 I know. Yeah. Evening. Come on in and take your seats. Let's get rolling. Take your seats, please. Leading us on the piano this evening for the Star Spangled Banners for the Charles Gallagher. Mr. Gallagher? Thank you, Mr. Gallagher. If there are any precincts that have yet to organize, if you could do it this evening at the breaks, I know 16, 17, and 18 haven't, so they can definitely go out and try again. If any of the other precincts haven't not yet do it, please just assemble yourselves in the hallways where you were supposed to meet the first time, and let's get all organized. I don't know if you guys all like to come here Monday and Wednesday, but you can also now watch the town meeting on Video On Demand on actly.tv. So if you're at work, if you're at work and you want to kill an hour or two, you can just go to actly.tv and there's a button there somewhere to click in and watch it. Yes. Okay, bye-bye. Are there any town meeting members who have yet to be sworn in? Any new or re-elected? Ah, very good. Very good. Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully and impartially perform the duties incumbent upon me as a town meeting member of the town of Arlington in accordance with the bylaws, town manager act, and the general laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. So help me God. Thank you. Congratulations. I recognize the Chairman of the Board of Select, Minister Clarissa Rowe. Yes. It is moved that all the business of the meeting as set forth in the warrant for the annual town meeting is not disposed of at this session. When the meeting adjourns, it adjourns to May 9th, 2011 at 8 p.m. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? So moved. Are there any announcements or resolutions? You're going to give report. Okay. That's under the Board of Committees. Okay. Oh, yes, Ms. Howard. You're next. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Jane Howard, precinct 10 and co-chair of the Vision 2020 Standing Committee. I'd like to ask permission for Ryan Katowski of 534 Summer Street, a member of Sustainable Arlington, to address the town meeting. With an announcement. Yep, he can. Come on. Name and address for the record. Ryan Katowski, 534 Summer Street. Thank you, Jane. Good evening, everybody. I'm here to just give you a brief announcement about a program that Sustainable Arlington is working on. We're a member of Vision 2020. And I'm also a member of the town's energy working group. I'm here to talk to you about energy a little bit this evening. We are conducting an outreach campaign with the Massachusetts Climate Action Network. And the initiative is called Home Energy Check. And the campaign is to encourage town residents to get their free energy audits or energy checks at their homes. This is a program of Mass Save. And everybody is entitled to a free energy audit. We also have a goal of getting some of those people who get the energy checks done to do deeper energy retrofits such as insulating their homes. And why is this important? Home energy use is responsible for about one-third of our greenhouse gas emissions. And becoming more efficient at home is a very important way to help us address climate change. We also spend a lot on energy. The average household spends about $3,000 a year on heating and electricity. And if you add gasoline, they spend about $5,000 a year on energy. So it's quite a bit. So being efficient is a great way to save money and also make households less vulnerable when energy prices rise. So this project is being, the Energy Check project is being coordinated by the Mass Energy Consumers Alliance. And there's a website where you can go to sign up. It's www.homeenergycheck.org. And the reason I'm here tonight is we'd also like town meeting members to lead by example. And Sustainable Arlington has set a goal of getting one-third of town meeting members to sign up and get their free home energy checks. And to make that a little bit easier, we'll have people in the outside the room at the break who can sign you up there or you can go to the website. But we've created a little incentive for you this evening. For the first 50 of you who sign up, you get a free compact fluorescent light bulb or a free faucet aerator. And once you sign up, you'll be contacted by a company called Next Step Living. And they're the company that does the home energy checks. I just had mine done about a month ago and they did a fabulous job. So thank you very much and have a good meeting. Oh, yes. And the paper that I was looking at are at the back if you want a copy of the announcement. Thank you, sir. No, wait. You were going to give a committee report, right? We're not there yet. I'm sorry. Yep. Diane, you had an announcement? I just want to announce something I was involved with even before I was a selectman. And probably most of you already know this. This is Saturday, May 14th. A week from this Saturday is the Arlington Postal Carriers food drive. If you can leave any kind of food that you want to donate to the food pantry on Saturday, May 14th. When they come to deliver your mail, they'll take it. However, between now and May 14th, if you're going down to the post office on Court Square, they already have a collection receptacle. You're welcome to put it there. And especially as we all know here in town meeting, the food pantry, we can't speak enough about it. Many, many Arlington residents have benefited from it. So I just kind of wanted to... And someone will probably prompt you again next week about Saturday, May 14th. Leave it outside your door or if you're going to the post office between now and May 14th, bring it down and you can leave it in the collection bin there. Thank you. Do you want to give your commission report now? That's not a committee. It's a commission. We can take Article 3 if you want, Mr. Tosti. Okay. Say when. Move that Article 3 be taken from the table. All in favor? All in favor? All in favor. Opposed? Article 3 is off the table. Go ahead, Ms. Butler. Thank you. I'm Barbara Cutler. I was a town meeting member. I'm not anymore, but it's a nice badge, so I thought I'd wear it. And then you know my name. I've been on the commission now almost 18 years and the responsibility of the commission is to monitor and advise the town on issues of disability. It would help if I put my glasses on. I'm also from Precinct 15. Okay. The commission is limited to nine commissioners. We need one more, but the requirement is that it's a person with a disability or a special interest or profession in disability. I want to talk about first funding and inclusion and that we have been blessed with Jack Jones, our ADA coordinator and staff to the commission who has for years found minimal unofficial funding for small items, which was great. We have had John Bean on the commission and now we have the good luck to have Mike Radamaka on the commission. These are good choices for people concerned with access. For a number of years, we have applied for and received CDBG funding and to continue to need that money for curb cuts primarily. But that's kind of like a lottery. And that's all right. Money is money, but it still doesn't have the same feeling. As the money we got from the finance committee two years ago, they have given us more than small amounts, several thousand dollars, a few thousand dollars to help us in our work. This year, the capital budget committee has included curb cuts with $65,000 again, small, but that recognizes that handicapped access is an essential need in the town. This funding by both the finance committee and the capital budget committee includes us in a special way and gives us recognition and standing as an important part of the community. Like disability issues and special education, we feel we are now being fully included and brought into the fold. So we very much appreciate the recognition of our service to Arlington. In the past year, we have worked with recreation, Joe Connolly around portable toilets and accessible swings in our playgrounds. And our work includes a plan in place to bring swings that can be used by children with disabilities in every playground. It won't all happen at once. We also worked on a sponsored diversity job fair with Jane Howard and Mass Rehab Commission, Gray Games, held in this town hall for two years. 25 employers were here. The focus was on the disabled, but it was actually open to all. We submitted our CDBG annual application and continue to do that. We have presented key books on disability to the library, the Robbins Library. This is again thanks to the finance committee. We were able to hire Joan Darity two hours a week to help organize our office. We have many files. We have federal, state and non-governmental organization newsletters and issues. We have books on disability. This is a growing resource for Arlington. And again, we were able to do this because of the finance committee. We sponsored a regional forum for reps from 23 commissions, 23 towns, commissions on disability. We sponsor and attend the Mass Developmental Disabilities Council annually, their annual legislative day at the State House. We continue to work on curb-cut development until at least all of Arlington's main streets, areas around schools, and honoring any request from a disabled individual feeling they do not have adequate access around their homes or their jobs. Now, our needs are to continue the curb-cut plan. We need to acquire an accessible door for our meeting room, the commission office. Folks in wheelchairs have a tough time getting in. And on the first floor, the ground floor of the senior center building, as it's known, they have a handicapped access door, which is fine, but it kind of puts us to shame as a commission on disability. You have a tougher time getting into our office. We need to be kept informed of any lawsuits filed against the town on the basis of disability. This happened last year, and I think the law makes it clear that any activity like that, disability-related, we have standing in at least knowing about that matter and maybe participating. We need to continue to make Arlington more accessible and safer by replacing bricks. Now, you have a four-page handout on your chair, which I'm not going to read it. The meeting would be long over. But there's a picture of the bricks at the senior center. I think you know that people have fallen, elderly people have fallen there because of the bricks. And although we have asked, let's see, in 2006 we brought this to the town meeting, and the selectman agreed with us, and a policy was to follow. Well, it's five years later, and the policy is not in place. I think it's because there's some tendency to want to keep bricks. But bricks shift, buckle, change levels, develop spaces. They catch hold of wheelchairs. People who are blind can't walk over uneven ground very well. People like me who have neuropathy and lack of balance have trouble walking on bricks. So this is a serious concern. A couple minutes left, Mrs. Butler. What? A couple minutes left. Okay, but now I'm going to shift because you do have, and this is a question I have for you, Mr. Leone. I probably should have asked you earlier because I don't have the answer. The warrant article that we submitted is not the warrant article that was in the warrant. It has a different meaning. Once the warrants printed, that's it. I guess you'll have to take it up with the selectman during one of their meetings why the words were different. I sent them a letter on the 4th of April saying, this memo is intended to alert you to errors in the printing of warrant articles 40 and 41. And the letter goes on. You have that in your... Yes, but once the warrant is printed, that's what the town meeting is dealing with. You'll have to take it up with them in their meeting why your warrant article was different than I submitted. Well, I don't really care why. I feel that it is different. It is different. I'll agree with you from what you're telling me. It's different than... It is. The meaning is different. Okay. It sounds like statutory language where ours was clearly smoother surfaces. And that's the piece that's absent. Okay. So anyway, you all have that in your folder. The letter I wrote to the selectman and then the two different versions of the warrant articles. Okay. I think there needs to be a concern about people falling, especially elderly. I'm concerned about that. We have support from the senior center. The League of Women Voters is... What? Oh, sorry about that. The League of Women Voters also supports this article. And I understand that business owners are not in favor of BRICS. And there are many people who are concerned with safety. So this is an issue. This is an issue that will go on, especially when we meet in a building surrounded with corroding BRICS. We meet at the senior center and we have people in wheelchairs with canes and it's not a pretty sight. So in closing, I need to ask you as town meeting members, as Arlington residents, to do what you can to influence the selectman and the town manager who I understand from our council by general law, the ones that decide how public ways are structured. So in other words, it's up to you. You decide because if you bring pressure, something will happen. If it just goes by no action, simply rubber stamp, no action, then it will continue. So I think I've just about covered everything. I know. She's wrapping up, I'm hoping. Sorry. Oh, dear. You know, sometimes interruptions make it harder to close. I'm just looking here to see if there's any left out. Oh, yes. This is the last thing. The this was important. Jack Jones called me today to remind me that the commission unanimously supports the mess Avenue corridor project as presently designed, which includes smooth pathways and no brick sidewalks are crossing. The commission meets on the third. Wrap it up, please. Yeah, I'm just last sentence, please. I want to let people know when. Tell them. Come on. Tell them. All right. My last. You may or may not be interested. The commission meets on the third Wednesday of every month, room 203 20 Academy Street. Oh, four to six p.m. open to the public. And if you have an issue or if you want to support us in our work, I hope you will join us. Thank you. Thank you. You'll notice we got the timer back. It was a faulty power supply. Any other reports or committees or commissions? Tosti. Thank you, Miss Cutler. Move that article three be laid upon the table. Thank you. I'm town meeting members. We are going to with your permission postponed articles 38 and 39 on the perimeter and Crosby schools. During some of the title search for the perimeter school, some issues have arisen. We don't have all the information about what that entails. So we would like to postpone it until May 16 with your permission. All in favor postpone. Thank you. Thanks. Two thirds what we are postponed on 38 and 39. Thank you very much. The other thing we'd like to do tonight is take article 51 out of order. If it pleases the town meeting, the town moderator thinks that this is a very important article and the way the articles were coming up. This was heading for the second part of town meeting when we lose a lot of people. So with your permission we'd like to take up article 51 now. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Okay. All right. Thank you very much. One second, Miss Rowe. A lot of people are going to want to speak. So put your hand up and leave it there until I actually point at you. I mean everybody is going to want to talk. I want to be there with me to make sure I get the list. It's going to be quite long and everyone is going to be on it. So you can start while I point and shout. Article 51 is a 10 tax payer article. As you know the select man voted 5 to 0 in favor of the article. I just want to set the discussion. I've heard a lot of comment about this one article being a vendetta of the select man against other departments in the town. That is not the case. That is not our intention. Our intention is to put before town meeting an idea of possibly reorganizing part one part of the government. This is not something that's going to be done overnight or in the dark of back rooms. This is something that would happen over a period of one year. And would also be taken to the voters after the year. So there's a lot of misconception about this. But what I'd like to do now is introduce Alan Jones, who is warrant article it is. Thank you. Thank you Madam Chair. I'll sit here and watch this. Oh wait I didn't turn the timer on. So we're going to knock like two minutes off anyways. Sorry. Alan Jones precinct 14. I got you. I got you. I wanted to particularly thank Ms. McCutcheon for connecting this article to Roswell. It just points out there has been a lot of confusion about what this article is and what it isn't. Next slide. Exactly what it is. I want to make the intent of the article very clear. I believe that the financial departments in both the municipal and school government should be consolidated into a single comprehensive financial management department. Implementation can take two years or more starting with a one year study by a task force headed by the town manager followed by one or more proposals to be approved at next year's town meeting. The school committee needs to approve it and probe with the voters on a townwide ballot. So now I'll try to convince you to agree with me. What prompted me to submit this article? It's my experiences in the finance committee and the information technology advisory committee and in town meeting, a number of other committees that I've served on. Particularly while working on ITAC's study of how information technology was used around town it became clear that all the different financial departments were not working together as well as they could. We're working as together as well as they could. They weren't using the same software, data formats, reporting tools. I could see the chaotic results of my work in the finance committee. Initially I naively thought it was a technology problem since I'm a geek I figured technology will solve everything but what can we all just sit down and agree on what the spreadsheet formats were going to be, what databases were we going to use. But that was naive and it soon became apparent that working together wasn't a big priority. Found some turf wars and just simple inertia and cultural rigidity. So I figured it must be a management problem but then you look at the management and all the department heads are smart and dedicated to their jobs and really do have the best interests of the town in their hearts. Which leads me to believe it was an organizational problem. So what I found was a technology problem caused by a management problem caused by an organizational problem. But it also came clear that there were more problems than just not all using the same software it was much bigger than that. The fragmentation resorts and all sorts of other issues. So that's my motivation here is to fix that organizational problem. Why now? Certainly we should always be looking for ways to get government to work better faster and cheaper. Consolidation of the IT department under Mr. Good has been a great success and we voted Monday night to consolidate the Human Resources department for all the right reasons. I was expecting that the reorganization committee would make a recommendation just like this but when that didn't happen I decided to bring it to you myself. In these weeks when we're all making decisions about whether or not we should support an override it reminds me how important it is for our dollar handling to be as open and transparent as possible. We all like to believe our tax dollars are managed wisely. We all want to know exactly what's going on. We all want to know who to go to to ask the right questions. A lot of people have incorrectly assumed that this article is a direct result of last year's problem in the schools. But it's not. It's actually started last May when town meeting accepted the Massachusetts General Law which enables consolidation of town and school administrative functions. That said, I do believe that if we had had a consolidated department years ago that last year's problem wouldn't have happened. Today we have about five different major departments that manage our money. Some report to the Board of Selectments, some to the school committee, some directly to the voters. Some to the Selectment. The article doesn't say which one should be consolidated or how. Frankly, those decisions are above my pay grade. I want us to direct the professionals to put together a good plan that will work. A lot of problems are caused by fragmentation. Our money management is unnecessarily complicated by systems that just don't work together. Why in the 21st century people are wasting their time copying and pasting numbers from one incompatible format to another? I see this, I know this is what happens. Control C, Control V, Control C, Control V. It's crazy. Why do I have those budgets that are in the finance committee report I hand type all the numbers from pieces of paper into those spreadsheets. It's crazy. If we had a decent report writer and a database behind it that would work, it'd save a lot more time, certainly a lot of my time, but it'd be a lot more accurate and we could get a lot more information out, which is what should be important to you and all the taxpayers. Fragmentation results in a lot of duplication, wasted effort and time. There's no one at the top who can say, hey, let's all work together and fix this. Let's make this work, except you. And I don't buy the argument that positions who report directly to the voters are held to a higher level of accountability. I believe in the power of regular performance reviews. Consolidation will allow us to streamline operations, use common shared tools, have better communication, provide a more consistent reporting of plans and results that will make our money management more transparent. You'll always know which office to go to with your questions. Consolidated department will be able to support the combined customer base, all the departments of town with less work, freeing up the staff to do the kind of long-term planning and analysis that's recommended in Article 49. There'll be no question about who's ultimately responsible if there's a problem, and it will save us all money. With consolidation, we should have a balanced approach to town and school funding with better visibility. The impacts on both sides, no more throwing numbers over the wall that's between town hall and the sixth floor. Forecasting would be comprehensive, consistent and integrated. I want to be clear that I'm, nothing I'm proposing takes policy-making authority away from the school committee, the Board of Selectment and town meeting. A consolidated department would make sure that the fiscal priorities we all agree on as a town are executed and would never set those priorities. Finally, I don't think the school committee administration should be distracted from their educational mission by the never-ending but very legitimate questions about what fees are being used where, who's getting paid to do what and why their invoices don't get collected on time. Steps to get there. In 2000, last year, town meeting accepted Chapter 71, Section 37. First, we approve this article. We direct the town manager to lead a team to figure out where we should end up and how to get there. The actual mechanism is directed by Mass General Law, Chapter 71, Section 37M, which we accepted last year's town meeting, and which you see before you, and I highlighted the important words. Consolidate administrative functions including, not limited to financial, only upon a majority vote of both the school committee and the annual town meeting. The challenge of the manager's task force is to come up with a win-win-win situation for everyone affected or they'll be dead in the water. There's too many people who can beat on this. What are the benefits? 51 out of 55 comparable Massachusetts towns currently have appointed treasurers or CFOs. Mass Division of Local Services is actively promoting the transition away from elected financial management because it's a professional job, and not a political one. By taking it out of the political process, it allows us to look at a larger pool of applicants through a rigorous interview process. Once hired, the CFO would be subject to annual performance reviews and immediate resolution of problems. It makes the financial manager appear at all the other department heads, promotes cooperation and collaboration. Transitioning from elected to appointed, Division of Local Services, it's complicated, but the Division of Local Services has a technical assistance section which will help us do it. No cost to the town and one of the first tasks of the task force will be to engage them. Simply put, I ask you to support the Selecting and Recommended Vote in Article 51. Finally, David, I ask you, if we had a single, well-working financial management department, what in the world would induce you to split it up the way it is now? Thank you for listening. Thank you. Please. Mr. Gilligan. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Town Meeting Member Steven Gilligan, Town Treasurer. Town Meeting Member from Precinct 13. As a former member of the Board of Selectment, a current Town Meeting Member of 35 years and your current Treasurer, I believe I have a unique perspective of Article 51. I am deeply concerned that the intent of Article 51 and its proponents is to deprive the citizens of Arlington their current right to vote for their Board of Assessors and Treasurer while at the same time amassing control over all administrative and financial operations for the town. Make no mistake about Article 51. You cannot have independently elected Assessors and a Treasurer and have them report to a town chief financial officer. Arlington's systems of checks and balances has worked for well over 50 years and should not be discarded without the same careful and public scrutiny that resulted in the original Town Manager Act. The manner in which this warrant article has come before you is something that as a former Selectman deeply troubles me. Despite the fact that Article 51 is being presented to Town Meeting as a 10 registered voter article, it is clear that the guiding hand behind this article is the Board of Selectment and certain members of the Finance Committee. An honest and transparent approach would have been for the Board of Selectment and or the Finance Committee to have submitted this article under their authority rather than disguise it as a 10 registered voter article. The current wording of Article 51 that is before you is long on rhetoric and very short on substance. The proponents would have you believe that this article is nothing more than an administrative procedure to improve inefficient processes and eliminate duplication. Article 51 is anything but that. It is the latest attempt by the Board of Selectment and others to eliminate the independence of the Town Clerk, Treasurer, and Board of Assessors. Article 51 proponents are advocating the most fundamental change in Arlington's Town Government since the existing Town Manager Act was passed in 1952. The wording of the Board of Selectment's comments is a classic example of the sales maxim that when you don't have anything of substance to sell, sell an illusion. The illusion is that this thinly disguised power grab will actually fix something, improve efficiency, increase professionalism, or eventually reduce costs. The Board of Selectment comments supporting Article 51 begins with a plethora of buzzwords such as fragmentation, duplication, obscurity, complexity, and increased professionalism. None of these are anything more than the proponents' biased and unsubstantiated opinions about the current and future state of the Town's financial operations. Let me review some of the Board of Selectments and the proponents' buzzwords. Fragmentation. A great word to describe something dysfunctional. However, there are two major problems with the use of this word. The first is that it's left to one's imagination as to what exactly is fragmented. And second, more importantly, is that the current operating model for the Town's financial operations requires separation of duties and responsibilities, such as the comptroller not reporting to the Town Manager, the treasurer being independent, and the treasurer and comptroller being separate operations. Also, the school department's chief financial officer by state law only reports to the school superintendent. Duplication. Once again, the word is used with an inherently negative connotation for any business or organization. In this instance, it's important to ask what is duplicated, why it is being duplicated, and what is the cost of this so-called duplication. Dismantle barriers to best practices. What are the barriers and when and what best practices have been prevented for being implemented and by whom. Increased professionalism. This is a laudable goal, but the strong inference here is that someone, someone in the assessors, comptroller and or treasurer's staff is not professional. In many cases, the increase in an organization's professionalism is a result of a carefully analyzed, detailed analysis that results in an action plan, not an implementation plan, but an action plan that clearly defines what the goal is, what financial resource needs to be expended, and how to measure results. Article 51 clearly does not do this. The proponents of Article 51 attempt to link the logical but minor reorganization of the IT and human resources function with their proposal for a consolidated financial department. Their attempt fails for a number of reasons. The relative ease of the two consolidations of the IT and the human resources function pales in comparison to the magnitude of consolidating our financial functions as well as its actual impact on how our town government relates to the average citizen. A number of people have asked me the question, where are we headed with this? I believe that if Article 51 passes, we are headed towards a hybrid form of government, half town, half city. The consolidation of all administrative and financial power in the hands of a few is an oligarchy that was not the intention of our current Town Manager Act. A charter commission that would publicly and openly explore every element of our current government, review as many options as required, and come to a consensus as to the form of government that all of Arlington wants would be a more proper vehicle to initiate whatever changes the citizens of Arlington desire. I strongly urge Town Meeting to reject Article 51. Thank you, Mr. Moderator, and thank you Town Meeting. Thank you. We don't want to be clapped for everybody. You clap for Mr. Gill again and Mr. Jones. So I think we're done clapping. Mr. Romano? Maria Romano, Precinct 7. I am standing here in opposition to Article 51. I believe with all my intellect and deeply in my heart that democracy must be protected and held sacred. Within this democracy, we have a trust that the rights of citizens will be protected and treated with utmost respect. As a Town Meeting member, I need to express my concern and desire to hold Article 51 accountable to the residents of Arlington. The lack of documentation, objectivity, and unsupported opinions leads me to question the truthfulness of the various proponents as well as its ultimate goal. Article 51, in my opinion, does not protect our systems of checks and balances established by the Town Manager Act. The ultimate purpose of Article 51 is to eliminate certain elected positions, such as the Treasurer, elected Board of Assessors, and eventually the Town Clerk position, and to make them all appointed positions, all under the guise of reducing costs and increasing efficiency. I cannot with a clear conscience vote yes for Article 51. It helps to destroy the Town Manager Act which is an act of wisdom. If Article 51 passes, it will tilt the scale of power in our government and place much too much power in the hands of the Board of Selectment. We must protect Arlington residents against cronyism as much as possible. Remember, the Board of Selectment vote on the Open Town Clerk position last year. It was a favoritism at its worst. As Town Meeting members, we need to ensure that every warrant article that comes to this floor is not only researched and well thought out, but crystal clear in language and intent. Article 51 changes Arlington's form of governing without sufficient public review and appropriate analysis. Arlington 51 does not pass that test of clear language and clear intent. Is Article 51 simply a desire to gain power at the expense of democracy? I hope not. Arlington deserves better. You will probably hear tonight that Article 51 saves money. Does it? You will possibly hear of a sure-fire way the positions can be cut with no reduction in services. But we only have the biased opinions of those supporting this vague article. How do the proponents know this with certainty? Where is the data? And where is the objective analysis from within Arlington? In closing, I vote no on Article 51 and ask you do the same. And thank you for this time tonight. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Mr. Hanner? Mr. Hanner, do you have a hand up? Bill Hanna, precinct two. Town Meeting member and school committee member. First, I'd like to start off as the Town Meeting member. I'd like to draw your attention to the opening line of the article that the Town Meeting hereby indicates its support for a consolidated Town Finance Department and request the Town Manager to research. It's really one long sentence. I don't want to go the whole part. I want to differentiate that. A positive vote says we support it. Then it asks for research. Why is the need for that support up front? I ask for the research power. The issue of electing versus appointing. If I don't like Mr. Gilligan's job, I vote him out. If it's an appointed position, I have to take out three selectmen, a Town Manager, and maybe then I get the person I'm looking for. Second off, the proponent, third, I'm sorry, talked about qualifications. The current and past Town Treasurer have been the greatest thing we've had in this position and they were both elected. If there is a problem with it, Mr. Gilligan would not have gone unopposed this past election. Now I wear my school committee hat and it's my opinion only. The school committee, as a result of the 1993 Education Reform Act, were limited to three areas of province. One was supervising the superintendent. The other was writing policy for the school district. And the third is the budget. The budget. The budget is dealt with by the CFO. The proponents use the one town or one group in the entire Commonwealth that has a school department under this similar position and that's bond-stable. The proponents said that this is not related to the past issue of the past year. Interesting. Because as soon as I got elected, I was communicated with and the person in support of Article 51 indicated thought that I would support this based on my actions and the reasons that I ran. I did run. Part of it was the $1.5 million. That was one of the issues. The fact is that is an issue that belongs to the school department. If it is really still an issue, or it is not it is the school committee's province and responsibility to deal with that and no one else. I question whether that the CFO in the bond-stable thing is directly responsible to the town manager. I don't think that would work. I don't think it would pass muster. I'm not a practicing attorney. I cannot give a legal opinion on that. But it is the province of the school committee. I believe in separation of powers. It's a good check and balance. I reject Article 51 and I would ask your support to reject it also. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. Healy. Thank you, Mr. moderator. Michael Healy, precinct 13, town meeting member and former member of the Allington school committee for 15 years. Mr. moderator, with your permission, sir I'd like to speak for a couple of minutes and I don't think Mr. John would like to speak for a while if our former treasurer of the town is on the list and then I would like to give him the rest of my time if that's acceptable to you, sir. You can speak as long as you're within your 10 minutes introduce a citizen of the town. Thank you, Mr. moderator. I'm going to be brief, ladies and gentlemen. I know there's a lot of people that have to speak this evening. I don't even know where to begin. I am very concerned as a former elected official that the school committee is responsible for its budget. It's responsible for the people that work for it whether it be the CFO or the superintendent schools and that is by state law. That's the first thing. The second thing is that anytime we give up elected positions we have to really stop and think. There are many positions in the Commonwealth I beg your pardon. Many towns and communities in the Commonwealth that have many types of elected officials everything from a cemetery commission to a planning board an elected finance committee. I don't know about that but measure of wooden bark is beyond my purview. But there are many other elected positions. I think we should be increasing the number of elected positions not decreasing them. I would like to reserve the rest of my time to Mr. John Billefer former selectman and former treasurer of the town of Arlington. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your time. Mr. Billefer, is he in the hall? Come on up. That little clock there tells you how much time you have left. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for allowing me to speak on article 51. The timing of this article is interesting to me. It would seem that the proper time to consider an article of this magnitude would be when there is a retirement of the elected treasurer. And a committee was in fact appointed to consider this finance department question when I retired as an elected treasurer in 2005. All of the issues that are cited in the comments of the finance committee on this article were thoroughly aired in 2005 and the committee, I believe, voted unanimously to maintain the system of an elected treasurer. My opposition to an appointed finance director is the same this evening as it was in 2005. And for the 33 years I served as treasurer of the town. In my opinion, efficiency is not the issue here as the proponents of this article want you to believe. But rather the primary issue is the separation of power and the spreading out of control within Arlington's town government. The town of Arlington is a triple A rated community. The highest rating a municipality can achieve and a rating that can only be held by a man handful of Massachusetts communities. Arlington could not possibly have achieved a triple A rating if the credit agencies that issue such a rating determined that the elected treasurer was operating an inefficient department. An elected treasurer's primary goal is to maintain a high credit rating by focusing on such issues as the efficient collection of revenue, maintenance of adequate reserves, making sure Arlington's debt remains reasonable for community of our size and advocating for the funding of large liabilities such as pensions and health insurance, which if left unfunded will jeopardize Arlington's long-term financial future. I found during my time as treasurer that advocating for these issues oftentimes creates tension between the treasurer manager and the treasurer and the board of selectmen. This type of tension is the product of the separation of powers, doctor. I democratic form of government depends upon this type of tension among our elected and appointed officials. With all due respect to the town manager and the board of selectmen their focus is on issues that do not always coincide with those of an elected treasurer. And a finance director appointed by the town manager or appointed by the board of selectmen will more than likely share the focus of his or her employer. As a town's elected treasurer I always felt a direct responsibility to the people of Arlington to advocate for those issues that would keep our finances strong. I would like to thank Mr. Gilligan and all the elected treasurers that I have ever known in my 33 years in the office have shared and have shared this focus. Therefore I strongly urge you to defeat this article and maintain an elected treasurer. Thank you very much for listening to me. Thank you sir. Ms. LaCorte. You're not Ms. LaCorte. I'm Annie LaCorte. Town meeting member of precinct 15. I'm a strong supporter of article 51. I'm a strong supporter of article 51 for all of the reasons that I gave you when I spoke about the human resource department consolidation last time we met. From an organizational standpoint it makes sense for our financial operations to be consolidated in this way to facilitate an appropriate level of communication amongst the various people who work in these various departments. Yes, there was a financial reorganization committee in my first year on the board of select men which I chaired which came to the conclusion that we were not yet ready for a consolidated finance department for a variety of reasons. That doesn't close the door and it came for me at least at a point in time when I didn't have years of experience on the board of select men and I had not watched what I believe are the effects of the fragmentation of our system. And I've been on the board now for six years and I feel that we really need to do this. The treasurer and the CFO of the schools and the assessor's office and the comptroller's office the separation of powers amongst all of those offices are dictated by state law and any consolidation that we design will have to take into account the requirements of those state laws that maintain that sense of separation of powers. Someone will still have to report directly to the board of select men and be able to be a whistleblower within that department. The CFO will still have to be responsible for the schools for the preparation of a budget the school CFO. The policymaking boards will still be preparing the budgets which are the policy documents of the town that's the board of select men and the school committee. But the day to day financial operations will be handled by a consolidated department that will help to ensure that everyone is talking to everyone. As Alan said it's a positive move, not a negative one this is not about punishing people because there was a 1.5 million mistake last year but I don't see that 1.5 million mistake last year as anything other than a communications problem. People weren't responsible for talking to one another so they didn't and have we solved that problem? Well we followed all the recommendations of the MASBO report and powers and we've solved it for a while but we haven't necessarily solved it permanently. So I hope that you will give this article positive consideration. Really all we're asking you here for is your consensus to our making a plan. We can't actually change an elected to an appointed position even if that were part of the recommendation and we don't know that it would be part of the recommendation yet without putting it before the voters. Nobody is going to be stripped of their democratic rights here because we don't have the power to do that. We're going to have to put that issue should it be part of what is recommended on a ballot. But what we're hoping to get from town meeting I think is a sense of the meeting that you agree with us that it's important to look at this again for managerial reasons for transparency reasons for accountability reasons. I understand that the treasurer is up for reelection every three years but in between the treasurer is not required on any given occasion to appear before the public and say what he's doing and we haven't had a contested treasurer's race in this town except for one time in the entire 23 years that I have lived here. And the treasurer is a job that is a professional job. It's not a policy position and I believe that elected boards should be doing policy and the folks who are doing the day-to-day running of the town should be hired through the same hiring process that you or I receive our jobs based on experience and merit and so on and so forth. However, until we have worked through the division of local services and made a plan and decided exactly what would work best for Arlington, despite my belief I don't even know what we might recommend to the community as the best way to consolidate these functions. So I hope you will give us a positive vote. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Tremboli. Excuse me. At Tremboli precinct 19 I listen to the various articles, the various arguments being debated here and one thing sticks in my mind and that is that the school department seems to me has an appointed CFO which is sort of like the treasurer and in the school department and the treasurer of the school department has been kind of turmoil for a long time and it never seems to get straightened out and never quite figure out what's going on there, I mean with all the lawsuits and all the stuff going on but then so there's a lot of confusion there but then there's the treasurer's department where you go down and nobody's standing around, you go up to the window they have everything you need to know on the computer you pay the bill and you're done if you want to talk to Mr. Gilligan you can go in to talk to Mr. Gilligan and to me it doesn't seem like there's a problem with the treasurer's office and a couple of years ago there was a excise tax that I had to pay on some of my trucks didn't seem like it added up and they looked at it and said yeah that doesn't seem right, go talk to the assessor's office, you walk across the tall and talk to the assessor's office and the same thing the issue was resolved in a couple of minutes and it doesn't seem to me that either one of those departments is working badly and if there's an issue with filling out spreadsheets it seems like that would be a pretty easy thing to me despite what other people said it seems to me that you should be able to fix a problem with spreadsheets or some sort of minor communication issue like that without throwing the whole baby out with the bath water thank you Mr. Fitzgerald thank you Mr. Moderator Tom Fitzgerald precinct 11 I was first elected a town meeting member in 1972 I left for 39 years because I didn't like the way town meeting was run but I decided to come back because I wasn't happy, really happy the way it was run so you're stuck with me now and then this is officially in 40, almost 40 years is the first time I've ever spoken in front of a town meeting I look at the issue in a business way I say is there any malfeasance happening in the treasurer's office and I think the answer is no the bond rating as somebody I really respect Mr. Bill if I said couldn't be higher are there issues in the administration of the school department absolutely were people fired because of that I don't think so I don't think this is the way to correct it so I strongly urge you to vote against article 51 thank you Mr. Paluso for those of you who don't know me I never expected name it precinct my name is Ted Paluso we're precinct 6 very honestly I never thought I'd be standing up here in front of you I had no intention at all to never become a town reading member I'll try it for a year now if I'm out of order you just let me know but I find it very difficult not to give the impressions that I have of what's going on in this town I've lived here for two years I had 36 years as the managing partner of a major office of a major CPA firm with many many municipalities school districts and towns you count them as clients I had 7 years as both the chief financial officer and as a consultant doing all kinds of system studies for a city that had 55,000 people plus 250,000 visitors city of white planes in New York and I have to tell you the biggest problem in this town isn't whether you have an elected treasure or whether you have an appointed treasure the biggest problem in this town is your divisiveness I have frankly never seen a city or town where there is so much going on between various groups now how do you tackle that divisiveness you touch the little button that's not how you tackle it on the other hand maybe it is I can tell you right now after studying and looking at everything including the report that John billiford referred to and reading it in detail I can tell you right now at no charge that everything that everyone said yes, no maybe as to whether or not changes should be made are correct both of you are correct whether it's yes or no but it's the way you're going to go about it to change it I don't know if it's a town if it's a charter commission I don't know if it's having the town government reorganization which was Mr. Greeley's suggestion several months ago when this came up but that's the way it is so I don't know how I would vote on this but I have a feeling whichever way the vote is going to go you guys are going to wind up with more divisiveness so my recommendation to you is to try to find the way to improve what happens in this town I call it tearing down walls walls between school committees and town committees and I know that Massachusetts has great a great deal of rules and regulations but if you're going to come up with something that works you're going to have to find a way to do it in a cooperative fashion and unfortunately whether you say yes or no to number 51 I don't think you're going to accomplish it I think you're going to leave here unhappy either way when I see that the finance committee voted 9-7 in favor or maybe it was against I don't remember I find that an amazing commentary as to what that divisiveness is thank you sir Mr. Mann tell me any member and what a speaker to follow I just want to let you all know where I'm at in terms of this warrant article when it was presented it was the last Selectman's meeting that I chaired we had all the financial warrant articles four of them were articles that we anticipated or I anticipated could have possibly had a good our discussion on each I was told before the meeting that the financial warrant articles that the compromise had been reached on all four including article 51 the other three financial warrant articles some we've discussed one we haven't yet it seems that's the case on this one it's not what was presented to me and I'm speaking as an individual member of the board of Selectman and I'm also speaking to town meeting on how I voted what was presented to me that this was one of four financial articles that a compromise had been reached that the original purpose of the warrant article was not what the proponent was speaking and that all parties agreed that would include everybody including the treasurer and the school committee at that meeting that night I did ask is there anyone here to speak against this to say this was not a compromise that everybody agreed to also at that meeting I was told that this warrant article and I apologize to the proponent and anyone else who spoke to it that what we were going to do is just merely study the issue of town school finances anyone who had to sit through my long speeches last year the year before and the year before that know that I rose on sometimes town budgets sometimes school budgets I rose on audits I pushed like crazy for audits I was presented to town meeting I then represented the actual audit to town meeting everybody that I spoke to I went to the board spoke to my colleagues on the board of Selectman the town manager, my colleagues on the school committee budget revenue task force meeting members school superintendent everybody you could think of in terms of whether this is or is not about a school budget deficit some people opposed to me what I said is what you want Diane when you were for close to three years I've even filed a freedom of information request for the school budget which I still haven't gotten they said this article is your answer but it's the same people that I was speaking to before what I voted that night was a compromise that everybody agreed to I'm now hearing that's not the case what I voted that night was not to implement anything any elected official including myself unless you all abolish me which is your right to do thankfully you haven't done it yet and in terms of what I've heard tonight if someone might say to me well what is it Diane then if it's not this warrant article what do you want I would love to see what I originally voted for which is to have a study conducted and report back next year to town meeting the school committee and the finance committee on how we get a better handle someone mentioned whistleblower I blew that whistle so loud for two and a half years I don't know how else to do it so I'd like to see that study happen I don't see that in this warrant article until then powers in Sullivan has given the town and the school recommendations when they've come in including the audit from last year that even one of my colleagues blogged about all those recommendations have not been implemented I think if they were I'm not in the accounting I'm not a CPA I don't put myself out that way but if those general accounting procedures if both the town and the schools use munis which is the accounting software I'm told I know nothing about it if we both use that that would go a long way the other thing I'm hearing tonight I keep hearing confusion fragmentation duplication communication problems I agree with all that that's what this warrant article does for me I thought this warrant article and I'd like to see something in the future that is a study that comes back to town meeting to the Board of Selectmen to the school committee before then I would like to see the powers in Sullivan our outside auditors their corrections and suggestions so while I did support it that night it's not the warrant article that was presented to me I stand by supporting a warrant article or any other vehicle that studies the issue that we have at hand so that I'm not wasting town meetings time, budget and revenue task force time, finance committee school committee, Board of Selectmen and everybody else that I've been speaking to for the past two and a half years but right now the article 51 that I voted positive action for is not the article 51 recommended action that's before you, thank you the Board of Selectmen is what is presented to us that's what we're voting on well yeah the question has been asked is this warrant article in front of us what was presented to you for a vote yes is what was presented to me as a vote with the caveat that this is what everybody agreed to thank you I'm not hearing that now from people who came to the microphone I take it that she thought it was something else Mr. Fisher Andrew Fisher precinct 6 I would give anything to have been prepared for this because these are difficult issues Andrew Fisher precinct 6 in part I'm rising as your representative to the 2020 Standing Committee which meets every month for about nine months a year I think Arlington has been hurt by having so many essential positions out of the electoral recall if it were up to me the town manager and the planning department would be subject to electoral recall and if that were the case I don't think you would ever hear us being called naive which is incredibly disrespectful and that's what we were called during the Sims process or you have an emotional attachment syndrome because you have an emotional attachment to the hospital we presented fact after fact after fact to turn out to be right and instead of facts and figures we were given the professional statement it is market driven there are winners and losers in this game these are the types of statements that are made by people who don't have to worry about getting elected it's a raw ugly thing that I have to bring up here and I kind of wish that we faced you guys when we talk I don't like not looking at you when I say these things I wasn't at the meeting about Mass Ave I mean you say that everything will be professional but the truth is to be considered professional you have to have faith in the marketplace you have to believe in fiscal conservatism or you are just a rank juvenile radical or something that's really how it comes across there's a professional agenda that doesn't really consult with Arlington's interests I'm just giving examples of things that are parallel to this we could have been highly prepared for when the Brigham's came free and what turns out to be the drugstore because that property is adjacent to the high school and it has 11 acres supposed to have 30 acres a planning department that wasn't part of the metropolitan area team might have been 2-3 years ahead of time invested in what was going to happen to that property could it be a swimming pool underneath there but the agenda is a professional agenda that has to do with the team of where Arlington fits in to all these other towns where the town the ABC study which finishes up with a little bit of the market I was going to bring it when this came up we're the town that's to have 2 bedrooms Carlisle 2 acres and there's a myth that says the more real estate growth you have the better but a lot of the planning community their opinion is that new growth is always revenue neutral I would love the opportunity to vote out people that want higher and higher density for Arlington but the professional theory is that we should have ever higher density because that's really neat you get to work close to where you work and it's green my wife works in the Hancock building it's a good hours commute from here you can't get there from here so I don't know where these theories come from the end result is we live here there was a meeting here about Mass Ave I'm very supportive of the Mass Ave thing I'm told that a person from the metropolitan area planning commission explained how this has been done in Somerville and here and there and in 2030 everyone will be riding bikes and you're going to like it that's a type of statement that's made by someone who's not got to worry about being elected and we take it for granted I'm sorry but I'm tired to be and talk down to and that's what happens the idea that these policies are not political you got to be so ensconced in that attitude that you think it's not political it is political to say whatever we do it's got to be fiscally conservative fiscally conservative is a deeply philosophical thing the idea that we're each going to pay for our own load and not subsidize each other and I don't see that we have a vote voice I don't see where we have an opportunity to vote for that spirit or vote it out so I'm definitely against having yet another piece of the town put out of electoral reach you've got to look at the next 50 hundred years not the current two or three years that are aggravating thank you we're going to take our 10 minute break and we'll return at that 10 minutes sit down please Mr. McKinney where did you go Mr. McKinney you're on the floor Lawrence McKinney precinct 7 I urge this town meeting quiet please Mr. McKinney precinct 7 I would urge this meeting to stand in opposition to this article I speak from my own experience to the extent that having worked with those committees appointed by the selectmen I know that they are virtually unaccountable I have been involved with some committees where I've been wondering can you put the appointed people's resumes on view so we can see who was being appointed to these positions why but that's not possible as the chairman of a committee that was appointed by town meeting I have to report to you guys what we do but things that are appointed by the select people they report the select people you'll never find out I have seen what has been happening in our own treasurer's department it may not be the greatest in the whole wide world but it certainly does our town very well I've had wonderful experiences with the treasurer and his department and although I wish my house were assessed a little bit less I think we can go along with that but I respect the wisdom of this town what I say is if they're having problems make them all use quick books and have done with that part of it otherwise I respectfully let other people speak at this point I have very little more to say excepting that I hope that we will soundly reject this well meaning but ill proposition motion thank you miss Watson Jennifer Watson precinct 2 okay Jennifer Watson precinct 2 around the world around the world people are risking their lives for democracy we are being asked to give up a part of our democracy in the form of a step-by-step concentration of power away from the voters some things it makes sense to consolidate IT building maintenance other things are just a power grab we all know the greater the concentration of power the greater the probability of corruption Arlington has managed to avoid a lot of the corruption that occurs in cities and towns where they appoint people and power is concentrated in the hands of a few it may be more efficient but it is not in the best interest of the community communication efficiency and transparency can happen without this consolidation the school department is unique among municipal departments because of its independence if it wanted to adopt any of these best practices on its own at any time it could without this consolidation I urge you to vote for representative government and vote against this article thank you thank you Mr. Schlickman Paul Schlickman precinct 9 good evening and thank you the ruins are seconds away from winning or actually they have one I think it was 5 to 1 last last fall we were here and talking about a 1.5 million dollar deficit which came as a result of poor communication as well as an experience on the school department side I was very embarrassed by that as a former school committee member some of the mistakes were mistakes some of the mistakes were just a total lack of experience and while I thought they were unforgivable we've recovered from them we're moving forward but it is a symptom of the problem that we are looking to address here tonight I rise in support of at least looking at this and gaining a report of what the possibilities would be for a reorganization which is what's before you tonight first let me tell you the reason why we've had the problem on the school side is that during my tenure on the school committee it seemed like every year we turned around and we lost another CFO we were pretty good at attracting good people we stole a CFO out of Framingham then we stole a CFO out of Cambridge and Cambridge stole them back the turnover was significant and it hurt our operations and I think we've done two more CFOs since I got off the committee and I've only been off for I think four years now this is not a stable relationship and the reason is very simple in the marketplace we are not competitive in terms of hiring the very best candidates if we wanted to spend $30,000 a year more on a CFO we could substantively solve the problem but I don't think that there's any interest in this town to go and increase the CFO salary on the school side however an appointed person an assistant town whatever which might come out of some sort of reorganization that was also a direct line report to the superintendent and was able to do the policy work for the committee and and do the oversight on one level but also had the structure of having a direct report to a more experienced fiscal officer I think would be a good thing and place us in a better place not to say that I support reorganization to the point that I'm going to give somebody a blind check and say yes go do it no what I want to do is I want to see a concrete plan before us I want to see if somebody is going to come up with one plan, two plan, three plans that would make things better and give this town meeting next year to look at a proposal to see if it makes it better if it is a better solution than what we have now next year we can look at a concrete proposal which we don't have now and we can vote for it or we can analyze it see what it does if we don't like it we can toss it if we like it and it involves a change in governance the point that it has to go before the voters and nothing here says it will then it has to go through another approval level all we're doing now is saying we want a proposal to come back to us we want something to look at we want to kick the tires we want to see what a restructured consolidated agency would look like so instead of saying we're voting on what I don't know we can say we're voting on a specific proposal that does certain things doesn't make sense in the context of the way we run this town can the school department live with this and remember for the school side the budget and finance divides into two areas one is the policy side because the school department budget is a policy document of the school committee it is the instructions the blueprint it gives the superintendent to operate the school system the school committee retains the right and responsibility to vote approval of movement to cross line items because that is the way the school committee ensures that its will through its policy document is implemented a consolidated management would take the operations half and put it into a consolidated agency now how this works I don't know there's no proposal but there are many instances around the commonwealth and I don't want to talk about barns because they're a city form of government and they've charterized several of their schools they are atypical but there are many instances where you have superintendency unions where you have two or three different school committees hiring the same superintendent so you have diverse line authority everybody has to agree on the hire everybody has to agree on the evaluation under mass general law the school committee retains the right to hire its own CFO I would be sure that a recommendation that comes before us would include consent for rehiring an evaluation and I'd want to see that the other concern I have and these are all technical concerns state reporting is traditionally a CFO office this is money for the town if it's done poorly if it's done wrong it affects the amount of state aid we receive as a town we have to get that right our chapter 70 reporting our student counts our poverty counts all these things calculate state aid formulas and the federal formulas for poverty funds we have to get this right technically it is responsible the school department to get it done I'd want to see how a consolidated department would meet the state department of education mandates and the licensing requirements on that side I want to see the proposal I want to see how it works I want to read the next chapter before I can make an informed decision I can't make an informed decision on what the proposal is going to be it's not there but that's what I want to see I really do want to see the next chapter I think there's room for improvement and a positive vote tonight will allow us to come back next year and actually have a proposal on our hand hopefully multiple proposals and then we can have the debate that we're trying to have right now and make an informed judgment so I urge a yes vote Mr. Tosti I started out with my words I said I will be as brief as possible and then after the last 10 or 15 speakers I kept writing this note that note and got to say this so I might not be quite as brief as I wanted first thing I wanted to do was point to the actual article what it says and it says is that the town meeting indicates support now those are sort of important words it doesn't say you support it you say it indicates support now why is that so important this means that like the previous speaker said you want to see the next chapter you want to see what the structure looks like next year and then you voted up or down a couple of speakers have said why don't we just do the research this research is going to involve a ton of time and it's not like the manager doesn't have other things to do and I think it's important to get some opinion from the town meeting if this thing is a direction that they're interested in possibly going down if it isn't then we won't do it if it is something that you could support then we vote in favor of this the manager does the work working with the superintendent and all the other officials and then comes back to you with a proposal next year so I think indicates support is an important milestone to say okay now go ahead and do the work we're open to looking at now the finance committee is in support of this coming back at the next annual town meeting we think it's an important place to go I originally said I had three points I think I'm up to eight but I cut out a couple who's in charge my first question is who's in charge of town finances the answer is simple no one I remember you have it fragmented between the town manager the controller the treasurer collector the assessors the schools all with different appointing authorities I remember a couple years ago one town meeting member got really angry and got up and blasted the town manager for a problem on the tax bill and the manager was desperately trying to get up and say I have no responsibility of the tax bill it's not part of my department well let's take this a little bit further the tax bill well so you go to the collector and he says well it's not my fault there's a problem with the tax bill the assessor didn't get the tax rate set on time and the assessor jumps up and says it's not my fault the tax rate didn't get on set on time the controller didn't close the books so I can't fill in the recap sheet and the controller says it's not my fault I can't close the books because the treasurer didn't reconcile the cash so I mean you could just go on and do something like this in other words no one runs the place because everybody can say this it's their fault and everybody is correct because there's no one office to say come on guys come together one room get this done and I think that's what we're looking for this proposal I think basically does is try if we approve it next year is to try to bring the authority and centralize it how do you kill democracy you take the power and separate it among 20 or 30 different boards so nothing ever gets done so right now if this comes to true if there's a problem it's his fault right there you know where it is I can even give you his home phone and cell phone and if he has if he doesn't settle it then it's their problem and there's five of them and their phone numbers and their emails are all there and they're all up for re-election periodically over a period of three years so you know they have the power they're responsible and you know who they are that's how you have really responsible government and again the way you hide democracy is all these little hidden offices anybody know what the governor's council does probably you don't even know where it is but it's elected but nobody has any control over some of these now some of the handouts that you got basically said the world is coming to an end if this goes through it will dramatically change the character of Arlington both others start going out from Arlington we've got the cities to the south start going out Winchester appointed town treasurer Lexington Bedford Lincoln Bill Ricker the elected treasurer collector the elected assessors are going away because it does not make any sense now a lot of the people are getting up about elected officials versus appointed officials a full time elected official is often very difficult to get people to run for you know you're looking for another job if you're if it's an appointed official what's the manager do works with the personnel director comes up with job descriptions requirements publishes it in the globe or the beacon or any other professional publications you get in you know 50 resumes you get them down to 10 you interview 10 you get it down to 3 and you select somebody that's how business hires professionals remember this is not a policy these positions aren't policy making jobs they're administrative jobs if you're if you have this as an elected position you don't know where you're going to get in all likelihood you're getting and let me describe this you're getting an amateur now that doesn't mean no by amateur I mean in all likelihood that person never was a treasure collector before they never came from a treasure collector's position they came from someplace else and they learned on the job as opposed to hiring somebody who has done the work before that comes in so that's what I mean by that phrase and stand for it now if they don't do a good job we can vote them out anybody tell me how many elections we've had for treasure in the last 40 years two okay we've had two the current treasure has never run against anybody in his two elections that he's had because somebody is going to give up their job and tell their boss they're running for this other job in a very public way and that's not a great way to keep your own job it's very difficult to get somebody to run for a full time job the part time jobs of the board of select and school committee you have good competition there's people out there telling each other why they should be elected and not the other person you see none of that with these full time jobs except maybe when the job is first open no problems that's what it says there's no problems then what did we spend last November doing we spent last November trying to cure a problem a financial problem because of lack of communications because of this decentralized field what did the finance committee produce a special report for two years ago because of the investment policies of a treasurer inappropriate money that lost a substantial amount of money there have been serious problems here this is the first step we have another step but I think it's a step that we should go down and I urge your support thank you Mr. Maher John Maher John Maher precinct 14 I stand in general support of the proposed motion of the Board of Selectment I think however we're being asked to do a little bit too much tonight and I have a proposed amendment I'd like to make a few comments I think a lot of the arguments are being made tonight by the opponents and by the way this is an issue that certainly reasonable people can disagree on there's no one in this room who has more respect for John Billiford he's one of the finest public officials I had an opportunity to serve with and I admire him greatly and his feelings on this I think are owed a lot of arguments I happen to respectfully disagree with him on this I think a lot of the arguments that are being made by the opponents here are the same arguments that were made back in 1952 against a town manager form of government I think one of the things that has made Arlington a community that has avoided a lot of the problems that have befell some of our sister communities is because we have a town manager act what the opponents are doing tonight are saying we don't trust that form of government I think we have every reason to believe that we have been well served by it notwithstanding the fact that we've had the benefit of excellent elected officials when you look at them just simply by running they are not professionally trained they don't have generally business degrees they are not trained to do this as their life's work and I think when you have a dedicated finance department you are going to have people you are going to send out resumes you are going to get a lot of interest because Arlington is so well run and people want to be part of this organization that we have and we are so proud of and they will be interviewed just like we interviewed the police chief and the fire chief and we should have faith in the town manager form of government to suggest that this is some sort of a it is not the case these people are acting in good faith they want to better the town and in my view we ought to at least take the next step to review where we can find ourselves next year and to have a proposal before us I think the fact that other communities almost every other community has gone in this direction you can count on literally one hand the number of communities of comparable size that don't have this kind of a setup I do have and by the way to suggest that the $1.5 million mistake would have been avoided I believe that it would have been and we have a lot of explaining to the electorate as we go out for an override which I personally strongly support and I think if we had the kind of professional and I am not casting aspersions the mistakes that were made were made in good faith I don't want to dwell on this too much but if we had had a professional financial organization I would be very surprised that that had occurred I do have a proposed amendment I think that contrary to my good friend Alan Tosti I don't agree that we ought to have the provisions in there that we generally go on record as supporting this we don't have enough information to support it yet we need to have the issue professionally studied and then come back to us Lecceur we're asking really right now too much or the proposed motion is asking too much we ought to look at what's going to come forward from having the town manager look at this so I have a proposed amendment which I reviewed with the town council and certain of the selectmen I would like to really the general purpose is to strike the words indicates asking the town meeting to indicate its support I would like the first sentence to read do we have the vote up there that the town meeting hereby request that the town manager to research the implementation of a consolidated town school finance department etc and delete the words that we are being asked to put on be on record but in fact we already support something that we don't have a full understanding of so I would like to make that proposed amendment yeah that's proper Mr. Doherty hold on let me see what he's saying see how simple it is I used to sit there and castigate people for coming up with these last minute amendments well that's my job but we don't know sometimes what's going to transpire to town meeting the debate goes on you hear something and you want to make what I think a fairly simple change and that is really to strike the words hereby indicates its support and then simply ask the manager to review and come back and let's see what he comes up with and then we can take a position next year if I with the permission of the moderator I'd like to ask the manager what his views on this are and whether or not what he would be looking at in general terms what would the process be to come back to us next year but if I could just conclude by saying that I think we ought to head in this direction but that we need more information and when we information comes back next year then we can make a judgment as to whether or not we ought to proceed to a finance department I think it goes too far but I do in general agree with the principal and I would ask your support of the proposed amendment and the vote as amended thank you hold on I'm trying to read what he said sir you want to get rid of the words indicates its support that's it those three words that's what you have in a piece of paper the intent is to strike those words but I do have the proposed language of the vote as it's struck there that's what I would ask you to look at that the town meeting hereby requests that the town manager hereby is it up here no it's here just the thing I have the town meeting hereby requests that the town manager I think study I could solve the possibility of a town school finance so actually what you want to do is strike everything hereby indicates the support for the consolidation of the town finance department and you want to just go the town meeting requests the town manager researches you want to strike out more than those three words alright Mr. moderator point of order who's talking I have my glasses up Mr. moderator this article has been before the body for several weeks I agree sir and therefore if a change is going to take place I think we have to go by your ruling a couple of nights ago you said you weren't going to accept anything I'd ask you to I'm inclined to agree with them it I'm inclined to agree with Mr. Hanna but this is we're just striking out words as opposed to inserting any words there's no new words here right you'll change the next one yeah well wait a second now we see that's the problem without having these things two days in advance Mr. Maher we knew this was coming up this is article 50 we're in our fourth night I'm gonna wait a second I'm talking sit down loud mouth the rule has been for two years that things have to be in the seats for two days beforehand I've made everybody else so far this year do that and I'm gonna kind of stick with that rule John I've implemented it I've been trying to do it yes sir what do you thank you wait a second you're gonna get back in the list for that we have a list Mr. Dunn's next on the list okay John give it to me in writing again so I can see what it is thank you Mr. moderator Dan Dunn, precinct 21 I have a few words but I think I'm inspired to a little preliminary editorial and that is that I think that when we're here for town meeting we're here to debate we're here to legislate and that means that sometimes the things that we look at are gonna change it means that we have to be open minded about having amendments I think that the moderator's policy that he put in a couple years ago that says when you've got something big when you've got a substitute motion that you and you've been preparing it for a while that you should have it out on the chairs beforehand I think that is expeditious and I think it's brilliant and I'm glad that he did it I'm concerned that it's swinging too far and I hope that he continues to entertain I want to see what he wrote I want to see exactly what he's saying thank you before I rule on anything thank you very much I'll now move on to what I was actually gonna say alright there have been some scary things said we've heard the words power grab and disguise and giving up democracy I want us to look at the actual words in the article Mr. Tosti started us down that path and I think we should do it again take out your blue book page 23 the bold letters under 51 the words that I want us to talk about are the ones that are here they say indicates of support which I agree are important words research the implementation gathering input and present warrant articles to a future town meeting these are not words that end the world these are words that get us more information and move us down a path if we don't like the path we get to choose later in my personal opinion is that like IT and like human resources a lot of the stuff that happens in finances is relatively fungible payroll benefits invoices dollars they're all the same thing it doesn't matter what department it's in the fact that we do and duplicate so many of these services keeps us inefficient or at least let me say keeps us less efficient than we could be so I encourage your support for this article this research article as it is written right here in the blue book thank you Mrs. Fiori I have 20 profound statement to make I just remember when Don Markey came to Arlington as a town manager one of the things he said which has stayed my mind for the rest of the time is a town meeting is the greatest form of democracy we have and that's all of us sitting here 252 people I'm in opposed to the consolidation of what they're stated here and Mr. Dunn just tried to indicate that article 51 doesn't put any final words in there but they are final because we're being asked to support the consolidated finance department and then asking the town manager to research it and I think somebody said earlier that's really backward should have been the other way around they should have researched it and then we should have been asked to support it I'm opposed to this article I should get a vote against it Mr. Kakavaro Thomas Kakavaro, precinct 11 once again they're trying to strip us of our rights little by little over the 12 years I've been a town meeting member something's been taken away from us every year this is not about our rating because we have the best rating that you can possibly get this is about bullying this is about being a coward this is because somebody didn't do something that somebody wanted right away so let's get rid of them this is how things are done in this town exactly it's embarrassing even when we have a guy that's only been here two years, stands up and he's already figured out about this town he's already figured it out nobody else has but he has in two years you don't think that's embarrassing I think it's embarrassing this is bullying this is all about, I'll tell you what this is about in case some of you don't know this is about getting rid of Steve Gilligan hands down I don't mind it I really don't care it's got nothing to do with anything else and now we've wasted another night talking about this I'm embarrassed and now you want to strip this from me you want to point somebody that's going to take my money that I don't even know I don't think it's, no we all know what a pointing is it's not necessarily the best person it's usually your neighbor, your cousin your sister, but somebody that basically kisses your feet so you appoint them okay? leave it to the voters let's vote who puts our money where we want it if we don't like him or her we'll get rid of them let's end this power struggle thank you thank you Mr. Weddle Bruce Weddle, Precinct 12 with Ted's remarks before the break I thought we were going to have a Rodney King moment, but it's all past and we're back to normal I see I was about to scratch everything that I was going to say but in subsequent comments I think I need to say it the warrant agenda item that comes to us in the news print is to see if the town will vote to request the town manager to work with the board of selectmen to take all necessary measures for the implementation of a consolidated town school finance department so I carry that around and I read it until the final version comes out the word implementation fairly leaped off the page at me in the actual proposed vote the word implementation is still there and we have just recently been told or has been suggested well I don't see it there but it is to take all I was looking for the first part of it hereby indicates support I heard Mr. Tosti is trying to suggest that indicates support was not the same as support I frankly don't read it that way and I don't hear it that way I want to make comments in three areas usurpation elephant in the room and Alice usurpation it seems to me that it is a fairly plain usurpation of the powers and authority of the town meeting in my view if we agree to this it will have been a voluntary surrender of our authority and we may as well further consolidate this legislative body this town meeting down to 21 members the committee of 21 the finance committee the elected board of select and we can all watch proceedings on acmi at home you are not asked to empower merely the study or the exploration or the investigation of benefits and costs until the past five minutes you are asked to empower the implementation of such a department which will take the form of one or more warrant articles next year that seems to have been the plan town meeting has already considered this length and it considered with appropriate courtesy things like the definition of the wake of a boat and whether cremated human remains would be placed loose or in containers and whether the capital theater may once have housed a speak easy bar and more seriously how the consolidated town school human relations department would protect the confidentiality of school personnel records that are possibly subject to different legal strictures and protocols in the town records and I think the passage of that warrant article is an important adjunct the human relations department I think will go if properly implemented to solving some of the problems that this article present article 51 is purportedly addressed to but my question is how can we possibly do justice to this article in this form with what we have received we got a very detailed presentation from Mr. Jones at the meeting if this had been the Arlington redevelopment board making the presentation that material would have been in print available for us to consider I am disturbed at these make the snap decision on something of this moment this is not merely defining the wake of a canoe so in the brief space of time before this question is called your affirmative vote it seems to me will set into motion complete authority for the oversimplification of an extremely murky and complex matter to be cast into concrete next year no matter the blandishments that have been uttered on the proponent side significantly unlike article 49 which specifically named for inclusion several appointed and elected financial stewards such as the director of assessments and the town treasurer this article specifies beyond the town manager of Selectman school committee and superintendent and finance committee only other appointed and elected officials with responsibilities related to financial management in the corporate consulting field of which I was once a part this article may justifiably be called converting unwarranted assumptions into foregone conclusions the comment section of the Selectman's report credits the quote proponents of this article unquote with advocating exploration of a single finance department finance committees version their comment reports that committee as supporting the Selectman's vote to request the town manager investigate the implementation of consolidation exploration implementation that is not what the article says I hardly approve an investigation and an exploration at this time I decline to indicate support for a consolidated town school finance department moreover the proponents the Fincom and the Selectman are not shy about agreeing with themselves that the current fragmentation and I won't read the whole thing because it's been read to you but the discussion of financial management functions leading to unnecessary duplication and so forth and so on one of the things picked out there was the absence of organizational barriers to adoption of best practices and enhanced public services such as an online tax payment system and a lack of consistency and transparency etc etc I don't know about the syntax of what I just read to you but please tell me more about this kindly make your case to this meeting with detailed written analysis backed up with what the savings will be point to the elephant in the hall by elephants I don't mean those of the partisan cast I mean the obvious unspoken agendas which have been rehearsed here fairly substantially I think clearly targeted is at least one town wide elected official in the above quoted Fincom reference in their report to an online tax payment system this is presumably similar to something already available in nearby communities and I have one or two neighbors to whom this is a very important matter in my mind the sweeping rhetoric trumpeting this article does not justify a brink of crisis fear mongering nor does it provide any substance to justify the claimed improvements and again this town meeting has already taken significant steps in my judgment toward improved governance regarding online payment from election night coverage of victorious candidates in their statements seen and heard on ACMI I think that the elected official in question has gotten the message about online payment of bills indeed let's subject the elected official issue to testing but overtly and above board some other time with pro and con viewpoints represented not by stealth and under the radar part of my interest in efficiency versus tradition is concerned with that we all move in the right direction haste in going the wrong way does damage Massachusetts and indeed new england government is full of inefficiencies in some case deliberately so by the perverse affection for this very body the new england town meeting with its dozens of volunteer boards and committees that eat up the time of both volunteers and the paid professionals who run say public works community safety schools and so forth there are 391 separate public school districts in Massachusetts alone in my native state of Maryland roughly similar size population political disposition and demographics there are I guess how many school districts 24 23 counties in the independent city of Baltimore why don't we start in consolidation there perhaps oh you say that's politically impossible with all those inter community rivalries that could never be accomplished don't we have a microcosm of intra community rivalries right here in this hall tonight further are the essential functions of school district operations with its accounting grid of site specific versus functional categories susceptible of consolidation with townside management I don't know this article the solution for which the underlying questions have not been asked this is an answer in the search of the right questions some believe it some appear believe they have the answers but even if the questions haven't been shared with us we're going to have a huge a huge concentration of power based on the customary trust us assurances and let's remind ourselves that other sessions of this town meeting and its leaders have made their share of mistakes before New England solid waste the Sims hospital site development possibly being among them I'm sympathetic to the zeitgeist down front here the motivating spirit of the Fincom and the select when we've witnessed as has also been rehearsed the spiriting managerial are clearly targeted by this article on the townside where 100% of our households are customers for not much more than 40% and declining of the budget I think for one our core services public works, community safety and so forth need help the school side directly serving perhaps 20% of families for now approaching 60% of the budget clearly needs greater clarity in accounting and its managerial and accounting aspects but I'm careful to remember that the youth being ready for college and careers is going to be funding the social security of this meeting long before benefiting itself that's it thank you so I hope we keep our heads let's have evidence first then findings and conclusions and recommendations in that order thank you Mr. Sandrelli Donald Sandrelli precinct 16 I've been a member of town meeting since 1972 I was out for one term in the early 90s at that time our body of budget and other items has become less in democracies we have the opportunity to vote for or against any number of items although state legislatures have lessened that mandate housing senate give us the obligation to pay but not to change article 51 wants to take away more options in the supposed interest of efficiency it says that the town manager will appoint if the manager appoints why do we need a election elected positions can be voted yes or no we vote for the cleric assessors, electmen, treasurers and school committee we always make the best choices however more important democratically we have a choice we do not have to kiss anyone's hand we can vote them in out or impeach them we can do that article 51 is a step in the direction of dictatorship you know we do not want that we do not need a king queen or royal family our ancestors made that clear when they formed these united states allington needs to have the efficiency of democracy and not the efficiency of dictatorship so I say vote no on article 51 I also say this the most efficient form of government I remember a long time ago was dictatorship and it seems that this is what we're doing we're moving in that direction oh this is more efficient this is not a business never was a business was never intended to be a business we don't have big weddings for the princes and the prince and whoever else we don't do that stuff okay so I'm just saying vote no on 51 thank you sir Mr. Ruderman thank you Mr. moderator Michael Ruderman I thought the wedding was a jolly good show last Friday I listened to the proponents introduced this article and the overwhelming thought going through my mind is yes but and I hear one of our board of select men say I voted for this yes but I read the fincom report and I think there's a very large hidden but a large yes but implied in such a divided vote 97 and I know it's not customary for the finance committee to include minority reports Mr. moderator is there someone who can give us the 30 second digest of what almost an equally divided finance committee was split over and can someone speak to the seven part of the 97 very briefly it was any of the finance committee meetings he had voted in the seven doesn't look like seeing none Foskett Mr. Foskett's indicates he voted in the negative he wants to know what the question of the moderator is is there someone available who can illustrate us on how how sharply divided the finance committee was on this vote yes sir this isn't your time it's Mr. ruderman's time you're answering his question about why there was a device division during the finance committee debate and principally because I felt it was a reorganization for which the components were not proposing to save any money and I was concerned about increases in cost as a result of this change and I can't speak for all of the people who voted against it but that was the principal reason why I was opposed I just want to let the meeting know that I've changed my position on that the meeting has the manager has committed to a cost reduction now supporting article 51 okay that would be beyond the answer but Michael you got your answer continuing with the theme of yes but we're told this is simply to put the mandate to study and research yet looking at the municipal research body that's going to be part and parcel of this study the state's division of local services I read in their own published material on their website quote we have a bias towards consolidated departments that doesn't say what they're going to rule on this it doesn't say what they must rule but it says where their bias lies I firmly believe that Arlington has existed in its town government because of the town manager act we're a hybrid of people outside of Arlington where 43,000 people with a town meeting how can that possibly get anything done well we don't we don't do everything in town meeting we have an elected board of selectmen they appoint a town manager we have a town manager act that gives great powers and authorities considering that this is still a town form of government to an appointed town manager I'm in favor of the town manager act to keep it just the way it is right now I can vote for the clerk I can vote for the assessor I can vote for clerk or assessor or a treasurer who say they're going to work with each other I can vote for someone who says I can work with them better than the other guys or gals are working with each other I can listen to the two people state their opinions and put it before the voters on what they intend to do about being more efficient I can't vote for the town manager I can't vote for the CFO of the school department nor can I vote for the superintendent nor can I vote for the school committee I can't vote for the entire board of selectmen as a whole I can only take whichever one happens to be coming up for election I can't vote for article 51 Thank you Mr. Ruderman read it see if you can figure it out Mr. Lovetti here in the black shirt four rolls back you sir Mr. Berger Thank you Mr. Moderator Eric Berger precinct six I just to vote no on article 51 it's an insult really to town meeting members article 51 asks us to support to support the consolidation of the town these two departments it presumes that consolidation is a good thing so it's putting the cart before the horse that point was made before and that's not appropriate if anyone asks this well why did you support article 51 what do you like about consolidation I'd have to say I haven't the foggiest idea I don't know what consolidation means they said well why did you support it because I was asked to if somebody says to me well any of the 49 sections of the town managers act be eliminated or combined or altered I would say I have no idea what did you support it for well I supported it because it must be good what must be good consolidation must be good it's ludicrous well if someone says to me well any of the current positions that we vote on be eliminated in the town managers act like the assessors or the treasurer or the housing authority members or the town moderator will any of those become appointed I'll say I don't know well do you think they could be I haven't the foggiest idea well why did you authorize this why now tonight some alternative language was suggested maybe they'll ask us to investigate it I say that's wrong I wouldn't vote for that either because they don't need us to do that the selectmen can investigate this they don't need town meeting members to authorize them to investigate anything they can do that on their own so I'm thinking to myself why are they going to ask us to investigate it because it points the direction to consolidation and it gives the impriture it almost gives the stamp of approval so to speak of town meeting so what do you think is going to come back to us next year in articles who knows but they're going to be articles related to consolidation and who the heck knows what that means I see no benefit in consolidation until somebody brings forward a proposal in depth but they don't need us to authorize that let the selectmen if they're interested in this work out a detailed proposal for consolidation and if they want to come back to town meeting come back to town meeting and put the specifics of that proposal in a series of warrants and then we'll find out are any positions being eliminated are any positions that we now vote on being appointed are we saving any money exactly what will we be voting so you know if the selectmen say well we don't know the details right now we'll say fine I don't expect you to know the details but the only excuse to you don't need us to authorize anything here and if you're asking us I'm repeating but if you're asking us to support it how can I support something I know nothing about it assumes consolidation consolidation is good who knows I can think of a lot of reasons why it might be bad many were mentioned tonight if you eliminate any elected position I don't like that at all I want to I want to keep the power with the people in all elected positions thank you thank you Mr. Rierig I got you Mr. O'Brien thank you Mr. moderator Brian Rierig precinct date I have the greatest respect for the institution of town meeting in Arlington but this is a debate like none I've ever heard take place here we've spent the entire evening having an uninformed debate about whether to have an informed debate and I suggest that the previous speaker excuse me whose conclusions I disagree with I considered this proposal this motion an insult to town meeting but then said that there's no benefit in considering this until somebody brings us a proposal and that the select men don't need us to tell them to bring us a proposal well that may be true on the other hand I think it's far more respectful of the select men to ask us to empower the manager to go forth and investigate this and bring us something meaningful that we can act on next year I do agree I agree with the concerns that have been raised directly or indirectly by a lot of speakers tonight that this that the specific language of this vote asks us to endorse the outcome before we see the proposal and that's a problem for a lot of people in the meeting I believe and I believe that Mr. Marr's amendment can solve that problem and reduce this to a request to the manager to go forth and bring us something meaningful last year next year I do hope that the moderator will reconsider his ruling and allow that amendment to be put before the meeting will endorse it and I hope that it will endorse the resulting amended motion. Thank you. Mr. Foskett here turns up now. Thank you Mr. moderator Charlie Foskett precinct 8 and also a member of the finance committee and as I said a few moments ago in response to the question I voted against this article when it was presented to the finance committee and debated by the finance committee I said I motivated some other people but maybe I did but I'm now asking you to support article 51 and I'd like to briefly explain why I've changed my position this article and by the way I strongly support Mr. Marr's proposed modification and I hope that the moderator changes this position and accepts that motion this article is really about a problem in municipal financial management but in this town we also have a basic problem in financing our municipality our costs run higher than our revenues on a consistent basis and so every several years we're faced with a very difficult decision of whether to have an override or not an override or how else do we raise our revenues etc we're under constant pressure in this area so we have three choices we either have to reduce services we have to increase our taxes or perhaps we can improve efficiency and reduce the cost of our operation article 51 is a frontal attack on duplication of efforts on confused and unclear lines of accountability basically on what I would look at as 19th century management practices voting for article 51 as amended or as proposed to be amended by Mr. Maher will streamline decision making will increase the transparency that we have in our government and will improve management efficiency by lowering our costs and I'd like to specifically ask the manager to speak to what he thinks the cost impact of a assuming that the town came back with reasonable proposals for reorganization of improvements in efficiency or cost reduction we might see in the future thank you Mr. Maher are you asking the question I want to correct myself Mr. Maher I would like to ask a question of the town manager through you regarding whether or not this concept of combined departments would result in any cost reductions or improved efficiencies do you have a solid answer for that Brian Sullivan town manager I happen to work in a number of communities that have had both finance departments consolidate operations and those that did not went through a actual consolidation when I worked at the town of Brookline where they combined those departments and at that time I believe there were some two and a half positions that were limited out of a much smaller number of positions that we're talking about here consolidation that we're talking about here I added up the number of positions they're probably depending upon which ones you include anywhere from my 25 to 30 positions that are included within all the financial operations of the town and with that number given the duplication of effort that's occurring across all those departments I would say that we could eliminate at least three or four positions out of that if not further and that's not going to happen overnight it's going to take a period of two or three years before we can fully implement all that but that is just off the cuff I suspect we may get greater savings but clearly there will be savings by doing this it just strikes me when we looked at the information technology consolidation at that time we eliminated one of the information technology directors and right off saved some dollars right off the bat with that one small department a town meeting has now endorsed the idea of consolidating our human resources operations for efficiency and coordination and I'm not sure what has brought on all the states about consolidating our financial operations I feel we should be looking across the board at all our support services trying to consolidate and make them more efficient and again this is a study that should be undertaken it has to come back to town meeting for a vote you'll have another whack at it to see whether you want to support it or not the school committee will have to vote on it and see whether they want to support it that's beyond the question and ultimately you have to go to the voters thank you Mr. McCrory Hugh McCrory, precinct 20 I'm going to make this as brief as possible on the face of this this seems like a good idea I guess I have a certain amount of good faith in our leadership I am disappointed in the last year this is the least this is the most disappointing article that I've had to think about the information has been pure it's been vague there's been variety between the votes of the various committees so I also sense the only person who's well a number of the most important person whose comments have run true to me is Ted Pelosi I think and I sense we're at an impasse this town is at an impasse it's an important issue I think it's been delivered purely so out of respect for this body and respect for the town I would with the hope that the substitute motion from Mr. Mar could be accepted tonight since we've worked quite late it's 10 to 11 I would move to adjourn in the hope that we can get something which is acceptable to the majority of us our town meeting members because I sense that hold on I sense that a lot of us support the study I do not support the erosion of democracy most people actually I'd say everyone doesn't I think there's a misunderstanding in between what this article is the intent of this article and how it's being received so that's why I'm putting a motion to adjourn it's 10 to 11 I'll put it out there motion to adjourn there's a motion to adjourn on the table it is by my watch one doesn't work 1045 all in favor you can make a motion to make it whatever you want alright we have 15 good minutes left all in favor of adjourning please say yes yes opposed to no Mr. Karman Dean Karman, precinct 20, a member of the finance committee I understand I feel a lot of people's sympathies frustration with the article and how it's poorly worded and it's not perfect in every way but I think what makes me more concerned are some different things first I think there's been an argument put here today that is a false choice I've read this repeatedly I've never seen where it says that we're going to eliminate the elected treasurer at this town meeting by this vote I just don't see it I also look at it and I listen to the rhetoric and I find myself very conflicted I shouldn't say conflicted, confused because I try to compare my own professional life where I actually do this for a living to the rhetoric that I hear and hear from politicians and mostly people who don't do this for a living and where I get confused on this when it has been a frustration on the finance committee this argument that consolidation is an erosion of power it's a horrible thing as I think about my day to day where I was at work when I worked for a 94 unit retail company and I'm the corporate controller and senior director of finance I must be evil I must be evil because the AP people report to me the general accounting people report to me the tax people report to me and the board of directors whenever they want to come down on me can come down on me but there isn't this big democratic vote and if I took the extrapolated what we talk about here today into my own life I would go back to work tomorrow and say I am evil but I don't do that and the reason I don't do that is nothing I do in my work life is a policy decision I compile financial information I present it to my boss the CFO I present it to the CEO I present it to the board of directors and they make the decisions likewise when you're talking about a consolidated department in the town of Arlington you're looking at the same mode you're not talking about creating a shadow government that's somehow going to run all sorts of financial things you're talking about increasing operational efficiency the best example I can give on this is in healthcare I always look at the not-for-profit healthcare hospitals which I think shine some great light on this whether you're looking at partners healthcare whether you're looking at the large healthcare systems main medical or eastern main healthcare up in main whether you're looking at Caritas Christi what you find is what those hospitals all decided when they were not-for-profits was the best way to be efficient wasn't to have an accounting department not to have a Treasury department at every single location to centralize it into a shared services department and to keep at each location unless they've changed it since I was their auditor what they did was they kept the CFOs at each hospital but they kept all of the shared services consolidated and that's what we're talking about here there's a lot of heated rhetoric about eroding democracy and inflaming things and making things awful this isn't what it's about this is about finding efficiency this is about making things better and a lot of times I look and you know we've had some interesting rhetoric one of the things I thought about as I was sitting in my seat was the last time I spoke before this town meeting I was actually starting a little bit of a battle with the Treasury because what happened if we all remember and the Treasurer said he had his things and he was sort of pointing the finger at IT and IT was pointing his finger at the Treasurer and the manager got up and the one takeaway we got from it is by Golly when we got here in May 2011 it would be up and running because they were all going to work together it's not up and running I also look and when I sit on the finance committee and I look at the town I look at one thing that drives me insane and if anybody comes to a finance committee meeting or if anybody listens to the nice school people get up to when they get up to talk about their budget you will hear this, it drives me nuts town manager comes to the finance committee and what does he start by talking about the town side the town side does this, the town side does that superintendent gets up for the finance committee she says the school side the confusion I've always had I always thought when I moved here it was one town the town of Arlington it wasn't a town side, it wasn't a school side it wasn't a treasurer's side it wasn't an assessor's side but what we've done and we talk about division tonight is these little kingdoms that get created which by the way we're not created because in times it was the greatest of democracy a lot of these were created back when you used to have the green bar paper and you used to have these punch keys that you put into a computer it worked but the model doesn't work anymore it doesn't work in 2011 unless you say hey let's go back in time and do that then it would be more efficient so I understand that we've had some heated rhetoric I understand that the motion behind us is not perfect but at the end of the day the motion does not ask to remove an elected position it does not act it does not ask to do the consolidation right away it talks about researching and talks about seeing if this works and to come back to town meeting and the one thing I always keep in mind is and this is the last thought I'll give is every town meeting is its own body we're not binding another town meeting and when we vote the capital budget that requires a two-thirds vote why does it require a two-thirds vote because you are when you vote that capital budget you are binding a future town meeting to an action and that in the eyes of the legislature is a reason to have such a large vote and that's a reason why we have other super majority votes because you're binding future time meetings this binds nobody next year it could come back you can vote it down and so I think when we get through all the heated rhetoric when we get through all the passion when we get through all the energy what this simply comes down to is voting to study an issue with a really stupid phrase in there that says that we support it and if you don't support it next year and I don't know at this point if I would support it next year thank you what's that sir I think he's going to tell you that my father is the elected treasurer in Belmont but we'll find out Mr. Moderator several previous speakers have mentioned me by office and made statements that are not true and or insulting and I'd like to address them well we generally don't allow that anymore you are on the list for a second time then I'll wait Mr. Moderator I'm sorry that's kind of what we've been doing for the last couple of years Mr. Sikaya, sayer, care only took me three tries Mike Care, precinct 12 moved the question and all matters before alright we have a motion to terminate the debate all requires two thirds all in favor of termination of debate please say yes I'm going to address that in a minute I know what you're going to ask me all opposed to terminating the debate please say no I need a standing vote for termination debate, same counters please yes stand for yes for termination of debate everybody in favor of terminating please stand Ms. Mahan 11 up front Mr. Schlickman 30 on the left 17 on the right center left center Mr. Tremblay 22 Mr. Horowitz, the right 23 all opposed to termination please rise 0 up front Mr. Schlickman 9 Mr. O'Connor 26 Mr. Tremblay 14 and 16 the vote is 103 in the affirmative 65 negative is not a two third vote all that means we're going to keep going standing vote Mr. Doherty Leo yes you are sir Leo Doherty present 19 I want to give the information that I think that Steve was elected three times as our treasurer I think that the information that we have heard tonight does not give us a clear answer of how we can best serve our town the idea of having a forced research to come to a conclusion maybe a little bit vague but I don't think it's really clear we should do that and I was hoping to get a vote to vote this down tonight but I asked for your support and vote this down thank you thank you is Martha still here no you're not Martha Scott yes she comes 21 Martha Scott present 21 I didn't think you'd get to me guys but that's okay as a town meeting member I am really really conflicted about this vote I feel that I don't have the information that I need to vote one way or the other when in doubt don't so I'm voting no I read the article because I'm a girl scout and stuff and I do my homework for town meeting every time I read the article and I thought huh okay sounds good during this meeting listening to the various people speak I'm like whoa where did this stuff come from I think the thing is a town meeting member that bothers me the most is we listen to Barbara Cutler talk tonight from the disability commission that the article she submitted was not what we were reading then we listen to Selectman Mahan say well yeah but I signed it but it wasn't what I was supposed to sign as a town meeting member I'm saying hey wait a minute there's a credibility problem here in general I'm very very uncomfortable with this article and with the presentation that we're hearing I would urge all of you to vote no because it doesn't sound right I also don't want to take the right of Arlington citizens to vote for certain offices away I'm not here to judge I mean I feel like if Mr. Gilligan was not doing a good job we wouldn't have elected him and somebody else would have opposed him I don't want to go there okay I just feel uncomfortable very uncomfortable with this article with what's being said how everybody is interpreting what we should do could have done this is what it says oh no wait this is what it says I'm uncomfortable so as a town meeting member and a citizen of Arlington I'm voting no give me more information explain to me exactly what the heck I'm voting for and I'll be comfortable next year I'm not I'm voting no and I urge all of you to vote no because I think we're being sold a questionable bill of goods at best thank you thank you okay we have another motion to adjourn and it's been seconded all in favor of adjournment please say yes opposed say no I think that time it was affirmative vote now wait a second before y'all go just listen to me for a minute what Mr. Maher is proposing and I finally got it in decent writing and I understand what he's trying to do it is rather simple so if he can have it reproduced on everybody's chair on Monday night because we are going to be back to this on Monday night after the special I'll entertain his motion and allow it to be heard but I'm honest to God this is the last one if it's not in everybody's chair two nights in advance don't even ask me I'm going to let him because this is very important and I think what he's proposing is very simple alright I guess we don't need any motions for reconsideration unless you want to reconsider adjournment good night have a good weekend