League of Women Voters Holding Special Town Meeting Preview Monday

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Photo: Modular classrooms.

The Belmont League of Women Voters and Warrant Committee is co-sponsoring a warrant briefing to acquaint Town Meeting members and residents with the articles in the Special Town Meeting warrant.

The meeting will take place Monday evening, Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.

This is an opportunity for Town Meeting members and the general public to ask questions of town officials and department heads concerning any of the warrant articles prior to the Special Town Meeting to be held in one week on Monday, Nov. 13. Articles will include the financing of modular classrooms at the Burbank school and changing the selection of Planning Board members from appointed to elected.

Warrant Committee Chair Roy Epstein will lead the meeting.

Second Time A Charm: Sanderson Appointed To Planning Board

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Photo: The Planning Board earlier this year.

For Edward “Sandy” Sanderson, the second time was a charm as the planning professional was appointed as an associated member of the Belmont Planning Board by a unanimous vote of the Belmont Board of Selectmen on Monday, Oct. 30. 

Sanderson’s selection came six weeks since the Selectmen voted 2-1 to deny him a seat on the Board. The change now is the Planning Board has undergone a radical transformation since the mass resignation of three long-serving members this month. 

The Planning Board Chair Charles “Chuck” Clark asked the same board that skipped over Sanderson to select two other candidates – re-appointing sitting member Raffi Manjikian and selecting Dalton Road’s Stephen Pinkerton on Sept. 11 – recommended Sanderson for the associate membership as being “the most qualified candidate” of the resumes he had seen. 

Sanderson was a city planner for the City of Los Angeles and is currently an urban and transportation planner in the Boston office of a New York-based civil engineering firm.  Sanderson matriculated at Worcester Polytech and earned a master’s in planning from the University of Minnesota. 

The change in the composition of the Planning Board occurred after former chair Liz Allison and Barbara Fiacco resigned last week, following Manjikian’s lead leaving the board earlier in the month.

Manjikian fired off a heated letter to Williams accusing Clark of creating a hostile workplace after he accused Allison and Manjikian of abusing their positions in forwarding a public/private plan which included moving the Belmont Public Library to Waverley Square without speaking the Board of Library Trustees.

In an aside, Williams criticized the three former members for leaving their positions without providing notice of their actions.

“As far as I’m concerned, if someone is appointed, not only do they have a personal obligation but they have an obligation to the town to allow a more organized departure,” said Williams. “It’s not fair to the community to do it any other way.” 

Clark told the Selectmen adding Sanderson to the Planning Board’s will allow the body to reach a quorum to vote on issues brought before them, including requests for “special permits” – which includes superseding the town’s zoning bylaws – that requires a “super majority” decision that requires four votes. Clark said his board had four applications waiting to move forward but are at a standstill until Sanderson was appointed. 

This points to the reason why we need to move on this expeditiously,” said Selectman Adam Dash. 

As for filling the remaining two members, Selectmen Chair Jim Williams suggested opening the application process to a new round of resumes for ten days as the current ones on file “are stale.” 

Applicants can send resumes to the Town Administration Office until Nov. 9. The final decision on the two positions – one will be for a single year term and the other three years – will be made at the Selectmen’s Nov. 13 meeting. 

They’re Here To Stay: Controlling Rats with Education, Money and Garlic

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Photo: Joey’s Park, ground zero for rat removal.

Take equal parts garlic and white pepper then add a dash of paprika and mix.

Sounds like an excellent dry marinade you can rub on chicken or steak before grilling to give the meat a bit of a punch.

In fact, the mixture is an excellent organic rat repellant. That’s correct: rat repellant. 

That spicy recipe is currently being pushed into the rodent lairs under Joey’s Park in the Winn Brook neighborhood, according to Jay Marcotte, the town’s Department of Public Works director as he came to update the Belmont Board of Selectmen of his department’s battle with the rodents.

The popular playground adjacent to the Winn Brook Elementary School has been closed for the past fortnight after workers discovered the vermin living in and around the play structure.

Currently, the town is seeking “a safe and swift resolution to the issue,” said Wesley Chin, Belmont’s Health Department director,

Marcotte said he decided to approve a non-chemical approach – at the cost of $2,300 – as “the safest possible” method as the playground is very popular with children and families from around town. The natural repellant that comes in a gel is intended to irritate the rats’ skin which will hopefully have them scurry into one of the 40 traps laid out in the park.

The park will stay closed for another three weeks when the firm applying the solution believes the job will be complete, said Marcotte.

Even if this method does the job in the Winn Brook neighborhood, Belmont will not be as fortunate as the Town of Hamlin which found a pied piper to drive off the pests – and unfortunately a large segment of the German town’s school-aged population – as the rodents have been seen congregating near the port-a-potties at Town Field, on Beech Street, and along Pleasant Street, said Chin.

“They’re not going away,” said Dr. David Alper of the town’s Health Board, advising the board to create a new line item in the upcoming fiscal 2018 budget to tackle the rat issue in the future.

“Short money for long-term gain,” said Alper.

The town will expand its current rat removal campaign in all of the town’s parks which will include removing trash cans from those public spaces to rid the rodents of their food source, said Marcotte.

But the most effective method of controlling the rodent issue is information and data, including calling the Health Department when rats are found so the town can track their migration.

“The best tool is educating the public,” said Alper.

Letter to the Editor: Planning Board Chaos Underscores Need for Accountability

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Photo: The Planning Board

To the editor:

And then there were three. With the unexpected resignations this week of former Planning Board Chairwoman Liz Allison and Board member Barbara Fiacco, Belmont’s Planning Board has been reduced to just three members, having lost half its members to resignation in the past month – all three under clouds of controversy. 

The unraveling of this critical body as major projects, like Cushing Village, demand attention and others like Belmont High School loom poses a serious challenge to the Town’s leadership. It also offers a powerful argument in favor of a motion I have put before Town Meeting on Nov. 13 that will bring accountability and order to Planning Board by letting the town’s voters choose its members, as 35 of 39 other towns in Middlesex county already do.

For those readers who are hearing about this for the first time, I’ve taken the opportunity to answer some “frequently asked questions”. I hope this help inform you about this important, citizen-driven initiative. 

Why are you doing this? 

Amending our bylaws to have voters elect our Planning Board will bring transparency, accountability, and professionalism to a critical body whose jurisdiction extends to every private home and commercial property in town. Popular election of Planning Board will give voters the opportunity to evaluate all candidates for open positions on the Planning Board and to choose those who are best qualified and suited to represent the community’s interests. 

This critical change to our bylaws will also bring Planning Board in line with our Town’s other administrative boards and committees, namely: Selectmen, School Committee, Board of Assessors, Board of Library Trustees and the Board of Health, members of which are all elected by voters.

Do other communities elect their Planning Boards? 

Yes. If we consider Middlesex County of which we are a part, 35 of 39 (or 90 percent) of communities with Belmont’s form of government like Newton, Cambridge, Lowell, Somerville have opted for popularly elected Planning Boards. This list includes Winchester, Lexington, Lincoln, Sudbury, Weston, Natick, Sherborn, Stoneham, Wakefield, Westford, Holliston, Hopkinton, and on and on. Belmont is one of just four that still have Planning Boards that are appointed by the Board of Selectmen.  

Why Planning Board? Why now? 

Planning Board is one of the most critical public bodies in our town. It helps shape the town through its decisions concerning both residential and commercial development and has the power to shape public and private spaces within a town.  As it stands, however, there is no mechanism in Belmont’s bylaws to ensure that Planning Board is accountable to voters and the public in any way. This is a critical omission in Belmont’s bylaws that has directly contributed to the erratic and damaging behavior of our Planning Board in recent months. 

If elected, won’t Planning Board start kowtowing to voters instead of being independent?

Of course not. Elected Planning Board members, like other elected officials, will be expected to think independently and to use their best judgment and make decisions that they feel are in the best interest of the whole community. That’s no different than what we expect of appointed officials. 

Let’s face it: Planning Board is an unpaid, volunteer position. Election to Planning Board is no more likely to engender self-serving, short-term decision making by members than an election to other unpaid positions like Town Meeting or School Committee. Consider: the punishment for losing re-election to Planning Board for a decision that voters disagree with is that the individual is forced to volunteer less. That’s hardly the kind of punishment that will have members betraying their values and common sense.  

What’s wrong with an appointed Board? 

It is critical that voters in Belmont have a means to express their preferences for Planning Board as they do for other administrative bodies like School Committee or the Selectmen themselves.  Under our current bylaws, they do not. 

Consider: it is the Selectmen, not the public, who receive and review applications from community members who are interested in a seat on the Planning Board. Voters in Belmont are not privy to who has applied for open seats or their qualifications, nor are they given the benefit of the Board of Selectmen’s reasons for eliminating any particular candidate or ultimately appointing one over another. Yes, voters may appeal to the Board to choose a specific candidate, assuming they even know who has applied, but the Selectmen are under no obligation to heed the voters. 

Don’t we affect Planning Board with our choice of Selectman?  

It might be argued that voters can express their Planning Board preferences in their vote for a Selectman. As a practical matter, however, this never happens. Planning Board appointments are not an issue in Board of Selectman races nor have promised appointments been deciding factors – or even talking points – in selectman races. Our bylaws left unchanged will continue to shield the selection, decisions, and actions of the Planning Board from voters and any accountability. 

I hope you will support this citizen-driven effort to make an important change to Belmont’s bylaws and inject democratic accountability to this critical body. I urge you to contact Town Meeting members from your precinct and ask them to support the Planning Board article. 

Paul Roberts

Town Meeting Member, Precinct 8

Living With Coyotes In Belmont, Thursday At 6:30PM At Belmont Media

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Photo: A coyote.

When asked what to do when residents see a coyote taking a stroll through neighborhood streets or backyards, Belmont’s long-serving Animal Control Officer John Maguranis told the Belmontonian that people should follow a simple three-word phrase when they encounter the animal. 

“Don’t freak out,” said Maguranis, who is one of the leading experts on coyotes and their growing interaction in urban spaces. Too many residents immediately revert to “panic” mode when one of the wild canines is in the vicinity of their homes, which Maguranis said is unnecessary in nearly all cases when people and coyotes cross paths. 

Maruranis, who is the Massachusetts representative to Project Coyote, a national coalition of scientists and educator working to promote coexistence between people and coyotes, will be presenting a multimedia presentation about all-things coyote in Belmont on Thursday, Oct. 27 at 6:30 p.m. in Studio A at the Belmont Media Center, 9 Lexington St.

Maruranis will talk about:

  • Common misconceptions about the animal
  • Management and coexistence with coyotes
  • Human and pet safety 
  • The right way to haze coyotes, and
  • Tracking the animal.

The public is invited to ask questions after the presentation. The event will be televised live and rebroadcast for future viewing. 

Maruranis will give the same presentation at The First Church in Belmont, Unitarian Universalist on Wednesday, Nov. 15 from noon to 2 p.m.

Breaking: Two Planning Board Members, Including Former Chair, Resign

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Photo: (left) Barbara Fiacco; Liz Allison

Former Chair Liz Allison and member Barbara Fiacco suddenly resigned from the Belmont Planning Board since Monday, Oct. 23.

The departure of the pair comes less than a fortnight after associate member Raffi Manjikian angerly resigned on Oct. 13 due to a “hostile work environment” created by newly-elected Chair Charles Clark. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, the board has three members – Clark, Karl Haglund, and newly appointed Stephen Pinkerton – efficiently making it redundant to make decisions as it needs a fourth member. It will be up to the Board of Selectmen to appoint replacements.

Allison, Fiacco, and Clark could not be reached at this time. The article will be updated if they decide to respond. 

Allison and Fiacco’s letters – received on Monday, Oct 23 and Tuesday, Oct. 24 – were brief statements that did not elaborate the reason for their decisions.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with some very fine people and served a fine town,” said Allison.

Fiacco was more specific for her resignation, noting her “current workload and travel schedule. I am unable to dedicate the time necessary to address … challenges [facing the board] effectively this year.”

Allison and former member Manjikian were accused by Clark of abuse of power in September after it was revealed the pair had advocated moving the Belmont Public Library to a public/private Waverley Square development to revitalize the once-vibrant business center. The scheme, dubbed the ‘Big Idea,’ turned controversial when supporters of the library said they were never informed of the project or the move.

In the past month, a group of residents submitted a citizens’ petition to be heard at the Nov. 13 Special Town Meeting to consider changing the Planning Board from an appointed to an elected body.

Professionally, Allison is a noted economist who has served on the town’s Warrant, and Finance committees and Fiacco is a partner at the Boston law firm Foley Hoag. 

Make Way for Hinckley: Town OK’s Call For New Street Name

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Photo: Steven Wheelwright (right) with Glenn Clancy before the Board of Selectmen.

Good-bye Frontage Road. Hello Hinckley Way.

Belmont will soon have a new street name for the roadway best known as the exit ramp from Route 2 as members of the town’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints community filled the Board of Selectmen’s Room on Monday, Oct. 16 to support changing the byway’s moniker to Hinckley Way.

Glenn Clancey, director of the Office of Community Development, said the “new” road will run from the end of the state highway – there’s a sign noting its location – just before Ledgewood Place to the intersection of Park Avenue.

The reason for the change, according to Steven Wheelwright who presented the proposal to the Selectmen, is to end what has become an all-too-common occurrence for out-of-state visitors who have come for a family reunion or meeting friends at the “Boston” Temple.

“Unfortunately, there is a Frontage Road in Boston so when you put into your GPS ‘Boston Temple, 86 Frontage Road,’ the first thing that pops up is the Boston address,” Wheelwright told the Belmontonian before the meeting.

So rather than a stately temple of Olympia white granite, some visitors have found themselves outside the MBTA’s bus washing facility in the city’s South End neighborhood.

Since the only address on Belmont’s Frontage Road is the LDS Temple, the name change would not impact any home or business nor would it replace a prominent or popular street name, Wheelwright told the board.

“It was named Frontage Road by the state when it built the modern Route 2. It’s a town road, but no one ever got around to give it another name,” said Wheelwright, who is the current Temple president. The former Brigham Young University–Hawaii president, Wheelwright was one of the principal movers in the 1970s in purchasing the land where the Temple and the LDS Meetinghouse stand as well as overseeing the temple’s construction in the late 1990s.

Wheelwright told the board he and others in the community solicited comments from Belmont Hill residents on nearby connecting streets to gauge if there would be any issues with the new name. 

With no opposition and with the town’s blessing, the selectmen approved the request unanimously to the applause of many in the audience.

And why Hinckley? Wheelwright said there are no other Hinckley Way in the state thus avoiding any future GPS confusion and that Hinckley is a “good sounding New England name” referencing Thomas Hinckley, the governor of the Plymouth Colony in the late 17th century.

While unsaid by the proponents, Hinckley Way could also be a lasting tribute to Gordon Hinckley, the 15th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who, during his 12-year tenure, accelerated the construction of Mormon temples around the world. Hinckley’s goal of building 100 temples by 2000 was reached when he came to Belmont to dedicate the Boston temple in October of that year.

Gordon Hinckley, center, at the dedication of the Boston Temple in October, 2000.

 

Mass AG Reviewing Alleged Open Meeting Violation By Planning Board

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Photo: The web page of the Attorney General’s Open Meeting Law web page.

The Concord Avenue resident who fired a shot across the Planning Board’s bow a month ago concerning possible violations of the state’s Open Meeting Law is now training his aim at the board’s waterline after submitting his complaint to the Commonwealth late last month.

Tim Duncan filed his 40-page accusation with the Office of the Attorney General on Sept. 29 relative to the meetings of “working groups” in connection with the Belmont Day School project which the Planning Board OKd a site and design plan in September.

(A copy of the filing can be obtained through the Belmont Town Clerk’s office, and its new Public Records Request web page.)

“The Attorney General’s office has an enormous amount of experience in dealing with open government and meeting law issues,” Duncan told the Belmontonian last week. “I am confident that they will consider the facts, make a wise decision and determine an appropriate remedy,” said Duncan.

Duncan filed his complaint initially with the Town’s Clerk in August alleging the Board employed small “working groups” to supersede critical discussion on issues including landscaping, parking and a proposed “driveway” that he believed should have been held during the public hearing process. Also, he said there were no minutes to the meetings which is contrary to the public’s “need to know” as part of the Open Meeting Law.

In response to his earlier complaint filed with the Town Clerk’s Office, Belmont Town Counsel George Hall believes the Planning Board was within its legal right to have working groups take up specific technical issues that helped move on the review process. The Planning Board will  briefly discuss the Open Meeting challenge at its Oct. 17 meeting.

For Duncan, who would live across Concord Avenue from the highly controversial “driveway” which will allow a second entry to the school, the board’s systemic violation of the law to ensure transparency in the deliberations on which public policy is based, requires state action.

“I don’t think there is any doubt that the current structure, process, and role of the Planning Board in Belmont is dysfunctional and needs to be changed,” said Duncan.

A week after filing his complaint, a citizens’ petition was submitted by three residents as an article in the Special Town Meeting Warrant which would change the Planning Board from an appointed to an elected body. Campaigners noted alleged violations of the Open Meeting process and abuses by a former board as their reason for the change.

Duncan decided to file his complaint with the Attorney General when it appeared to him that no movement was forthcoming by the town to answer his allegations.

“When I filed the original complaint on Aug. 11, the Attorney General’s office strongly suggested that the town initiate a dialogue with me and others in the community to address the issues that were identified,” said Duncan.

“The town made no effort to contact me, and the Planning Board hired town counsel [George Hall] to respond to the complaint without allowing any public comment or discussion whatsoever. Likewise, I have heard nothing from the town about my more recent filing,” he said.

“My guess is that the town is once again going to waste a significant amount of Belmont residents’ money on legal fees to have town counsel prepare a response, vote on it without public input instead of addressing the problems that need to be addressed,” said Duncan.

Duncan said he did not move recklessly in submitting his allegations to the state.

“Before filing the complaint with the AG’s office, I spent quite a bit of time reviewing dozens of emails and documents I received relative to the Planning Board’s process, discussing the issues with a significant number of people and thinking about the next steps,” he said.

“In addition, as you know, two of the board members themselves have recently spoken out on the working group/open meeting problems and the enormous problems at the Planning Board,” he said, speaking of Charles Clark who Duncan noted in his letter to the AG demanded then Chair Liz Allison to resign due to “improprieties.” Clark was recently elected the new Planning Board chair early in October.

While he is seeking remedies to the violations he contends happened, Duncan does not appear willing to re-hear the five-month-long site and design plan review which would come at considerable cost to the Day School which is currently seeking a building permit with the town’s Office of Community Development. 

“What’s important to me is fixing what is broken so that things are better in the future in Belmont and I think the AG’s office is guided by that motivation as well rather than being punitive,” he said.

 

“Belmont isn’t a small isolated ‘Town of Homes’ anymore. It is part of and tied to the economy of one of the fastest growing urban technology centers in the world,” said Duncan, an attorney who worked in government and currently in financial technology.

“We need a Planning Board and a town government that is up to the task at hand. It is even more concerning that at least two out of three Belmont Selectman will not acknowledge the problems at the Planning Board and that these are symptoms of larger problems with the town,” he said.

 

 

Manjikian Blasts New Planning Board Chair in Resignation Letter: ‘Hostile Work Environment’

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Photo: Planning Board Chair Charles Clark (left) and former member Raffi Manjikian.

In a tempestuous letter sent to the Belmont Board of Selectmen on Friday, Oct. 13, Raffi Manjikian abruptly resigned as an associate member of the Belmont Planning Board, eight days after fellow board member Charles Clark was named the body’s new chair.

Manjikian said he could not support the selection of Clark to lead the board after he treated him and then Planning Board Chair Liz Allison in “a hostile and threatening manner” and “creating a ‘hostile’ work environment” for future Planning Board meetings. 

“I have lost all confidence that I can make any meaningful contribution to our community as your appointee to the Planning Board,” he told the Selectmen.

Clark’s response to Manjikian’s attack was short and concise. 

“I wish him the best,” Clark told the Belmontonian.

Clark was elected chair in a 3-2 vote on Thursday, Oct. 5 with newly-appointed Stephen Pinkerton selected as vice chair.

Manjikian’s resignation came less than three weeks after the Selectmen reappointed him to the board for a term ending in 2019.

The bad blood between Manjikian and Clark goes back to a Sept. 5 Planning Board meeting where Clark accused Manjikian and Allison of an abuse of power in presenting a controversial proposal dubbed the “Big Idea” moving the Belmont Public Library from its current home on Concord Avenue to Waverley Square as part of a public/private revitalization of the business center.

“It’s not a ‘Big Idea.’ It’s a big lie,” Clark said at the Sept. 5 meeting. “I also think as a result [of] the actions that you’ve taken, you should resign as chair of the Planning Board and remove yourself from this process because I think you violated your responsibilities,” Clarks said to Allison. 

“[T]he manner in which Charles Clark, took upon himself to use our public meeting to attack a colleague [Allison]; to air his ill-tempered rant, for the public to watch, was deliberate and calibrated,” said Manjikian.

He noted the Sept. 5 incident was the second – the first at the Beech Street Center in August – “attacking this same colleague in an affect-laden outburst” then quoting Clark as saying “‘… you have not heard the last from me …’ [(W]hile pointing his finger towards [Allison’s] face.[)]

“In a work setting, this behavior would likely result in a terminiation of employment,” Manjikian wrote.

Manjikian is calling on the Selectmen to “take clear decisive action to address this misconduct.” 

“My volunteer service has long been guided by a principle ‘with each other, for each other,'” Manjikian stated. “I fail to see that I can uphold that principle in the face of such disregard for some people with whom you do not agree.”

Two Nights? Now Six Articles Before Special Town Meeting

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Photo: Moderator Mike Widmer at the February 2016 Special Town Meeting.

A citizens’ petition seeking to elect members of the Planning Board brings to six the number of articles in the warrant for the Special Town Meeting next month.

The warrant – which was open and closed on Tuesday, Oct. 10 – will likely take more than the traditional single night to vote on the measures before the 290-plus member legislative body.

“It looks like we’ll need to plan for two nights to complete the meeting,” said Town Clerk Ellen Cushman as she accepted the planning board petition on Tuesday. 

The articles are:

  • Reports from town departments and committees, residents.
  • Amendment to the General Bylaws: Revolving Funds,
  • Appropriation for modular classrooms at the Burbank School ($2.6 million),
  • Appropriation of funds ($370,000) for schematic design and authorization of a Building Committee for a Department of Public Works short-term option and a Police building short-term option,
  • Appropriation of schematic design ($150,000) and authorization of a Library Building Committee.
  • Citizens’ Petition to create an elected Planning Board. 

The first night of the Special Town Meeting will take place on Monday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School. If needed, an additional night will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 15.