Over the last several years election day turnouts have been heavier as a result of a number of contested seats as well as a ballot question regarding the town center over lay district. Contested races creates town wide enthusiasm for politics and places issues of importance at center stage prior to the annual town meeting.
Hopefully, we will look back over time and consider this election season to be an aberration more so than a harbinger of things to come. Putting it in the simplest terms, this year has been a complete disaster. With a total of 17 seats in a wide variety of boards up for election we find that this year we have only three contested races. Three people are running for two seats on the Planning Board, three for two seats on the Board of Selectmen and there is a two person race for the First Constable position.
It appears as though there are three races but for the most part there is really only one major campaigning race and that is for Planning Board. Incumbent Jane Hyde is running hard as is challenger Jack Kelly however, long time incumbent John DeFrancesco has followed his previous strategy by not running any kind of a campaign. He has managed to get re-elected five times but how many times can you tempt fate before you suffer the consequences?
The race for Selectmen is quite predictable. Perennial candidate Virginia Mooney is in the race along with incumbent Sonia Rollins and last years runner up, Walter Zenkin. After the announcement by Kelvin McKelvey of his intentions not to seek re-election it appeared as though we might have a spirited race for an empty seat but after much bandying about of interested names, Zenkin turned out to be the only serious candidate along with Mooney.
Mrs. Mooney has not changed her strategy over the years and relies strictly on a few signs around town and a couple of ads. This has been successful only once in her 30 plus years of running so I am not going out on much of a limb when I say it will not be successful this year.
The last race is for First Constable with incumbent Sheila Howard being challenged by newcomer Patricia Martorano. This race is unusual because in an impromptu poll I conducted no could remember a constable's race being contested for quite a while. The race has turned out to be one of ballot entries only since there has been no visibility what so ever by the candidates.
What is the reason for such a dismal display of interest in town government? Is it a general apathetic malaise or are people that satisfied with town management? It would seem on the surface to be the former rather than the latter. There is no lack of issues and there is certainly no lack of reasons to be critical of management's over all performance.
Taxes have been raised well over 40% over the past four years, we have continued unresolved issues in town buildings, the water situation may grow critical as the treatment plant refurbishment is way behind schedule. The Board of Selectmen has promised strategies on the Boston Property, Landlocked Land, main sewer line, Wildwood School, cemetery space etc. with no results. The banner issues continues to be a thorn in their side with a half hearted effort to remove some of the signs while leaving up others which is a indecisive action pleasing no one.
The Grandview Farm is now a certified white elephant. It sits there everyday growing more decrepit without a fall back strategy yet to emerge. It is apparent that a town sponsored refurbishment that would result in this becoming an everyday useful piece of building inventory was way to optimistic. Spending three million dollars to upgrade a building of this age to support functions is simply not feasible.
On the school side there has been no progress with the Memorial School and the budget deliberations have resulted in a proposal at 6% that exceeds the recommended 5% guidelines established by the Ways and Means Committee and the Board of Selectmen. The actual number is even higher when you consider that the town took the special education side of the budget and put it into fixed costs, relieving the School Committee of that run away budget busting item.
Both school and town elements of the budget are now suffering the effects of a couple of other items. The school department is now paying the price for a teachers contract it negotiated last year which was more lucrative that other town unions got. The town side will suffer because the other unions now know that it is better to wait and see if the School Committee caves so that those numbers can be used in negotiations with the Selectmen.
The early retirement plan a few years ago touted the idea of savings by retiring long time employees and replacing them with lower paid younger replacements. That strategy has back fired since it resulted in both a loss of expertise as well as huge impacts on the retirement expense and health insurance line items. How could this strategy have saved money if it resulted in no loss of positions and two families instead of one being provided for with insurance and retirement benefits?
Is the patient critical or are we facing any more serious issues than we have in the past? Of course not, but the danger here is that continued lack of interest will lead to the inevitable calls for "cost containment or streamlining of government" that often results in more concentration of power in fewer hands. We don't need a strong town manager or consolidation of boards or elimination of town meeting in favor of a counsel form of government. What we need is more people taking an active and productive interest in town affairs.
