2009-10
26

Police and Quinn

Category: Police | 1 Comment
I read this on the MASSCOPS website.
 Re: Quinn Bill to be cut (and other PD money)
Published: May 10, 2009 12:50 am
Our view; Don’t stick communities with Quinn Bill costs

“The Massachusetts Legislature finally may be ready to pull the plug on the police pay boondoggle known as the Quinn Bill.
That’s great news for the state’s taxpayers. But legislators’ plans simply to cut funding for the program will leave many cities and towns stuck with its full costs. That isn’t right.
A better solution would be for legislators to muster up the courage to take on the police unions and phase the bill out over a few years. That would give municipal leaders a chance to adjust their labor contracts so that they would not be left owing police officers millions for the state’s share of Quinn Bill payments.
The Quinn Bill was a 1970 law intended to boost professionalism in police ranks by providing officers with pay increases for obtaining college degrees. However noble that purpose, the Quinn Bill has long since outlived its usefulness. The program now is little more than a pay-boosting scam.
Under the Quinn Bill, police officers receive a 10-percent pay hike for obtaining an associate’s degree, a 20-percent bump for a bachelor’s and 25 percent for a master’s. The increase applies not just to their base pay but to overtime and pension calculations as well.
The payments to officers under the bill amount to about $100 million a year. Cities and towns pay the full cost up-front and are reimbursed for 50 percent of their expenses by the state.
And that’s where the problem is. Both the House and the Senate are looking to the Quinn Bill as a source of savings as legislators try to balance their budgets. The House budget proposal cut Quinn Bill funding to $25 million, about half of the state’s share of the program’s cost. The Senate budget, due out later this month, is expected to eliminate Quinn Bill funding altogether.
That has municipal leaders howling. Many cities and towns have contracts with their police unions that require them to cover the full cost of the program even if the state cuts its funding.
Methuen is among those communities. Mayor William Manzi sent a letter to state Sen. Steven Baddour saying the state should not make cities and towns cover its share of the Quinn Bill tab.
Baddour counters that communities were never required to opt in to the Quinn Bill benefits. Nor did the state force them to sign contracts that left them liable for the state’s share of the funding. Manzi inherited his police contract from the previous administration.

[Note: Manzi did not submit those contracts for approval until August 2007, his 2nd year in office-seems there was time to read and renegotiate if needed.] webmaster note.   
Rather than play a blame game over who is responsible, it would be better to find a way to eliminate the Quinn Bill while giving communities — and police officers, for that matter — time to adjust to the loss of funding. Phasing the bill out over a few years would allow cities and towns to write Quinn Bill payments out of new contracts.
The Quinn Bill began with the best of intentions. But those intentions have gone awry as too many police officers obtain meaningless degrees at so-called “Quinn Mills” just to get the boost in pay.
It’s time to eliminate this expensive boondoggle, but in a way that does not place yet another financial burden on cash-strapped cities and towns.”

Shame that our Legislators are too busy to address this.

2009-10
25

All news is good news

Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The playwrite, George M. Cohan once said “I don’t care what you say about me, as long as you say something about me, and as long as you spell my name right.”

Well, I have been trying to blog on a regular basis, (not an easy thing for me).  The subject matter is political in nature but, I hope, diverse enough to not become too dry.

I have seen mention in the Lawrence Eagle Tribune.
Quick aside, why does the Tribune take so long to load a page? It is not my computer. They should look into some optimization software, especially if the business model changes and they determine to become more of an on-line presence. (Or, god forbid, they charge per view- with slow load speed that would be the demise of that news venue.)
In the section of today’s paper, under “A little help from his friends” By J.J. Huggins.
Scroll down the page and find, “Citizen Jack is now Blogger Jack”.
Thanks for the plug.

Also note, that I have now been included on Methuen Common website under  Methuen Blogging. It appears that I am listed under the Mayors blog. Hope this isn’t an omen. Appears to be reverse alphabetizing. Either way this is a website well worth checking out and linking to.

2009-10
24

Campaign Survey

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments

Some one running for Mayor of Methuen is spending money and getting no results. This occured about 2-2:15 today.

I answered the phone and was greeted by a person who had an accent. I could not place what type of accent,  it was thick enough to recognize as belonging to someone whose native language was not English or Americanise.

They asked, “ Are you  aware that on the ballot next week in the election there will be two names running for Mayor Mr. Al Dinuccio and Mr. William Manzi?”

When I paused to wait for the question I thought was coming, being,

“Which candidate do you support?”

I was suprised to hear the following question instead.

“Is that Okay with you?”

I began to laugh and said “Why, yes, that is okay with me.”

I heard a polite , Thank you, and the line went dead.

If this was a survey to determine support, don’t bet the farm on the results.

I can only hope that neither candidate is spending their campaign funds on such a non-scientific survey.

 Almost as accurate as the Methuen website polls; Remind me to tell you how to skew the results on that site in a future blog.

What is the single most important quality in a candidate for local office?

 

 

I guess I should be questioning a poll which appears to be so politically motivated appearing on the City website. 

 I do, but;

I saw a little LISTEN button just above the poll and couldn’t believe when I clicked on the award winning site that it told me in a computer generated voice, ” Welcome to Meth You NN”.

The voice could not pronounce the name of our City. More good money wasted. Maybe we should all call City Hall on Monday and ask to speak to the Mayor of Meth You NN.

2009-10
23

Don’t Waste

Category: Charter | No Comments

Some of you may recall the older commercials on television, I believe they were sponsored by the NAACP. The gist was that “a mind is a terrible thing to waste”.
So much truth in that.
I ask that you not waste your mind on innuendo and seek the facts behind what politocos and others tell you.
Case in point.[Disclaimer: I am a member and executive of the Group]

Citizens for a Better Government is a group dedicated to the creation of an ELECTED Charter Study Commission on a regular basis.
That is it. No hidden agenda, no secret handshake.
As with any group, it is made up of individuals who believe that government is OWNED by the citizens that it serves.
They are INDIVIDUALS. They have differing opinions and viewpoints. Not always agreeing on every issue.
When the group began, we asked all who joined to help us generate a list of “items” that a charter covers that could or should be discussed if the Commission were successfully created.
Because the group also believes in open and transparent government, we have published that list on our website. (see List).
This is not a group agenda. Not all bullets on the list are even items for discussion at a commission.

Some persons are circulating lsts from the website and claiming they are the “Hidden agenda” of the group.

Do not be fooled.

Individual members of the group as citizens and thinking members of this City have diverse opinions on various issues.

The Groups Goal and Agenda is simply to put a ballot question before the voters every decade to REVIEW the charter of our City.

Members have collected signatures from 6000+ of our fellow citizens. We have gotten the question before the voters.

We are only asking that you Vote YES on question #1.

Create the Charter Review Commission.

Vote for 9 members to represent you on that Commission. Choose members, not based on agendas, but based on YOUR assessment that those individuals will seriously, honestly and openly review our Charter. They will make recommendations that will be in the best interest of you, neighbors, friends and citizens of this wonderfull city.

Go to the Commissions public hearings and give your input on what will make Methuen’s government run more effectively and efficiently toward making this  a better place over the next decade.

In about two years the output of your elected Commission will be sent to you and placed on the ballot. You, the residents of Methuen, will vote on the recommendations. Yes or No.

That is the simple Goal and agenda of Citizens for a Better Government. We will probably not hibernate, but in 10 years will again roar into full life again. Moving the same simple agenda. Gather signatures. Create a ballot question. Create a Charter Review Commission. Let the Citizens of this City decide on their government.

Don’t be fooled and don’t waste your mind on the innuendo and gossip that sometimes passes as fact in this city.

2009-10
20

Diverted Funds

Category: City Council | No Comments

Read an old Rumbo article, Testing… Testing… Testing

This reminded me that the Mayor has diverted funds from one grant to another project before.

So I tried to find that information. I was at the Council meeting and heard the words. I searched and searched to no avail. No where could I find those quotes.

So I changed tack and looked at What don’t you see? Guess what not all the minutes from Council meetings are posted.

I made a list of the scheduled council meetings and the agenda and minutes posted on the website. I found the following dates missing minutes.
Regular Meeting 11/20/2006
Regular Meeting 3/19/2007
Regular Meeting 4/17/2007
Regular Meeting 5/7/2007
Regular Meeting 6/2/2008
Regular Meeting 9/ 2/2008
Regular Meeting 9/15/2008

I wrote to the Council Clerks. As I’ve stated before, they are doing a great job. They located the missing minutes and forwarded them to the IT department. Next day they were available for review on-line.

I immediately found what I had been searching for.

In the METHUEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2007 – 7:00 P.M.

Under contracts,  C-07-16 Pope Industries, Inc, 68 Maple Avenue, Atkinson, NH 03811 for Methuen Arlington Neighborhood Center in the amount of $541,427.00.
Read the following. [Out of context, yes but exactly in context--read for your self--click link above]

“Councilor Cronin definitely supports the programs but he has concerns and questions. One is that they are going to take grant money that was specified for another area in the Central District and move it.

Mayor Manzi said the reprogramming of that money, from point A to point B in this case, is done simply because of the fact that we were not going to be able to utilize the money toward the intended purpose. More testing needs to be done on the Appleyards’ site and he will come back with that money. In his view it was something that was acceptable. As much as he supports the programs, if this was a situation where one was going to suffer and one was going to gain, he would look to do it another way. The money cannot be used this year for Appleyards and this doesn’t impede our ability to get Appleyards done.

Councilor Cronin said the problem is we are not considered what they call a “mini-entitlement program” any more. This is the first year in the most recent years that we have to compete for community block money. There is no guarantee that we are going to receive any future funds designated for that site.

Councilor Andrew said the $125,000 for Appleyards would be returned for the Appleyards’ site.

Mayor Manzi responded, yes. He’ll be there for that as well.”

I need to ask a few questions.

The first is we spent $541,427.00.

I looked up the assessed value and it is building, $209,300 and land,$92,400. Total assessed value in 2009 was $309,700. We already owned the land, and the city of Methuen still does, but the cost of the project was, even with all the donated materials, $541,427.

How did a building that cost us half a million dollars become valued at $209,000?

I understand the neighborhood values and the surrounding buildings but they were all built over 100 years ago.

The second question is, where is the $125,000 borrowed dollars from the Appleyards grant?

How did they explain that in the grants yearly report?  We decided that we needed to move the money elsewhere, because we have tested this site to death and aren’t going to test it again this year.

Now we find we have a new grant for building at Appleyards.

Where did the money come from to fund the design work that is already done?

Shouldn’t all these funding requests be before the Council? Where is the open and transparent part that I seem to miss?

2009-10
20

mistake question.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments

How do you answer ‘What are the biggest mistakes you have made professionally’ in a job interview? I hear this question more and more in political debates (or forums).

There appear to be no easy answers.

Here is mine.

I am a human being. I am not infallable.

If you define a mistake as “a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention;”, then we all have made some mistakes in life. We are an accumulation of the actions we have taken in the past.

I can only make two claims.

First, I have tried to minimize any mistakes based on bad judgement or inattention. This means any mistakes I’ve made should have been based on ignorance. This is,generally, due to a lack of information, which may or may not be directly attributable to me.

Secondly, “Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me.”

I like the more cerebral answer that I find in the following poem by;

Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken (1915)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

2009-10
19

Acceptance of Community Development Block Grant Funds

Category: City Council | No Comments

Cities thrive on Grants. Grants are not inherently a bad thing. Please take a few moments and read the paperwork submitted,I assume, with the grant application.

Here is the resolution. Pretty straightforward. Let’s accept the money.

The devil is in the details. read the attachement.

When you have read this document think about what it is telling you.

The City is getting a grant for $650,000. That is great.

Now look at the administrative costs. Deduct $72,672 for the Code enforcement Officer. That leaves, $577,328. Still a sizeable amount off money.

Now look at the last page, near the bottom. Project delivery and general administration. The cost of setting this up and running it are $162,870. This represents 28.21% of the grant that will go to manage it. That seems awfully high for admin costs.

If we compare this to charity spending what do we find? On average, the best charities spend no more than 15 to 20 percent on overhead and administrative costs.

It just gets worse the more you read and think about the grant. Let’s start over and look at it another way.

The Social services portion will be administered by a social service organization or a social service provider. I see that we apparently followed a bid process. See the statement that reads; The City of Methuen has received proposals from social service providers to provide the following public/social services. I noticed that the total for this is $106,600.

Also I noted that none of the bids were attached and I see under Contracts in the Agenda there are NONE

So let’s remove the social service portion from the total. $650,000 minus $106,600 minus the $1,000 to deliver

That leaves $542,400 for the other projects. Now look at overhead costs. That means they are 29.84%. Even worse

Finally look at the brunt of the project. rehabilitation on 12 un-named properties.

Where are these and why aren’t they identified in the paperwork?

It’s not like we are just starting to take a look at this area of town. Remember why Solomon was fired, mismanagement of grants for … the Arlington Neighborhood

This grant may be an excellent addition to Methuen’s portfolio

We just need to see a bit more information and it wouldn’t hurt if they posted updates on the website as to how these funds are being spent. There is supposed to be an annual audit. This leads to the question—how long is this grant for?

If it is multiyear, then some of the math may be skewed, especially the Enforcement Officer in another post.

Be transparent and open about these grants. That is all we are asking.

2009-10
18

Code Enforcement Officer [TR-09-66 ]

Category: City Council | No Comments

From the SUMMARY OF METHUEN’S FY 2009 CDBG PROGRAM, at the bottom of page 1 of 2, I read.

Code Enforcement – $72,672.00

The Code Enforcement Officer is now full time and will prepare and maintain inspection reports and field records with photos documenting conditions, enforcement action and corrective follow-up.

The following objectives outline the direction, focus and issues that the Code Enforcement Officer will continue to address:

slum and blight in the Target Area by maintaining a neighborhood presence,

promoting homeowner investments in property improvements,

implementing a code enforcement management plan to identify and seek corrective action on housing code violations;

conducting extensive outreach with businesses and neighborhood organizations regarding the identification and prevention of health code violations;

utilizing media and public relation tools to proactively advocate for improving neighborhood health and safety; and

providing technical assistance to landlords and tenants.

The Target Area is described as the properties in the Methuen Arlington neighborhood.

Also included as a Model Block by Block Initiative (Annis, St, Ashton Pl, Blake St, Camden St, Carleton, Center St, Chase St, Chelmsford St, French St, Kirk St, Merrill St, Phillips St, Spruce St and Tenney St.) which shall receive additional priority.

I read this description and asked myself a few questions.

We already have a Code Enforcement Officer?

Language is a key component in reading these documents. It states “The Code Enforcement Officer is now full time”.

Also note that it states “the Code Enforcement Officer will continue”.

 Who is this person?

I searched the budget for 2010. Low and behold there is a line item for a Code Enforcement Officer.

It is located on page 42 of the FY2010 Budget under Department of Economic and community Development, Health. (page 59 of 105 in the PDF).

It is not funded. Therefor I do not believe we have an officer at this time.

Strange that just below this line item under travel expenses is a line item stating Code Enforcement officers at $12,000 this Fiscal Year. It shows a line item for Director and Nurse. Looking above i find the Director and Nurse positions, the only other filled positions are the 2 Health Inspectors. They must also be called Code Enforcement Officers.

So we currently pay them $92,760 per year. [To be fair that amount is split between them- thus technically each gets about $46,380 per year, excluding clothing and car allowances.]

The grant implies we are adding a code enforcement officer just for the Arlington District at $72,672.00.

Sure would like to see the requirements for that position. The application doesn’t mention any qualifications. I wonder who they will get to fill that position? Can you guess? Let’s be suprised together when they finally announce this.

If we make some assumptions, what do we learn? let’s assume that this person will work a 40 hour week. (The local government only works 35 hours, BY CONTRACT.)  Forty Hours per week times 52 weeks is 2080 hours per year. That is, generally, how private industry assesses hourly pay scales. So $72,672.00 per year divided by 2080 hours per year is $34.94 per hour (actual= $34.938).

How does this compare with any national average for that job type?

I only found one survey. It was performed in 2005 by the Washington State Association of Code Enforcement.

In that survey, persons making  $33-$35 per hour were in the top 8% of all persons employed in that career. The majority (about 27%) were making $21-$23 per hour. That translates to $43,680 to $47,840 per year. Pretty close to what our current Health Inspectors make.

My bet is you hear very little about the grant at tomorrows City Council Meeting. It is a first read item and will most likely be approved and discussion will wait until next meeting when the votes are lined up to get this flown through.

Addenda: Check out this website;  Boston Code Enforcement Division

2009-10
17

Political Division

Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

What is the difference between a ward and a precinct?

Someone asked me this as I drove through another town.

The political signs in that town all had ward numbers and ward members listed.

Truth was I wasn’t sure what the difference was. I assumed that by State law one could have a ward or a precinct.

It is still not clear to me what the differences are. So I publish what I have found and hopefully someone will comment and clarify until we have a clear understanding of the terms.

Methuen is made up, at a local level of 3 Districts and 12 precincts. Each District has 4 precincts.

I found these definitions on the US Census Bureau website. They are stuck in the fine print.

  • A precinct defines your voting place (everyone in one precinct votes in one place).
  • A precinct is the smallest unit of local administration or of vote counting.
  • A Ward comprises several precincts if you live in a city.
  • A District comprises several precincts if you live in a town.
  • A town has no wards (that’s the difference between a city and a town, for election purposes), i.e., a town is only broken up into precincts, not wards.

So if we start at our home and move upward we get the following graphic;

  • Home—-Neighborhood—-Precinct—-Ward/District—City/Town     

So I found that Methuen has a structure that is consistent with our being a town and not a city.

Remember when it was the Town of Methuen? 

Then we became the City known as the Town of Methuen.

Now we are the City of Methuen.

Maybe our next Charter will actually call us a City and set us up as such. Who knows.

Kind of funny that the current crop of politicos seem to act as if, since the Town has an alias, AKA, The City of Methuen, they should all act like criminals.

Maybe that’s why we have so many high profile lawsuits and so much law-bending activity. Nah, that can’t be it, I’m sure it’s in the water. Oh, that’s another blog for another time.

2009-10
13

Photo Op…

Category: City Council | No Comments

Seems like a small item but it isn’t.
Have you ever looked at the City Council web page.

 The first thing you notice is the pictures of the Chair and Vice-Chair. No other Councilor has their picture on the “home” page. You can click on the “links” lower on the page, links to Councilor at large, Central , East and West District, and get individual photos of each councilor listed in alphabetic order.

I think the City Council “index” page should have a group photo of all the Councilors. Below it their names should be listed.

They can continue to have the link section with their individual photo, but the information on that page should also include their “official” email address., the one that ends with “@ci.methuen.ma.us”.

Why do I think this is worth writing about? The City Council is an elected body. A team of persons whom the electorate chooses to represent them. They are to act as a group or a team.  It is not called the City Councilors, but the City Council. A singular group. In the spirit of that name, they should be photographed as a team and placed on the web page as a team.

I understand that any team is made up of the individuals upon that team. That composition may or may not work well together, but the point is they should be striving to come to the point where they operate as a team and the web page should show them as the elected team and not as the individual players.

The other part of the team is the Council employees. I also think they should have their photos on the web page. They are not even listed and, yet, they are the face of the Council, daily, when you do any business with the Council on any time that is not a scheduled Council meeting. Those individuals deserve to be on that page. They are working every day. I have always found them to be considerate and dedicated. A courtesy would be to list the two employees, by name on the web page.

Let’s not treat the City web pages as another political ad. This is the face of the City that we send to the World.

Show the Council as a Group of elected officials.