Drugs and Taxes

As you probably know by now, the Police Department dropped warrants on 30 street-level drug dealers this week. Also, Councilor Dean Tran is advocating for a tax cut for homeowners and businesses.

First, the Tran proposal. Tran has been an advocate of returning tax money to property tax payers since the got into office. He has always been very upfront and very honest in that he sees that as a top priority, and that he'll do whatever he can to make that happen.

However, Tran said this week money shouldn't be placed in free cash or stabilization, and instead returned to taxpayers. It's not a crazy idea, but is this the time?

The municipal finance geeks say a community's stabilization fund should equal 10 percent of the annual budget. I'm no economist (of course), but that seems very high, and pretty much unattainable for most communities. Hell, Leominster isn't even at that level. Fitchburg, in the meantime, is just over 1 percent.

That stabilization figure plays into bond ratings and all that stuff, and is supposed to be around for when times get bad. Sure, times are bad now, but you get the drift.

Here's the rub: Is the stabilization fund a luxury, or a necessity, like other parts of the budget? I'd say a stabilization fund of the above-mentioned 10 percent is a luxury. I think a realistic stabilization fund of several million dollars is a necessity (imagine if the city had a good stabilization fund before now. Could the library have stayed open? Could contracts and raises be settled?).

Complicating the thinking here is the relatively small discount of $5. It's the point that counts perhaps (and if you make that argument Tran here, shouldn't it apply to Wong's pay cut proposal?), but at this point, I'm willing to pay $5 for the prospect of some fiscal stability.

As for the drug sweep, it's good news that 30 drug dealers were targeted. The better news is that Police Chief Robert DeMoura is pushing other city departments to smother the buildings they live in with any building infraction they can find.

Pride reporter Karen Mann hit Wednesday's press conference, and when she was filling me in, I muttered "He didn't just steal from the Lowell playbook, he just took a copy with him." Karen said DeMoura has admitted as much.

When I worked in Lowell, these efforts were big deals. The city manager, the chief (maybe even DeMoura, for all I remember), the Building Department, the Board of Health, the Fire Department, and some others all stomped down the street, taking notes, writing tickets when possible, and later sending out letters. I tagged along as they pointed out what was wrong and what they were going to do about it. I took some time -- a year or more -- but I'd drive those side streets later and it was obvious things improved dramatically.

DeMoura noted that change won't come overnight, that it takes time for the landlords to get the message and get their act together. But hopefully city departments make it a priority and help the PD out on this one. It would be huge for some neighborhoods if this was done the right way and got the potential impact that is there.

El Presidente

Looks like Tom Conry and Dean Tran are the leaders for the City Council presidency, a job that is traffic cop, mediator, and consensus builder, amongst other things.

It'll be interesting to see which way this goes. Conry was solid as a first-termer, was the top vote-getter. He was on top of the financial issues, but rarely made big waves.

Tran, on the other hand, did make some waves. He was the proactive member of the council, and when things went south on occassion, he wasn't afraid to punch back. All of which are admireable traits in a councilor. But do they translate to the presidency? Tran gets along with all his colleagues, but remember those dust-ups with DeSalvatore? How does that play in the selection -- if at all.

Also, Tran had ideas, and moved on them. For example, the sex criminal petition and the landlord petition. Does he get distracted from proactive moves if he's running the council? In short, is council president the best spot for Tran to do his work?

All the above are questions that need a few answers before the council gets around to choosing a new leader. The selection process has certainly already started with phone calls, e-mails, and discussions. It will be interesting to see if this is a quick process, or if Conry and Tran -- and perhaps a mystery Councilor X (no ideas here, just saying) need time to find their six votes.

One more thing: Another indication of Wong's ridiculous victory. She got 5,863 votes. The next highest vote total on the ballot ws Conry's 4,303. She topped Conry by 1,500, and Conry was eligible to scoop up one of five votes, Wong one of one (obviously). Wow.

Last-Minute Library Spinning

The City Council, if you haven't heard, decide what to do with library funding tonight, and at least two city councilors are discussing the issue somewhat publicly in the last few hours.

I'm guessing most folks are already reading the Fitchburg Hometown e-mail string (if you're not the list, you might want to be. It's a worthy inbox filler), but if you haven't, here goes:

Councilor Ted DeSalvatore chimed in this morning (9:19 a.m. according to Outlook) with the following:

To all concerned,
The library budget/funding information is not
complete.

City Council has no intension of hurting the library in
any way. Our job is to balance the City Budget. We have taken the initiative to
reduce all pay raises to the 2007 mark throughout the city in hopes to recoup a
$760,000 deficit. Doing that, (according to the director of the Fitchburg Public
Library), will reduce the overall monies to a level that would cause the loss of
certification, so our recommendation to the mayor would be to place the
difference into the heating oil account or some other place within that
department. This is in the name of fairness. We will not allow it to return to
pay raises, and I believe we will protest any additional areas, that do not
serve the City’s immediate needs but in the end, the final decision will be in
the Mayor’s lap.

Council can only reduce, eliminate, recommend and
reject, we cannot add anything to the budget. Therefore, with that said, once
council finishes cutting, the rest of the math is up to the Mayor. I would
suggest, in light of all the efforts to encourage City Council to keep the
funding, the same effort be extended to the mayor in seeing to it that the
necessary monies are reallocated to the heating oil or like line items, keeping
the funding level where it needs to be, and retaining the certification we all
desire.

I hope that I have stated this clearly enough, however if
you should have any further questions, please feel free to contact me
directly.

I should add, this is my personal perspective, and
believe most councilors feel the same way, however, any councilors that feel
they have a different take on this, should be encouraged to respond with their
thoughts as well.

Thank you,
Ted

City
Councillor
Ted E. DeSalvatore
Tel (978) 343-4174
Cell(978)
502-9432
vincit qui se vincit

This afternoon (4:42 according to Outlook), Dean Tran chimed in with the following:

Hello,
Ward 4 Councilor DeSalvatore's views are solely his own. I would ask
any
and all concern residents to contact each individual city councilors
and
discuss the matter. Furthermore, the City Council President, Jody
Joseph,
is the only authorized individual to speak on behalf of the City
Council as
a whole.


Sincerely,
Dean A.
Tran
City Councilor
at-large
http://www.ci.fitchburg.ma.us
http://www.deantran.net

So, there you go. Not sure what will happen, exactly, tonight, but the council seems to be taking this pretty seriously.

By the way, not sure if there are any Latin scholars in the room, but according to a quick google search, "vincit qui se vincit," which DeSalvatore uses to sign his e-mails, translates to "He conquers who conquers himself." So there you go.

Food Fight

When you get a chance, check out today's Sentinel (UPDATE: Here's the link). If there was any question as to Dean Tran and Ted DeSalvatore's relationship, forget it about it now.

Tran sent an e-mail to councilors ripping DeSalvatore for DeSalvatore's letter in Sunday's Sentinel about Tran's landlord petition. DeSalvatore claims he signed on to the petition only with some caveats, and those caveats never happened, so he wants out. Tran claims, logically, that signing on to a petition means you support the petition.

According the City Clerk's office, there is no formal process for signing on to a petition. Typically, a councilor files a petition with the clerk, and includes the name of sponsors.

Here's a "no-duh" question: Who gave the e-mail to the Sentinel? This isn't the first time an e-mail amongst the councilors has been leaked to the public (at one point, even Save Fitchburg gone one).

It's one thing for councilors to be in a food fight. It happens. Sometimes they last a few days, sometimes a few weeks, sometimes they never go away. The interesting and disturbing trend in Fitchburg is that councilors don't seem to mind airing their dirty laundry in full public view. It's silly to think all 11 will get along all the time on everything, but you'd think they'd keep the bickering a bit more internal.

Consider, also, this: Jody Joseph saying the warring on the council is the worst he's seen, and he said it was cranked up when the current batch of rookie councilors came into office. This could mean a couple of different things. Certainly, there was some "new blood" feeling on the part of voters in 2005. Is this an old generation-new generation headbutt? Or was Joseph pointing fingers at specific councilors?

Certainly, Tran has developed himself as a proactive councilor and one who doesn't particularly care to take a lot of, um, gruff from colleagues. This latest episode -- proactive petition, fighting back -- is a perfect example.

DeSalvatore, however, is a whole different bag of cats. He, obviously, is running for mayor. Is Joseph pointing the blame DeSalvatore's way. If so, do other councilors feel the same way? It's an important question because councilors have, in varying degrees of size and power, machines that they manipulate on election day. If eight, nine or even 10 councilors are spreading the word to followers not to vote for DeSalvatore, it could be a electoral problem for DeSalvatore. Not saying that's the case, but if it is, its a political problem DeSalvatore needs to solve in the next five months.

Tran to Run for Council

Check out a little Fitchburg Pride web exclusive on Dean Tran running for re-election the City Council this fall, and not running for mayor.

It's no surprise Tran isn't running for mayor. He can't afford the $60,000 salary, and has said for months he didn't want to run. However, he wasn't sure about running for re-election, but pulled papers last week. Considering the frustration he has often felt as a councilor, it wasn't a slam dunk that he'd be back.