BoS recommended a vote to reorganize the Town Meeting Procedures Committee. Mr. Carreiro, the lead proponent and a TMPC member, said he met with the TMPC, which adopted a recommended vote that he agreed with and which the BoS subsequently adopted verbatim. The BoS recommendation was approved on a voice vote.
BoS moved to postpone to 14 May, which carried.
The BoS recommended a vote of no action, saying the proponent had reached an agreement which negated the need for a bylaw change. Mr. Loreti thanked the Treasurer and Assessors and said tax exemption information will appear on the back of the Q3 tax bills. “No action” was approved unanimously.
Began at 20:21.
The BoS recommended a bylaw change as set out in its report to restrict the Town’s power of eminent domain, citing the dissent in Kelo.
Mr. Belskis, the lead proponent, also read from the dissent and described how a future meeting’s acceptance of MGL 40Q could do away with the 2/3 supermajority requirement and take power out of the hands of Town Meeting.
Mr. Carreiro asked Town Counsel to give an opinion on the legal claims made in the ARB report and to describe the Massachusetts legal meaning of “blight”. Town Counsel said that eminent domain can be used to clear title. He said he can see both sides of the article and that reasonable people can differ. He described blight in terms that would not appear to apply to Arlington.
Mr. Schlichtman asked why the ARB is for no action. Mr. Fitzsimmons replied that because of the 2/3rds requirement for a taking, Town Meeting will exercise good judgement and should not have its hands tied.
Mr. Tosti, speaking for himself, said this was an attack on Town Meeting and that Town Meeting would never do what New London did to Kelo et al.
Mr. Quinn said he was initially a supporter but now agreed with Mr. Tosti.
Mr. DeCoursey said the proposed vote was unnecessary and that flexibility should be retained.
Mr. Rehrig said he was opposed because the proposal is futile — since a 2/3rds vote is required for a taking, if Town Meeting wanted to do the taking, it would be definition have the votes to repeal any restriction by-law. He said he supported the intent but was nonetheless for no action.
Mr. Loreti brought Mr. Fitzsimmons back up. He said that Massachusetts has a blight requirement that Connecticut does not have, that the 2/3rds issue makes the proposal moot, that eminent domain is useful to clear title, and that the ARB is worried about the “or result” language in the proposal leading to more litigation.
Mr. Deyst moved the previous question, which carried.
The BoS recommendation was defeated on a voice vote. The article was disposed of at 20:46, a total of 25 minutes.
The ARB recommended a vote of no action, saying the proponent had abandoned the article. “No action” was approved unanimously.
The Acting Moderator congratulated Town Meeting on a good debate on Article 10 and welcomed the middle-school students from our Japanese sister-city who were observing from the gallery.
We voted to fix to the time to which we adjourn at 20:00 on 2 May.
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.