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Date: 7/2/2015
EAST LONGMEADOW – The Charter Commission shared feedback from interviews with town departments, which highlighted that there is a lack of communication between different departments, committees, and boards.
Charter Commission Chair Dawn Wiezbicki-Starks said the goal of interviewing the various elements of town government is to develop an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in the current form of government.
Charter Commission member Eric Madison related a story in which he witnessed a lack of communication with residents during a recent meeting of the Board of Public Works.
“For 45 minutes there was a group of residents in town that were upset about conditions, maintenance, and so on of the athletic fields,” he added. “They were trying to get some resolution to that.”
The conversation went back and forth between residents and the board, and the “Reader’s Digest” version of the events was that the board told the townspeople to go to other departments in order to find help to resolve the issue, Madison said.
“The reality is that the people walked out of there extremely frustrated because they were getting no resolution to their issue,” he added. “After those folks left, I couldn’t help bring up the topic. “
Madison asked the board, “You don’t think we can develop a structure of government that’s better than that?”
He added, “They all looked at me like I had a third arm growing out of my chest.”
Wiezbicki-Starks said the residents showed great patience during the board’s meeting.
“I bring it up because I don’t want to point fingers at the [Department of Public Works], that’s not the reason,” Madison said. “I brought it up because it goes back to the decentralization … It’s a crap shoot in this town that they need answers as to what board, committee, group they go to if their going to get answers.”
Charter Commission member Ralph Page noted that there is sometimes a lack of understanding on the part of the residents as to what department they should go to.
“Our customer is the taxpayer,” Madison responded to Page. “The fact that our customer can’t figure out how to navigate our government is ludicrous. We need to be a customer-based government.”
Charter Commission member George Kingston said the commission heard from the Board of Assessors, which identified a lack of communication with the Board of Selectmen.
“The assessors feel that they know what the evaluations in the town are and what the impact of tax rate changes are going to be and yet when the Board of Selectmen sets the tax rate, they don’t always vote with the proper amount of input from the assessors,” he added.
Kingston said he spoke with several department heads who find the Annual Town Meeting schedule difficult to “get anything done” due to deadline of submitting articles either by January of February.
Another issue that several departments addressed is the possibility of a strong town manager form of government due to the hiring process, he noted.
If East Longmeadow allowed for a strong town manager, that person would do most of the hiring for departments.
Madison said one problem within the town is individuals “not carrying out the wishes of the board, but rather carrying out their own agenda.”