Time might be right for East Longmeadow to re-examine governmental structureDate: 9/25/2014 When people first settled in the area known as East Longmeadow, the government based on a town meeting and a group of selectmen was not only adequate, but also representative of democratic theory.
The question is, though, at a time when there is no structure that could hold all of the town’s registered voters, whether or not that form of government still works.
That’s the questions a group of concerned citizens wish residents would consider. Does the structure of the current town government work as efficiently as it could? Could it be improved?
I sat down with Sid Starks and Russ Denver, members of the petition drive to see if the voters of the town are interested in examining town government through a charter commission. They stressed they were not advocating any particular form of government, but instead would like residents to actively evaluate the current arrangement.
They are currently seeking signatures to put a charter review question on the ballot in the April 2015 election.
I used the word “arrangement” deliberately as East Longmeadow actually doesn’t have a cohesive charter. The town government has come about through the adoption of bylaws and state legislation.
East Longmeadow has a group of fairly autonomous elected councils and boards that at times have become their “own fiefdom,” Starks said.
Consider the following: the director of the town’s library reports to the Board of Library Trustees, however the employees of the library are part of the union contract covering employees from other departments. The director of the library has no control over the wages paid to those employees.
Here is another example of the type of thing a charter reform commission could address: the town has no means of recalling an elected official. This was driven home by the Jack Villamaino scandal.
If I lived in Easy Longmeadow, I certainly would support the process to examine town government and discuss how it could be made better. I don’t, though, so it’s up to you.
Jobs, jobs, jobs
While I appreciate that unemployment in Massachusetts is currently less than the national rate (5.8 percent in the Bay State and 6.1 percent nationally), its poverty is at 11.9 percent according to census information. Median income has also declined. Boston Globe reporter Evan Horowitz wrote a very interesting analysis of the information.
His point is that while certain numbers are encouraging, the state’s economy is not moving forward and that Massachusetts is a very “inequal place.”
The word “jobs” is perhaps the most used noun in the lexicon of the elected official and candidate. This election year we’re hearing a lot about jobs, but is anything really being done? Do any of the candidates actually have plans that could be implemented?
At least none of the candidates I know have made statements such as the one House Speaker John Boehner made while speaking to the American Enterprise Institute recently. He said, “We’ve got a record number of Americans not working. We’ve got a record number of Americans … stuck, if you will. And I think it’s our obligation to help provide the tools for them to use to bring them into the mainstream of American society. I think this idea that’s been born out the last – maybe out of the economy last couple of years that, ‘You know, I really don’t have to work. I don’t really want to do this, I think I’d just rather sit around.’ This is a very sick idea for our country.”
Solutions are not going to come out by saying that unemployed people don’t want to work. Solutions are not coming out of conservative talking points. If they could be found there, we would have had the workers’ paradise during the Bush Administration.
Solutions are going to come out of a concerted effort to address the reasons people are not being employed. Is it specific training? Is it taking steps to encourage businesses through reductions of red tape?
Consider the fact the recovery from the 2008 recession has been much slower in the western part of the state than the eastern. What are the candidates saying? We have to devise regional solutions is generally the answer, but what are those solutions and how are they going to be funded?
I’m waiting for those answers and I’m sure you are as well.
Agree? Disagree? Drop me a line at news@thereminder.com or at 280 N. Main St., East Longmeadow, MA 01028. As always, this column represents the opinion of its author and not the publishers or advertisers of this newspaper.
|
