Priorities

I am developing a habit of watching the selectmen's meeting live. 

I am learning there is no need to turn on the television promptly at 6:30.  Also, between waiting for everyone to show, unless you are interested in the minutes re-writes you can, tune in at 6:40 or later.

Pretty dull night for the most part, but still some useful information.  

I found out it seems the consensus of the board is no matter where tourism goes it will be someplace 100% accessible to all persons.  

Pretty much rules out the basement at town hall.

I think we should look at all town operations, including all collaborative efforts, to make sure the same applies.  Don't you?

Heard some discussion about the request for the appointment of special town counsel.  As the board has tabled the matter to its next meeting, I will table my comments until then.

We learned the water valley issues is pretty much all about the money, at least that's what I heard.  I am going to leave this alone for a bit.  Plenty of time to deal with it between now and the next special or annual it appears on. 

Some interesting brief comments were made on the budget and next years problems.   

What our town needs is a game plan.  A solid one.  One that everyone knows about.  

We have no capital improvement plan.  We have no long term economic plan.  We have no known strategy.  

Attempts over the years have either failed at town meeting or have died in committee or from the lack thereof.  

Our present governmental structure is actually not conducive to such things.  Way too many independent boards and committee, no set day to day oversight, and no one has the authority to formulate and direct a game plan.

As far as statutory duties and mandates, I am not advocating reducing any board's to make the decisions for which it exists.  Be it appointed or elected, there are specific duties and functions that must be performed by these entities.  

Yet all must operate under the same umbrella, especially when it comes to the budget.  A great many communities vote on two categories for every operation budgets.  Salaries and operational expenditures.  

How is this possible?

Pretty simple actually.  There is a structure in place for oversight of each budget.  

We vote categories under each budget request to insure that the spending is limited to the specific category

Many people are under the impression the selectmen actually have control over such things.  The board has limited control.  Its executive secretary only has the authority to do such things as the board empowers him to do.  The board can override that authority at any time, and indeed it seems that the board collectively or individually does so fairly often.

We hear the laments about how we as a town are spending recklessly, yet those who lead have no qualms apparently about spending to subsidize private groups. We hear the need to cut, yet cuts seem to need to come from anywhere but home.

If we as a town are being collectively shortsighted in what we do, imagine the view when as a town have at times of some of the decisions which have been made for us.  

I have said it before and I will say it again.  If someone feels there is a need to set aside money for future years, tell me how much and for what purposes.  An make sure you tell Town Meeting exactly what you are doing.  

Cutting an operation budget and appropriating the money on something else this year, so you simply cut it out of that something else next year is not a plan.  It is a way of making cuts.  It is up to Town Meeting to decide how the cuts should be made.  Everyone else recommends.

There is no I told you so in the budget issue for next year.  

Everyone gets it.  

Next year we will have to make some serious decisions which will have great impact.  

If we know we have to cut a million dollars over two years, the only issue presented has been is do we do it in one-half increments or do we do it all at once.

What we should have been doing, and quite frankly what we could have been doing is putting money away over the past 10 years to the point where our stabilization fund would be double what it is, if not more.

But if people do not tell you the money is actually there, well ...  

And now, that flexibility no longer exists.

I am a firm believer that if you have a good idea, go to town meeting with that idea, explain it rather than try and talk circles around everyone, town meeting will give it honest consideration, and do the right thing.  

And the right thing is not what you or I want, it is what town meeting decides.  

And I am and will be adamant about the fact that when it comes to money issues, deciding how much to spend and on what is the sole province of town meeting.  Everyone else has a duty to disclose to them what is actually there.

All the powers that be have the right and again a duty to make those recommendations they feel appropriate.  

When there isn't an alternate recommendation on the floor, don't complain about the vote.

There is going to be much said in the future about the sound financial management in our town.  There will be as much said about many aspects of what happens in our town.  

What everyone should be saying presently is exactly what are their priorities.