In a most excellent development, the Town is posting final Town Meeting votes in their entirety — in other words, showing the motion under each article that Town Meeting ultimately approved, including all amendments made on the floor. This is a great resource.
The STM was opened at 22:05.
Under Article 1 (Reports), Mr. Tosti presented the FinComm report, which was a motion to ratify CBAs with various unions. The CBAs contained a 6% raise over two years (roughly half retroactive to last year), part of said raise to make up for increases in health-care copayments and employee contributions. The biggest news is that new employees will have to pay 25% of the premiums instead of 15%. Article 1 was tabled.
In Article 2 (the actual article to ratify), Mr. Jamieson offered an amendment to transfer some funds around to “restore” some monies to the current fiscal year’s budget. Mr. Tosti objected that the amendment was outside the scope of the article and the Acting Moderator concurred. Mr. Hughes asked if the patrolmen were getting a 3% or 3.5% raise in 2007 and was told 3.5%. The FinComm motion was approved on a voice vote, Article 1 was taken off the table, and the STM was dissolved at 22:42.
We took up Article 10 at 21:06.
Mr. Jamieson was in favor of the BoS vote and against Ms. Worden’s amendment and asked how flow rates are calculated. Mr. Bean (the new DPW Director) said the calculation is a standard methodology, using National Weather Service standard algorithms. He added that rate, not volume is what’s important. Mr. Jamieson asked if the building code required any mitigation (such as drywells). Mr. Byrne (the building inspector) said it did not. Mr. Jamieson asked if the Conservation Commission had an opinion. A ConComm member said ConComm thought it was a good idea.
Mr. Burke said he was in favor of Ms. Worden’s amendment and made his own amendment to reduce the new development exemption to 500 square feet.
Mr. Loreti pointed out this was a change to the by-laws, not the zoning by-laws and was in favor of reducing the exemption amount.
Mr. Auster asked why there were any exemptions. Mr. O’Brien replied it was a matter of generational equity — that they didn’t want to impose new burdens on “ordinary houses” like those that have long been in Arlington. He also said that if the town engineer couldn’t figure out how to mitigate, that would be a chance for relief and that an applicate could appeal any denial de novo to the ZBA. Mr. Bean said it would take more than just financial hardship — there would need to be no available technology with a cost reasonable compared to the overall project cost.
We took the mid-session break from 21:34 to 21:47.
Mr. McCabe asked who paid for the required drainage plan and was told the applicant did. He asked how the ZBA can be the appellate board when this is not zoning. Mr. Maher said appeals had to go somewhere and no law prevents the ZBA from being used for things other than zoning.
Mr. Holman made an amendment to eliminate the new development exemption.
Mr. DeCoursey asked what happens if the work isn’t done as promised and why there were no deadlines for ZBA and DPW Director action. The Acting Moderator said a certificate of occupancy would not be issued. Mr. O’Brien said deadlines were a good idea and began working on an amendment.
We recessed into the Special Town Meeting from 22:05 to 22:42.
The DeCoursey amendment would give the DPW Director 14 days to act and would give the ZBA 21 days to hold a hearing and 14 days to make a decision after that. Another amendment would impose a $200/day fine for attempting to occupy if the work wasn’t done right (turned out that a occupancy certificate would be issued, hence the need for a fine).
Mr. Rehrig said the change was needed, that there wasn’t an undue burden, that Mr. DeCoursey’s amendments were important, and supported the reduction to 500 square feet. He said zero would cause problems like having to submit a plan for a doghouse.
Mr. Schlichtman moved the previous question, which carried.
Both DeCoursey amendments were approved. The Holman amendment failed. The Burke amendment was approved, mooting the Worden amendment. The motion as amended then passed on a voice vote.
We finished Article 10 at 22:57. We spent 61 minutes on it tonight, which added to the 27 minutes spent at the last session totals 88 minutes.
No notices of reconsideration on anything were given and we adjourned.
Mr. Tosti moved to take Article 2 from the table, which carried. Ms. Cutler gave the report of the Disability Commission and Mr. McGough gave the report of the Dallin Museum Board of Trustees, and urged everyone to visit the Museum which has some nice new pieces. Mr. Tosti moved to put Article 2 back on the table, which carried.
Ms. LaCourt moved that the new start time be 19:30. Mr. Tosti objected, saying that pushing the usual pre-TM FinComm meeting back from 19:30 to 19:00 would deprive FinComm of a quorum. Ms. Fiore wanted to hear from both the Acting Moderator and the new Moderator. The Acting Moderator said he had not spoken with the Moderator-elect about this. He said notices about precinct organizing had already been sent, musicians and clergy had already been scheduled, all based on a 20:00 start time, and that he himself would be pressed by a 19:30 start. Ms. Mahon, who favored 19:30 said she received correspondence over this convincing her any change should wait until next year. Ms. LaCourt said 19:30 would be easier on the department heads and anyone who needs to be at work by 09:00. Mr. Carreiro moved to amend 19:30 to 20:00. Mr. Judd said we should try 19:30. Mr. Curran said we should try 19:30 for one week in May. Mr. O’Conor asked if a 19:30 start would mean a 22:30 end. Ms. LaCourt replied that was her intent. Mr. Jamieson moved the previous question, which carried. The Carreiro amendment passed. The motion as amended passed — we come back at 20:00 on Monday. The Acting Moderator conducted a straw poll — 108 TMMs preferred 20:00 and 65 TMMs preferred 19:30.
The Acting Moderator announced that the AHS was selling Arlington history books in the Town Hall lobby. Mr. Carreiro made an announcement about the TMM announce list. Mr. Chaput announced that Arlington 200 had a booth in the lobby. Ms. Mahon announced that April is Autism Month. Mr. Curro (chair of AHRC) spoke about the hate mail that some public officials have received and circulated a petition to get signatures (and contributions) for a full-page ad the AHRC plans to take out in the Advocate.
A bunch of reports to the 2007 Annual Town Meeting are now available:
Some people have been wondering how Town Meeting will get going, as it is expected that the new Town Moderator, John Leone, will (understandably!!) miss some initial sessions due to what has happened.
According to an e-mail sent out by BoS Chair Annie LaCourt, Massachusetts law states that the old Moderator’s term does not end until the new Moderator is “elected and qualified”. Here, “qualified” means “sworn in”. So without any action needed from anyone, John Worden will simply continue in the chair and will run the Meeting until Mr. Leone is ready. When he is ready, Mr. Leone needs only show up before the Clerk and be sworn. At that moment he will automatically become Moderator.
Some people have also discussed delaying the start of Town Meeting out of respect to Mr. Leone. The aforementioned e-mail from Ms. LaCourt also said that Town Meeting would not be delayed and this was in accordance with Mr. Leone’s wishes.
My thoughts and prayers are with the Leone family at this time of the tragic loss of their son, Paul.
As you may have heard/noticed, I’m running for Moderator.
It’s not too late to help, and just some of the ways you can help are:
If you’re interested in any of these or have any questions about what you can do to help, send an email to volunteer@richformoderator.org. If you have any general questions, email rich@richformoderator.org.
Thank you, and please vote for me on April 14th!