Special Town Meeting August 26

Next Wednesday, Brookline’s Town Meeting will have a special session to consider imposing a local meals tax and a local hotel tax in order to meet the budget deficit for the fiscal year. The state passed a law allowing local municipalities to impose these extra taxes, and if Brookline passes these taxes in August the town can start to benefit from the increased revenue in October. Otherwise, the town would have to wait until January, losing out on potential extra revenue.

One TMM’s Thoughts on the Security Cameras

Michael A. Burstein, one of the members of Neighbors Building Brookline, has posted his thoughts on Articles 24 and 25 on his personal blog at the following link:

Tuesday Night at Brookline Town Meeting: Surveillance Cameras

Warrant Review Meeting Report

Last night, the Town Meeting Members of precinct 12 that comprise Neighbors Building Brookline met for three hours to discuss the warrant in advance of Town Meeting. I’ve been a member of Town Meeting since 2001 from precinct 9, and I’ve never participated in an advance discussion other than by email or phone. I found this gathering of my new precinct delegation most useful, as it gave me a chance to hear different perspectives on the issues in a more intimate setting.

As always, the warrant for the Annual Town Meeting is an eclectic mix of articles. The simpler ones are housekeeping articles and the like, but there are also some controversial issues, as well as the town budget. The Brookline TAB has done a nice job of summarizing the issues that will come before us next week in the following article: “Brookline Town Meeting likely to reignite fire manning, camera debates” by Neal Simpson.

For those of you who are precinct 12 constituents, here are a few highlights from our meeting last night. Note that this is my personal report; none of my comments should be taken as the endorsements or opinions of Neighbors Bulding Brookline.

• Article 8 is the town’s budget article. Most of our discussion had to do with the question of what will happen with the Fiscal Year 2010 budget, given that state aid might be even lower than the town originally expected. Personally, I expect that we’ll end up voting on a budget, and then if it turns out that we’ll have to revisit it they’ll either call a summer session of Town Meeting or file budget amendments for the regular fall Town Meeting.

One thing I found out is that years ago, the town apparently would sometimes postpone the budget article until a special session at the end of June. No one seems to be floating this option for this year.

• Articles 9, 10, and 11 deal with amending the budget to maintain engine companies, ladder companies, the Fire Alarm Superintendent, and Signal Maintainer for the Fire Department, as well as requiring the town to adopt NFPA Standard 1710 (which has to do with minimum staffing). These articles were first filed when it looked as if some fire department equipment and personnel were being threatened by budget cuts, but from what I understand the budget no longer includes those cuts. So it seems to me that these articles have become slightly irrelevant. (Article 11 actually has to do with moving positions out of the Fire Department and into another department, but nothing struck me as amiss about that.)

• Article 16 was the proposal made by a citizen petitioner that all food establishments be required to post caloric information on their menu. The relevant town departments reported that this would be too prohibitive for many of Brookline’s single proprietorship food establishments, and that the real concern – easy access to the nutrition information about the food served by chain restaurants – is about to be addressed by a new state law. So the motion under this article is a simple resolution urging restaurants to provide nutrition information and healthy choices. I can get behind that.

• Article 21 is a petition to be filed with the General Court to allow Brookline to hire off the civil service list for all positions in the town, with the exception of the Police and Fire departments. This is a rather complex issue; the basic problem is that the civil service system is broken and hasn’t been working the way it should. To get on the list, one has to sign up for it, and theoretically take an exam to prove qualifications. The problems are that exams are not being given consistently and many people on the list are unqualified. And yet, when hiring for certain jobs, town departments can only hire off the lists, which often means not hiring anyone at all.

Personally, I’m uncomfortable with this article but can see the necessity. Supposedly the governor’s office is working to fix the broken system, so the petition would end up unnecessary. I’m planning to listen to the reports at Town Meeting before making my final decision.

• Article 22 redefines the residency preference for hiring Brookline police officers to include anyone who graduated from the high school. In other words, if you grew up in Brookline and then moved to Allston-Brighton where apartments are more affordable, you could still get residency preference since it’s obvious that you know the town well.

• Article 23 concerns the Citizen Complaint Review Committee and how Brookline investigates complaints against the police. This was an emotional discussion, as the whole business is rooted in an event that took place a few years ago with repercussions still being felt today. It would take far too long for me to go into detail, but in general most of us felt that the article ought to be considered apart from the incident. If at all possible.

• Article 24 and 25 deal with the pilot program for the surveillance cameras. If I read these correctly, Article 24 would keep the program going until the end of the year, while Article 25 would kill the program immediately. (And yes, we wondered what would happen if both articles passed.) We had an excellent discussion on the issue of the cameras. It’s the classic dilemma between freedom and security. On the one hand, people are concerned about the potential for abuse with security cameras in the town; on the other hand, people acknowledge that the cameras make the police’s job a lot easier, something to consider with certain types of crime possibly on the rise. Personally, I think the real issue is that the money for the program came from the Department of Homeland Security, which has a lot of Brookline residents opposed to it on that principle alone.

• Article 26 is a resolution to set up a Pay As You Throw (PAYT) trash collecting system, in which the more you throw out as garbage, the more money you would pay. This is different from the current system, in which people pay a flat fee for trash pickup each year. There’s been a spirited debate on this issue among Town Meeting Members already, which has less to do with the merits of PAYT and much more to do with the problem of illegal dumping. The TAB had an excellent article on this issue; see “Plans for trash fee reform in Brookline on hold for now” by Neal Simpson for the story of the magically appearing sofa. At this point, it looks like Town Meeting will vote to send the issue back to committee. But, as our Town Meeting loves controversy, the debate is now centering on whether to refer the issue to a Selectmen’s Committee or a Moderator’s Committee. What fun!

These, and many other issues, will be debated next week (and probably the week after) at Brookline Town Meeting. Remember, if you have any opinions on these issues, get in touch with your precinct’s Town Meeting Members and let us know where you stand.

Runkle School Building Committee – Public Comment Session

For those of us living in precinct 12, the Runkle School renovation is presumably of more than passing interest. A public comment session will be held as follows:

Date: Monday 6/15/2009
Time: 7:00 pm
Meeting Location: Runkle School, 50 Druce Street
Agenda: Public comment session

For more information, visit Runkle School Building Committee.

Brookline Public Health Advisory – May 7

[Copied from Health Advisory - H1N1 Influenza cases in Brookline; please go there for more information]

PUBLIC HEALTH ADVISORY – May 7, 2009

The Brookline Department of Public Health today announced that there are three confirmed cases of the 2009 H1N1 flu (swine flu) in Brookline residents. Two cases are students at Baker School, one case is a student at Brookline High. All students have been excluded from school and are recovering at home. The Department announced that Brookline will follow the most recent federal and state guidelines which recommend that the best way to reduce the spread of flu is to focus on early identification of illness, not to close schools or cancel public events.

Election Day Results

Neighbors Building Brookline is happy to announce that our five endorsed candidates (Lee Cooke Childs, David Cotney, Jonathan Grand, Michael A. Burstein, and Casey Hatchett) won their race yesterday to represent precinct 12 in Town Meeting. We’d also like to congratulate Judy Meyers on being re-elected to the School Committee, and we’d like to congratulate Jonathan Karon and Ian Sklaver for their well-run campaigns for Town Meeting.

Now the work of the warrant begins. Neighbors Building Brookline will be gathering before the May Town Meeting to discuss the issues that will come before us on the warrant. If you have any thoughts or questions on the warrant articles, please do get in touch.

Election Day Tomorrow – Please Vote

For those of you who are first visiting our site today, welcome. Neighbors Building Brookline reminds you that tomorrow, May 5, 2009, is town election day in Brookline, Massachusetts, and asks that you make an effort to get out and vote tomorrow, no matter what the weather.

As a reminder, we endorse the following five candidates for Town Meeting from precinct 12:

Lee Cooke Childs
David J. Cotney
Jonathan H. Grand
Michael A. Burstein
Casey Hatchett

You can read their candidate statements, posted last week, right here.

We also support Judy Meyers for re-election to the Brookline School Committee.

Candidate Statement: Casey A. Hatchett

I am running for TMM for Precinct 12 because I am committed to making our community a better and safer place to live and work.  I have lived in Brookline for 15 years and own a home on University Road where I live with my husband and three sons, ages 5, 3 and 1.  I have been very active in our community for many years, serving as a Brookline Police Officer for the last 11 years, as Chair of the Brookline Commission for Women for the last 4 and now as a new parent at Driscoll School where I am a BEEP PTO member and room parent.  I have a wealth of relevant experience and knowledge on both professional and personal fronts.
 
My areas of priority include:
•         Public Safety
•         Schools
•         Environment
 
I bring diverse work experiences and considerable community involvement in several areas.  Being the mother of three young sons, I will be a strong voice for young families in our community who seek an excellent public education. 
 
During the last 11 years as a Brookline Police Officer, I have been assigned to the Patrol Division, the Community Service Division and currently to the Crime Analysis Unit. I also work closely with the Emergency Management Team and coordinate the Town’s CERT (Community Emergency Response Team).  I worked extensively on the BPD’s Racial Profiling Prevention Strategies grant program and was editor and a contributing author for the BPD’s 10 Year Report on Racial Profiling Prevention.  I have extensive experience as a grant writer as well.  As a TMM, I would bring a decade of experience in helping people who are underserved and disadvantaged and have strong feelings on fairness and justice.  I feel my experiences as a local police officer uniquely qualify me to represent our community as I know a side of Brookline that most people would never understand.  I have been fortunate to work under the direction of a progressive police chief and to have the opportunity to work on a variety of initiatives that help make Brookline a safer and better place to live.
 
As Chair of the Brookline Commission for Women for the last four years, I have helped institute an active agenda of programs and initiatives that support and promote women in Brookline.  The Brookline Commission for Women strives to support women in all aspects of their lives and to promote the cultural, racial, and economic diversity of Brookline.  Over the last four years, I have been instrumental in reinvigorating the Brookline Commission for Women which had been being defunct for several years.  The BCW is now fully appointed and we have become a major contributor in the community.  Specifically, I have helped to coordinate four Dress for Success Clothing Drives to help underprivileged women entering the workforce. I have worked on programs that educate women in the community on topics such as breast cancer (through the showing of the documentary film Toxic Bust which links chemicals in the environment to breast cancer) and money management (which taught attendees how to repair bad credit, make spending/saving plan and reduce costs.).  I am currently on the planning committee for the Women Who Launch initiative – a series of programs aimed at current and prospective female entrepreneurs.  I have coordinated the last four Women Who Inspire Us essay contests and award ceremonies which celebrate women in the community making a significant impact on the lives of children and others in our community.  
 
Over the last two years, I have also been a member of the Jennifer A. Lynch Committee Against Domestic Violence and currently serve as Treasurer.  The JAL works to raise domestic violence awareness and prevention through education and programming. I recently worked on the planning committee for our 3rd Annual Domestic Violence Forum where panelists included former Governor Paul Cellucci, DA William Keating, and Ronny Sydney. 
 
I earned a Bachelor of Arts from Boston University in Political Science with a minor in Sociology and a Masters Degree from Western New England College in Criminal Justice Administration.  During college, I developed my interest in public service while interning with the Governor’s Council and working for Congressman Joseph Kennedy at his District office and on his re-election campaign. I furthered this interest in public service while working as a speechwriter and policy analyst for the Secretary of Public Safety (Kathleen O’Toole) and went on to pursue a career in law enforcement as a result of her inspiration.  My policy work at the Secretariat focused on community policing, domestic violence prevention, improved technology for law enforcement (computers/radios) and diplomatic work with Northern Ireland regarding the implementation of community policing in their country. 
 
Through my work and community service over the last decade, I am intricately involved in our community and feel I would be an excellent voice for Brookline at TM.  Thank you for your vote on May 5th! Regards, Casey A. Hatchett  (PAX endorsed)

Candidate Statement: Michael A. Burstein

Although I am new to precinct 12, I have been a Town Meeting Member from precinct 9 since 2001. In December 2008, my wife and I bought a condominium on Garrison Road in precinct 12, and I am hoping to represent my new precinct with the same dedication with which I represented my old precinct.

I am proud to say that in my nine years representing precinct 9, I have never once missed a night of Town Meeting.

I have long been a resident of Brookline. I first lived in the town from 1991-1993 when I was a graduate student, and my wife and I have lived in Brookline from the day we were married in 1995. In 2001, I ran for the Town Meeting seat being vacated by Representative Frank Israel Smizik, and won it with his endorsement. As a Town Meeting Member, I have paid careful attention to all the issues that have come before us and have been responsive to the concerns of my constituents.

Along with being a Town Meeting Member, since 2004 I have also been an elected Library Trustee. As a Trustee, I chair the building committee. As part of that role, I kept tabs on the renovation project at Coolidge Corner. I am now keeping tabs on a renovation at Putterham. I helped push for an extra staff member at the Coolidge Corner branch to relieve congestion. In addition, before I was on the Board, the library’s budget for purchasing items had been kept steady despite the rising cost of materials. As a Trustee, I pushed for increased funding to the materials budget, which we got. More recently, I supported and endorsed the override to keep town services at a level that our citizens expect, and I worked on getting the RFID program approved to relieve congestion in our libraries.

I grew up in New York City and graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. in Physics and from Boston University with an M.A. in Physics. For many years I worked as a teacher, teaching at the Cambridge School of Weston and then at the Rashi School. I currently edit science textbooks at Pearson Education. I am also an award-winning science-fiction writer and occasional journalist; my first book, “I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein,” was published last year and is available in the Brookline libraries.

My wife and I are active members of our synagogue, Kadimah-Toras Moshe, located just over the border in Brighton. We are expecting our first children, a set of twins, this August.

For those who wish to know more about me, I maintain a website at http://www.mabfan.com and a blog at http://mabfan.livejournal.com.

I have been endorsed by Neighbors Building Brookline and by Brookline PAX.

I hope you will cast your vote for me on May 5.

Candidate Statement: Jonathan H. Grand

I have been a Town Meeting member since 1997 because of my belief that a community is only liveable to the extent that its citizens actively participate in it.  To some extent, town meetng and its nearly 250 members is an unwieldy form of government but it also allows for a lot of citizen input; this puts town officials and employees on notice that their performance is being observed and judged.  I am proud of my perfect record attendance over the past three years and having missed only one session during my entire 12 years; I believe that we Town Meeting members have an obligation to represent our constituents as well as share our reasons for voting on issues.  
 
In addition to my history with Town Meeting, I have been a trustee at Beaconsfield TowneHouse Condominium Trust for most of the 22 years that I have lived there.  It is a 31 unit community and I have been happy to make a contribution in maintaining the living standards of my neighbors as well as myself. 
 
I received a Masters’ Degree in Social Work from the University of Michigan and worked in the substance abuse treatment and prevention field for many years.  I am the former executive director of two nonprofit agencies and have worked for the last 16 years as a consultant for Advocates for Human Potential, Inc., which provides consulting services to Federal and State agencies in the areas of substance abuse treatment and prevention, mental health, domestic violence, and health care. 
 
It has been a privilege representing you in Precinct 12 and I would greatly appreciate your vote on May 5th.