 I'm Michelle Marino, and welcome to ACMI's election coverage of the 2014 Selectman Debate. I'd like to thank all of the candidates for joining us here in studio, and we're going to jump right in to candidate opening statements. We'll begin with Ms. Mahan. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you, ACMI. Thank you, Arlington, for watching us here tonight. My name is Diane Mahan, and I'm a candidate for reelection to the Arlington Board of Selectmen. Nearly 15 years ago, I began a successful candidacy to join the then colleague on the Board of Selectmen. And I remember back then I ran with great passion and enthusiasm because I really wanted to serve the town of Arlington this way. I don't consider a job. I can't believe 15 years have gone by, but I really do love what I do. I love serving the residents of the town. I love the town of Arlington. And I love the challenges that are faced before us, as well as bringing people together and getting you the public to participate. And I respectfully request that if you so feel that I'm doing a good job to return me to office on Saturday, April 14th, so I can continue on doing what I love and hopefully doing it as well as I have been for the past 15 years. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Thank you. Hello. My name is Diane Dunn. I'm running for reelection to the Board, and I'm asking for your support on Election Day on April 5th, so that I can continue to support this wonderful community. When I ran for office three years ago, we were facing a significant budget crisis. The first promise I made was to try to solve that crisis by putting together a long-term plan. I'm happy to say that we were able to do that, and three years later, that plan looks like it's going to last longer than three and maybe even seven years. I worked with my colleagues, and we worked together to develop a plan to help put, excuse me, to solidify Arlington's footings. I'm proud of my last three years and not just because of our financial situation. I've helped the town's education by supporting it and supporting it financially. I've helped drive investment in technology in the town, and I've helped improve the quality of life in Arlington, from parking to public art. I'm running for reelection because there's still plenty of work to be done. I hope you'll agree that I'm the right person to help lead Arlington for the next three years. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Tosi. Thank you. I'm Bob Tosi, and I'm seeking to be your voice on the Arlington Board of Selectment. When I was a sixth grade student at the Locke Elementary School, it was being closed due to declining student enrollment, so I joined other neighborhood school advocates and held signs and protests around Arlington Town Hall that read, Don't Locke the Locke. This was my first time to take a stand on an issue that I was passionate about. I'm a lifelong resident and graduate of Arlington Public School System. Arlington has given me so much, and I strive to continually give back. I have an extensive record of service to the Arlington community, including 27 years on Arlington Town Meeting, 12 years on the Finance Committee, and nine years on the Council on Aging Board, where I served three years as Chairman. I care across generations as I have supported the renovations of all seven elementary schools and the long overdue renovations of Arlington High School, as well as being a leader on senior issues. I enjoy meeting my fellow citizens, and I'm open and available to hear your issues. Thank you. Thank you all very much. We're going to move to question one, and we'll begin with Mr. Dunn. What is the primary mission of the Board of Selectmen, and tell us how you would contribute to that mission? I think that the mission of the Board of Selectmen is to be the leaders for the town. Town meeting has most of the power in town, and I love the town meeting form of government, and I think that what we have in Arlington and our town meeting is a really powerful thing. It helps build our community. It helps us, it helps make us who we are. But you also need a set of people who are going to set the tone for the town. I think that one of the really important things is we have a town of volunteers, and you need, as a selectman, to encourage more volunteers, to make it easy for volunteers. And that involves, and of course, the technical ways you do that are things like you hire the town manager. While I was on the Board, we hired Adam Chapter Lane, and I think Adam's done a fantastic job. And one of the things you have to make sure is you have to make sure that you choose someone who's going to help the town employees, help the rest of the town. So I think that the way that we work together as volunteers and public employees is, like I think that those are the leaders, that is the leadership that the Board of Selectmen has to demonstrate. Mr. Tozi, you have 30 seconds. Yes, thank you. While the selectman's office is the executive branch of the town of Arlington, I have been proud to serve on the legislative branch through town meeting, through the equivalent of the houseways and means on the finance committee. But the selectman's office is to, members are to lead and set policies. And the best way to do that is by listening to the residents and working with them to do the best we can for the town of Arlington. Thank you. Ms. Mahan. Again, as has been stated before, being a member of the Board of Selectmen is basically to do the town's business. And I think one of the elements of being a good member of the Board of Selectmen is that we're there to listen. We're there to listen to constituents who come in. We're there to listen to employees who come in. We're also there to listen to issues that arise, as well as balance setting policies that will guide the town, as well as listening to all the interested voices that need to have a say in that process. Thank you. We're going to move to question two. And we will begin with Mr. Tozi. What role does community input play in determining the decisions you will make as a selectman? Community input is one of the on-marks of my campaign. No five members of the Board of the Selectmen will have all the answers. We have great expertise in this town. We need to tap into them. The Selectmen have the citizen-adviser committee through TAC for transportation. We should probably emulate that with other committees on other major issues that come before the town so we can best saddle that knowledge to come up with the best answer for the community. Community involvement is great in volunteers. In all facets of life in Allington, we couldn't do what we do in Allington without the community involvement we have. And we need to continue to foster that, maybe have a volunteer coordinator to help match up people better with opportunities that exist in Allington. Thank you. Ms. Mahan. I'd say sort of one of the forefronts cornerstones of my original candidacy and current candidacy is community activism. I started out as a neighborhood activist, a school activist when they were talking about closing Bracket in Paris and started friends of neighborhood schools. And I learned the benefits of getting everybody together, a like-minded body that really wanted to make Allington a better place, keep it the community that it is and help it to grow into the community that everybody wants it to be. So I'm very supportive of that. Mr. Dunn. I think that it's pretty obvious that you do need to listen to the community. And you should listen to the community even when you agree with them and you should listen when you disagree. Because there's very few decisions that you make that everyone agrees on. If everyone agreed, the decision would be made already. But I think you have to go the extra step to make sure that you're solicit the opinion. So for instance, when the town realized that it has an extra property on Mass Ave that it didn't realize. And we need to figure out how to repurpose that. I would suggest to the town manager that we put together a hearing process to bring in people to talk about what that Mass Ave property will be. Thank you. We're going to move to question three. And we'll begin with Ms. Mahan. Thank you. Structural deficit refers to the imbalance in revenues and town expenses. What are your strategies to address and resolve the structural deficit in Arlington? Well, it has been referenced before. We did have the most recent successful override where we had initially anticipated a certain number of years that it would carry us over. And hopefully it appears an additional two years will be added on to that. And that's mainly a large part to the town manager and his efforts. One of the areas that I've always tried to look at over the years is looking to our legislative delegation, looking to our funding formula, which I know Arlington's in the minority in the state house in terms of how our funding formula affects us. But one of the things I'd like to try to continue to do in the future, and I've done it in the past with getting lights on the warranty pierce field and the stands and the turf and other projects, is finding creative ways to go out after grants that really brings various people together and entities together that make us a successful bid. So what I'd like to do is try it on the town front but also look to our legislative delegation as well as the many grants that are out there, including grants for the future for sustainability. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Well, there is absolutely no way you can answer this question in 30 seconds. Just can't, way too many things to talk about. What I will say is that there isn't a single solution to the structural deficit. And in fact, I don't think you can in the near future resolve the structural deficit. You have to chip away at it from different directions. You have to look at ways to increase your revenue. You have to look at ways to control your costs, but you can't simply build your way out of it and you can't simply tax your way out of it. You have to try different solutions and use pieces of each one. Mr. Tazi. Thank you. Well, the previous Charlie Lions plan as was so called and the current multi-year financial plan both relied on overrides and cost containment. But we need to look beyond that because we can't keep going back before the voters. They've been very generous. And I know we do with the best we can but we need to continue to look for more efficiencies and possible joint efforts with other communities to save money mutually because it's not a problem unique to Allington. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to move to question four and we'll begin with Mr. Dunn. Name one accomplishment and one lesson you've learned in the past year and it can either be professional or personal. A lesson that I've learned in the... I guess the first thing that I'll say but I'll put them both together. And that is we had a series of hearings about alcohol licenses in town and we had a number of restaurants who had violated the town's law and it served people who were under 21. And those hearings were emotional and contentious and at least one of them I misheard one of the speakers and then you watch the tape or you hear about it from other people and you come back two weeks later and you realize that you simply you misunderstood and that there's a communication problem which is difficult sometimes emotionally when you're up there. And I came back to two weeks later and I said I realized my mistake and I apologized and we reversed part of our decision and I got a lot of really good feedback about that and I think that it was rewarding for me to see that the town appreciates someone who can acknowledge their own mistakes. Thank you, Mr. Tazi. Thank you. In the last year I had the privilege to serve on the Selectman's Volunteer Awards Committee and we got to recognize citizens of the town for their volunteer services and that was a privilege to be part of. It's so important to thank the residents for what they do. You can't thank people enough for that. As far as lessons learned, I hope if I'm elected the Board of Selectmen I will learn each and every day and if I do right things I want to hear it and when I do missteps I want to hear that too and learn from them. Thank you, Ms. Mahan. First after accomplishes in 30 seconds my accomplishment that I would point to again towards community and neighborhood activism the residents down at Sunnyside Ab. I've been working with them and our state legislators as well as DCR and the governor in terms of the Al-Waif Greenway which is a great benefit to the town but there were some mitigating factors that kind of fell through the loophole that successfully with the neighbors again organizing we got together. A lesson I'll say real quick and maybe we'll talk about it in the future is I'm learning right now about digital meeting management into the 21st century. Thank you. For the second segment we are going to allow the candidates to ask each other questions and we are going to begin with Mr. Tazi. You will be able to ask your fellow candidates a question and they'll have an opportunity to robot. All right, go ahead. Thank you. I will be advocating for a long-term planning for a community center to have a more appropriate place for our seniors, youth and all residents to gather together. I'm asking my fellow candidates are you in support of this initiative of mine and if not, why not? We're going to begin with Ms. Mahan. I wanna thank Mr. Tazi, Bob for raising that because the Allington Senior Center as well is providing more opportunities and places for our youth to gather are very important and they're really a testament to the town how we carry forward in that. As a coach at the high school, I can tell you I hear all the time from the students up there and in the middle school and I also do youth sports. They're always seeking something more. Where can we go? When are we gonna get a pool? Can we get a second rank? When I visited my friends at the senior association in terms of what they have over there, they're very grateful for it but there have been quite a few losses and cutbacks and some programs that the coordinator has come up with and some of the town employees that we just need the idea, the funding to move forward on and I'm hoping especially with the infrastructure with the senior association, the senior center, I would say senior association. There's also council on aging that that will be something that will be on our plate hopefully in the next three years if not sooner. Mr. Dunn, your answer. Thank you Bob. One thing I say is I'll never say yes or no without doing my homework first and I don't know enough about the proposal to really answer the yes or no but I can tell you the framework that I'll look at it in and the framework is looking at our capital plan and what we have to fund over the next several years and what we also have to fund outside of the capital plan because as we all know the Arlington High School needs a significant renovation. We have the Minuteman Vocational High School which is going to need some sort of investment over the next few years whether it's at Minuteman or some other location and we also have coming up because of our structural deficit we're gonna have to do an operational override at some point in the next few years and so I would be, I want to, whatever the details of the plan are I wanna evaluate that within the framework of those financial decisions we have to make. Mr. Tazi, you have a 30 second rebuttal. All right, good. Well, I'm glad to hear the support or at least consideration of such my proposal. Belmont built a new center recently while Lexington and Burlington both bought new buildings to better meet the needs of its residents. A community center would be a great resource to better accommodate thriving volunteer groups and promote intergenerational programs. Yes, I hear Dan's concern about the large capital expenses we're coming up forward. We dedicate 5% of our expenditures each year to capital expenditures and this should be part of that long-term plan. Thank you. Thank you all. We're going to move to the next question which will be asked by Ms. Mahan. Okay, it's sort of piggybacks on one of the previous questions I think yours Bob. If any of us are elected successfully to the board of selectmen, what major issue project do you see facing Arlington that you would sort of like to have a leadership role on? Mr. Dunn. I think I just outlined a few of them in my last question. I think that the financial questions that we've got coming up are really important. Separate, and so I'll just keep going on some other things that I worry about or think about and think about ways that we can do better. Technology is one of them. I continue to believe that as we invest in technology in the town, that is one of the ways that we control costs within the town. We can actually improve services to the town and save ourselves money at the same time. And when you can do that, that's just one of those, that's the silver bullet for managing the structural deficit. And so I point to the GIS mapping system that we've invested in in the last few years. And so with this mapping system and devices that town employees can walk around and enter into the mapping, when we had the microburst in 2012, we were marking down every single tree and every single piece of damage that was done, which meant that like a week later, we could be in the state house asking for reimbursement and we were also able to repair and recover much more quickly. Thank you, Mr. Tazi. Yes, as was mentioned earlier, the High School is desperate need of renovation or rebuild, it could threaten to lose its accreditation if we don't move forward. So I'd like to take a lead on educating the public on the different options that we'll have to explore the costs of rebuilding, the costs of renovation or a hybrid of both so that they know what it would cost to do either. It would take a town-wide debt exclusion vote to manage such a project. But the High School is something that affects all the public education of our students and it's something that we all need to get behind. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Mohan, you have a rebuttal of 30 seconds. 30 seconds, it's been stated before, but I can just tell you, having graduated from Arlington High School in 1980, I am walking the same halls as I did back then and being a coach, I've been in Greater Boston League, Dual County League, and now Middlesex League, and I've yet to find a high school that is in more disrepair than Arlington High is. So I definitely want to make that one of my goals as well as working to retain the good employees that we have, we realize savings through GIC, they're paying more for the health insurance. I'd like to give some back to them so we can keep them. Thank you. Mr. Dunn, your question. So when I ran three years ago, the thing that surprised me, I would say one of the things that surprised me the most when I took office was what fraction of time you spend on parking. Parking is really a complex issue because of residents and commercial and pedestrians and it's very, so I'm curious, what are the top two things that my friends up here would say they want to do differently? Mr. Tazi. Well, I hear Dan's concern, although I am sitting on the board, I do watch the meetings and it is an inordinate amount of time that's unfortunately spent on parking and there are so many issues, but when it affects you, the parking issue affects you, it affects your life each and every day because if you're looking for a place to park or you don't have a place to park or you're worried about a ticket, that's your daily life and that's all that you can focus on unfortunately. But the town did vote to not have off street parking at night and so that's something I want to continue and support behind and as far as the time you spend on it, well, we need to give each person and each person that comes before the board of select when they do time and handle it on a case by case basis and try to come up with a solution for them. Ms. Mahan. I agree, Dan, parking and dogs but we're not gonna talk about dogs right now, parking takes a great amount of our time and each situation pretty much is unique but also as my job as a professional court reporter, I also kind of think in the framework of policy protocol procedure. We do have policy and we do have procedures for people for not just overnight parking but also during the daytime parking. A lot of the merchants have spoken to me about, we want to increase business in Arlington, we want to get more businesses attracted to Arlington one of the major obstacles is finding parking to adjacent facilities that we can attract those big businesses. So while I think we have something set in place for overnight parking, it can always be fixed, the select men meet every year over the summer and talk about our policies and procedures but I think one of the other things that we have to spend some more time on is working with the businesses and the residents in terms of making sure we make Arlington attractive to people who want to come and shop here. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. I think the thing that I want to do most is follow through on the parking study that we commissioned. I was a passionate proponent and supporter and initiator of this parking study about what we're, and some of the recommendations that are coming out of it are very fascinating and they suggest ways that we can park smarter in Arlington through regulation and better signage and things like that. And so if reelected, one of my big things is going to be follow through on the recommendations of that report. Thank you. The candidates will now have a one minute closing statement and we'll begin with Mr. Tossi. Thank you. Arlington is a welcoming community and part of that is being open to differing points of view. After listening to the people of Arlington, I have learned that many do not feel their issues are given proper attention. I am dedicated to having a town of inclusion where we address citizens' issues and treat people with respect. As your select men, I will set that example. I can serve as a bridge between lifelong residents and newer citizens. I value the contributions and sacrifices of longtime Allingtonians while also welcoming and encouraging new ideas of more recent residents. I plan to bring my experience from all my volunteer work including the Allington Council on Aging and the Food Pantry to the discussions of the Board of Selectment. I am open and available to listen to your concerns and would welcome your ideas. If elected, I will continue to make myself available so that I can be a voice for all citizens you deserve to be heard. Share your thoughts on my website at bobtossi.com. I respectfully ask for your support and, most importantly, your vote on Saturday, April 5th. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Dunn. So, in this short debate, you can't cover everything that you'd like to. And I would say that the topic that I would have liked to have spent I wish we had a chance to spend more time on was education. I'm very proud of my support of education within Arlington. The multi-year plan that we built three years ago was centered around supporting and protecting education within the town. And in the budget the town meeting is going to be voting for in this coming spring, I helped fight for $890,000 in it to manage or to teach the students as we are going through unprecedented enrollment growth within the town. So that was the issue that I wanted to talk about probably that we didn't get to. I'm proud of the last three years. I'm proud of what I've done over the last three years. We have plenty of challenges coming forward in the next three years and I'm very excited to take them on. I hope that I've earned your support and I ask for your vote on April 5th so that we can continue to build on our success. Thank you, Ms. Mahan. Thank you Michelle for hosting this tonight and thank you ACMI and all the workers and volunteers that are here. And most importantly, thank you Arlington for listening to me and my colleagues, Bob and Dan as you can probably see, we all really want this job. I don't consider it a job. I really consider it a vocation. I was always raised to see what you can do to make yourself better, to make your neighbor better, to make your community better. When I first ran and you have to think of what your tagline is gonna be, my tagline was and has been because I care. I really do care. My number one job I feel is constituent services. I wanna bring the same energy and enthusiasm because I still have it from day one from 15 years ago to now. I consider it an honor and privilege. Each and every time I am elected to the board of selectmen because you're allowing me to do what I love to do. You're allowing me to help give back to the community that's given so much to me. And I respectfully request for one of your votes on Saturday, April 5th. Thank you so much. Thank you. And I'd like to thank you all for joining us here in studio for ACMI. I'm Michelle Marino and I encourage you all at home to get out and vote.