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It's coming to that time of year again. The Christmas Tree isn't the only thing shedding its balls.
Whether it be a budget hearing or a Candidate's Night, -- and whether it be live or on one of those god-awful locally-televised meetings with the bad lighting, bad angles and distorted audio -- people will soon be sitting in a circle and chanting those all too familiar, yet meaningless, buzzwords: "Transparent", "Community input", "Process", "Transparent", and the inevitable "Think Outside the Box" ! (Did I mention "transparent" ?)
Nobody wants to be The Bad Guy anymore. There is little testicular fortitude on display on local cable TV. Does anybody else notice that the phrase "Pass the Buck" has been replaced by the phrase "Let the Voters decide"? (Hence, the Christmas tree analogy.)
Town Meeting & Local elections certainly do reflect the will of the voters -- at least those that show up to vote -- and it should not be taken lightly. But that should not be confused with reflecting the will of the people. Granted, if people choose not to exercise their right to vote (out or ignorance, laziness, or some legitimate reason), they are effectively making the choice to support the will of those who do choose to show-up. Unfortunately, that leaves most of the population at the mercy of the special interests who rally their troops to get out the votes and utilize their neighbors' tax dollars to support their personal causes.
Case in point -- after the recent pool override, Poolies proudly credited the miniscule margin of victory to their efforts to get former swim team members to submit absentee ballots supporting the million dollar renovation.
That's comforting.
They encouraged kids who don't pay taxes, probably won't live in Town again, and probably have very little Big Picture understanding of the issue to saddle tax-paying, non-swimming, residents with increased taxes. AND, they did this without ever asking how much it will cost to operate the pool going forward. All they knew was that they had fun in the pool when they were in school. Who cares what it costs!
(At the risk of sounding like a broken record, nobody has ever given a good answer as to how much it will cost to operate the pool. The simple fact is that the school budget is relatively fixed -- If dollars are being spent on aquatics, they are not being spent on academics.)
If anybody wants a preview of the coming Budget Season, watch the last BOS meeting. When told what the vague parameters of the school budget should be, the Superintendent effectively replied (and I'm paraphrasing), "The Budget will be, what the Budget will be and we will go to Taxpayers to support any shortage."
I like Canfield. His tree is always decorated -- His balls know no seasonality! He just does his thing and advocates for his schools. He's got no old allegiances, he doesn't need to worry about evaluations or his next job -- he's already got his pension, There's no way the morons could try to bag a third Superintendent! Of course, if I was on the School Committee, I might want to remind him he works for them -- not the Board of Selectmen. But, since it appears the School Committee has adopted the Harry Potter Cloak of Invisibility as their official uniform -- I guess they're OK getting their Superintendent's Reports via the Selectmen and the Cape Cod Times.
In addition to benefitting from the School Committee's apparent narcolepsy, it appears that the new Leadership of the Teachers Union has been like a breathe of fresh air in a septic tank. It must be nice to be able to work for the benefit of students without wasting time fending off the constant attack of a delusional Jimmy Hoffa/Norma Rae wannabee and her flying monkeys ! Maybe the Union will start reflecting the will of its membership. (Probably not coincidentally, one of the last contracts gave the union the right to collect agency fees from non-union members. Maybe some of those folks decided that if they were going to be forced to pay -- they no longer wanted to be embarrassed by their leadership?)
Some Legal Observations:
The ongoing case of Johnson Vs. Sandwich has turned into a Fluster-Cluck. But, that doesn't change the fact that 5 Judges have ruled that Kangas, Crossman, Marshall, Linehan and School Counsel were all wrong and their mistake will cost taxpayers well over $400,000. I guess they should have gone to court when members Susko, Cahill and Killion asked them to. Or, maybe their attorney should have followed through when a certain former School Committee member pointed out the appropriate law and relevant legal precedents to him?
On a related note, if a Judge has ruled that Johnson's contract was illegally voided and that the Town was legally bound to pay her, why shouldn't she be entitled to reimbursement for the legal costs needed to recover what had been illegally taken from her? Particularly when the Town's attorney appeared to have egregiously abused the legal system by forcing both parties to waste many thousands of dollars deposing former school committee members about topics that were completely unrelated to the legal questions at hand -- particularly AFTER the Appeals Court had already ruled against them.
On a related note, wouldn't it have made sense for Town's Counsel to interview former School Committee members about the questions at hand BEFORE filing documents with the court? Particularly, when said members could have clearly proved that the documents were inaccurate and were serving no purpose other than to increase legal costs and waste the Court's time?
Why is the School continuing to employ the same attorney whose "interpretation" of the law resulted in expensive losses in both the Johnson and Minkoff cases?
What was the true legal cost of prolonging the Johnson case? Yes, the Insurance Carrier will be funding something, but Insurance Companies are not charities and will obviously recover those costs with future premiums. I would like to hear what was paid to Johnson, what was paid to all of the attorneys and how much was initially funded by an insurance recovery.
It's ironic that the Board of Selectmen couldn't legally step in to prevent the School Committee from making an expensive mistake originally but is now stuck trying to clean up the mess and fund the judgement. BUT, on the other hand, the Selectmen probably could have stepped in and said "enough is enough" and saved many thousands of dollars by settling the case after the State Appeals Court made the final result obvious.
I would be very curious to hear the Selectmen's rationale for not resolving this case -- particularly when the likely outcome became painfully clear.
Some Other Random Observations:
STEM Academy -- I like the idea, but the answer to every question is not: "STEM, STEM, STEM, STEM ..."
Power Plant -- Why have we not heard more public discussion about the automatic tax increase residents will get when the Mirant Plant goes offline and gets re-valued for tax purposes. Power Plants' tax value lies in their equipment -- not in their real estate value. Obsolete offline generating equipment has a minimal tax value. Are we afraid that discussion of a pending increase could discourage support for the variety of Override proposals currently percolating around Town or maybe -- cause a potential commercial development to slide over to less taxing / less bureaucratic environments in Mashpee, Bourne, or Plymouth??
SEIC -- I have good friends on both sides of this issue. While I certainly appreciate the fact that real estate negotiations are best done out of the spotlight, this process has been underground a long time. I think it would go a long way towards calming the electorate if there was a complete disclosure of funds received and disbursed to date, as well as the relevant details of any contractual obligations incurred which will may require future payments-- as well as the expected source of funding for those payments.
Fire Boats -- What's to say? The F/V Overkill is back on the Coast Guard dock (although with rumored transmission issues) and the original fire boat is out on long-term disability with a seized engine. I guess the Coast Guard will have to protect us from flaming tankers with dirty bombs passing through the Canal for awhile longer.
The Golden Triangle -- It looks like we may have one more opportunity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. From the looks of last week's newspaper, it looks like we're going to start playing Chicken with the only guy in Town willing and able to develop the property. What can I say, I'm reminded of that great scene in the movie Blazing Saddles -- Cleavon Little holds the gun to his own head and says "One Move and the Black Guy gets it!!"
Happy (almost) New Year !!
