Beyond Red & Blue

The details on police details on the Cape

The Cape Cod Times pulls public records to determine exactly how much Barnstable County towns are paying for police details at road construction sites. According to reporter George Brennan:

While more than 75 percent of those bills were paid by private companies and utilities, Cape towns shelled out at least $400,000 to their local officers for town projects like roadwork, records indicate.

The police chief for the town of Barnstable, Paul McDonald, defends the practice of paying off-duty officers to direct cars around traffic cones:

"We can double the size of the force on the streets with police details," he said. Those officers are trained as first responders and can react quickly in an emergency, he said.

"Several years ago," a police officer on a detail rescued a child being bitten by a dog, Brennan notes as an example. But the state's best-known tax watchdog still isn't convinced:

"Police details are the poster child for public outrage and correctly so," said Barbara Anderson, executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation and a longtime critic of details. "People are losing respect every time they pass a police officer doing a detail."

You kids get off my lawn and stay out of my wallet!

The Arizona Republic has a column on retirement communities in Arizona and Florida that have adopted an "not my responsibility" attitude toward future generations. Andrew Blechman, author of Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias, writes:

After defeating 17 school-bond measures in 12 years, de-annexing from the local school system, and all the energy spent evicting "contraband children," Sun Citians can likely forget relying on the goodwill of their neighbors who often share a reciprocal bounty of distrust, anger and apathy. Shown in this light, Sun City's claim to fame - community service - rings rather hollow.

Life in the Villages is similarly premised: Seniors have taken control of their county's political machinery and have already begun closing parks for young families who live outside the gated community. As one Villager proudly told me without a trace of irony, "In the Villages we spend our tax dollars on ourselves."

Massachusetts has seen a bunch of age-restricted housing complex come online in recent years, but at least it's not so easy to secede politically from governments that feel obligated to provide parks and education.

Worcester gets impatient on foreclosure law

The city of Worcester, tired of waiting for the Legislature to do something about the home foreclosure crisis, is asking for permission to act on its own, reports Shaun Sutner of the Worcester Telegram. If a home-rule petition passes on Beacon Hill, the city would "halt sub-prime foreclosures for six months, protect tenants in foreclosed buildings and force judicial review of foreclosures."

Another blow for public libraries

The town of Saugus has opted to give a little cash windfall to its public schools rather than its barely functioning public library, according to today's Boston Globe. The starving of public libraries seems to be an almost daily story this spring.

Still, it's hard to argue against the town's reasoning here:

The extra money will restore two positions to help students who have trouble reading at the elementary school level, according to School Committee chairman Joseph Malone.

As another Saugus resident asks in Kathy McCabe's Globe story, "What is the point of having a library serving children who can't read?"

Budget cuts in Fitchburg: A tipping point for public libraries?

Newly elected Mayor Lisa Wong of Fitchburg, considered one of the state's rising political stars, is pushing through a 68 percent cut in funding for that city's library system -- guaranteeing a loss of accreditation from the Massachusetts Library Commission. Will the move be seen as a sign of fiscal responsibility or as an abandonment of an essential government service?

The Worcester Telegram and Gazette's Lynne Klaft reports that Fitchburg would become the largest community in the state to lose library accreditation if the City Council, as expected, approves Wong's budget:

The reduced budget would mean the library would be open only three days a week for a total of 21 hours, with seven part-time employees working the desks. Most children’s programs and concerts would be cut; no new books, magazines or periodicals would be purchased; and computer stations would be shut down....

Fitchburg’s library would have to be open a minimum of 63 hours per week and be funded through the city at a minimum of $1,112,662 in order to maintain its accreditation status, allowing residents to participate in interlibrary loans, and to qualify for state funding of about $75,000 per year.

Given the current "municipal meltdown" in finances, there has been much talk of regionalizing services such as schools, fire departments, and pension management. Libraries may come under similar scrutiny, especially if communities as large as Fitchburg (about 40,000) virtually shut them down.

NOTE: Mayor Wong will be a panelist at "Too Many Left Behind: New Choices and Challenges for Massachusetts School Reform," a Boston College Citizen Seminar on June 18 co-sponsored by MassINC. Click here for information and to RSVP.

A shift in tax attitudes?

The Boston Globe's website has a handy rundown of Proposition 2 1/2 override votes that have been held so far this year. Eighteen cities and towns have voted so far, and only seven have approved property tax increases for such things as schools, police departments, and (in Rowley) a "pumper truck." Will these springtime results offer clues about what will happen with the big tax question of the year -- the referendum on the November ballot that would eliminate the state income tax? (That's something the Legislature is not likely to let happen no matter how the referendum turns out.)

Abolition of the income tax lost by a 40-48 margin the last time it was on the ballot, in 2002. (Blanks made up the remaining 12 percent of the vote.) In most towns, the anti-tax forces got more than 40 percent of the vote, but most cities and more affluent suburbs soundly defeated the measure. Six of those communities have had override votes so far this year, and they've split down the middle, with property tax increases passing in Brookline, Natick, and Wayland but losing in Harvard, Newton, and Sudbury. The city of Newton, in particular, bears watching this fall: If the anti-tax measure comes within 10 points of passing there (it lost 29-56 last time), it should win statewide easily.

It's also worth noting that traditionally liberal Newton is the home of a controversial $200 million high school project, detailed by Seth Mnookin in this week's Boston Globe Magazine.

In all fairness, Weymouth didn't burn down during those five days

After retiring as mayor of Weymouth this January, David Madden returned to his old job as fire chief and served all of five days before retiring again. (The town replaced him with the guy Madden had replaced a few days before.) As the Patriot Ledger reports, "Retiring as chief allowed Madden to retire as a public safety rather than municipal employee, permitting an earlier retirement age and higher levels of benefits."

Sadly for Madden, the state's retirement commission has expressed reservations about the town's decision to let him retire as fire chief rather than mayor. Will the Weymouth Retirement System accept the state's "suggestion" to reclassify Madden's retirement?

(Thanks to the Pioneer Institute blog for the tip.)

   

Shhh... don't tell anyone how much our school cost

The Cape Cod Times reports on the town of Falmouth's own "Big Dig," a high school renovation project that is only two-thirds complete and has already cost $67 million. According to the story by Aaron Gouveia, town officials aren't blaming the project's general contractor, TLT Construction, even though TLT now faces an investigation from the state because of its record in school construction projects. Of course, Falmouth may have an incentive not to bad-mouth the builders. Gouveia quotes David White, a member of the Wachusett Regional High School Building Committee, which is dealing with its own cost overrun problems:

When towns have disputes with contractors and attempt to recoup the money, White said one of the conditions is that a municipality not provide a poor reference of the contractor's work.

"When issues get resolved in mediation those issues don't get communicated to future municipalities," White said. "That's one of the really big problems that needs to be fixed."

A sacred cow in Lexington

Voters are usually stingier than their elected representatives, but there's one area of government spending that the townspeople of Lexington, Mass., refuse to prune. Going against the unanimous vote of their board of selectmen, voters decided overwhelmingly to restore $24,000 in the municipal budget for new trees to be planted along town roads. (See the Lexington Minuteman story.)

The battle is on over police details

Blue Mass. Group's Charley on the MTA calls for a grass-roots effort to abolish the singular Massachusetts sensation of mandating that police officers (instead of mere civilians) stand guard at utility repair and construction sites along public roads:

Now, $5 million/year that the state spends on the details is not that big a deal, although it may add up to many times that when you include local roads. But this is the test case  for all the other important, cost-saving reforms that [Senate President Therese] Murray has proposed. If the legislature rolls over for the police unions (again), then come the MBTA unions, with their cushy pension deal. Then come the toll collectors. Then come the contractors, who don't want the stricter oversight that Murray's bill would provide.

The police detail issue, though unknown in the rest of the country, has been inflaming passions for years in Massachusetts. It came up at MassINC's "Municipal Meltdown" forum in December (see transcript), where anti-tax activist Barbara Anderson referred to the "the policeman with the coffee and the donut in the other hand watching the hole being dug" and Amesbury Mayor Thatcher Kezer countered that "on the scale where the real [fiscal] problems are, that’s a blip."

Milford cracks down on flashers

Danielle Ameden at the Milford Daily News reports that the Massachusetts town of 28,000 is cracking down on "flashy" signs such as the one at Dunkin' Donuts on South Main Street. The Board of Selectmen is worried that the current anti-flashing law, prohibiting signs from changing more than once every five seconds, isn't tough enough, so they're considering a measure that "would require that changeable message panels display the same message for at least one hour, with switching between messages allowed only eight times a day."

Milford is also standing tall against "adult entertainment." Spurred to action by a pub owner's request to add exotic dancing to his menu, selectmen adopted 36 pages of regulations on the activity, including: "no lap dances, no touching and no private rooms. There must be sufficient lighting, tips can only be stuffed into jars on the edge of stage and bouncers are required at every door with at least two more inside."

Happy Town Eating Day!

Norwich, Vermont, is trying to increase attendence at its daylong series of public meetings this Saturday by providing snacks and lunch: "We only ask that you sit with someone you don't know well, talk about the town, and clean up after yourself." The event includes eight gatherings to hash out such topics as "What Can We Do About Main Street?" and "Is Anything in Norwich Worth Saving?" The day concludes with a talk on "the question that's dogged each of us from the womb." No, it's not "What is life?" or "What happens after death?" It's "Who's In Charge Here?"

Other towns have tried to increase civic participation by scheduling meetings at more convenient times or offering child care so that parents can attend, but Norwich may have come the closest to turning town meeting into the kind of conference that many of us regularly attend as part of our jobs. (Without the end-of-the-day gatherings in hotel bars, for better or worse.) Will Massachusetts towns follow Norwich's lead? And will there be a competition among suburbs for who provides the best food at town meetings? I can imagine the real estate agent's pitch: "Yes, the school system in Parkdale is the best in the state, but you haven't lived until you've tasted the duck rillettes at an Elmhurst zoning board meeting!"

UPDATE: Gov. Deval Patrick might have a special appreciation for the power of breaking bread with fellow citizens.

Arlington bets on casino revenue

Gov. Deval Patrick's proposed budget for fiscal 2009 includes revenue from casino licensing fees, even though casino gambling has not yet been approved by the Legislature (see Boston Globe story by Frank Phillips). Now town goverments may follow Patrick's lead, if a story by Shauna Stavely in the Arlington Advocate is any indication. Stavely reports that Arlington town officials are basing revenue projections on the assumption that casino money will make up for any shortfall in aid from the state lottery. Town manager Brian Sullivan says that $657,000 in local aid "depends on the casino plan," adding that "if support can't be garnered for casino revenue, then [the governor and the Legislature] need to find it somewhere else."

A reminder: Contributing writer Phil Primack examines the economic assumptions behind Patrick's casino plan in the current issue of CommonWealth.

An election rumble in Milford?

There's plenty of election action outside of the presidential primaries this spring. The Milford Daily News reports on the battle for the highway surveyor's position in that Worcester County town of 27,000. The job pays $80,000 and includes the supervision of snow plowing, street sign replacement, and other forms of upkeep on town roads. (We were surprised to learn that this is an elected position. Are there important philosophical differences on the best way to paint a crosswalk?)

The incumbent is Shelly Leclaire, whose 1999 election "marked the first time in Massachusetts history a woman was elected as a town highway department head," according to the News. She's may be challenged by Robert DeMarco, who has pulled nomination papers but hasn't made a decision on whether to run. DeMarco says he would make "smarter" purchasing decisions than Leclaire does, but the News reports on a possible handicap to his candidacy:

A former Massachusetts Highway Department director, DeMarco was fined $2,000 by the State Ethics Commission in 2003 for violating a conflict of interest rule while soliciting donations for his competitive drag racing team.

The town election is scheduled for April 7.

More municipal meltdown

Posting may be relatively light for the next week or two, while the CommonWealth magazine staff work on the Winter issue, but there will be new maps and data before the presidential primary season kicks of in Iowa.

In the meantime, the transcript from CommonWealth's "Municipal Meltdown" forum is now online. It was a lively event, and a great crash course on how many cities and towns are approaching a crisis point.

Not surprisingly, anti-tax activist Barbara Anderson shook things up with some blunt language:

No one is talking to the people who pay the bills. No one is being respectful to them, at either the state or local level where they threaten dire results from overrides not passing and then it doesn’t work out. Until you listen to the voters, you are not going to get respect or cooperation and you are going to be wondering why these things happen.

Is your City Hall sinking?

Gabrielle Gurley's article Municipal Meltdown, in the Fall issue of CommonWealth, is both fascinating and scary, and we've been getting a lot of reaction to the idea that cities and towns are facing a moment of reckoning (cut spending or raise taxes?). Check out the latest comments, both thoughtful and provocative, on our main Web site. To give you a taste of the discussion, here are a couple of points from anti-tax activist Barbara Anderson:

Home rule is a nice tradition but it needs 21st-century adjustment to allow more regionalization. Collective bargaining is a 19th-century anachronism and should be abolished...

And on public education:

Maintenance should be encouraged and new buildings should forego architects, instead using basic blueprints labeled "school."

Presumably, Anderson has in mind something a bit more elaborate than this.

Not all taxpayers are equal at town meeting

The US Court of Appeals has ruled that people who pay property taxes to a town but are not registered to vote there do not have a constitutional right to speak at town meeting. The lawsuit in question, reported on by B.J. Roche in the summer issue of CommonWealth, was filed by Miriam and Thomas Curnin against the town of Egremont after that western Mass. community gave its town meeting moderator "the discretion to determine whether non-voters who wish to speak may do so." The Curnins, who own 120 acres of land in Egremont but are registered to vote in Larchmont, New York, say they were prevented on three times from "speaking on issues important to them as taxpayers," including a sewer project, a zoning law change, and a $350,000 expenditure on a fire truck.

Yesterday the circuit court disagreed:

...the town meeting is a legislative body in deliberation. The Curnins are not registered to vote in Egremont and therefore are not town meeting legislators. The First Amendment does not give non-legislators the right to speak at meetings of deliberative legislative bodies, regardless of whether they own property or pay taxes.

The entire decision is here; thanks to the Web site How Appealing for pointing it out.