I'm Back

   Good morning. It's been a while. I felt like it was time to get on here again. Since the election I've been asked a few questions. I felt like answering. Here we go with that.

   These are just random questions I've gotten. I'm not naming names I'm just going to state the question and my answers. First I was asked if I was mad that I lost? Dedham needs real changes. It needs revenue streams and more of its departments need to come up with ways to be more self sufficient and I had ways we could do this so yes I'm mad I lost because I feel like I failed our town by losing.

  Would you run again for Selectman and do you not like the group in office now? If it was a one on one opportunity against one of the incumbents then yes. I would. It was two big a mountain to climb against 7 other people and 7 very strong people. They were all terrific. As far as the group that's in now and the two that dropped out, I think the two Dennis' think similarly to me and even though it's a bit early I think they get it and I think they will do well. As far as this fantastic five of Paul, Sarah, Carmen, Mike and Jim go, five fantastic people? Yes. if invited to have coffee or a beer and chat about the town with any one of them it would be my honor. To say they did a fantastic job I say no. I genuinely like them, but liking them personally and being objective about how I think this has gone the last six years is two entirely different things. I'm good at certain things and not good at other things. People who like me personally tell me I'm good at one thing and not necessarily good at another. That's not disliking me that's just being honest. I honestly feel that our town has not been run properly for a while. We need to be more self sufficient and need to get that burden off of our tax payers.

   What do you feel is the reason for the taxes? Well we spend too much money. I know there is a guy from Gainsville Road who will chime in and say we don't, but he's never been involved and he has no clue. We spend too much money. We had 8 plans for a municipal campus. Why? That is frivolous spending right there and then we were still funding a senior center search committee when these 8 plans included a senior center. Wouldn't that lead you to believe the search is over? Then we hire a consulting firm for the Town Manager search. We have a qualified HR Director that we as tax payers pay a salary to. She is more than qualified to post this position, collect resumes and give them to the board to review. How do I know this? I do it for a living and I can tell you without a doubt this is a waste of money. For all of you homeowners out there I'm going to put it this way. If you need to do work on your home you take out a home equity line. For a while your mortgage goes up until the equity line is paid back. What happens is your mortgage goes back to what it was before you took the loan.  Well when we do overrides to do projects and those projects start to come of the debt exclusion, because of inflation and the cost of living the taxes going back to the old number is simply not realistic. Should they level off at least or at least go back to a somewhat manageable number? Yes. Do they? No. Because we spend too much money.

   How do you feel about Bill Keegan and would you hire Nancy Baker as Town Manager? Personally, Bill is a nice guy. He didn't do a bad job, but he never understood our citizens and never tried to see our perspective. Nancy Baker should be our Town Manager. In our charter you need a degree and certain qualifications. The Charter should be changed to include consummate experience and she should get a fair chance. She has the experience and she knows the town. It would be the best decision they could make. We also wouldn't have to give out all these out of town perks Bill got for never moving here. Economically and for promoting from within its a win for our town and should be considered.

   What are you up to now? I'm working, I'm concentrating on my health, working out, running races and enjoying the spring and summer months. I am going to be reaching out to CYO at St Mary's to spearhead creating a Hall of Fame for the Basketball league. We've had terrific coaches, players and volunteers and they deserve to be recognized for their contribution.

   Thanks for reading. I'll have more blog entries real soon.