Great Moments in Municipal Leadership.
By Jim Conley • Jan 31st, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
Print This Post
• Email this author
Another Brookline Selectmen’s meeting, another sham.
Last evening, the Selectmen agreed to assemble a committee that would purportedly study the Town’s finances and determine the best course of action (i.e., cuts versus an over-ride) with respect to the Town’s budget woes.
Wait a minute, I thought that’s what we elected a board of selectmen to do. You know, study the Town’s finances and decide the best course of action.
Setting that aside, the jig was up when School Committee Chair Judy Meyers rose to support the committee’s charter as, “making recommendations to the Selectmen as to which (budget) items would be up for an over-ride.”
Look, if we have a system of government that can’t respond to the budget issues before them in a timely and decisive manner, then it’s time to throw in the towel and look at charter change. Or to find a group of selectmen that are up to the job.
Update: I have a sealed envelope with a list of people who I predict will be appointed to the selectmen’s over-ride committee. I’m willing to bet I get matches on at least half the names.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
Email this author | All posts by Jim Conley
A variation on a song comes to mind:
“Charter, Charter, Charter-Charter, Dig-Dig-Dig”
Man, I’m diggin’ a Charter Change! Let’s go to town, I mean, the city.
The “usual suspects” to be appointed to this committee? Once announced, it might be worthwhile to identify other committees, agencies, boards, etc, associated with our Town that they are part of. Such cross-referencing might reveal the cabal that has taken this Town down its treacherous financial path for so many years.
[...] Remember the funding crisis in the Brookline Public Schools of last month? Remember the $2 million deficit, mostly due to burgeoning special education costs? Remember the reductions in staff, medical benefits and classroom aides in response? Remember how this all served as proof of the need for a Proposition 2.5 over-ride to protect our schools? [see previous post] [...]