Select Board candidates debate the issues
Date: 6/6/2013
By Chris Maza
chrism@thereminder.comLONGMEADOW — The three candidates for Select Board met on May 29 to state their cases to be elected to one of two open seats at the Annual Town Election.
Selectmen Mark Gold and Mark Barowsky will be opposed by political newcomer Alex Grant on the June 11 ballot.
Grant said it was "time for change" after what he termed a tough year for the Select Board, which he said failed to address town needs in a timely fashion and was not effective in its budgeting for fiscal year 2014 (FY14).
"The town manager search started too slowly, it took too long and we were left with a big gap in leadership. The Maple Road project started too slowly, it took too long and the result was a big mess, inconvenience and a lot of wasted money," he said. "To culminate this year, we had a Select Board budget that was overwhelmingly rejected by the voters of town meeting. That decision amounted to a vote of no confidence in the choices the Select Board made."
Gold said during his four years of service on the board, he has made "measurable and positive" contributions to the community, including to the "financial and operational stability of the town." He also touted his experience and understanding of issues and challenges as well as potential opportunities that lay before the town.
"Making these decisions will require the knowledge and experience I bring to the position as well as the balanced perspective that I have demonstrated to the citizens of Longmeadow over the past four years," he said.
Barowsky stated that after 53 years in town, he knows it "from the dirt up" and, like Gold, stressed his previous experience as a member of town government.
In addition to the past year on the Select Board, he served on the Capital Planning Committee for two years and spent seven years on the Finance Committee, including two years as the chair. He added that he was chair of the Finance Committee when the decision to build the new high school was made.
"I think it's quite essential for someone on the Select Board to have in-depth knowledge of the finances of the town," he said. "That is probably the premier decision making that this committee has to make and I certainly bring that to the table."
Identifying his highest priority if elected, Grant said he would want to engage the voters.
"We need to have an ongoing conversation," he said. "I think the problem is we don't have enough people participating in town government."
He added that he would continue writing his bi-weekly column for the Longmeadow News to give residents insight into the Select Board's dealings and hoped to see vacancies on boards and committees filled and seek out more women to serve in town government.
Gold said his priority would be to continue to find non-real estate tax revenue.
"I think it's incumbent upon us to maintain a reasonable and as low as possible tax burden on our town residents and I think there are alternatives that we can work on," he said, adding that having Stephen Crane as the new town manager would be beneficial in achieving this goal due to his background in project management.
Barowsky credited Gold with a good understanding, stating that he "gets it" and he concurred that the town needed to find ways to develop additional revenue. He identified the possible sale and use of land by the water tower for a senior housing community as a way to generate revenue through its sale and taxes.
When asked if the town could continue to operate without operational overrides, Barowsky said there was "great pressure economically" and the town has departments that were growing faster than the 2 ½ percent tax increase allowed by law would permit.
Barowsky specifically took aim at the School Department, stating, "While they have a reduction in their FTEs [full time equivalents] of minus-2 percent since 2010 and a reduction in students of 234 students, looking at the FY14 budget, they have budgeted $719,000 for step increases and COLA [cost of living adjustment] increases.
Barowsky said that when the town has people receiving step and cost of living increases concurrently, it compounds that economic pressure.
"Point of fact, this FY14 budget, which both Mr. Grant and Mr. Gold agreed to, put us in a deficit budget," he said. "There was a 3 percent increase in labor costs for the schools. You can't bear up to a 3 percent increase with a 2 ½ percent tax increase."
Grant said the town has been operating without an override since 2007 and has been able to work within the 2 ½ percent levy limit.
"I think we've had a general consensus over the past several years — until just this year when the Select Board came in with a zero-dollar budget," he said. "What we had before was the concept of a level service budget."
Grant explained that it was his belief that through level service budgeting, the town was able to keep up with the needs of the town, largely because of low inflation, while the zero percent increase budgeting approach utilized for FY12 represented a need for cuts to services in favor of capital projects.
He went on to say that he has been vocal, including at town meeting, against investing in capital projects without a long-term capital plan.
Gold said "it is incumbent upon the Select Board" to try to ensure no overrides are needed.
He concurred that there has not been an override since 2007, but said the town's success in budgeting without another override since then has been "pure luck." Gold said his work in identifying alternative revenue streams, such as the local meals tax, and reducing town expenses with full operational reviews of town departments have been key to doing so.
"The ability to operate without an operational override for the last eight years didn't just happen. It wasn't just low inflation; it was hard work by folks like me working for the people of Longmeadow," he said.
Barowsky also criticized Grant's assertion that the town was able to get by because of low inflation, saying, "Either he has no knowledge of or he decided to not even bring up the issue that we have been able to fund our budget by using anticipated Free Cash that has comes in the following year," a policy that he said is not normally allowed by the Finance Committee or the Select Board, but has been deemed necessary.
Addressing evaluating and setting goals for the town manager, Gold asserted that when he was first elected to the board, he was the first to bring forward identified objectives and goals for that position.
"It tried to move the town manager evaluation process to an objective process where we had criteria we judged the town manager on," he said, adding the criteria included communication, budget preparation and personnel management.
Barowsky said in addition to regular goal setting, the board has instituted regular project updates for department heads, which he stated not only helps the town understand why a project is at a certain point, but also how the town manager is working to achieve objectives set by the board.
Grant asserted that "a certain amount of dysfunction" has affected the board's ability to address its goals, utilizing the town manager search as his example. He criticized the board for not having an acting town manager in place when former Town Manager Robin Crosbie left, despite months of advanced notice.
"We were behind schedule on that and the result was we didn't end up having a town manager until April 2013, which was a year and a half later," he said. "I think we can do better than that."
Grant also pointed to recently-filled vacancies at the Adult Center and Veterans' Services offices that he said were not addressed in a timely fashion.
When asked whether the maintenance of town buildings, including school buildings, should fall under the jurisdiction of the Select Board, Barowsky said he did because "even though it's a school building, it's also a town building."
Grant said he objected to the question in principal because it represented a divide between the schools and the town that should not exist.
"The way I think about it is there's really not much difference whether you take the money out of one pocket in your pants pockets or the other," he said.
Gold said the process for the upkeep of town buildings was finally becoming understood after years of "deferred or minimal maintenance."
