

That we failed to land Wegmans is a loss, but if we never even tried to get the legendary grocer, that would be an even bigger loss.  This is exactly the sort of economic development we should be going after.  Wegmans would have been perfect off one of the Route 3 exits.  Imagine the economic growth it would have spurred, not to mention giving us a second grocery choice beyond the three moribund Market Baskets we have.

It’s nice that we are attracting high tech companies like E-Ink (albeit with boffo tax breaks) and are going after biotech to shore up the sinking industrial space hidden away in the backstage areas of our giant town.  The Assessing Deparement gets credit for that.  But how long is it going to be until we get some development in here we can actually use?

Spreadsheet Election

Last week we covered the candidates for the Planning Board.  It was a pleasure to read their ideas on what the town should look like over the next several years.  Especially Ms. Mahoney and Mr. Ramos, who gave thoughtful and creative answers to these questions.

Now we turn to the Board of Selectmen, who are not nearly as warm and fuzzy on the issues the town faces.  As you’ll see, I tried to keep the conversation on soft quality-of-life issues, but it didn’t work.  Instead the answers were rigid and centered on that standby political recession gem — money.

Money issues are very important, but it’s a real shame that they have dominated this campaign.  I’m not even sure everyone considers money to be the headliner in this election.  Consider the Lowell Sun’s summary of the BATV debate.  Notice that the Planning Board’s comments on the growth issues (such as the Zombie Mall) lead the article and take up three-quarters of the column space.

And before you go any further, read an in-depth look at the debate by Rick.

Taxes are like the weather: everybody talks about it, but nobody ever does anything about it.  Paul Marasco points out that our taxes have gone up 75% since 2000.  That’s a lot, but the BOS sets the tax rates, and BOS candidates always promise to limit taxes during the campaign.  But each year since 2000 the BOS has voted to raise taxes to the maximum allowed by Prop 2 1/2.  And TM?  Amid a deep recession, TM cut exactly $0 from the budget last Spring.  So where has all this talking about taxes gotten us?

I have a reminder for everyone running for office this year:

We do not live in a spreadsheet

A town is a collection of places, people, and ideas.  Not columns on a ledger.  Who among us can get excited about the guy who is going to move the right numbers to right cells in an Excel file?  I don’t know, but I can tell you that the grand opening of the new library ten years ago made a lot of people smile.  That is what making life better is all about.

Before we get to Q and A part of this post, I want to spend some time on Bob Acccomando.  Bob flatly refused to answer my questions, which I sent to all three candidates by e-mail.  He wanted his response to be “in my own words, not edited or taken out of context.”  I assured him I would simply paste his answers — written by him in his own words — into my column and not altered in any way.  But that did not satisfy him.

So where does Bob stand on growth, zoning upgrades, public infrastructure, and the like?  For a sitting Selectman, he says very little.  Last year, he was the only of the five BOS members to address TM 0 times.  He does not have a campaign web site.  Do we guess?

I’ve had the opportunity of having a pair of pleasant conversations with Bob.  Before the roof started leaking in earnest, I patronized his dry cleaning business at the Mall.  I asked him about the condition of the Mall and he spoke positively about his landlord, saying that RD Management is responsive to tenants and that improvements were being made to the place. I asked him about what came next, after the building’s useful life was over, and he was vague and disinterested.  My impression is that he likes his current space and that was enough for him.

Bob is a nice man with a good heart.  Is that enough to make a good Selectman in a town of 40,000 people with a very diverse set of needs?  You decide.  But since you’re asking me, I can’t support someone who wouldn’t participate in an interview.

So then we are left with two men, both with impressive resumes.

Dave Gagliardi

Looking at his bio, you’ll see that he’s served on just about every town committee there is, including the 2003 Master Plan (more on this later).  Most notably, he has served on the Finance Committee since 1998.  When you read through his web site’s Questions page, you’ll find that he places a heavy focus on his committee experience.

Paul Marasco

In contrast to Dave’s recent hard-numbers finance committee experience, Paul served as chairman of the Planning Board.  While the outspoken Bob Casey made all the headlines during the grinding Home Depot process, Paul ably presided over testy public meetings.  He also cast the deciding ‘no’ vote on the HD permit — despite the predicable lawsuit.  It was a signature act of leadership in a town that needs more guts at the helm.

And now to my questions:

Q: In 2009, then-Town Manager Bill Williams embarrassed his employer by saying publicly that Billerica lacks “curb appeal.”  Two years later, how much improvement has there been?

DG: Given the state of the economy, it is not really all that surprising that there hasn’t been much improvement. I wouldn’t expect there to be sweeping changes anytime soon. As far as the curb appeal comment, truth be told, Billerica like most cities and towns does have its warts. If you drive up Boston Road you see a mix of business and residential and some are not all that pretty to look at. This is not a recent occurrence. Some of those buildings date as far back as the 1800’s.

Dave didn’t understand what Williams meant by curb appeal.  He was looking at the town with the critical eye of a Realtor, something all Billerica elected people should do.  Mr. Williams lived about a mile away from Town Hall and would often walk to work through the town center.  If you’ve ever taken this walk, you know what he saw.  We’ve all driven through the center thousands of times, but you see new things when you walk it, which almost no one has done.  You see long stretches of beaten down dirt rather can concrete sidewalk.  You see street without curbing, trash, dirt, and rubble along the road.  You see, smell, and hear the cars and trucks charging by.  Before you get to the historic center, you see unattractive, cinder block buildings and strip malls flagged with towering ’70s-era signs on the street, engulfed by cratered, empty, treeless parking lot.  And you will likely not encounter a single human being on foot.  That’s the lack of appeal Mr. Williams was talking about.  Not the 19th century buildings in the historic center — those are beautiful even if they need a little repainting.

It’s going to take quite a comprehensive effort to change things.

Aha!  Now we are getting somewhere.  Does this mean Mr. Gagliardi is open to change?  Is he willing to take a leadership role?  We’ll see in his other answers.

Let’s also bring in some content from Dave’s own web site, where he asks himself about the Zombie Mall:

What would you suggest we do about the Mall property?

There have been more than enough suggestions from just about everyone you talk to about what would be best for that property. I think that maybe the time has come to reach out to the Mall owner and ask him what he sees for the future of his property instead of telling him what we think he should do. Then we need to ask what the Town can do to help facilitate that end. I realize that this won’t be easy because of the obvious bad blood that exists between the Town and the Mall owner; however I believe that nothing is going to happen until we attempt to mend some fences. It’s important for both parties to understand that neither benefits from the situation that exists now and a cooperative effort is needed to make things happen. To illustrate this point we need to look no further than Wilmington. On Route 38 the shopping plaza on one side of the street was refurbished. A new plaza was built on the other side and is now fully occupied in a very bad economy. The street was also redesigned to improve traffic flow. I am not suggesting that something of that grand of scale be done in Billerica but I am saying that this is an example of what can be achieved when the Town and the business community work cooperatively and together toward a goal that benefits both.

So, which is it, Dave?  Billerica couldn’t grow because of the economy and Wilmington could?  You can’t have it both ways.  If the recession, and not something Billerica leadership has done wrong, has prevented growth here, then how did Wilmington do it?

Second, Dave talks about meeting with the Mall owners asking what they want.  He should talk to his Town Manager.  I did. Mr. Curran has already met with the management company.  In brief, RD Management has no intention of going before the Planning Board, and therefore will not make any real improvements to the property.  It’s not about mending fences.  It’s about business.  They need a financial incentive to invest in (or someone else to invest if they want to sell) their property.  The answer lies in the citizen’s hands, now.  Are we willing to make changes?  Will Mr. Gagliardi support the Town Manager in his plan to improve this property and others in the center or work against him?

Third, of all places to give as an example of growth, why would you pick Route 38 in Wilmington?  This ugly stretch of Main Street has exploded into a collection of 24-hour drug stores, strip malls, and fast food joints.  It is suburban sprawl at its worst — an orgy of retail-only land use spewing out traffic at a high rate.  Remember when Sonic opened up?  They had to pay 2 police details for three weeks to handle all the cars coming in and out.  The street had to be redesigned to improve traffic flow because of all the extra trips it had to absorb.  At full retail build-out, even 4 lanes won’t be enough.  Anyone who drives it (as I do, to access the train station) knows that it’s very unsafe because there are no left-turn lanes.  Additionally, the gleaming new sidewalks are empty because the area is to car-dominated to be comfortable to walk, and Wilmington is on the hook to maintain an asset no one uses.

Why not talk about Reading, which also grew during the recession, but did so in a much more manageable and pleasant way?

Paul said this:

PM: I do not agree with the Ex Town Manager’s position that Billerica lacked curb appeal.  As a member of the Planning Board for 10 years I never heard comments such as that to businesses wanting to invest in our Town. Billerica has always been well positioned in the region for two reasons: geographical ease of access and financial incentives.  Geographically Billerica has great access from many directions.  There is a local Tax Incentive Financing program and a DOR Tax Credit Program that will assist businesses financially to move to Billerica.  The Town Manager was not here long enough to understand the issues Billerica faces, of which curb appeal was not one.

Look, I realize it’s political suicide to say that your town is ugly.  I leaned that the hard way, and it cost Bill Williams his job.  But to say that Billerica does not face a curb appeal problem?  Even Mr. Gagliardi admitted our town has “its warts.”

Second, the geographical advantage argument does not wash.  Every town has access to at least one freeway.  Mr. Curran pointed out to me that Woburn (the city for which he was once mayor) has direct access to I-93 and 128.  Chelmsford has Route 3 and 495.  They, along with a lot of other towns in the region, beat us in that regard.  As far as financial incentives, fair enough.  But when you have to pay a company to come here (which is another way of looking at a tax break) you can’t say we attract those companies because Billerica is awesome.

Finally, the reason why you won’t hear Billerica businesses complain about curb appeal is because it’s not smart money to put down the community you’re counting on for your income.  Ask the business who have already left or who chose another place over Billerica and you will get a more candid answer.

The first step to improving yourself is admitting that you need to improve.

Q: Over the past five years, has the pace of land development along Boston Road been too fast or too slow?  What type of growth is appropriate over the next five years?

PM: You cannot measure the pace of growth.  There are many economic factors that Influence growth.  The type of growth that is appropriate is growth that lowers the residential real estate taxes, creates local jobs, respects and preserves our quality of life and heritage.

OK, Paul did mention quality of life.  That’s good.  But why did he pass on an opportunity to talk about Smart Growth, which is the third of his three goals?  Puzzling.

DG: I wouldn’t say it has been fast or slow. Again, I wouldn’t expect to see much in the way of development right now. The type of growth depends on how the available land is zoned.

Bingo!  Dave had a different approach in his web site Mall answer (see above), where he said we should talk to the landowner.  But we citizens have complete power over our own zoning code, and therefore the general direction, scale, and location of future growth.  Why are we so afraid to use that power?

Some of the signs on the empty parcels I have seen for sale say “commercially zoned.” It would be up to the ZBA or Planning Board to apply the law to those parcels. Anyone wishing to change the zoning on those parcels would need to sell the idea to Town Meeting which can be a daunting task.

You’re telling me?

Q: A set of plans to fix the roads around the Town Common was drafted in 2002 and is collecting dust in the Town Engineer’s office.  What specific action would to take to advance this project?

DG: I was in favor of that project, and wanted to see it move forward, but the money was just not available to get the project going. I still believe that something should be done but I would guess that a ten year old plan may need some updating. There would need to be money available to do that and a reasonable expectation that money for such a project also be available before we could begin to move forward again.

There is no money.  If we want state money, we have to get on the Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) and wait.  And we won’t catch a whiff of the construction cash until we have a completed set of design plans, which we don’t have either.  The Town Manager’s opinion is that this money must come from new development in the center.  You can see the chicken/egg problem developing.

PM: The Town Center is a fragile environment.  As past member of the planning board for over 10 years and currently a member of the Board of Selectman, I have recently taken action to approve our current Town Manager to move forward on a peer to peer review of the Town’s Center traffic solution. These peers are Officials have solved similar problems they faced in their Town Centers.  This would be current, solution based alternatives to compare to our existing plans on file.  Any plan that dates as far back as 2002 and was not acted upon should have a comparison to real time information.

Paul was nice enough to meet with me at the center recently and we talked about this issue.  He is very interested in improving the roads around Town Common, and we shared some ideas.  Getting a design done as soon as possible, which will take at least a year of public process, is very important, and Paul understands that.

Q Billerica has done a good job of drawing mid-sized and large employers. Now how can we attract new small businesses?

PM: Control Town spending and the effect will lower the real estate taxes for both the Residents and the Businesses.  The affordability factors will then attract small businesses to Town.  The Towns that are going to survive this Recession/depression are the ones that are affordable to live and work in.

Yes, businesses like low taxes.  But they also like to site themselves in vibrant communities, ones that put a lot of effort into looking nice.  Retail businesses love foot traffic.  So, sure, let’s work on keeping the commercial tax rate low.  But that’s not all we have to do.  And remember, towns with the lowest residential tax rates have one of two things in common — either crappy services or a big commercial tax base.  Which do you pick?

DG: Actually I think the Town has done a pretty good job with small business. As I drive around looking at our little strip malls, I find that most are full or near full. Our biggest problem right now is filling the large empty commercial/industrial buildings in town. That is going to be the biggest challenge in the immediate future.

Disagree.  Dave’s answer suggests we don’t need any new small businesses.  Full?  Huh?  Doesn’t every community on Planet Earth actively foster small business growth?  No argument that we have a ton of empty industrial space, but is that really our biggest challenge?  Make the town a place that small businesses can’t wait to get into, and the rest will follow.

Q: If elected, will you speak in favor of the town center mixed use zoning articles on the Town Meeting floor?

DG: I wasn’t in favor of the mixed use plan the four times it was presented for various reasons.

It doesn’t bother me that Dave (or anyone else) doesn’t support mixed use.  But there’s no reason that he has to mention “the four times it was presented.”  That fact is irrelevant to its merit.  It’s also not accurate.  Mixed use has been presented only twice to TM (Spring and Fall of 2009).  (The articles appeared on prior warrants but were withdrawn before the meetings opened, which is common with complex articles.)

More importantly, the tone of this sentence suggests Dave is annoyed that we are still talking about it.  Instead of talking about a way to bring the pro and con sides together, he sounds like he wants it to all go away so we can just go back to talking about cutting taxes.  Politics, not people.

One of the biggest is that I don’t find the need for that type of development in our center.

Thousands of Billerica taxpayers do.  Not sure how someone who has spent years on committees doesn’t “find the need” that 65% of Town Meeting does?  How many empty parking spaces will it take for him to see the need?  Another 500?  A thousand?  What about when he was sitting on the Master Plan committee, the one that called for mixed use zoning in the center?  Did he see the need then and has changed his mind since?

I know that the Town Manager plans to propose a different type of plan and I will be open to considering it but I will have to be convinced that the need is there and it will be a significant benefit to the town.

Significant benefit?  What is the cost of upgrading our zoning code?  That would be $0.  That means that even a tiny benefit would make it worth doing.

Personally, I would rather see the effort and expense put toward the redesign of the center. I think before you can consider a zoning change we should look at a redesign.

By “redesign of the center,” I think he means the road improvement project, and as mentioned previously, the money for that will not be available without new growth.  Stalemate.

Paul says:

PM: I am in favor of the mixed use zoning articles if it can be clearly demonstrated that the Center will be safe for pedestrians.

Another missed opportunity to talk about Smart Growth.  Thought he would distinguish himself from his opponents but supporting new zoning, which a majority of citizens want.  Too bad.

I will not sacrifice safety of our children and the residents for any reason.   We need to improve the unsafe pedestrian, traffic and parking environment that we currently face.

OK, so we all agree we need to fix the roads, but no one has said how.  My suggestion is to run both planning processes (the zoning and the road improvements) at the same time — right now.  Then when the first developer comes knocking, we will have a finished road plan drawn, and the mitigation package can pay to build it.

In summary, we’ve have plenty of tax talk and a little tepid language about growth from the BOS candidates.  Nowhere near the vision imagination we heard in the PB interview.  Still, these three men can each serve competently on the board.  Hopefully the soft and fuzzy feelings will set in after the election.  Maybe then they can put the spreadsheets to the side and can help us build dreams.

The election is April 2.  Polls are open from 8am to 8pm.

Billerica Board of Aldermen?

The following column ran on the Local Voices page in the September 16 Minuteman.

Too Big for Town Meeting

Some have wondered if Billerica would be better off as a city with a mayor, including me.  After my first Town Meeting as an elected representative, I have a few more facts to add to the discussion.

At TM this spring, I attended each of the five sessions and wrote down who spoke and a short summary of what they said.

I was inspired to do this after reading an excellent book about New England town meetings by University of Vermont professor Frank Bryan called Real Democracy (2003).  Bryant is probably the biggest supporter of open town meeting in his field.  For the book he and his students attended more than 1,400 town meetings in the state of Vermont over a 10-year period.  Using his database he attempted to explain why some towns have better attendance, more speakers, and a few other measures.

Granted, all of the meetings Bryan studied were open town meetings, and Billerica of course has a representative town meeting.  Still, there are some lessons Bryan learned that we can use to evaluate how well our own TM is doing.

The 2010 Billerica spring Town Meeting convened in May over five nights, totaling 12.2 hours of session time.  It voted on 19 articles, of which 17 passed.  On the budget, 64 minutes were spent hearing the reading of line items; the town side budget was debated for 169 minutes and the school side for 32 minutes.  Next to the budget, the debate over borrowing $6M to replace the water meters took the most time (74 minutes), but the $0.5M article on overlay surplus funds had the most speakers (26).

There are 240 seats in TM (although many are still vacant).  A total of 68 different TMRs participated at least once this spring.  (Bryan defines a “participation” as making a comment, asking a question, making a motion or an amendment – almost anything a person would do at the microphone.)

The Vermont study found that when the number of people attending TM is about 240, the average number of people that participate is a little more than 50.  So while Billerica beats the average, you might expect TMRs to participate in greater numbers because they are elected.

Billerica has less overall participation than Vermont TMs.  In Vermont when 68 people speak at least once, there were about 250 total acts of participation.  Our spring TM had under 200.  This is rather odd when you consider that Vermont TMs only last one day.

Even Professor Bryan might agree that Town Meeting may not be the best form of government for a town of 40,000 people.  Most Vermont towns are tiny.  In fact, Billerica is bigger than the largest city in the entire state of Vermont (Burlington – which has a mayor, by the way).

Would Billerica work better with aldermen?  Newton has 24 aldermen – 8 ward aldermen and 16 at-large.  I would argue that our TM already functions this way.  Participation is dominated by a small group of TMRs – only 19 of them spoke more than twice and accounted for two-thirds of all acts of participation.

If we were to convert Billerica TM to a board of aldermen, Billerica’s group of legislators would look familiar.  Of course each would be elected by the voters, but just for fun let’s use this May’s participation as a guide.  Assuming we stick with 11 precincts (although precincts 1, 2, and 3 had a scant 15 participations combined), the precinct aldermen would be Robert Casey (1 participation), Don Gadbois (2), Carol Reardon (1), Rome Copobianco (3), Bernie Duggan (11), Fred Libatore (9), Marti Mahoney (9), David Johnson (13), Anthony Ventresca (6), Ed Hurd (5), and Mary-Anne Wolf (13).  The at-large aldermen would be the five selectmen plus Vrittamani Ramapriya (13), Steve Wetzel (8), Thomas Mandile (6), Britney Howe (5), Madeline Sargent (5), Mary Pasho (5), Jim Mollison (4), and Ralph McKenna (3).

A board of aldermen made up of the above frequent contributors would be a fine start.  This form of government would give us actual races with real campaigns.  The legislators would meet frequently rather than only twice a year, giving taxpayers consistent access to their representation.

Aloha

After a considerable amount of thinking, I will be taking the blob in a new direction.  I will be moving away from local politics and will step away from the newspaper as well.   The column will appear in the Minuteman a couple more times, but that will be it.  I will be pursuing other writing opportunities.

The blob will not completely disappear.  I am still a representative at Town Meeting, and to keep myself occupied during the long sessions, I will be taking good notes and passing them onto you via Billerica Roll Call.  I may also produce an opinion piece or two during the Fall and Spring TMs, should anything interesting happen.  Right now I plan to serve out my term as TMR.

It is very hard for me to walk away after about 3 years of involvement in local politics.  I have put in a couple hundred hours, at least into 2 attempts at getting zoning improved, the column, the blob, and now as a TMR.  There are few things I hate more than quitting.

On the other hand, there comes a time where one has to be wise enough to cut your losses and move to a new challenge.  Local politics is something I do in my spare time, and it has rarely been rewarding.  All the while, though, I kept telling myself that it was an investment that would pay off someday, maybe in a big way.

All signs point to my being wrong about that.  It’s too bad.  I felt I had a lot ton contribute.  I assumed that my ideas would be judged on their merit.  That was naive.

I’m sure my decision to get out of politics entirely (and to stop writing about it) isn’t a real big shock; I’ve expressed frustration many times before, in other posts (Billerica Politics c. 2010, The Teeny Tiny Power of One, Mike Rosa Fires Back, to name a few).

Before I go, I would like to summarize what I have learned about Billerica, from a newcomer’s point of view, and make a few pointed suggestions while I’m at it.

Politics

• Representative TM isn’t the best form of government for Billerica anymore.  As I will show in my second-to-last newspaper column, many of the 240 seats lie empty, and only a couple dozen TMRs speak more than once.  TMRs are often ill-prepared and make frustrating errors in their comments.  It’s fair to ask how many have even seen the warrant before the first session.  For a town of 40,000, a mayor-alderman system would work much better.  I would absolutely run for alderman, or even mayor.  Fitchburg’s young mayor, Lisa Wong, has done excellent things for a city that was near hopeless before she was elected.  A mayor would tie a vision with one person, which voters would endorse — until they got sick of it, then they would elect another person with a different vision.  A five-headed Board of Selectmen has no single vision.  Don’t look for any spiritual guidance from TM, which by and large behaves like a band of raging, fed-up taxpayers.
• Politics isn’t interested in enough people.  I started to write, “Not enough people are interested in politics,” but after giving this a lot of thought, I realized the reverse is true.  Over the past few years, I’ve talked to a lot of people with all kinds of opinions and ideas.  Some of them have never held office or served on a board or committee.  These are thoughtful, bright, motivated people.  But they are smart enough to know that public service in Billerica is punishing and absolutely not worth it.  (There is also a group of intelligent, good-hearted people who are already in local politics who want out.)  The problem is not the hours or the controversy of the issues.  It’s the other people in politics who will eat you whole without a second thought.  Take a look at what happened to Al Ramos (TMR#2) who filed the FinCom nepotism article in May.  He was abused in open-to-the-public FinCom meetings (I know the feeling).  I can only imagine what they said behind his back.  He was mistreated again on the floor of TM.  I guess that’s what you get by trying to make your government better.  People in leadership must find away to attract our best and brightest to serve, or else these folks will treat this town as a bedroom community and in their stead we will have grouchy people making poor decisions.
• There is an puzzling lack of political action groups. We have an array of civic and community groups — the Billerica Alliance chief among them — but organizations of people banding together to advocate for change is totally missing.  For a large town with such distinct neighborhoods, there is not one single neighborhood association.  Mock Cambridge (my employer) all you want, but every area is represented by a strong association that gets most of what it wants because it puts heavy pressure on City Council and staff.  Many neighborhood association presidents go on to become Councilors.  Meanwhile, back in Grumpytown, when there is political activism by groups, it has been negative.  Since I have been here, there been one positive movement — Yes to Parker School.  But the rest have been harshly anti — No to Parker School, No to Power Plant, No to Home Depot, etc.  Speaking of HD, Billerica First had the potential to be a great advocate of positive change after the Planning Board voted no on Billerica Mall II, but the critics who called Billerica First a one-issue group turned out to be right.  The town badly needs new groups that will be forces for positive change.
• The “Townie” attitude will bury Billerica. When I first moved here and started meeting people, I thought I would be welcomed when I wandered into the political arena, as in, “Here’s a new person with new ideas and he sounds like he might know what he’s talking about.  I’d like to hear what he has to say.”  Instead, I was called a “blow-in” to my face at public meetings while others wouldn’t even look me in the eye.  Their attitude was closer to, “He’s new and he wants to take away what we’ve always had.  He doesn’t belong here.  Make sure he gets nowhere.”  This was the subtext of Rosa’s April Minuteman essay.  It’ s clear that Townies are petrified of change and as long as at least 1/3 of TM and the BOS are Townies, Billerica will be glued to the 1970s, which is the Townies’ heyday.  Most of the rest of us would like to live in the 21st century, but the Townies are bellbottomed guardians at the gate.
• Staff is doing a better job of improving the town than its people. Credit the BOS for hiring John Curran, but that’s about all you can say.  Listen to Curran’s candid, direct advice at BOS meetings and see the Selectmen spin in their chairs.  Compare the comments of department heads at the TM podium to those of TMRs.  Which sound more measured, cogent, prepared?  we are lucky to have great staff, and nobody notices.  Working amid such anti-government sentiment is a thankless job, yet staff come to work every day and do their best.  What they get in return is, “Your efforts aren’t good enough, you get paid too much, and your benefits are too good.”  They have earned better treatment than this.

The Built Environment

• The 2003 Master Plan was a gigantic waste of time. Thumb through the r Master Plan and tell me which of the its goals has been realized.  Go ahead.  I’ll wait.  OK, I’ll save you some time.  You won’t find more than 2 or 3, and none of them are anything you’d notice.  But don’t blame the Planning Board.  Its monthly work load is enough to keep after; the PB doesn’t have the time to conduct any long-term planning, which is a shame.  The town planner, Peter Kennedy, has a ton of ideas, many of which are a part of the Plan, but he’s been rebuffed.  There were about 50 people that wrote the Plan, and you have to wonder where they are 7 years later.  I’m sure they felt their accomplishment was impressive, and in way it was.  But to the rest of us, it’s just another book on the shelf if nothing in it was ever built.  There is supposed to be a committee that keeps track of the Plan (not the PB), but it only exists on paper.  It never meets.  Hard to execute a plan if no one cares.  A new Master Plan is due to be written in 2013, but I have no confidence we will meet this deadline.  And even if we do have a new Master Plan in a few years, will it matter?
• If want to see the future of Billerica Center, look at Main Street in Wilmington. This hideous stretch of Route 38/129 through our neighbor to the east is 4 lanes wide with lots of driveways, scary/impossible left turns, and choked with traffic.  It’s indescribably ugly, with one strip mall after another, featuring worthless fast food, gas stations, and chain stores.  If you want to find a recipe for this type of growth, just look at the zoning in the town center, known as “General Business.”  It’s language screams, “we want single-story retail with tons of parking and no open space!”  Yes, the quaint part of Billerica will always be protected by the historic district, but jarring sprawl will kiss its edges.  In fact nearly every parcel abutting Boston Road — all 7 miles of it — is zoned for General Business.  Once the economy recovers, developers will start buying land again and pulling permits for retail.  Neighborhoods may object, but they will be powerless because their own zoning code calls for exactly for this kind of use.
• When the economy recovers, traffic will be bad, and then it will get worse. Traffic and the economy’s health is very closely related.  During this recession, the nation’s vehicle miles traveled (or VMT) went down.  But it will surge again when the recession is over.  Traffic is also very closely related to land use.  More retail growth means a lot more traffic.  When each project (a Starbucks here, a Walgreen’s there) goes through permitting, its traffic study will say that its traffic impact is “negligible” compared to what is already on the road.  This is true enough, but collectively — totaling hundreds (millions?) of new square feet of retail, the impact will be monumental.  Boston Road cannot be expanded, and there are few alternative north-south routes.  Parallel residential routes (Allen Road, for starters) will be used by regional traffic looking for a way around the mess.

Media

• Criticism of anyone holding public office should be acceptable practice.  In a free society, it’s the press that contributes most to keeping politicians honest.  Our president is constantly assailed with criticism in a 24-hour news/talking head cycle.  So is our governor and the mayor of Boston.  They accept that criticism is part of having power.  Leaders in Billerica should understand that anyone elected is open to criticism just like their counterparts in larger communities.  It’s obvious that some of them feel like they are above criticism.  Over the past 2.5 I have written perhaps the harshest criticisms of our leaders, and some recoiled in horror as if I had broken some unwritten prohibition on pointed commentary.  If we cannot be critical of our leaders, the quality of our leadership will continue to degrade.  Citizens should not feel afraid to question authority.
• More citizens need to comment. How many letters to editor have you read this year regarding any serious subject in Billerica?  A half dozen?  Aside from endorsements for candidates for office and thank-yous for those who helped with the last bake sale, comment has been missing and illustrates how little citizens seem to care about what direction we’re heading.  The Local Voices page in the Minuteman was an excellent idea when it launched in April of 2008.  It can go a long way to improving the town, but only if it’s nurtured, has stronger support, and more participation.  The Minuteman will run just about any essay it gets.  Our constitution affords us the freedom to express ourselves.  Take advantage.  (Sorry.  Anonymous chat rooms do not count.)

Quality of life

• Get rid of the damn dirt bikes. Why taxpayers tolerate illegal, unregistered, uninsured, noisy, dangerous, menacing dirt bikes in this community escapes me.  You would think the enforcement costs alone would drive people to take action, but I guess not.  Selectman Marc Lombardo submitted an article this Spring that would have made the fines higher.  He withdrew it and it won’t be bringing it back.  This is perfectly understandable — he is running for state rep and doesn’t want to lose the dirt bike vote.  I don’t get how the dirt bike/fireworks/anti-tax crowd can resist the lure of New Hampshire.  Don’t they want to live free or die?
• Have more town-wide celebrations. Yankee Doodle Homecoming is great, and there are a few others, but for a town our size, there should be more.  We lost the Lions Club carnival.  Say what you want about it, but kids liked it.  We are running out of events that bring the community together.  We have a ton of recreational land, plus two rivers.  The business community adores celebrations and citizens will always turn out.

People

• Not everyone wants their town to improve.  This was the harshest lesson of all.  Everywhere else I have lived, political leaders and citizens alike have had pride not only in their community at present, but also demanded improvements.  Many times, those improvements were out of reach, financially or otherwise.  Grumptytown does not have that problem.  For a formidable minority, money is more important than overall quality of life.  For these people, they would sooner see the town around them crumble around them (old Parker School, Billerica Mall) than pay one dime more in taxes.  They see infinite value in spending their disposable income on themselves and no value in spending any on the community at large.  They will never vote to spend or borrow any new money in TM.  Another element to this attitude is pride of authorship: “It may be a dump, but I built it, it’s mine, and you aren’t going to take it away from me.”  They have enough political power to block any and all progress and creativity in the built environment.  When Billerica Mall II opens in 2013, they will be satisfied.
• There is hope.  While the valiant defenders of the status quo have the advantage in 2010, there are individuals here who see the world differently.  They are optimistic and not afraid of change.  I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of them.  For starters, the members of the former Billerica First.  I attended some of their meetings during the HD days, and it made me feel good about this town.  In addition, there are thoughtful members of the PB, BOS, FinCom, and TM.  Some are plain old civilians.  But if Billerica is going anywhere, these forward-thinking people must band together, form a political action group and start working as soon as possible.  It would have a broad and deep set of goals and objectives.  It would demand transparency in government, excellence in leadership, careful planning from staff, and advocate for pride in the town’s future.

I’m sure some of you are reading bitterness or anger in this post, but please trust me when I say, that’s not what’s going on.  Frustrated — a little; disappointed, yes.  I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks now, and while it doesn’t feel great to be stepping back into the “civilian” ranks or to treat Billerica as a bedroom community, that is what I have decided.  If this place does not want to improve, I am free to spend my leisure time and money in neighboring towns that do.

I wish you all the best of luck, especially those of you still in politics.  Thank you all for your comments and moral support.

-JRP

Sen. McCarthy is on Line Two

The following letter ran in the August 26 edition of the Billerica Minuteman, in response to my last column.  Does it cross the line?

I read an interesting column titled “Bypassing the Boards” by your guest columnist Jeff Parenti.  Jeff is [an] admitted Progressive, in my opinion, that is a nice little way of admitting of hiding that he is really a Socialist.  He has been on a vindictive assault of Mike Rosa.  Parenti has filed on three separate occasions  a warrant article to change the zoning in town.  These articles have failed every time it has been brought up for a vote.  Chairman Rosa was a vocal opponent of this, as was  I.  Parenti’s vindictiveness went so far as to create a hit list for the 63 Town Meeting Members who voted against his precious warrant article the last time.  Rosa was number one on the list and I was number two.  The list was pulled after a few weeks when he could only identify about 12 of the 63 Members.

Parenti seems not to like individual property rights.  You do not go to Heaven or Hell based on the collective actions of your neighbors, you go based on your individual actions.  Collectivism is how the Soviets ran things.  We should remember this history and never forget it.  Rosa’s lot in question has 100,000 square feet.  He wants to subdivide it and add a second house.  That would be 50,000 square feet per house.  As long as Rosa’s right to subdivide does not infringe on the property rights of the other direct abutters, this should not be turned down.  Rosa should listen to the concerns of direct abutters, especially with respect to drainage and water and incorporate the fixes needed as part of the final plans.

Parenti has to learn how to be a gracious loser and move on and stop his personal and vindictive attacks on Rosa.  Maybe he can help lend his talents and help resolve the matter at hand on Rosa’s property.

Anthony M. Ventrensca

31 Sheridan Street

Let’s get the errors of fact out of the way first.

August 19 Column

The following appeared in the Local Voices section of the August 19 Billerica Minuteman.

A Man and His Castle

The other night I was enjoying one of the best spoofs ever made, “History of the Word: Part I” by Mel Brooks.  Brooks gives us his interpretation of several significant world events, including the French Revolution.  In one scene King Louis XVI is shooting skeet.  Except instead of clay pigeons, his targets are flying peasants.  He turns to be his top adviser, the Count de Money, and says, “It’s good to be the king.”

The next day I thought of this scene while reading a story in the newspaper.  According to the report, an elected official here in town is planning to subdivide his property.  This is perfectly fine, of course, except that the Planning Board denied his proposal.  He filed an appeal of this decision to the Land Court.

Arguing this case in court is expensive — and we taxpayers are on the hook for it – but his appeal is well within his right as a landowner.

But this official, who is the chairman of the Board of Selectmen, took this case a bold step further by telling the newspaper reporter that he is not going to wait for the court’s decision.  He will continue with his project anyway.  (“I could decide to do anything I wanted to do,” said the Chairman to the newspaper reporter.)

He did receive go-ahead by the Zoning Board of Appeals.  It would have been awkward for the ZBA not to grant the Chairman his request because each of them was appointed by the Chairman’s board.

Building Inspector Milton Kinney – who officially retired a few weeks ago – is planning to sign the permit.  The Town Planner will wait for advice from legal counsel before signing.

It never should have come to this.  What a difficult position in which to put staff.  On the one side, you have abuttors who object to the project along with the Planning Board.  On the other, you have the Chairman.  How uncomfortable for the Town Manager, who was hired by the Chairman’s Board just a year ago.

It has been a difficult few years for the Planning Board.  The 40B Aspen Apartment complex.  The Parker School snub.  Auto auction.  Expansion of the junkyard.  Day care center.  The PB objected in some form to all of the above, but each is going forward unabated.  Now this.  (“I’m assuming it was political.  What else could it be?” asked the Chairman.)  If I sat on the PB, I might be thinking, Why do I bother?

No member of any board likes to be bypassed in this way.  Imagine if the Selectmen suspended an establishment’s liquor license for a month after selling to a minor.  How would the Selectmen react if the proprietor ignored the ruling outright?  With outrage and swift action, wouldn’t you say?

What is the point of even having a Planning Board if their opinions and even their official rulings just don’t matter?  Why would anyone dedicate their time (and money) to running for a PB seat and attending all its meetings?  Why would a citizen step to the podium at a PB hearing to voice objections to a project if that democratic process is squashed by higher powers?

Our system of government is set up to have checks and balances.  There should be no opportunities for individuals to go around them or take short cuts.

Additionally, the process is meant to treat everyone the same, if only because someday the tables might be turned.  In other words, if you thumb your nose at the neighbors this year, one of them might thumb theirs at you next year.  And when that happens, you would want the same protections afforded by the public process.  This is nothing more than the golden rule.

So there are two reasons to be sad today.  First, that one of our most trusted elected officials would act in this way.  Second, that there are not more people out there that demand better representation.  Or for that matter, vote at all.

When citizens don’t pay close attention to its government, eventually elected officials no longer serve us.  When we stop watching them, we make them kings.

July 22 Column

Sometimes I wonder if everyone is taking a nap.

It’s been a somewhat drab summer around Town Hall.  Sure, we have some Parker School wrangling and some dust was kicked up over a proposed auto auction.  But that’s about it, and I was in the mood to stir it up a little, so I submitted Someone Else to pay your way last week.

The subject: taxes, spending, and the budget.  My premise was that nobody really cares about the size of the budget judging by the action (or rather, non-action) of Town Meeting in May.  TM  approved not one single change to the $124M price tag.  Lots of talk about “big government” and “the recession” but no walk.

I steadied myself for the barrage of angry e-mails.  And what I got instead was a whole lot of… nothing.  Zero messages in my inbox.

So where are the rabid anti-tax groups, angry that I dare suggest that the budget is just right and that I should keep my grubby hands of their money since they can’t possible caugh up one more lousy cent for their community? 

On their way to their summer houses in the RV with the fishing boat in tow, I guess.  Happy vacation, good people!

&&&&&&&&&&&&

Er, and yes, I know I have been lax posting links to my colunm in the newspaper (but in my partial defense, the nice people at wickedlocal.com have not been posting all the Local Voices columns for some reason.)  Give me a week or 2 to catch up.

March 5 Column

This is the first of a series of interviews with the candidates for the two open Board of Selectmen seats. The first is with incumbent Bob Correnti. The edited version appears in the newspaper, but here you can read Mr. Correnti’s responses unabridged.

Mr. Correnti’s answers are in boxes. I’ve added some of my own comments as well.

Q. Tell me about two accomplishments in your current term that you are most proud of.

Advocating the automated trash system is one recent example that comes to mind. Our solid waste budget (trash pickup services) is over $3 Million dollars with the costs increasing annually. Also as a community, we had not been doing well with recycling.. Something needed to be done. The automated trash collection system has been gaining acceptance by many communities. Working closely with Billerica’s solid waste contractor, our DPW Director evaluated the program. As I had noted at one of our Selectmen meetings, other communities realized significant savings after adopting an automated system. Further, with an automated system recycling participation increases, thus providing another cost savings as it reduces unnecessary trash in our waste stream while benefiting the environment. Therefore, these savings have helped the residential taxpayer by offsetting the increases in waste disposal fees. While change may be difficult to accept, I have been most impressed with the acceptance and adoption of this new system by Billerica residents. One other point: take notice on trash collection day and you’ll no longer see trash piled all over the curb with debris blowing around the neighborhood. So this became a “win/win” for all.

The recent arrival of Verizon FIOS in town is another example. As a member of the Cable Advisory Committee, I have been involved seeking to bring the benefits of cable competition to Billerica. For over a year, the Committee negotiated with Verizon. Through the hard work, patience and persistence of the Committee and the leadership of the Committee’s Chair, Kevin Conway, these efforts were realized and today residents have a choice and the opportunity to save money. In some instances, the cost savings for cable, internet and telephone are significant to residents!

Recently, I had the honor of bringing forth a “Community Covenant” reaffirming Billerica’s commitment to those serving in our military services. While Billerica has always had an active outreach to veterans, this covenant increases our determination to do all we can to support our military forces and their families. In turn, members of the military armed forces have committed their support to Billerica’s youth. For me, this covenant was another demonstration of our resolve to assist Billerica’s men and women in the service of our country. Through my efforts, unused funds were located and put to use to assist families of those actively deployed

I do enjoy that automated trash collection and the money it saved us.