Incumbent Driscoll addresses issues facing town
Date: 4/5/2010
April 5, 2010EAST LONGMEADOW -- Reminder Publications news staff members Courtney Llewellyn and G. Michael Dobbs asked Board of Selectmen candidates James Driscoll and Joseph Townshend the following questions about issues facing the town.
The following are Driscoll's answers as Townshend declined to participate. The answers have not been edited, except for spelling and for style.
Despite the fact that the town has enough in reserves to cover the deficit being projected for fiscal year 2011, the Board of Selectmen are still looking to make cuts. Is this a wise move? Why or why not? And where do you think the town sits fiscally? What steps would you take to improve the budget? Yes it is a wise and fiscally prudent move. State aid to cities and towns is going to be cut - we just do not know how much. The latest number from Boston being batted around is 4 percent. This impact means we have to consider every possible option to keep our budget in balance. We hope for the best and plan for the worst. We also expect the following year to be difficult so we are planning ahead. We cannot completely use the reserves that we have worked so hard to build over the years. Keep in mind that we need to maintain at least 5 percent of the total budget in reserves in order to maintain a quality bond rating which allows us to borrow at very favorable percentage rates. Through prudent planning and a strong "team work" approach between all departments and our Appropriation Committee, we are currently at around 10 percent or $5.2 million. This is an envious position to be in. If the state comes back with a 4 percent cut in State aid, then we would most likely take $1 million to $1.5 million from free cash and still look for $200K in cuts though attrition, automation and possibly reduction of services, all of which will only mean level funding from last year.
Our fiscal position is very fortunately sound. Thankfully, our reorganization of the accounting department and years of conservative but proactive planning have resulted in the town having strong reserves and this is directly reflected in the recent and highest bond rating increase that our town has ever had.
Here are three steps that we have started and will continue to work on to improve the budget:
• "A Virtual Town Hall" online through our Web site. The greatest percentage of transactions that taxpayers and citizens (both residential and commercial) need to conduct - permitting, paying tax bills and fees and recreation sign ups to name a few - can be conducted without having to physically go into the town hall. The reduction in foot traffic will be dramatic and we could then eliminate head count through attrition and see significant savings while still increasing services. We will also provide Internet training for beginners at no cost.
• Regionalization. East Longmeadow is a part of a Regional Board of Selectmen made up of our town, Longmeadow, Hampden, Wilbraham and Ludlow. We meet regularly and are evaluating several areas (issues, services, equipment and departments) that we might be able to take a more regional approach to and share the costs involved. In particular, we are looking at regionalization of Human Resources, Information Technology and public safety dispatch. The savings in Information Technology regionalization alone could potentially be hundreds of thousands of real dollars to our town's bottom line.
• Grant Writing. There are literally millions of dollars available to almost every department in town, but with a few exceptions such as Council on Aging and Public Safety we do not have the resources or abilities to effectively execute successful grant searches and requests. A full time grant writer would surely more than pay for themselves over time, but unfortunately in these uncertain economic times the "up front" investment would not be prudent. We are, however, discussing the possibility of sharing a grant writer or regionalizing the service with our Regional Board of Selectmen participants.
A lot of work has been done by the Green Committee to make the town more efficient and more environmentally-friendly - for example, the retrofitting of the lighting systems at the high school. There is also work being done to bring photovoltaic panels into town to power municipal buildings and having the town become a certified Green Community. Do you see this work as necessary or important? Why or why not? And as a selectman, would you continue to promote it? I was the sponsoring selectman that proposed the Green Committee's formation and I have served as the chairman of the committee since its inception. It is a very active committee and I am proud of the hard work and dedication of our committee members both department heads and citizen volunteers. I am a true believer in the Green Committee and its efforts! I am extremely proud that the Boston Globe named East Longmeadow the third Greenest Community in Massachusetts. In our short tenure we have had some very measurable successes. With regards to the high school lighting retrofit, I read about the great city of Springfield retrofitting the lighting systems in one of their buildings. We invited the utility provider to meet with us to try to get a project moving. This is a win-win project for the town economically and environmentally. We will retrofit all of the outdated lights in the high school. The total cost of this project is $190K but the town will not have to pay anything up front. The cost savings will fund our portion of the $190K over 24 months and then we will realize the savings directly from then on which will be close to $30K per year just from that one school. We are working hard to use the same business model on all qualifying municipal buildings for photovoltaic technology or solar energy. After installation costs are paid down, each building could gather enough energy to eliminate all electricity costs entirely!
We are a very proactive and united Board of Selectman particularly with the green initiatives. We were the first town in the Commonwealth to adopt the "Stretch Energy Code." This is a crucial step towards us being designated as a "Green Community" which gives us access to potentially millions of dollars of grant money and funding resources. These efforts are indeed necessary and important. America's dependency on foreign oil has always been and will continue to our "Achilles Heal" unless we do something about it. "Think globally and act locally" is exactly what we are doing. These efforts are good for the environment and the economy. Not focusing on these efforts would be tantamount to mismanagement. I hope to have the opportunity to continue my efforts for another three years.
The Superintendent Search Committee is currently in the process of selecting a new superintendent for the town's schools. How much influence do you think the selectmen should have in the naming of a new superintendent? What do you think are the most important qualities the new superintendent should have? I have tremendous respect for each School Committee member and the hard work, effort and dedication they have for their board. I know how hard they work. My mother was on the School Board for many years and then later my sister. It is often a thankless job. The School Committee did ask the Board of Selectmen for a representative to participate on the search committee - one of the 16 that ... present[ed] a short list of finalists to the School Committee. Because of prior personal, professional and Board of Selectmen business, no member of the Board of Selectmen could commit to the 100 percent attendance policy that the School Board asked for.
There are many important qualities our new superintendent needs to have. First and foremost they must be a leader and involved in the community. They will be "filling a very large pair of shoes" with regards to both. Our former superintendent, Ed Costa, Ph.D., was a great leader and very involved in many aspects of our community. Other qualities I think that are very important include fair-mindedness, outstanding communication and interpersonal skills, a collaborative style of problem solving, a sense of direction and a determination to succeed that inspires others to perform as well as research-based decision making, the ability to build vision and lead change, and successful experience as a superintendent, assistant superintendent or similar leadership role in a similar district.
With regards to the current Superintendent Search Committee, it is made up of school department professionals and citizen volunteers with vast experience, knowledge and passion for East Longmeadow school system. They will no doubt do an outstanding job for our community. At our January Regional Board of Selectmen meeting we spoke with Longmeadow Select Board members. Following that, our Board of Selectmen sent a request to the chairman of the East Longmeadow School Board respectfully requesting the board to consider based on the current and uncertain economy and potential cuts to local aid to enter into negotiations with Longmeadow's School Board and see if we could potentially "regionalize" the role of superintendent, as they were also beginning their own superintendent search. Our Board of Selectmen was unanimous in support of sharing the resources of on superintendent even just for two to three fiscal years or until better and more dependable economic times. This would have been the economically prudent thing to do.
Considering the growing complexity of government, would a charter change be in order to establish a town manager or mayoral form of government? During my tenure, we did call for a Charter Review Committee. A group of experienced and dedicated volunteers spent months interviewing boards, department heads and employees. They held public hearings and information sessions. The end result of which was that although they identified several flaws and major issues with our current form of government, the general public was apathetic and uninterested. Our town's population is quickly approaching 16,000 and our budget this year is almost $55 million. I think there is a need for more accountability in our town government and I think an open discussion regarding a charter change for East Longmeadow is indeed in order.
