Health & Fitness
Ten Questions I Wish Had Been Asked at Candidates Night
Candidates night has come and gone. Ten questions I wish had been answered by our selectman candidates.
Much as I appreciate candidates night, there is just not sufficient time to discuss and learn about the candidate’s position on an issue. Our elections resemble a presidential primary with just one face-to-face debate.
So here are my questions that I wish could have been answered on Thursday.
On 40B
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1. If the voters of Massachusetts once again put forth a petition to repeal 40B, will you support that repeal?
2. Would you support making developing a plan to meet 40B requirements within 5 years a key goal for 2012 for the selectmen if elected?
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On Ethics and Transparency
3. What level of transparency and discussion with the public would you allow when negotiating contracts with key, non-union employees such as the town manager, town counsel?
4. Would you support stringent conflict of interest rules in the town that would prevent such things as members of town committees or their children receiving financial gain from the unions they negotiate with?
5. What is your strategy and philosophy for dealing with public record requests beyond the letter of the law?
6. Would you support automatic time based declassification of town meeting minutes from the numerous executive sessions held by town committees?
Town
7. How would you make actual progress in deciding one way or the other, the sewers, rail trail, and town center?
8. What is your model for a selectman? Are you a facilitator of a bunch of disparate committee’s and groups, or a strong man leader of the town working to herd the cats in a direction that you set?
School Funding
9. Placing overrides on the ballot that fail helps no one. What shared sacrifice would you ask for of both cost centers and the towns citizens to get budgets approved, override or not?
10. Would you support a change in the LS regional agreement with Lincoln that would either reduce Lincoln’s seats on the school board in proportion to their fiscal contribution to the school, or ask Lincoln to increase their fiscal contribution more in line with the formula’s used by other regional districts for funding?
Maybe next year, we can have an extended candidates night. Until then, perhaps the candidates could answer these questions in the online comment section below or with pen and paper.
