Well folks, another budget is finalized and completed for the next fiscal year. This was my 4Th budget series and it tied in with the hiring of our next town administrator- More on that subject a little later.
At this final budget hearing, councilors could bring up anything, any line item they wanted to discuss. All the work we have done previously brought the tax increase up to adding an additional .20 Cents which was .03 cents UNDER the maximum allowed under the tax cap of .23 cents. Lets recap. Town side tax rate is $7.50 and this year the council could add up to a total of $7.73 MAX.
Councilor Fairbanks started by asking the fire dept to cut $50,000 from anywhere in the budget the chief wanted with the stipulation that it could not effect services, however she did not offer any specifics. Why she singled out the fire dept and why she choose $50K is unknown and no explanation was offered.
"watch me pull a rabbit out of the hat"
"but that trick never works"
"this time for sure".......
In a 4-3 vote it passed with Fairbanks Coyle Carney Metts voting to make the cut.
Then Janet wanted to replace capital reserve fund money with the money being raised via taxation for a new ( future ) recreation building with 55k earmarked for senior center. The full number $100k was not to be raised by taxation in this years budget
Vote was 6-1 with Bulkley the only no vote.
That was basically it for determining budget coming in at adding 16 cents to the tax rate instead of 20. A savings of .04 cents per 1000.
Final Vote on overall budget 5-2 Budget Approved with Chirichiello and Carney voting NO.
Carney's reasoning- I don't know and haven't had a chance to ask he's reasoning
For me- We didn't cut enough. I think we could of cut an additional 145K and in fact I offered by motion to cut this money but didn't get the votes in an earlier workshop.
I think we should of cut $80K Manning St and $45K sidewalks near upper room.
And at that the time i brought up these cuts I said we needed to make sure we had money for additional vet credits and look at elderly exemptions. I was told there would be plenty of time for that. Didn't happen. This is why I voted NO. My first time doing so.
Next we voted 5-2 to bring in Gary Stenhouse as our next administrator.
Coyle and Fairbanks voting NO. They liked none of the people we interviewed and wanted to keep looking. Interesting...
I will admit that Gary was not my first choice, but i found myself trying to separate whether i personally could click with the next administrator or not and I had to focus on what was best for the town and not whether i had the warm and fuzzies over any candidate. Gary has great experience and a wealth of knowledge. he has worked running Rochester and they had about 30K people. I will let his professionalism and experience speak for themselves.
I'm hoping on welcoming Gary to Derry and look forward to working with him on making Derry a great place to be.
What are your thoughts on the Budget process???
23 comments:
I'm outraged Coyle and Fairbanks chased the last Administrator out and are doing a dam fine job of making the Very Honorable Dr. Moody's life miserable. Now they whine about the lack of quality candidates?????!!!!! Duhh??!!! They chased the good ones away - Period!
And then there's Mr. Burtis with his weekly factless rants in the paper and who is obviously running
for Council next year. He actually sighted his experience in the (contemptable corrupt) Los Angelos police department as applicable to Derry NH?! I, for one, don't want ANYTHING about (the corrupt) Los Angelos emergency services incorporated in Derry.
Perhaps Mr. Burtis learned how to low-bid contracts in LA?
The same annoymous here again,
...was everyone watching as Fairbanks stumbled with the $100K motion? She noted openly that Coyle winced at her as she was doing so. Apparently, she either couldn't articulate Mr. Coyle's wishes correctly or Mr. Coyle had some stomach issues!!!!
Frankly, I doubt the illustrious Mr. Burtis would run for anything.
He's a coward who chooses to sit on the sidelines, tossing out baseless accusations with a poison pen. I don't see where he has any interest in making Derry a better place to be. Like a lot of his kind, he finds it a lot easier to point out the problems rather than put in the time and effort required to come up with bonafide solutions. If he should make the mistake of running for council, his online publications, both in the local newspapers and on Canada Free Press.com would surely expose him for what he is. And honestly, the voters in Derry are a lot smarter than that.
As for Coyle and Fairbanks voting against the new administrator, kudos to Brent Carney. Hopefully Councilor Carney will continue to vote his conscience and see that his vision for Derry is far different from that of the council minority. Like Derry itself, he's got some great potential. It would be a shame to see it wasted being anyone's puppet. And kudos to all the councilors who voted for what's best for Derry rather than what's might be best for their own purposes.
Derry is the 4th largest town in New Hampshire yet we had only 20 applicants for the administrator's job? That is a travesty. People should be beating down the door for this job. But in looking at what Dr. Moody has had to endure during his brief tenure, is it really any surprise? I wish the best of luck to Mr. Stenhouse. He'll need all the support he can get.
Thanks for your critical observations, Mr. Anonymous, however it appears that you are the one coming up short in the old facts department.
I really get a kick out of your use of "factless rants", and your repetitive use of "contemptable, corrupt," about the emergency services found in Los Angeles today.
Let's take the new Chester, Auburn, and Derry contracts for emergency ambulance service and compare and contrast them with the 2002-2003 contract for non-emergency transport between Derry Fire and Parkland Medical Center.
The Parkland contract was signed by council chairman, Jim MacEachern, the town clerk, and the fire chief at the time, Rusty Stower. It contained a detailed schedule of atrributable costs, with attention given to a base rate, mileage costs, DEFIB,Oxygen, the extra EMT, and the additional costs for a non-transport after evaluation, from a far lengthier list.
The new contract was not brought to the council, despite the contents of Town Charter sections 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3, which insist that this action be completed and which guided the approval process for the earlier contract.
Additionally, the latest contract has no schedule of costs, no limits on the number of runs, and is far less expansive than that issued to Parkland under a different town administration.
Both contracts, for your personal examination of their respective contents, can be obtained by an RSA 91A request by sending a request to John Moody.
The foregoing are the facts.
As for the contempt you show concerning the Los Angeles area emergency serives and the corruption you blithely cite, there are a few more facts to be presented.
You might want to visit the websites of the LAPD, the LAFD, the LA Sheriff's, and the LA County fire departments, and subscribe to their web announcements, before you make any further wild accusations. I might also suggest that you visit the local fire and police stations in the LA area the next time you are on a layover to Hawaii. You will be welcomed, though I suggest that you call ahead and speak to the community outreach officers.
Don't be confused by what you might see at the movie theater or on television for what really happens in Los Angeles.
In fact, just as you might care to do in Derry, you should view both sides instead of relying upon the distorted stories and rumors which you accuse me of falling prey to.
And as you complete your investigatory process, be sure to look at the LA emergency service's minority and high school outreach programs, the hiring of considerable numbers of women and minorities for both police and fire, the activities of the Internal Affairs Unit, and the academic and practical excellence found at the LAPD, the LA Sheriff's, and the LA fire academies
And, of course, be sure to examine the operational, command and control, and cost accounting systems designed to track, cost, manage, and maintain these resources, which run the gamut from SWAT to dedicated fire and police air units and their support services.
You might even want to visit the FEMA/EMI site to get a taste of the very managerial systems and courses which were originally designed for use in California's brush fires, especially those in the LA area, and which have been adopted nationally, and even here.
However you may also choose to immerse yourself in the Los Angeles area emergency response systems whose managerial and response guidelines have been adopted here in Derry in the form of Derry's Emergency Operations Plan, in our unified command systems, in the operation of our Emergency Operations Center, all thanks to the ICS system.
You can view the common elements of our plans and those found in LA when you take a look at Derry's on-line emergency operations plan, a plan based on exactly the same elements initially adopted and employed in Los Angeles, and which are in service here today.
As far as "contemptible, corrupt", I can only say that an in depth study might prove otherwise.
I also suggest you contact Bill Bratton's office or the LA City fire chief's office for further information on your terms.
As for Derry, there is every reason to demand excellence in the management, the application of proper and effective cost accounting, in the selection, promotion and hiring of applicants, and in the graduated discipline for both department heads and for line personnel.
As for low bid contracts, I suggest you take a look at the basic elements of the contract process, which are routinely offered in most business law courses.
As for a quick overview of the emergency management systems as they apply to both LA and to Derry, I suggest tha you take the IS-1 course through FEMA/EMI. It will give you an excellent overview on the complexity of emergency management and the skills necessary to act in that capacity.
Additionally, I recommend that you complete IS-100, the basic course on the Incident Command System.
The completion of these courses, which are free and offered on line to anyone, combined with an in-depth examination of the systems, personnel, and the mangerial guidelines which determine emergency response in LA, will give you a firm basis on which to judge the current emergency managerial and fiscal systems as they exist here in both Derry and LA today.
An informed citizenry is the cornerstone for effective emergency management.
I suggest you become informed.
John B,
Though your service in Los Angelos may or may not have been honorable, the fact is, Sir, that
the Los Angelos Police Department IS corrupt.
Google it ("LA Police corruption") --- you will see corruption scandles going back decades and leading right up to a story that was published in the Washington Post yesterday. Fact: In 2001 the Federal Courts were forced to appoint a special Federal Monitor to oversee reforms - the Federal Monitor is still on the job today!
Again, there is nothing about the Los Angelos Police Department we need to emmulate in Derry NH. You'll just have to try another part of your background to run on, this one won't fly.
anonymous 3:29,
I'm going to have to agree with you here. comparing Derry to LA is a huge difference. John B also wrote an editorial in the DN on 5/16 with me in it. He compares Rte 102 traffic with the Sana Monica freeway in Cali. Big difference there as well.
seems that anonymous 8:29, 3:29 and BC may not be equipt to distinguish a clearly "tongue in cheek" reference from a statement of fact.
BC and anonymous, i have had the pleasure of reading a number of mr burtis's letters and not once have i witnessed him present a statement as fact that proved anything less than considered and accurate. these have ranged from "fire department memo's that DID in fact exist, despite bulkley's public insistance to the contrary" to his statement that "derry did not have a clearly articulated and publically accessible emergency plan, which has since been proven to be true" mr burtis has always been, spot on...like it or not.
as for your unfounded claim anonymous, that mr burtis does not give of his time and expertise, you better check your "facts" rather than spew forth your argument convenient distortions and fabrications.
if mr burtis is guilty of anything it is that he does not ask anything in return for his insightful commentary. he has done a great deal to clean-out and open-up for public view the fiefdom that was derry, right up to the last election, in the minds of some old time pols. i wish there were many more like him that would bravely speak the truth with as much clarity.
finally BC, i think both the LA and the 102 vs. santa monica freeway reference was not meant to be literal when read in context but it's not to far off, especially 102 during rush hours.
Hey Brian I like your poll question on the private road funding. Should we read anything into the non-scientific results as they now stand? 13 no votes and 0 (zero) yes votes.
I don't think it's a good idea at all they made their beds by purchasing on private roads now they must sleep in them, better yet fix them up themselves then we can talk.
Fact: John B. writes in an above post:
"...you should view both sides instead of relying upon the distorted stories and rumors..."
Who among us believes that John B. practices that in his weekly letters to the editor?
What can I possibly add? You've got me dead to rights.
First of all Los Angelos is spelled Los Angeles.
Big differnce between Broadway and the freeway? Yes there is - the freeway moves a bit better during the 4pm rush hour.
Approve a plan to reduce traffic? Of course that's a ridiculous idea and anyone asking for any sort of ameliorization deserves the bum's rush.
Compare Derry to anywhere else?
What a waste of time. After all, Derry is perfect, corruption free, everything is marvelous, efficiency is running close to 100%, and why bother to look elsewhere on any aspect of the operations of our fabled departments. Derry always does it best. It's the USA who should be copying us.
Sure, there was a Derry emergency plan, from what I can gather, however, as I pointed out, if our citizenry can't see it, can't find it, no one is aware of it, and they can't get to it when they need it, it doesn't do any good. Now it's finally available on the town's website where it should have been all along.
Even Council Chairman Bulkley alluded to management studies last Tuesday. Perhaps all is not perfect in Mudville after all.
Say, in your spare time, Mr. Anonymous, when you're not ranting about all the corrupt and unethical folks in Canada, the LAPD, the LA area's emergency services, their shabby and idiotic management practices, and the remainder of the planet, and when you have a moment or two between adding tar to your paint brush and applying it, you might want to come up with a plan to assist our first responders in the self-notification process needed to aid our most vulnerable groups, like the blind, the deaf, and the disabled as part of our emergency mitigation process and during the actual emergency. Such an effort would, I'm sure, be greatly appreciated by those less fortunate.
Geez, and I was sure proud to see the article on our new town administrator today on the front page of the Eagle Tribune, his covering up of some million or so bucks in accounting anomalies, and his purchase of his new boat named Severance. The perfect man for Derry - a guy with a troubled past, who's been out of touch for 5 years.
And you know, Mr. Anonymous, just for yucks, why not dare to peek out from behind your cloak of anonymity and debate me on our town's overall efficiency, our costs of community services and tax rate, our plans for emergency response, the decrease in both fire and EMS calls, and our emergency mitigation and recovery efforts.
I'll meet you in any public forum of your choosing, at any reasonable time.
NEW TOWN ADMINISTRATOR
I hope that the council has picked the right person. From the little inviestigating I have done, it seems as though Rochester isn't in very good shape. Most Town employees I have spoken with blame much of this on their former Town Administrator.
Let's hope they made the right choice!
John B,
I'm assuming that this traffic issue on Rte 102 is your main arguement for paving Manning St ext correct? If you answer yes then I will assume that you are in favor of the new street at Merchants Row that will continue to south ave as well ( its in the CIP ) correct? and I will also assume that you will support Exit 4A which WILL in fact take pressure off of Rte 102. Am I correct in your favor of these projects????
Gents,
Would anyone disagree that opening up Manning Street will lead to MORE cars entering and exiting Manning Street on and off Broadway?
That additional and more active insection will clearly lead to more traffic conjestion on Broadway, not less.
If the goal is to alleviate traffic downtown, it's clear that straightening Birch and Crystal at the intersection of Broadway is an effective place to start.
Maybe the real goal of doing Manning Street has nothing to do with traffic.
anonymous 3:13,
You are 100% correct in your whole statement. also just an FYI. We will be doing the birch st/crystal ave intersection in 2008. Last year I wrote to Executive Councilor Worzorick and asked his help in getting that going since it was in the state's 10 year plan ( really a 14 year plan) and it kept getting put off. Ray Worzorick was effective in helping the town get it back on track. Thank-you Ray!
Hi John B.; your favorite anonymous here.
Thanks for pointing out the spelling error – I’m not an active user of spell-check or the thesaurus.
I, too, have concerns about the new Town Administrator, but again we have Councilors Coyle and Fairbanks to thank for chasing the talented executives away. No real professional would tolerate the politically motivated micro-management that those two practice.
As far as Manning Street, Anonymous 3:13pm nails it.
Obviously Derry is not perfect and is not run by perfect people, but by in large they are GOOD, hard working, well intentioned people who do not deserve character assassinations like the ones you recently spewed at Dr. Moody, Neil Wetherbee and more regularly at Craig Buckley. Please don’t make me respond with quotes from your letters to the paper.
Our town should get better and more efficient, but (my opinion is that) your style is, among other things, destructive – it discourages and leads to fewer people coming forward to participate in our community.
Your writtings about those people have motivated me to call you out in this forum IN KIND. You don't seem to appreciate it.
Debating you? I’m really very uncomfortable in public forums and besides I’d have to get my hair done (you assume too much).
BC,
In reading this LA baloney, I realy don't think we should copy or parallel anything about LA.. Housing is too high,the wouderful air is so thick you need to cut it with a knife to get it up your nose, and all I can remember about the police dept is 4 guys kickin the crap out of Rodney. NOW he's a millionare. We dont need riots in Derry niether.
The closest thing to riots in Derry are at the council meetings.
BC, MAYBE YOU COULD GIVE THE TAXPAYERS some numbers on how many lawsutes there are against our depts.and how the town is going to foot the bill if they loose. Do we have ample insurance COVERAGE ??
BC, Keep up the right thing to do .
anonymous...
How about a NAME, you coward...One might think it's Brian using a nom de plume to post the nastier comments he does not want to post as himself
Paul Hopfgarten
Paul H,
and everyone else, I can assure you that I will always post my name when making a comment. I'm always up for a good exchange of information even if i don't always agree and I have no reason to not do so.
I am a first time poster, not the anonymous that Mr. Hopfgarten called a COWARD. I expect a public servant like you Mr. H. to have a thicker skin. You are too hotheaded to represent the community. Your webpage to save NH from the Liberals sounds like a skit from Saturday Night Live. Your page about Real Derry politics bombed also. You have to come to Brian's page to get any response and to stir the pot. I am a liberal business owner so you could say we are polar opposites (or maybe I am Brian in your paranoid world).
anonymous 5:35,
Welcome and thanks for the post! Please feel free to chime in when you see fit. I appreciate all comments from all sides of an issue.
P.S. Hope your business is doing well-especially if its a Derry business!!
Thanks Brian. I live in Derry and also have a business here. I guess my new name is Anon 5:35 until I go through the registering process. This is a great site for people to exchange their views.
What separates Mr. H from Mr. B. is that to his credit, Mr. H has put his positions out in the public domain (elections, debates, commissions) in a way that people can respond; yes, that means he has opened himself up to criticism. Mr. B., on the other hand, has for quite some time utilized safe forums that don’t allow timely and critical response. By selecting those forums he has shielded himself and by the time someone responds, it’s too late the damage is done. And now that someone is responding….
Also, my recollection is that while Mr. H. has some fringe public policy ideas (my opinion) and one could also say that he is passionate about those ideas, he generally doesn’t get personal. And on the occasion Mr. H. gets personal, it’s usually grounded in, at least, some related fact. As I see it, Mr. B. regularly launches missiles aimed directly at people’s reputations and most often without foundation – through colorfully worded characterizations and stories. Examples of this are plentiful.
But Mr. B. and Mr. H are similar in this respect – they both enjoy politics and the both appear to be frustrated by those who are vocal in the resentment of their hobby. Yes, there are people who just want to serve their community – in non-elected positions and often as volunteers - without their reputations or motives being questioned. I’m one of those people and that’s why I’m…
Anonymous
Just an FYI.
Someone sent me an article that was written by the Derry News on May 22 by a local reporter.
I rejected this only because I do not have permission by that paper or the reporter to re-print. There was no other coment by the anonymous sender just the rewritten article and again I don't have permission to print that and so I had to reject the posting. SORRY:{
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