My comments at the BOS meeting, October 28, 2003
Annie LaCourt

I want to applaud the board of selectman for making an effort to proactively attack our long term fiscal problems this year. At the early evening budget meeting you held a few weeks ago, you stated that your purpose in beginning this process now, and taking the planned retreat, was to develop policy as is your responsibility. As a member of the steering committee of the Arlington Coalition, I would like to offer my input in the form of some suggestions as to policies that need to be examined at your retreat and in subsequent meetings of the board.

1. We need to begin to discuss compensation packages for employees, particularly M schedule employees, as just that - compensation packages. The public need to know what the total compensation of these employees is, not just their salaries, and we need to set a policy that makes total compensation rational and understandable. If an employee's total compensation is competitive, as it should be, but some of that compensation comes in the form of a car allowance that makes no sense, you should take this opportunity to rationalize it by shifting how compensation is provided for that employee.
   
2. We need to look at all the services the town and schools provide and determine where the fee for service model works. You should set guidelines for determining which services would best be provided in this way and institute such fees in order to preserve our tax dollars for items like police and fire protection that do not lend themselves to this model. You need to examine the relationship of the town to all private groups, non-profit and otherwise, and develop a consistent policy concerning services provided to these groups. The town has traditionally provided many services not critical to the welfare of its citizens which we can no longer afford. If we are going to continue to provide those services using fees it needs to be done rationally. It makes sense, for example, for the schools to charge an activity fee for participation in extracurricular activities but it would not make sense to charge students a fee to provide art teachers or librarians at the elementary level. It makes sense to either require youth sports groups in town to line their own fields or to charge them a fee for this service - it does not make sense to charge them a fee to cover mowing or watering.
   
3. We should take this opportunity to take a comprehensive look at information systems. It is clear to me from the budget that many town departments are forward thinking about the use of information systems to increase efficiency. It is not so clear that there is leadership coordinating their efforts or providing the kind of support that will prevent costly mistakes and/or duplication of effort or the creation of silos of similar data in different departments. If such coordination is occurring, I would urge you to publicize it - if not I would urge you to see that an effort at coordination is begun.
   
4. I would also urge you to set priorities for the budget and stick to them. The school committee and the superintendent have declared that direct services to students are the first priority. However imperfectly they may apply that priority, they have at least declared it publicly and therefore made themselves accountable to it. You have a larger responsibility - you must not only declare what the priorities are concerning the 24 sub-budgets of the town, you must also say where in the comprehensive list of priorities the schools fall. I urge you to publicly declare what the budget priorities are so that you can be held accountable for actual results against them. I urge you not to allow the tradition of the O'Neill formula to serve as a default in order to avoid making hard choices.

In closing, I would like to remind you that all of the town's citizens are looking to you for leadership. They are angry and afraid - you need to be calm and fearless. They need to know that you understand the urgency of these fiscal issues and are working on them constantly. I would suggest that some discussion of these issues should be on your agenda at every board meeting until the budget is passed next spring. The Arlington Coalition will continue to work in support of any efforts that take us in a positive direction in setting budget priorities. We hope to both support and challenge you in this regard.