Saturday, December 1, 2007

Chris Lavery gets recognized for good work

While recognizing the need for safeguards in the post-9/11 era, Lavery believes immigration law does need to be reformed.

"It can be incredibly draconian," Lavery said of U.S. immigration law. "There are laws in place that kind of curl your toes."

For example, he said, the law requires the detention of anyone with "even a minor offense," such as violating a visa. It can take anywhere from 12 to 18 months to resolve such cases, Lavery said, and in the meantime the aliens are kept in corrections facilities along with people who have been tried and convicted of various crimes.

If an alien in detention gives up on becoming a U.S. citizen, Lavery said, even then it can take six to eight weeks before they are released to return to their countries of origin.

"There needs to be reform. The immigrant population here is just burgeoning," Lavery said. "It's about time we give them some kind of fair avenue to legalize their status here."

Read the full article by Heather McCarron in the Milford Daily News about the recognition Chris is receiving as a recipient of the Solas Appreciation Award.

Congratulations, Chris. Keep up the good work!

The drinking problem amongst our youth

Michael Morton writes on the report presented at the School Committee meeting this week that
Nearly half of town high school students participating in a health survey said they had drank alcohol recently, according to results released this week, with the rate exceeding the average regional consumption.

The survey, funded by the MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation and conducted last spring by the nonprofit Education Development Center, found that 48 percent of the 1,350 Franklin high school students who took part in the survey said they drank within the last month. That figure was higher than the 42 percent average for the 18 MetroWest and Milford area communities that participated, but the same as the statewide rate.

"Every community is surprised it's that high," said Michele Kingsland-Smith, Franklin's director of instructional services. "If it were 35 (percent), it'd still be too high."

The survey's topics included alcohol, drug and tobacco use; violent behavior; suicide; and sexual behavior among middle school and high school students. While regional averages were released last month, Franklin unveiled its results during a School Committee meeting Tuesday, with a number of categories showing a continued downward trend.

This is an issue where Franklin can take control of it and put their own resources to use to make some real substantial progress. This is not just a school issue, this is a community issue.

Read the full article here.

Note: I do have the recorded presentation from the School Committee meeting in queue to post. You will be able to hear that important information for yourself.

Historical Commission Statement

Bob Percy, representing the Historical Commission read the prepared statement advocating to use the old Town Hall as the new lcation of the museum.

Time: 6 minutes, 30 seconds



MP3 File


Note: I did not hear the representative identify himself, nor did I catch anyone refer to him by name. If anyone can identify the individual, I will update this with his name.

Updated 12/3/07: As noted in the comment from Susan Spears, she had correctly identified Bob Percy as the representative. I did get an email from Bob to confirm as well.

Reapplication of Hotel Tax

Jeff Nutting proposes to reapply the hotel tax receipts for the next tax year to fund repairs to the old Town Hall and to the Library instead of continuing to build the open space fund

Time: 3 minutes, 40 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Citizens Comment 9

Jane Curran comments

Time: 41 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Citizens Comment 8

Ken Norman comments

Time: 1 minute, 14 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Citizens Comment 7

Dave Collier (?) comments. He his holding the microphone and not always talking into it so it makes this one hard to hear. J Nutting, S Zollo, S Whalen also speak during this time.

Time: 4 minutes, 4 seconds



MP3 File

Friday, November 30, 2007

Franklin in the news

From the Milford Daily News:

The Charter Commission recommendations are reported on here

Hotel tax revenue vote from Wednesday's Town Council meeting


From the Franklin Gazette:

The school deficit covered temporarily

Taxes to rise, no surprise since the override passed

Tax Hearing Citizens Comment 6

Tom Fleming comment

Time: 1 minute, 56 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Citizens Comment 5

Michael Doherty comment

Time: 4 minutes, 48 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Citizens Comment 4

Councilor Whalen makes his statement on assessment issue

Time: 1 minute, 22 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Citizens Comment 3

Councilor Zollo makes his statement on assessment issue

Time: 1 minute, 31 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Citizens Comment 2

Councilor Doak has a follow up question for LeBlanc

Time: 1 minute, 54 seconds



MP3 File

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Tax Hearing Citizens Comment - 1

Michael LeBlanc shares his assessment analysis

Time: 17 minutes, 15 seconds



MP3 File

Michael LeBlanc's assessment analysis workbook

During the Town Council meeting 11/28/07, Michael LeBlanc handed out to the Town Council and those in attendance a couple of sheets with his analysis of the tax assessments on commercial/industrial versus residential properties.

The papers that he handed out came from the two pages in the workbook now posted online and available here.

Michael, thank you for sharing this work!



Tax Hearing Q&A - 11

Councilor McGann asks what is the distribution of split vs. single tax rates in MA

Time: 1 minute, 0 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Q&A - 10

Councilor Doak clarifies 2007 sales and assessment valuations

Time: 47 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Q&A - 9

Councilor Vallee clarifies the potential tax rates

Time: 1 minute, 11 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Q&A - 8

Councilor Whalen asks "Can you recast this spreadsheet?"

Time: 7 minutes, 34 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Q&A - 7

Chairman Feeley asks a question, Kevin Doyle responds

Time: 5 minutes, 35 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Q&A - 6

Councilor Pfeffer says this info is deceptive

Time: 1 minute, 26 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Q&A - 5

Councilor Zollo starts getting to the real question, Kevin Doyle sorta answers it, Dibaggis chimes in

Time: 6 minutes, 14 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Q&A - 4

Councilor McGann asks a question on the split tax rate scenarios

Time: 2 minutes, 0 seconds



MP3 File

Town Council Meeting 11/28/07 Summary

In chronological order of the meeting itself, my live postings with the audio sections and the newspaper coverage that corresponds.


Board of Assessors presentation (audio)

Questions on senior participation in deferments (Pfeffer, McGann) (audio)

Mason's question on single rate rationale
(audio)

Doak's initial questions (audio)

McGann's question on split tax rate scenarios (audio)

Zollo gets to the point (audio)

This is a deceptive piece of information (Pfeffer)

This is deceptive (Pfeffer) (audio)

Chairman Feeley has his turn (audio)

Can you recast this spreadsheet? (Whalen)
Nutting's proposal on determining the assessed vs. sale valuations

Can you recast this spreadsheet? (Whalen) (audio)

Councilor Vallee clarifies the potential tax rates (audio)

Councilor Doak clarifies 2007 sales and assessment valuations (audio)

Councilor McGann asks what is the distribution of split vs. single tax rates in MA (audio)

LeBlanc's presentation on the assessed valuations
LeBlanc's handouts (two spreadsheets)

Michael Leblanc's analysis of the assessment issue (audio)

Doak follow up question for LeBlanc (audio)

Zollo statement on assessment problem (audio)

Whalen statement on assessment problem (audio)

Franklin needs to be competitive with India as well as Indiana (M Doherty)
M Doherty comment (audio)

T Fleming comment (audio)

D Collier (?) comment (audio)

caution you to use the information he has provided carefully
K Norman comment (audio)

J Curran comment (audio)

Jeff Nutting reviews the proposal for the Town Council to change the allocation of the Hotel Tax
Jeff Nutting (audio)

Historical Commission representative reads statement (audio)

Whalen, Nutting, Bartlett (audio)

McGann, Nutting, Roche (audio)

Doak, Zollo, Roche (audio)

Pfeffer (audio)

Susan Spears (audio)

Dave Collier (?) (audio)

Michael LeBlanc, Lisa Piana, Carol Harpin (audio)

McGann, Nutting, Roche (audio)

Zollo (audio)

Jane Curran, Eileen Mason, Lynn Narron (audio)

Motion to allocate the Hotel/Motel Tax per Nutting recommendation to next agenda

Doak, Bartlett, Nutting, Feeley, McGann and vote (audio)

Deficit in FY 09 will be far greater than FY 08 per Nutting (audio)

Motion to balance the discovered discrepancy in the School budget for FY 07 with transfer of $590,000 from stabilization


Milford Daily News coverage

Tax Hearing Q&A - 3

Councilor Doak's initial questions during the tax hearing

Time: 4 minutes, 46 seconds



MP3 File

Tax Hearing Q&A - 2

Councilor Mason's question on the reasoning for the single tax rate and not the split tax rate. DiBaggis and Norman reply.

Time: 4 minutes, 6 seconds



MP3 File

credibility of the town's government had once again taken a hit

From Michael Morton's article in the Milford Daily News:

Faced with a recently discovered $590,000 school funding gap, councilors voted last night to plug the hole with money from the town's savings account.

Although the Finance Committee recommended that the schools be held accountable by giving up $290,000 from their budget, and taking $300,000 from the fiscal stabilization fund, the council decided that it did not yet have enough information to assign responsibility.


Read the full article here recapping the Town Council meeting of 11/28/07.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Tax Hearing Q&A

Councilors Pfeffer and McGann with their initial questions on how many seniors apply for deferments for tax relief.

Time: 2 minutes, 14 seconds



MP3 File

live blogging - Town Council Meeting 11/28/07

Motion to balance the discovered discrepancy in the School budget for FY 07 with transfer of $590,000 from stabilization.

The auditors are scheduled to come to the Town Council at a future meeting to address the problem and make recommendations.

Role call -> 9-0 motion passed

Live blogging -Town Council meeting 11/28/07

Deficit in FY 09 will be far greater than FY 08 per Nutting.

Live blogging - Town Council Meeting 11/28/07

Motion to allocate the Hotel/Motel Tax per Nutting recommendation to next agenda.

Passed 7-2.

Live blogging - Town Council Meeting 11/28/07

place holder for additional recorded citizens comment

Live blogging - Town Council Meeting 11/28/07

Citizens comment

Michael LeBlanc

place holder for recorded comment

Live blogging - Town Council Meeting 11/28/07

Citizens Comment

Susan Spears

place holder for recorded comment on use of open space/community preservation

Live blogging - Town Council Meeting 11/28/07

placeholder for recording of comment by Historical Commission representative

Live Blogging - Town Council Meeting 11/28/07

Jeff Nutting reviews the proposal for the Town Council to change the allocation of the Hotel Tax. He proposes to use $90,000 for an architect to provide an assessment on repairs required for the library. He also proposes to use $200,000 to make repairs to the old Senior Center in preparation for the Museum.

The Town Council would need to make a vote to appropriate the money for these uses. Otherwise, the money would go into the open space fund as originally allocated.

The vote would need to take place before the tax rate is set at the meeting next week.

Live blogging - Town Council Meeting 11/28/07

Tax rate - Citizen Portion

Ken Norman

Michael Leblanc is an honorable man, I have worked with him, he does good analysis. I would caution you to use the information he has provided carefully... Let's get Mr Whalen and Mr LeBlanc together and see what they can come up with.

Live blogging - Town Council Meeting 11/28/07

Tax rate - Citizen portion

Michael Doherty

"If there is a problem with assessments, fix that problem, do not address it with it a split tax rate... Franklin needs to be competitive with India as well as Indiana... You increase the pie by selling the properties we are trying to, get them on the tax role."

Live blogging - Town Council Meeting 11/28/07

Tax Rate Citizen comment portion

Michael LeBlanc speaking

Commercial/Industrial properties

64 properties sold from 2004 to 2007, reduced to 54 for analysis
pre-assessed value of these properties sold $264
difference is 96 million, assessment 36% below what they were sold for

9 of the properties, had an assessed value higher than the sale price
55 were below, Franklin Village was the single biggest difference

family homes

895 properties, presale 384 million 5%
262 were assessed higher than sale
633 were valued less than sale price


From Kevin - Board of Assessors in response to questions from M LeBlanc

more than 50% of the properties provide the information on income and expenses
if they don't supply the information, the business would waive their right to appeal the tax assessment, they may jeopardize their appeal at the state level, they are also subject to a $50 penalty.


there were several properties in the Industrial Park that were assessed for 45.7 million, sold for 67.8 million; the current year assessments went down to 42 million.

Summary: The business are effectively getting a tax break of about $2.5 million that the residents are picking up.

Live blogging - Town Council Meeting 11/28/07

Tax rate Q&A

Jeff Nutting proposed to pick the properties that sold around $1 million, which would be about 20 or so properties, to re-do the calculation and include that years assessed value for those properties to make a determination as to whether there is an undervaluation of business commercial properties.

Live blogging - Town Council Meeting 11/28/07

Tax rate Q&A

Can you re-cast this spreadsheet to show the assessed valuation at the time of the sale? Could you do that for us?
from Stephen Whalen during this discussion

After some clarification, yes, they can and will do that.

Town Council Tax Hearing 1

The presentation by the Tax Assessors on 11/28/07 and their recommendation for the tax rate for FY 09

Time: 5 minutes, 42 seconds



MP3 File

Live blogging - Town Council Meeting 11/28/07

Tax rate hearing: Q&A

"This is a deceptive piece of information... not apples to apples, oranges to oranges.."
said by Judith Pond Pfeffer in reference to the discussion around the information provided on assessed value versus sales price of local business/commercial properties since 2005.

Where in Franklin? #20


Where in Franklin? #20, originally uploaded by shersteve.

Let's see if you can identify this building.

The guidelines to play "Where in Franklin?" can be found here.

Enjoy!

Before setting the tax rate

With the library leaking and the museum headed for a new downtown home, the Finance Committee recommended last night that money for the projects be taken from a fund dedicated in the past to open space.

The fund currently holds $1.6 million and is drawn from the town's hotel/motel tax. While that money would remain earmarked for open space, upcoming earnings from the current fiscal year would go to the library and the museum under a plan proposed by Town Administrator Jeffrey Nutting and recommended by the Finance Committee.

...

Since the Finance Committee is an advisory group, the Town Council is expected to discuss the museum and library tonight (Wednesday 11/28/07). To use the hotel/max tax for purposes other than open space, the council must make a final decision before setting the tax rate.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Town Council Meeting - Important Agenda Items

Given the recent discrepancy found in the school budget, the agenda calls for correcting this imbalance.

The Finance Committee met tonight as well as the School Committee. I chose to attend the School Committee meeting. We can depend on Michael Morton of the Milford Daily News to report on the FINCOM meeting.

A brief discussion with some members of the FINCOM after their meeting seemed to indicate they propose for the shortfall to be split between the Town and the Schools. The Town piece would be covered by the not yet certified "free cash" (in the mean time from the stabilization fund) with the School piece to be absorbed with additional budget cuts.

Yes, the schools already took a 2.1 Million cut (as the override only covered 2.4 of what they requested) and will apparently need to absorb another $300K.

We'll see what the Town Council does Wednesday 11/28/07.

The scheduled agenda can be found here (PDF file).

Michael Morton's recap of the Finance Committee meeting can be found here.

Franklin School Committee Statement 11/27/07 (audio)

The statement made by the Franklin School Committee regarding the budget shortfall just revealed as read by Chairperson Jeffrey Roy at the meeting 11/27/07

Time: 2 minutes, 53 seconds



MP3 File

an image version of the statement is available here
the text version of the statement is available here

School Committee Statement 11/27/07 (image)

A image of the statement as read by Chairperson Jeffrey Roy Tuesday night at the School Committee meeting regarding the financial discrepancy just discovered.

School Committee Statement 11/27/07 (text)

Statement for November 27, 2007 Meeting


During the process of closing the financial books for the 2007 fiscal year, the Town Comptroller discovered irregularities in the school district’s accounts. Specifically, several 2007 expenses were charged against the 2008 budget. This practice is not allowed under Massachusetts Municipal Finance Law.

The Franklin School Committee, in conjunction with the Town Council, immediately ordered a complete legal and financial review of the circumstances surrounding these irregularities. Our effort includes an independent professional audit covering fiscal years 2005, 2006 and 2007.

In addition, the school district’s finance director has been placed on administrative leave.

Preliminary information indicates that these accounting irregularities may result in a shortfall of approximately $590,000 in the budget for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2007.

However, the internal review and independent audit are still ongoing and the precise circumstances of the problem will not be known until both are completed. We expect the results to be presented to the School Committee and the Town Council sometime in mid to late December.

On the advice of our attorney, the School Committee and School Administration will not discuss this matter publicly or privately until such time as the review and audit are completed. Further discussion before then could create significant budget, legal and personnel issues for the schools and the town that would jeopardize efforts to understand the full circumstances of the situation.

Members of the School Committee and School Administration take this matter very seriously, which is why we have initiated a comprehensive review and audit and took the personnel action we did. We will provide a full legal and financial accounting as soon as possible after the detailed results of the investigation are completed.

Isabella's Menu - Page 2


Isabellas_2a, originally uploaded by shersteve.

Isabella's is also a good supporter of local groups and organizations. For a period of time one day during the week, they'll share a percent of the sales. As I go by almost every day coming from the train station, on most days there is a sign up for one group or another.

This is a win-win situation. Good food for a good cause!

Isabella's Menu - Page 1


Isabellas_1a, originally uploaded by shersteve.


Isabella's is one of the really good delis and pizza places in Franklin.

We got two full sheets of pizza for the Friday when the Sherlock's gathered at our place after Thanksgiving and did not end up with any leftovers.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Next School Committee Meeting - Tuesday, 11/27/07

Given the recent news about the shortfall discovered, Finance person suspended, investigation and audit underway; I don't think I will trust the cable network to deliver the next meeting to my door.

I plan on being there in person to hear more about what happened.

We are not the only Franklin!

Exploring the web, I found another Franklin Matters which covers Franklin, Tennessee.

One post on this blog shows a listing of 27 other Franklins in these United States. We are the second largest according to population:
Give the other Franklin Matters a visit.

Franklin, WI had come upon the radar during our override election earlier this year. Franklin, WI had a similar override and it failed.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Norfolk NOGO struggling

In brief, two of the key members of the Norfolk Organization for Government Oversight (NOGO) are now sitting on the Advisory Board helping to review financial decisions before the town. NOGO was originally organized as the Norfolk Opposition Group to Overrides and reformed after the override passed.

The Boston Globe Override Central web site has this story in more detail here.

I like the acronym they came up with (NOGO) :-)

Where in Franklin? Answer #19


Where in Franklin? Answer #19, originally uploaded by shersteve.

I guess you could not figure out where to go to "Relax, Renew, Revive". Original photo can be found here.

I was surprised myself when I stopped and realized what the sign actually read. I go in this doorway almost weekly for our family food shopping. I like doing the food shopping but I don't go there to "relax, renew, revive". Do you?

Say tuned for the next challenge!

Holiday Lighting 4:00 - 6:00 PM Sunday 11/25/07

The annual Holiday Lighting on the Common will take place this afternoon at 4 p.m. on the Franklin Town Common.

Presented by the Committee for Concerts on the Common, the festivities will include lighting up the Town Common holiday lights and displays, refreshments and goodies, and a visit from Santa and the elves. A special attraction this year will be having a free picture taken with Santa, ready to be taken home.

In case of inclement weather, the festivities will take place across the street in the Ben Franklin Charter School.

Donations to help defray the cost of decorating may be sent to Concerts on the Common, P.O. Box 92, Franklin, MA 02038 or call 508-528-2206 for more information.

From the Milford Daily News