2015 Town Meeting - Night Three

Tonight was a good night.  We finished the discussion and voted on my notices article.  We heard from the superintendent at Minuteman.  We had great snacks from the softball team, and we had substantive debate on several items.  And it all started with a song.

A quartet from the Lexington Vocal Revolution led us in the Star Spangled Banner.  The harmonies were great, and I hope our joining them didn't detract too much from everyone else's enjoyment.  We received the treasurer's report, than rejoined the debate on article 7, my article about notices.

A second amendment was presented, emphasizing that the article concerned non-commercial public events.  I'm not sure the proponent of the amendment was right about his interpretation of the language, but since it wasn't in the form of a question, council wasn't called on to clarify.  There were several speakers who thought given the present lack of enforcement, making the rules less strict was a bad idea.  There was concern about who would be responsible for removing notices.  There were concerns about how notices would be attached.  Eventually, council was able to clarify that the regulations would be established by the Board of Selectmen; the only thing before Town Meeting was creating the opportunity for that to happen.  The final speaker summed up the removal question wonderfully:  if you see an expired sign, you have hands, rip it down, done!  Debate was voted closed and as the Moderator explained how the six votes (2 amendments and main vote for both the zoning bylaw and the general bylaw) would take place, I was very pessimistic.  Most of the debate was quite negative.  Both amendments were added handily despite my opposing votes, but when the final vote came, it was overwhelmingly approved.  I was really quite shocked.  Now it is up to the Selectmen to pass some solid regulations.

The Superintendent for Minuteman Tech came to discuss their proposed budget.  We are one of sixteen towns he needs to court to get his budget approved.  There was a lot of discussion about the tech school's plans to downsize ahead of a renovation effort.  This leads to a much higher per-pupil cost, so Arlington's contribution is up more than 7%.  Unfortunately, the structure of the Minuteman district doesn't provide us with a lot of options.  We took our break in the middle of debate, and while I was still waiting for coffee, the vote was taken on the budget.  I assume it was approved.  You'll need to check another blog to be sure.

Coffee in hand, I came into the presentation on restructuring the Vision 2020 Standing Committee.  The current structure of the committee relies on representatives from various subcommittees.  The issue is that several of those committees serve on a more ad-hock basis, so representation on the standing committee suffered.  The proposed change was to have all the members be at large for a three-year term like most other town committees.  This was approved without too much debate.

The next one is kind of funny.  While investigating an alcohol complaint at the Disabled American Veteran's Hall on Mass Ave, the town discovered that the property owner was .. the town itself.  Apparently, the town has been allowing the DAV to use the property free of charge since the 1920's.  The question before the meeting was whether the Selectmen would be allowed to sell it.  After a modest amount of debate on the merits of selling over renting and whether the town could get as much money from the sale as it expected,   we vote to grant the Selectmen the ability to sell off the property.  This was quickly followed with a vote of no action on a similar property on Cliffe Ave in Lexington.

One of the more heated debates was on the question of whether the Director of Assessments should continue to be appointed by the Board of Assessors or whether the director should be appointed by the Town Manager.  The Board of Selectmen recommended no action, since the Board of Assessors was against the proposal.  Chris Loretti, through Pete Howard, presented a substitute motion in a very convincing presentation.  The town commissioned a report from the Department of Revenue several years ago after a budget error by the School Department.  Among the recommendations was to make the Director of Assessments a more professional appointment coming from the Manager.  Several speakers thought this was unnecessary or insulting to the Board of Assessors, but the arguments for the change were more compelling.  I voted for adopting the substitute motion which went on to be approved.

We saved the best for last.  What could garner more debate than a proposal to adopt a Complete Streets Program that would try to balance the needs of all transit users.  Adopting the program would make the town eligible for some state funding for taking the needs of drivers, riders, and pedestrians into account when redesigning streets.  The usual chorus emerged decrying how every attempt to implement such a proposal makes it harder for them to drive around.  This was interspersed with appeals from cyclists to recognize their needs.  My favorite was a appeal from one member to increase the number of complete streets, since the traffic calming measures improved her driving.  I thought this could go either way.  I was strongly in support, and I was glad that it passed.

We quickly voted to adjourn and went our separate ways.