Saving the 62%.
By Jim Conley • November 27th, 2006 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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Each year as the Brookline Municipal Budget is introduced, the Selectmen get all hopped up over their success at having, “balanced the budget without the need for layoffs.” It always feels like saving town employees from the budget axe is more than a matter of noblesse oblige to the Selectmen.
I had figured that most of these employees lived in Brookline and to impose layoffs presented a Faustian choice of sorts. Were most employees residents, politics would have to trump policy, with the resulting tilt toward guaranteed employment.
So imagine my surprise to be told - upon requesting data from Town Administrator Richard Kelliher - that only 38% (421 of 1,111) of the Town’s public workforce (excluding schools) actually lives in Brookline. I know there are lots of reasons why this is so.
What I can’t figure out is why our Selectmen think budget success is measured by employment for a non-resident 62%, instead of tax relief for the 100% of residents who elected them.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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I’d like to hear from the 62% why they choose not to live in Brookline. Boston has had a policy, formal, I think, requiring city employees to reside in Boston. I wonder if Brookline had a similar policy whether the 62% might be tempted to blow the whistle on things happening, or not happening, in Town Hall. We know that perhaps a major reason for some of the 62% relates to lack of affordable housing in town. But some of the 62% may have other reasons for not residing in Brookline that may relate to the political climate in town. I wonder if the town ever conducted a poll of its workers regarding residency. I wonder if the residential disparity may be related to salaries. 62% is a large portion of the work force. How does Brookline compare to Cambridge, Newton, Quincy, Somerville, Dedham, etc? Should residents of Brookline be concerned with this residential disparity? “I don’t mind working in Brookline but I wouln’t want to live there because: ___________________.” Let’s hear it from some of the 62%. Do our Selectmen share my curiousity?
You wanted to know so here is my answer: My family has lived in and served the Town of Brookline since the late 1800’s. We have been your fire fighters, police officers, DPW employees, teachers, coaches, commissioners and elected officials. We even have one or two buildings named after us. We grew up believing that the noblest profession is to serve your community and neighbors. However as the cost of housing in Brookline far outpaces wages in the public and private sector, my generation is finding it harder and harder to continue this tradition. If I could afford to live in Brookline I would move here is heart beat! However until that happens I will continue to serve Brookline residents to the best of my ability and save my pennies so that I can one day return to the place my family has called home since the 19th century.