2018 Town Meeting - Night Two

What an historic night here at Town Hall.  It started frustratingly for me, but it ended so well.  I managed to get into my seat right as the meeting came to order.  I would have been early, but for the light at Swan Place.  I waited through 3 cycles at Pleasant Street without a green light at Swan.  I had hoped to find Chief Ryan or Mike Rademacher at break to see who has jurisdiction and see if there is an issue with the signal.  I was unable to get to my question, so I'll have to use the town's Online Answer Center.

Town Meeting started with the Star Spangled Banner played by our Assistant Town Moderator, James O'Conor.  We then heard a report from the Permanent Town Building Committee.  They have officially completed renovating all 7 elementary schools!  They are now working on the renovation to the Gibbs School, planning for renovations to the High School and the DPW Yard (the AHS has a separate building committee), and needed improvements to the Senior Center.

We then had a very long, a very, very long explanation of what the Pension Board does.  This is an important function within the down.  However, the explanation was for me, a blur of numbers and acronyms.  The final report of the evening came from the the Master Plan Implementation Committee.  With the passing of the Recodified Zoning Bylaw back in February, we are now embarking on changing the test of the bylaw to encourage the types of development outlined in the Master Plan.

In an unusual move, the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen rose to apologize for the large quantities of typos in the Selectmen's report this year.  He noted it probably wasn't a good idea to start a new job and take up the chairmanship on the same day.  He promised that they would do better next year.

As discussed on Monday, rather than picking up where we left off, we tabled several articles to move onto the Capital Budget.  The chairman, Mr. Foskett gave a very good primer and presentation on what the Capital Budget is and how it is funded.  There was good discussion about some of the items, including a couple of errors.  The work of this committee is always appreciated, and the Meeting overwhelmingly approved the budget.

We then tabled several more articles and took up the Community Preservation Fund appropriation.  We learned about what projects the money has been used for in the past couple of years, and what it will be spent on this upcoming year.  Although we didn't learn why the Community Preservation Committee isn't called the CPC as was promised on Monday, we did heartily approve the allocation.  [This is a friendly jab at Eric, who promised on Monday that he would explain.  The reason is that we already have a CPC, the Capitol Planning Committee.  We don't want to double up on TLA's.]

After break, we took all the articles back off the table and went back to where we left off on Monday night.  Article 19 was proposed to create a Finance Department.  I had expected a lot of discussion, but there was almost no discussion at all.  It was accepted 200-7.  For the first time, we have all the town's various financial managers working together.  I look forward to the efficiencies that will come with this consolidation.  One aspect I hadn't considered until it was mentioned in the presentation was the possibility for mentorship and development of the lower level managers who don't often have contact with their peers between departments.  This should be a great opportunity for them as well.

The big event of the night was Article 20, a bylaw amendment to change the name of the Board of Selectmen to a non-gender specific title.  This was a "ten registered voter" article, meaning that it came from the citizens rather than from a government body.  The recommended vote, called for the new name to be the "Select Board."  Some think it sounds clunky or doesn't explain what it is.  There were two substitute motions:  one to use the term "Town Council" instead, and a second to establish a committee to explore options for a better name and report back to Town Meeting next year.  Naomi Greenfield, a sponsor of the amendment and second year Member, gave one of the best speeches at Town Meeting this year.  She very persuasively made the case that this change away from the male-centric language was long overdue, vital given the low representation of women in town government, and in the best interests of the town as a whole.  I opposed the name "Town Council" because we have a "Town Counsel", and homophones are very confusing things.  (Thanks to Jen Susse for making that point on the floor.)  I thought the most moving speech was from Selectman Kevin Greeley.  He spoke about how he came to realize that he had been wrong to oppose this change in the past; that it was important to have the board to reflect all the diversity in town; that if choice of words was an impediment, than those words need to change, but that the term "Select" is of historic significance going back to before the town's founding and should be retained.  There was then a motion to end debate, premature in my opinion, which passed in spite of my opposition.  The two substitute motions were beaten down mightily, and the Meeting changed the name to loud applause.

The next article was also a name change.  Vision 2020 was founded in the 90's when 2020 was way off.  It is now almost upon us, so the committee was seeking to change their name and sharpen their mission.  After a unanimous vote, they are now "Envision Arlington."

We then passed several articles in quick succession.  There as a "no action" vote on accepting local option taxes (nothing was proposed at the state level in time for the town to act), the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG, sponsored by HUD) funding allocation was approved, the reporting on revolving funds was accepted, as were positions reclassification within town government.  We tabled the approval of collective bargaining agreements until the end of Town Meeting to give the Town Manager an opportunity to complete the negotiations before we vote on them.

Lastly, we approved the appropriation of the town's parking meter income.  I hadn't realized that the meters are leased.  This year, the funds are being held or rolled back into the program.  Starting next year, the funds will be used within the "parking improvement district" where the meters are located.

That was the last item for this night.  We adjourned early at 10:56.  Next Monday, Meeting is scheduled to start with the Minuteman Budget, the School Department Budget, and the Town Budgets.  I unfortunately have a work conflict.  I need to be at a Zoning Board hearing in Billerica at 8:00.  I have a Zipcar reserved at the Russell Commons Lot, so I can boogie back as quickly as I can.

2018 Town Meeting - Night One

Welcome back to Town Meeting!  Many thanks to the voters of Precinct 10 for reelecting me.  It has truly been a pleasure serving our neighborhood these past many years, and I look forward to the challenges and joys of the upcoming three years.

We held our joint precinct meeting with precinct 8 yesterday afternoon.  After reviewing the warrant, we had a lively discussion on a variety of topics relating to our town and our neighborhoods in particular.  We spoke about a need to consider spending priorities for the aging in our town, rather than only focusing on our school needs.  We talked about traffic calming measures for Jason Street.  The most interesting idea was to use the town's reverse 911 system to call residents to remind them of election day in an effort to get better voter turn-out.

Tonight was opening night of the 2018 Annual Town Meeting.  We started in the usual way with the Menotomy Minutemen marching in and playing the national anthem.  I hadn't noticed the date on their flag before.  The militia was formed only 13 days before the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Dan Dunn presented the state of the town address, focusing on the success we've had over the last year and the challenges we are going to be facing.  After swearing in the new members, taking a minute to remember those who have passed, and accepting reports, we moved onto the first real votes of the night.  First up was the election of the Measurer of Wood and Bark.  Elsie Fiore was easily reelected on a voice vote.  Similarly, James O'Conor was reelected as our Assistant Town Moderator.

We then moved onto the consent agenda.  This is a list of usually non-controversial votes and non-issues that we vote on all at once to move things along.  There are usually a few items that are taken off the agenda so they can be addressed in depth.  Tonight, however, there was some one who seemed bent on taking things off the agenda just for the sake of doing it.  They had nothing to discuss and no alternate language.  I thought it was annoying and disrespectful to the time of the members.  In the end we passed and increase for town employee survivor benefits, rescinding borrowing authorizations from prior years, funding for reconstruction sewers and mains, funding for town celebrations, the water bodies fund, the Harry Barber service program, pension adjustment, reallocating overlay reserve funds, funding cemeteries, and miscellaneous appropriations.

Starting with article 6, we now started working in order down the warrant.  We approved a change to the makeup of the Capital Planning Committee to allow them up to two extra members to help with high volumes of work in certain years.  We voted to refer a question on whether to continue mailing the warrant to the government subcommittee of Vision 2020.  We added some categories to the town charges that can be added to a lien on property.  We voted to end  a particular funding letter in favor of several online resources.  This was all done relatively quickly.

The first article to garner a lot of discussion was an article making changes to the town's dog ordinances.  The changes, structured on state statute, allows the local police more discretion in how to address animal complaints.  There were some speakers who felt this went too far, especially in light of the state laws, but the majority felt it was an appropriate measure.  It passed handily.

We also spent some time discussing changes to the vacant storefront registry.  The proposal was to allow more time for owners to rent their property when it became vacant.  Some of the discussion was due to unfamiliarity with the articles (do your homework, people) and an unease about allowing certain town staff the power to grant waivers.  In the end, this passed easily.

The longest discussion of the night revolved around the town's Betterment Bylaw.  This allows owners of private ways a mechanism to get streets paved when not all owners want to do it.  The changes would allow more flexibility, allow the town to make emergency repairs at its discretion, and better define when the town is an abutter.  Most of the discussion revolved around individual streets and local concerns.  It was great to hear from a lot of unfamiliar names, but the discussion wasn't entirely within the scope of the article.  This too was passed by  a large margin.

We approved the creation of an Arlington Council for the Arts to serve as an umbrella for the myriad arts organizations in town.  We increased the fee for removing a protected tree during the development of a parcel of land.  We upheld no action votes on noise abatement, starting town meeting earlier at night, and changing the demolition delay ordinance.

The last action of the night was to change the Comptroller position to be an appointment under the Town Manager.  Several protections were included to protect the integrity and autonomy of the position.  We moved quickly to approve it, and them adjourned for the night.

It felt like we spent most of our time picking up typos in the articles.  I think we really need someone to spend some time checking this language before it gets set in the bylaws.

Alright, it's late and I need to go to bed.  We will pick back up on Wednesday with a discussion of the Capital Budget before backing up to where we left off tonight.  Next Monday, which I will miss a portion of due to a business conflict, will focus on budgets.  A week from Wednesday will be the special town meeting articles.  That might be all the time we need.