Election 2009 one more time

I would like to clarify two aspects of the Saturday, May 30^th Daily News story “Race for mayor heats up” which may have caused confusion about my intentions in the upcoming municipal election. Two little things....

1) The second sentence says, “City Councilor Ed Cameron said he will run for mayor.” Substitute the word “may” for “will” and the sentence would be accurate.

2) I took out nomination papers for Mayor, At-Large Councillor, and Ward 4 Councillor. There is no office of “Ward 4 councilor-at-large.” Somewhere along the line at the Daily News someone probably took out a comma or 'and' between Ward 4 and councilor-at-large.

I am quoted accurately at the end of the article, “As of today, I'm planning on running for re-election as Ward 4 Councilor. But with the possibility of a vacancy in the mayor's office and the impact that might have on all the races, I am interested in keeping my options open.”

Newburyport Election 2009

As of today, I'm planning on running for re-election as Ward 4 Councillor. But with the possibility of a vacancy in the Mayor's office and the impact that might have on all the races, I am interested in keeping my options open.

On Tuesday May 26, I pulled nomination papers for three offices: Ward 4 Councillor, Councillor-At-Large, and Mayor.

Signatures need to be submitted at the end of July, so I'll make a decision as we get closer to that time.

I hope more candidates step up to run for all the races--Mayor, Council At-Large and Ward, and School Committee--as well as get involved in the on-going Charter Review effort. More involvement in the political process is going to make our community stronger.

Ed Cameron

Boards and Commissions

As a first term Councillor, one of the things that has impressed me is the expertise and commitment of the many volunteers who serve the City. There have been a few things that have depressed me but I'll leave that to another post. The work of volunteer Boards and Commissions is extremely important to the success of Newburyport.

Here's a list of City of Newburyport Boards and Commissions which can also be found at
http://www.cityofnewburyport.com/pdf/Board%20Commission%20Committee%20.PDF

ATKINSON COMMON COMMISSION

BOARD OF HEALTH

BOARD OF REGISTRARS

BOARD OF SEWER COMMISSIONERS

BOARD OF WATER COMMISSIONERS

CABLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE

CIVIC COMMISSION

COMMISSION FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

COMMUNITY PRESERVATION COMMITTEE

CONSERVATION COMMISSION

COUNCIL ON AGING BOARD

CULTURAL COUNCIL

EIGHT TOWNS AND THE BAY

HARBOR COMMISSION

HISTORICAL COMMISSION

LIBRARY BOARD OF DIRECTORS

LICENSING COMMISSION

MOSELEY WOODS COMMISSION

MUNICIPAL RETIREMENT BOARD

NEWBURYPORT HOUSING AUTHORITY

NEWBURYPORT REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

OPEN SPACE COMMITTEE

PARKS COMMISSION

PLANNING BOARD

POLICE-CITIZENS ADVISORY COUNCIL

SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE AND EDUCATION FUND COMMITTEE

STREET TREE COMMITTEE

TRUST FUND COMMISSION

WATERFRONT TRUST

YOUTH COMMISSION

ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS (ZBA)

The work is often quietly done behind the scenes, usually not covered by the press and usually with no audience.

In terms of recruitment, sometimes you'll see a notice in the Daily News or Current about an opening (the Harbor Commission recently posted an opening in the Daily News daily briefs), but most times the appointment process is behind the scenes. I'm not suggesting any malfeasance but I am suggesting that it's not a very efficient way to find the 'talent' that undoubtedly is out in the community.

Because these Boards and Commission often are dealing with the likes of developers with deep pockets filled with legal expertise and landfill operators with profit in their hearts, I think it best that we go into this in a very deliberate way.

I am suggesting two incremental changes to the way Newburyport does business which I think will foster improved civic involvement.

1) Open Recruitment
At the local level, Methuen has an application form http://www.cityofmethuen.net/legacy/Mayor/Assets/talent%20bank%20application%202006.pdf where the resident checks off their interests and attaches a resume.
We should do the same. This would be easy to track. As each application and attached resume is received, it could be logged in an Access database or Excel spreadsheet checking off the Boards and Commissions the person is interested in. Keep the application on file. Every time there's an opening, the Mayor could start with a pool of applicants already on hand.

2) More Transparency
The City of Salem doesn't have its recruitment process on-line but they do have the Boards and Commissions listed with meeting dates and a link to each entity here. Click on a link and you get that Board's member list, minutes and agendas.
We should establish a Boards and Commissions link on the homepage of the City's website (http://cityofnewburyport.com/). The Boards and Commissions page would include a general application form, the list of Boards and Commissions, and members and dates of term --- as well as links to minutes. Right now you can find information on the City's Boards and Commissions but it's a hunt. The website has been much improved in the last year and centralizing this information would be a great next step.

Here's how the State is opening up the appointment process.

http://appointments.state.ma.us/

Here's some commentary on Blue Mass Group at http://bluemassgroup.com/diary/15714/governor-patrick-launches-boards-and-commissions-website:

This new website may seem like a little thing. It's not -- actually, I think it's potentially huge. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of boards and commissions set up under state law. Most of them are unpaid, but many of them have direct influence over important areas of state policy. You can have real impact by serving on these things -- in fact, short of running for office, it might be your best way of doing that.

The State is tracking the openings in a fairly sophisticated way-- hey, they've got more money and more positions to track.

I think we should take the cue from the State and other communities and improve this very important volunteer element of our local government.

Councillor Ed Cameron

Senior Center Building Committee, Thursday, May 21

The Senior Center Building Committee is hosting a meeting for public input on Thursday, May 21 at 6:30PM at the Newburyport Public Library. Based on feedback from the public input meeting in April, the Committee will present ideas for the Senior Center at Cushing Park. For more information, please contact co-chairs Councillor Ed Cameron (at edcameronNBPT@gmail.com) and Councillor Brian Derrivan (at derrivan@comcast.net).

State rep to council: Stop playing to the cameras

Okay, I fudged the Eagle Tribune headline which is really "State rep to Haverhill council: Stop playing to the cameras."

http://www.eagletribune.com/archivesearch/local_story_117022959.html

State Rep. Harriett Stanley said city councilors should stop playing to the TV cameras and start doing their part to solve the city's budget problems.

She also said city leaders are responsible for creating Haverhill's $7 million annual debt on the old city-owned Hale Hospital because they all but gave it away to a private company.

Stanley was responding to criticism from the council about Haverhill's Statehouse delegation at last week's meeting, televised on local cable TV. Comments from the council criticized the legislators for failing to bring Haverhill enough help in these trying economic times.

"The city councilors got the story they wanted and they expressed their frustration, but the way to deal with this is to knuckle down, work, and do it away from the TV cameras — where nothing has ever been solved," said Stanley, who along with Reps. Brian Dempsey, Barbara L'Italien and Sen. Steven Baddour make up Haverhill's legislative team. "The way to get this resolved is not to put on a show for the TV cameras."

I guess the moral of the story is NBPT isn't the only community in a financial pinch (duh!).

Check out the comments! Their Council meetings sound even more interesting than ours.

Waterfront Site Must Open To Public

"A renewed commitment on their part is necessary to open this site up to the general public, in a way that provides a public benefit for the city, its residents and our visitors," Glenn Haas, assistant commissioner of the [Dept. of Environmental Protection], said in a statement.
---Boston Globe, May 13, 2009

For one second this morning, I thought the Globe was covering my Council colleague and Chapter 91 advocate Larry McCavitt, but the story was about the Boston waterfront, not Newburyport's.

Worth a read: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/13/waterfront_site_must_open_to_public/

Anna Jaques Hospital Signage

Dear Ward 4 Neighbor:

The City Council's Public Safety Committee will meet on Thursday, May 7 at 4:30PM at City Hall to discuss an Order re Anna Jaques Hospital (AJH) directional signage. I wanted you to know about the meeting and also ask for any feedback from you in terms of the signage locations.

There are a variety of reasons to access the Hospital: patients needing to go to an appointment, patients rushing for an emergency situation, staff going to work, ambulances in a hurry, and delivery vehicles.

Since the Access Road opened, the Hospital has worked with its vendors on delivery routes. While an emergency obviously requires the quickest route, the Hospital has worked with Ambulance services to minimize local impact.

In February, I sponsored two Orders to increase usage of the Access Road off Low Street, designed to reduce reliance on the narrow residential streets such as Hunter Drive, Rawson Avenue, Lafayette Street, Arlington Street, and Highland Avenue.

The Council passed the first Order which simply removed signage on Low St/Hunter Drive and put a sign across from the Access Road on Low Street.

At the same time a more complicated Order on overall Hospital signage across the City was referred to the Council's Public Safety Committee. This is the Committee which deals with traffic issues. I've inserted the language of that Order at the bottom.

This second Order removes and adds signs to direct routine patient and staff traffic to Low Street and the Access Road. In other words, if you're coming to AJH from Route 95, you'll be directed down Low Street at Storey Ave. If you're coming to AJH from the Chain Bridge, you'll be directed around to Low Street via Storey Ave. If you're coming to AJH from Rt. 1, you'll be directed to Low Street.

That said, I'm also in favor of retaining the signage on High Street at the base of Rawson Ave. If you're coming to AJH from High Street (ie North End) area, I think it makes sense for people to go up Rawson, especially in the event of a more immediate need, rather than route them all the way around to Low Street. The bottom line is that Rawson will still have much less traffic than it has in the past.

In Committee at the meeting this Thursday, there will be an opportunity to make any changes/removals/additions to this overall list. The most likely scenario is that this will be worked on in Committee, then brought back to the full Council.

Again please let me know if you have any feedback or any questions.

Thank you,

Ed Cameron
Ward 4 City Councillor
edcameronNBPT@gmail.com

Be It Hereby Ordered, That pursuant to Code Section 13-46 Placement of Devices the City Council is hereby authorized and required to place and maintain all official traffic signs, markings and safety zones and, more specifically, order and state as follows:

Remove current Hospital directional signage from intersection of Toppans Lane and Highland Avenue.

Remove current Hospital directional signage from High Street in front of Atkinson Common.

Remove current Hospital directional signage from Carey Avenue at intersection of High Street and Carey Avenue.

Add Hospital directional signage in two places to Route 1 Rotary under two existing Route 1 North signs.

Add Hospital directional signage at intersection of Pond Street and High Street under existing Route 1 sign.

Add Hospital directional signage at Northwest corner of intersection of Low Street, Route 1, and Pond Street. Signage would face towards Pond Street.

Add Hospital directional signage at North side of Low Street opposite Graf Road. Signage would face towards Graf Road.

Add Hospital directional signage (double-sided) on Storey Ave at Southern corner of intersection of Storey Avenue and Low Street. Signage would point down Low Street.

Add Hospital directional signage on Spofford Street near Moseley Woods. Signage would point South down Spofford Street.

Add Hospital directional signage on Ferry Road at Southwest corner of intersection of Ferry Road and Noble Street. Signage would point down Noble Street.

Add Hospital directional signage on Southern side of Storey Avenue opposite intersection of Storey Avenue and Noble Street. Signage would point West down Storey Avenue

Change direction of current Hospital directional signage at Northeast corner of intersection of Toppans Lane and Low Street to point straight.

Everything You Wanted to Know about Educational Stimulus*

* But were afraid to ask...

Do you think people were using the word "stimulus" in FDR's first 100 days?

Heard this on NPR the other day--lots of anger over teacher layoffs, budget cuts, federal stimulus. It's about Los Angeles not Newburyport, but we've definitely got some angst going on here as well.

I've been hearing from parents about their concerns for school funding and how the Federal stimulus money could and should complement our State and local resources.

I get the little picture since my wife and I have a child in the public schools. But since the mainstream media has been virtually useless on this --- and I haven't found a live knowledgeable human who speaks slowly enough for me to understand --- I did some research to try to understand the big picture.

So consider this my own first stab at comprehension. As someone once said, "If it's not deadly dull, it's not important."

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is the entire Federal stimulus bill. The Federal education stimulus chunk of ARRA is described here with the Dept of Education's recovery site.

A frequent theme for all the stimulus funding through the various Federal agencies is avoid the
' funding cliff' effect:

"Invest one-time ARRA funds thoughtfully to minimize the "funding cliff." ARRA represents a historic infusion of funds that is expected to be temporary. Depending on the program, these funds are available for only two to three years. These funds should be invested in ways that do not result in unsustainable continuing commitments after the funding expires."

The overall Massachusetts State guidelines on ARRA for Early Ed, K-12 and Higher Ed are here with a description of the various pots of money: State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, Child Care and Development Block Grant, Head Start and Early Head Start, Title I, IDEA Part B Grants to States, and a whole bunch of other funds. And this site is really the best source of updates http://www.doe.mass.edu/arra/

We in Newburyport will get approx $70K in Title I funding. Since we've never gotten much money from Title I and it's a Federal formula and we're not a poor community, I don't think that was a big surprise. The Governor's press release on Title I is here http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3pressrelease&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Agov3&b=pressrelease&f=090409_Title_I&csid=Agov3

We are getting $300K or so for IDEA for special ed which is here http://finance1.doe.mass.edu/chapter70/chapter_10_ARRAfund.html

The big possibility for us is the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund totalling $813 Million.

To understand this pot of money, you first need to remember how the State funds local schools. I quote here from this website http://finance1.doe.mass.edu/chapter70/chapter_cal.pdf :

"In Massachusetts, the definition of an adequate spending level for a school district is called its “foundation budget.” It is a statistical measure that was developed by a group of superintendents and an economist in the early 1990’s. They developed a “model school budget” which quantified “for the average school district what constitutes an adequate—but not excessive—level of funding1.” The goal of the Chapter 70 formula is to ensure that every district has sufficient resources to meet its foundation budget spending level, through an equitable combination of local property taxes and state aid."

The Governor made an announcement two weeks or so ago about the first allocation of $168 Million to elementary and secondary education basically to get each district up to foundation (with another $162 Million out of the same pot for Higher Ed). You can find an excel of the calculations here and click on the excel symbol which says "State Fiscal Stabilization Fund Calculations." Here's the explanation for those calculations:

Under the Chapter 70 formula, the foundation budget is the minimum level of funding that needs to be provided to each district. Normally this is provided by a combination of local funding and Chapter 70 state aid. Because of the need to level fund Chapter 70 state aid in the Governor's FY10 budget proposal, total funding for some districts fell short of the foundation budget target. These districts received extra funds from the federal stabilization grant to reach the foundation budget target. Those districts that did not receive federal stabilization funds are already receiving enough state funding to reach the foundation budget target.

Despite the incongruities of Newburyport getting zero, Wellesley getting over $1 Million, and the fact that we may not like the outcomes, there is a logic to it. With some exceptions, the communities that did get this first wave of money makes some sense if you go over the excel.

My public school math tells me that there is still another almost $470 Million left in the $813 Million pot. We know some will go to Higher Ed for sure, but this is where the letter writing needs to come in.

Our School Committee is recommending letters like this below. Snail mail to elected officials is the way to go and a follow up phone call doesn't hurt.

Dear Governor Patrick: As a parent I want to thank you for the support and priority you have given to education in the Commonwealth. Your recent allocation of $165 million to schools in some communities, based on the flawed chapter 70 formula has caused angst and concern in our community. We respectfully request that the Chapter 70 formula not be used in further allocation of ARRA/ESE funds. All communities deserve to receive assistance under Stabilization. Newburyport has suffered greatly over the past 8 years, facing budget cutbacks and limitations which have cut programs and eliminated over 50 teaching postions. We have recently adopted a five year plan to rebuild the performance of our schools, and our recent progress is at risk if additional state aid is not secured to weather the current economic downturn. Thank-you for your consideration You can reach the Governor at: Office of the Governor State House, Room 360 Boston, MA 02133 617.725.4005 Mass.Gov@state.ma.us

You should also copy: Senator Steven Baddour State House, Boston, MA 02133 Steven.Baddour@state.ma.us Representative Michael Costello State House, Boston, MA 02133 Rep.MichaelCostello@Hou.State.MA.US SenatorRobert O' Leary,Co-chair Joint Committe on Education State House, Boston, MA 02133 Robert.O'leary@state.ma.us Senator Marc Pacheco, Co-Chair of Federal Stimulus Oversight State House, Boston, MA 02133 Marc.Pacheco@state.ma.us Senator Steven Panagiotakos, Senate Committee on Ways and Means State House, Boston, MA 02133 Steven.Panagiotakos@state.ma.us Representative Martha M. Walz , Co-Chair Joint Committee on Education State House, Boston, MA 02133 Rep.MartyWalz@Hous.State.MA.US Representative David E. Linsky, Co-Chair of Federal Stimulus Oversight State House, Boston, MA 02133 Rep.DavidLinsky@Hous.State.MA.US Representative Charles Murphy, House Committee on Ways and Means State House, Boston, MA 02133 Rep.CharlesMurphy@hwm.state.ma.us

So keep writing to the Governor, bugging Mike Costello and Steve Baddour, and don't let your local City officials off the hook either.

Good luck to us all.

Ed Cameron

Comma or Semi-Colon

I got into a discussion with a coworker yesterday about the semi-colon.

He had asked me to double check a letter he was writing to an elected official.

I said, "I don't think you should use a comma here. Use a semi-colon or else make it two sentences."

I couldn't give an eloquent reason for the use of the semi-colon other than I recalled "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and Wagnalls. He had no idea what I was talking about. Maybe being 17 years younger than me has something to do with it.

Anyways, turns out the guide by Strunk and White (hey I was pretty close) turned 50.

For all intensive purposes, this is worth a read:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103169900

Senior Center Public Input Meeting

The Senior Center Building Committee is hosting a meeting for public input on Tuesday, April 28 at 6:30PM at the Newburyport Public Library. Working with Court Street Architects, the Committee is looking at several options for the Senior Center at Cushing Park. For the ultimate design to be successful for the entire community, the Committee needs input from seniors, neighbors, and all citizens. For more information, please contact co-chairs Councillor Ed Cameron (at edcameronNBPT@gmail.com) and Councillor Brian Derrivan (at derrivan@comcast.net).

Waste Water Treatment Facility

The Council approved a $26.4 Million bond order on Monday night for improvements to our Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF). The Daily News story is here and Gillian Swart has posted extensively on her blog here. The comments section in the Daily News article is especially interesting;-).

I used to call it a sewer plant but if you sit through enough presentations and read enough reports eventually WWTF starts to sink in.

This has been an interesting discussion in terms of capabilities, discharge standards, location, new versus proven technologies, and renovation versus a new plant.

A recent presentation by the Sewer Commission to the City Council is here.

There have been basically 4 options for the Sewer Commission, the Council, and ratepayers:

• Option 1: the $26M renovation, no bells, no whistles, does essentially what it's doing now with better odor control (avg annual additional cost to a residential rate payer is $133)
• Option 2: the $40M basic renovation plus additional structural and equipment improvements (avg annual additional cost to a residential rate payer is $202)
• Option 3: the $89M new plant relocated to who-knows-where (avg annual additional cost to a residential rate payer is $452)
• Option 4: the $42M No Action Plan, fingers crossed, pay for components as they breakdown (avg annual additional cost to a residential rate payer is $192)

My comment at the Council meeting about the "rate being reasonable" was a comparison of $133 to $202, $452, and $192. I wasn't comparing $133 to zero.

I'm not happy about a rate increase either but that's the rationale for it.