The WOES Blog

Written by Mike Conley

Wednesday July 2nd

Did you attend or watch Town Meeting on Monday? A tractor trailer truck couldn't have delivered enough cheese to go with the whine at the meeting.. All kinds of the usual suspects upset because no one stepped up to propose an override. The people complaining were the same ones that could have made the budget increases they proposed at the Annual Town Meeting contingent upon on override but didn't. I don't get the complaints, they had the opportunity and didn't do it. Why not? Could it be that no one is proposing one because they finally understand that it won't pass? You see, some just don't get it. The only reason there is now a Tri Board and all kinds of discussions about finding creative solutions and additional revenue for our budget is because of those of us who fought against and defeated the previous override attempts. Does anyone really think these conversations would be taking place if we just kept overriding Prop 2 1/2 and giving them everything they asked for? It is us selfish folks that have driven the debate and created this new atmosphere, they didn't come into it on their own, they would have preferred the easy route of an override.

Did you see the letter in the Item the other day by Glenn Schurter accusing me and Phyllis Hull of not being able to attack the information our self appointed Ministers of Information are disseminating so we are reduced to attacking the messengers?

Well let's take a look at some of the information in their Town Services At Risk document.

"Come November/ early December 2008, budget shortfall will cause Greenwood Station to close; decreasing available trucks from 3 to 2 and staff from 10 to 7."

They then go on to describe all of the horrible things that will happen when it closes. Now, as many of you know, we have been hearing this scare tactic for years now and it has never come true. I heard Selectman Carney say the other night that the Greenwood Fire Station will be kept open this year again. I wonder if they will be updating their document?

In addition to that Laurie Hunt has been saying that our Library won't get certified if the budget isn't increased. I heard Sharon Gilley the Library Director say that we will get certified or get a waiver.

This from the same person who stated on our website during the 2005 0verride campaign:

"Thank you for all you and your group are doing. We are a family with young children ages 2 and 4, our oldest will enter Wakefield Public Schools in 2006. We are tired of the scare tactics used to try to bully families like ours into believing there is no other option than to raise our taxes to pay for services. We are very motivated to let our neighbors know (via a yard sign) that even families with small children don't think an override is a good idea."

Keith and Laurie Hunt

I also heard someone say at Town Meeting that the Town should propose an override after they have "educated" folks about the need for one. My God how tiring is that?! They have been educating us for years and I guess if you don't reach the same conclusion as them you are stupid and just don't understand. Rather than thinking for ourselves they would rather have us act like lemmings and just blindly follow them over the cliff.

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Wednesday June 25th

It appears I made an error in yesterdays Blog. Below is the email I received from one of our Ministers of Information:

Again, please check your facts.

There was no amendment made to the school budget at Annual Town Meeting. The school committee presented a higher budget than fincom recommended. fincom stood up and spoke out against it, and it was voted in after discussion. The only motion I made with regards to the school budget was a motion to move the question... in other words a motion to stop the talking and just vote on it.

I made the motions to increase Police Fire and Library. Another resident made a motion to increase DPW.

Again, you were not even present. I don't expect you to agree with me, however, why do you keep blogging as if you are an authority on what happened at Annual Town Meeting when you were not even there?!

Now, I wonder... will you post a correction?

~Laurie Hunt

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She is almost right. There was an amendment made to the School Department budget, although it was not made by her it was made by the Chairman of the School Committee, Chris Callanan. Laurie Hunt made the motion to stifle debate and move the question as they clearly had the votes and didn't need to discuss it as their minds were made up. The next day as an afterthought she filed for reconsideration of the Police and Fire budgets so she could add more money to those as well. Apparently in an attempt to stave off criticism that it was a school only issue and make it appear as if they were fighting for a town wide increase.

Bottom line.....they profess to be an information only group, but clearly have positions they support. again.....take any position you want....but don't try to take the high road and say you don't have a position when clearly you do.

On another note, did you see yesterdays Editorial in the Item? They went on to praise the work of this group as doing something that had not been done in recent memory....HUH?!

Do they forget the Taxpayers Association of Wake fields' (TAW) efforts thought the years?

As one of the founders of the group, I remember very well the efforts we took to increases attendance at Town Meeting. The documents we created and made available during the 90's regarding our educational budget. The school department, even at that time, presented a budgewt 400K over the Fin Com reccomendation. We did an exaustive study titled The Funding Of Education In Wakefield and made hundreds of copies available to the public to better inform them of the circumstances. The sponsoring of the Lottery system at Town meeting where Articles were randomly drawn so that people would attend the whole session instead of packing the meeting and then leaving. The Lottery system was subsequently overturned by the Taxpayers for Equal Access, another front group for the PTO's and the teachers union. I remember the Board of Assessors not holding public meetings or keeping minutes of their meetings, and us forcing the issue, and them having to go back and create a years worth of minutes and begin holding their meetings in accordance with the Open Meeting Laws. I remember requesting minutes of collective bargaining sessions between the school department and the teachers union and being denied, only to go to the Secretary of States Office for a hearing with the Wakefield Teachers Association, the Mass Teachers Association and the Secretary of States office, who at our urging, the took it to the Supreme court resulting in a landmark decision that collective bargaining session minutes are public record. I remember filing a complaint against a member of the Board of Selectmen because she was on the negotiating team that negotiated with the Fire Department while her brother was in the union, resulting in a $2000.00 fine by the Ethics Committee. I remember hosting many, many meetings with town officials and the Open Meeting and Public records folks to ensure that they understood the laws and we had the access we are supposed to have to the workings of government. I remember well, gathering over 3500 signatures protesting the high water and sewer rates in town and presenting them to our Congressional Delegation as well as then Governor Weld who subsequently invited us to his office along with others for a discussion on the issue. I am sure many of our members remember how they attended every public meeting in town and reported what went on in our newsletters that we sent out to keep people informed. During the 1990's TAW requested minutes from every governmental body in Town every month and reported key activities in our monthly newsletter informing folks of what was taking place. I remember members of TAW codifying our Town By Laws and presenting them to the Board of Selectmen, who begrudgingly accepted them at the time. Prior to TAW doing that the By Laws were in an old tattered book and added to with handwritten notes after any changes. You couldn't even get a copy of them. It was members of TAW that drove the creation of the Charter Commission and the current Charter under which our Town operates.

As for being chastised for being active and taking controversial positions? Doesn't the Item remember when they stopped taking letters from anonymous writers because of the attacks being launched on us? That's right, before TAW you could send a letter in kicking the hell out of someone without even putting your name on it and we sure took more than our share of abuse, which led to them changing their policy.

Never been done before? I guess it depends on your definition of recent memory.

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Tuesday June 24th

The Minisrty of Disinformation

WRIG......they have to be kidding right?

They continue to spin their activities as being like Joe Friday; just the facts Ma’am. Let’s cut through the cock and bull here shall we? The fact is they packed Town Meeting with like minded folks so that they could increase the School Departments budget by 2 million dollars and offered up no funding mechanism. Now they can say all they did was try to get “all” voters to attend so they could express their views, but in reality they had their own agenda and wanted to win. In fact Laurie Hunt made the amendment to increase the school department budget, but would have us believe she has no opinion.. They work hand in hand with the Teachers Union and the Override Moms to advance this fooloish idea and then claim they didn't? Now, all is fair in Love, War and Town Meeting, but at least be honest about what the motive was.

Now after the referendum vote was lost, they recommend changing the required amount of signatures to place a question on the ballot to the 9 pm attendance level of the Town Meeting where the vote was taken. Also they want to shorten the length of time to gather the signatures from 10 days to 7 to ”allow the process to move along more expeditiously”, if you believe that I have a piece of land I can sell you to build sports fields on. If they had it their way it would mean that in the recent case it would have required us to gather 700 signatures in a 7 day period to place the question on the ballot, a Herculean effort to be sure. The way it was done this time around allowed every registered voter in Wakefield the right to vote on such an important issue. Why do we want to make it more difficult to do that; because it benefits their agenda, they don't care about the town as a whole, they simply want what they want and they want to remove any barriers that stand in their way of acheiving it.

The Information Ministry? More like Baghdad Bob and the Ministry of Disinformation.

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Tuesday June 17th

With the Special Town Meeting coming up in 13 days, don't you think it is awfully quiet.......eerily quiet? Kinda like the calm before the storm? Could something be brewing? No one I've talked to has heard anything about it as of yet. The School Committee was split on what budget to bring in this time around, apparently only 4 of them heard the message the voters sent saying balance the budget. The other threee continue to keep thier heads in the sand. At east the Tri Board voted to support the articles at Town Meeting that will balance the budget, with the exception of course of Carmen Urbanos, but you would expect her to not support it.

What will the override Moms and the teachers union do this time around? Will they increase the budget again and make it contingent upon an override? Will they go quietly into the night? We'll find out in a few short days....one thing is for sure.....you should be there to vote, as tedious as it is, it may save us fighting them again in the long run.

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Tuesday June 3rd

Wow, did you see the Board of Selectmen meeting last night? Al “The Mayuh” Turco was fuming; I thought his head was going to pop off. He went after Phyllis Hull with quite a vengeance. He was pointing his finger and shouting at her all upset by her allegations of him shutting off debate on Maios contract and accusing him of having things set up before meetings. All valid concerns from my perspective. One thing about the Mayuh, it’s clear he doesn’t like to be challenged.

It looks like my complaint against the Tri Board for not holding public meetings has ruffled some feathers as well. They spent quite a bit of time discussing how it wasn’t really a committee because they hadn’t officially formed it. Three lawyers in the room and they couldn’t get it right? Of course it’s a committee or else how can you explain the School Committee voting to appoint 3 of their members to it at their May 13th meeting?

Now we will move onto a Special Town Meeting on June 30th, hopefully to reduce the Fire, Police DPW and Library budgets back to where they were before Laurie “Just the Facts Mam” Hunt added to most of them. And of course there is the little issue of the School Departments budget to be dealt with. Will they honor the voters decision to reduce the school buidget? Will the Override Moms, the teachers union and our biggest PTO, the School Committee, pack Town Meeting and try it again? It will be interesting to see just how self serving and arrogant they will be this time around.

This is what Chris Callanan had to say about it in the Boston Globe this weekend:

"Callanan said it is premature to say whether the School Committee, which next meets on June 10, might opt to make a renewed push for its original budget figure".

You would think they would get the message by now……NO OVERRIDE.

Time will tell.

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Wednesday May 28th

What a beautiful day. Sun is shining and the kids are still getting educated.

By now I am sure you know we were successful in defeating the ballot question that would have undoubtedly led to an override question being placed on the ballot. Don't get me wrong, there is still the distinct possibility that they will now try to sell a "little" override to us so we will keep our eyes and ears open.

The proponents of this have spent a lot of time trying to persuade us to believe it is really the whole community that they are concerned about, not just the school department. Tough to swallow when you look at the fact the School Budget was the only one that was brought in over budget, over by 2 million dollars. The PTO's via Laurie Hunt and others along with the teachers union drove all of their supporters to Town Meeting to pass the amendment which added 2 million dollars to the school budget. An amendment drafted by "I don't take sides Hunt". They passed it and moved on. Oh yeah, the next meeting they voted to increase the Police, Fire, Library and DPW.....Kind of an afterthought, they almost forgot them in their lust for more school dollars. Don't be fooled, it isn't about the whole community for them, it is about the schools as usual.

Now from our perspective, the whole community had a chance to hear the debate around the question and cast their ballot if they wished to do so. A lot tougher to stack the ballot than to stack Town Meeting. Hopefully the School Committee will now take of their blinders and listen to the voters. They have been told, go balance your budget. There is no appetite for an override in our community. People understand that not everything that can be done has been done. Had it, some of the Selectmen wouldn't be recreating the Financial Review Committee to really do it this time. This time we are assured they really mean it. Time will tell.

In the meantime, get out and enjoy the beautiful sunny days, the sky didn't fall, once again.

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Saturday May 24th

Another very successful day uptown with our folks out holding signs and passing out flyers. They passed out hundreds of flyers and only had 2 folks refuse them saying they were voting yes for the children. We'll be out again on election day for the final push. Remember to let your family and friends know that we need their support on Tuesday.

Now today we see flyers urging a yes vote popping up around town. Apparently there is a group out there supporting it. They are just to cowardly to show their faces as required by law. That's right, as required by law. It is illegal to pass out information for or against a ballot question without filing the necessary forms with the Town Hall. The reason is obvious, we have a right to know who a supporter or opponent are and who gives them money and what they spend it on. These folks must be scared to stand up for what they believe in publicly. If you come across them try to find out who they are or represent or get a license number. I'll file a complaint with the State.

That's it for now. If I get more information on the flyer I'll share it with you here.

Let's take time this weekend to remember all of our fallen veterans who gave of themselves so we could have these debates. God Bless them.

Have a great Memorial Day.

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Thursday May 22

It's getting closer and closer. This week we have seen a lot of support from people receiving our flyers. Donations have been coming in and folks are definitley aware of the vote coming up. The only things I've seen or heard about other than our own activities is a cutesy little "no opinion" flyer from WRIG, Laurie Hunts group, an offshoot of the PTO. They were the ones that packed Town Meeting under the guise of "get out the vote", in cooperation with the teachers union, and then offered up the amendment that put the whole budget out of whack.

So, not much opposition to us. I suppose the real opposition will be when the override attempt comes.

For now, we just have to concentrate on getting out the vote. Let's not be complacent and figure it is a done deal. Hamilton recently passed an override by 37 votes......so every vote counts.

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Sunday May 18

Time is running out. The election is in 9 days now, with Memorial Day in between. We were uptown yesterday holding vote no signs and passing out flyers for a couple of hours. We were very well received, and a lot of support. Some of our folks have been out in the neighborhoods passing out and leaving flyers. I've only had two people call and express their anger at getting them. Some of them seem to get very upset when you disagree with them.

We will be out Friday morning Saturday morning and early morning on Tuesday election day, with our signs. If you can help out fire me off an email and let me know.

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