Photo:
Belmont voters passed a $4.5 million Proposition 2 1/2 override that will secure long-term level funding and help with road repair.
The measure passed, 4,728 to 3,818, according to the Belmont Town Clerk’s office
In the race for Selectman, Andy Rojas lost a chance for a second three-year term as first-time challenger Jim Williams of Glenn Road defeated the incumbent by nearly 500 votes, 4,047 to 3,528.
Photo: Tom Martin voting for the first time.
7:45 p.m.: Precinct 8, the Winn Brook precinct: 1.200 ballots cast. 60 percent participation with many younger voters – 7 at booths when I was there – coming in.
7:30 p.m.: The heavy rains held off and people have been coming in steady to the eight polling stations in Belmont. Not many signs around town although Dawn MacKerron and Bill Trabilcy were in Cushing Square with a big “No” sign, receiving a long horn blast from a late-90s Cadillac with State tags.
2:20 p.m.: The election is just past mid-way and the numbers at the eight precincts indicate a good deal of interest in the contested Selectman’s race and the Prop 2 1/2 ballot question.
Precinct wardens said the voters “have been really out there,” (Precinct 6), polling stations are “busy constantly,” (Precinct 3), activity is “brisk,” (Precinct 7) with voters coming in at a “steady pace.” (precincts 1 and 8).
So here are the raw numbers between 1:30 p.m. and 2 p.m.:
According to Town Clerk Ellen Cushman, the election could reach 40 percent participation rate or about 7,500 to 8,000 voters coming out.
1:50 p.m.: It was rough going for Tom Martin as he tried to vote at Precinct 2 in Town Hall. The Belmont High senior first attempted to leave the polling station with both the ballot and the folder in his hands when Precinct Warden Henry Kazarian steered Martin to the official voting scanner. There he attempted to insert the manilsa folder into the slot. At that point, Kazarian instructed Martin on the proper process of voting.
Despite flubbing the process a bit, everyone in the polling station gave a Martin a round of applause as it was the first time the 18-year-old ever voted.
“It was good, it was interesting,” said Martin, who received a handshake from Kazarian on his way out.
In the second-floor lobby, Martin said he wanted to cast his ballot because of the override.
“At Belmont High School, there has been a lot of talk about this [override] vote among the students,” said Martin, a co-captain of this year’s boys’ basketball team and player on Rugby. “We know the election is important for the future of the high school.”
“And now I’m 18, I should have my voice heard,” he said.
Noon: It was suppose to be raining by now but … nada.
10 a.m.: So where are the sign holders? At the Beech Street Center, of course, where precincts 3 and 5 are located. And we found Selectman candidate Jim Williams with his campaign manager shaking hands and talking to Precinct 5 Town Meeting incumbent Frank Lombardo and former town employee Austin ‘Butchie’ Bennett holding the fort for Andy Rojas.
“I have my coat so I’ll be here even if it rains,” said Butchie.
8:45 a.m.: A lonely figure at Precinct 2: Jim Gammell, a member of the leadership team for the Nos, poll watching. Will have to take a look around town to see if anyone else is out and about looking over lists of voters. Standing outside the Center’s parking lot,
8:15 a.m.: Here are the first data dump of the day; the total number of absentee ballots received as of yesterday (there’s one more rush of ballots around 5 p.m.) and by precinct:
Total received/sent:
604/702
7:30 a.m.: Belmont’s Town Election 2015 gets underway under a gray overcast and cool conditions with some good voter participation at Precincts 1 (at the Belmont Public Library) and 8 (Winn Brook School) with a dozen voters waiting to enter Precinct 1 and more than 20 residents voting in the first 10 minutes at 8. At Town Hall, the level is described as “brisk.”
One thing missing? Sign holders at the three precincts visited. Just one at 1 and 8, both with “Yes for Belmont” signs.
Today, Tuesday, April 7, Belmont voters will have the opportunity to cast ballots in the annual Town Election to elect members of Town Meeting, town-wide office and one ballot question.
Times
Polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Who can vote
Those who are legally registered to vote and are residents of Belmont.
You may be asked for ID
Did you fill out your town census form mailed earlier in the year? If you did not, then you are known as an “inactive” voter. Luckily, an “inactive” voter may still vote but first must provide adequate identification proving the voter’s identity and current place of residence. Usually a Massachusetts Driver’s License or State issued ID are sufficient.
Whom and what’s on the ballot
Find out here with the Belmont League of Women Voters’ election guide.
Transportation to the polls
The League of Women Voters of Belmont is offering rides to the polls from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call 617-771-8500 to schedule transportation.
Questions about or during voting
Most questions – including who is eligible to vote in Belmont – that arise during voting can be answered by the precinct warden at the polling station. Other questions should be addressed to the Town Clerk’s Office at 617-993-2600.
Where do I vote?
Don’t know where to vote? Call the Town Clerk at 617-993-2600, or read/download the handy map included on this web page that includes a street directory.
Polling Places:
Photo: The Yes campaigners.
The Belmontonian endorses a “yes” vote on Question 1, the Proposition 2 1/2 override measure on the ballot to be decided on Tuesday, April 7.
This question allows residents the opportunity to follow “the better angels of our nature,” when we can set aside manufactured tension and fear and replace it with good, positive, constructive acts.
The proposed override was born after a year-long gestation by the Financial Task Force of sober, careful analysis and facts of the financial constraints facing the community. The task force – including Selectman Mark Paolillo, Town Treasurer Floyd Carman, Town Administrator David Kale, School Committee Chair Laurie Slap, Capital Budget Chair Anne Marie Mahoney and Charles Laverty III of the Board of Assessors, all respected for their dedication and work for Belmont – held dozens of open and public meetings and forums, requested information and data and worked cooperatively with all.
The task force’s final report recommended the Belmont Board of Selectmen call for a $4.5 million multi-year override to both stems the rapidly growing funding deficit due to skyrocketing enrollment and rapidly increasing expenses in our schools. In a vote called a “brave decision,” the Selectmen unanimously approved the recommendation in February.
But just as vital as supplying funding, the override secures up to three, but likely many more years of stability for Belmont schools. While not ideal or even desired, assured level-funding will provide educators over the long-term, Town Meeting and our state legislators the time to commit to fundamental improvements and other necessary changes to retain the outstanding reputation of the schools, our community’s greatest resource.
The override will exact a burden onto Belmont property owners, about $650 on the medium valued house assessed at $847,000. No one should say it’s “only” $162 on the quarterly bill; that is a hardship to some.
But it is time Belmont residents face the fact the community has been attempting to run a modern, urban municipality on the cheap. Belmont has one of the lowest average tax bills in the state and an extremely low cost-per-pupil expenditures (coupled with one of the highest student-to-teacher ratios). It’s little wonder the town is a laughing stock for it’s disgraceful roads, but that happens when you won’t pay an adequate amount for their upkeep. The band Midnight Oil spoke to what Belmont needs to realize: “The time has come/To say fair’s fair/to pay the rent/to pay our share.”
There are worthy opponents to the override. Former Selectman Anne Marie Mahoney, a task force member, is opposing the ballot question as she takes the lonely role of sponsoring the large ticket capital projects – a new High School, police station, Department of Public Works complex to name a few. Her cause requires Town officials and Town Meeting to be acknowledged and brought fully into the fold of long-term planning.
The same can not be said for the “Vote No on Ballot Question 1 Committee,” a tiny renegade group from the Warrant Committee, made up of members past and present, supporting its campaign with little more than empty phrases and promises.
The No committee claims its complaint with the override supporters is fiscal, the Financial Task Force’s careful analysis on revenue assumptions by well-respected town members is wrong, the recommendation producing a “mega” override. All that is needed is to fill the announced $1.7 million deficit the schools will encounter in the next fiscal year.
The Nos has no completing reports to back its claim the money is out there; they counter with “trust us.”
What should take every resident aback is the solution being proposed from the Nos if the override is defeated; this group of non-elected residents will come before the elected Board of Selectmen with their “list” of residents and town members they hope to see on an unelected “budget committee” which will solve the fiscal issues facing the town, all within “three to six” weeks.
The questions that arise with this “solution” are numerous and unnerving:
The No committee is making it up as it goes. Its solution is not based on democracy, but power.
And, to misquote Hamlet, therein lies the rub: The No Committee’s mission is political, not financial. The amount could have been $4 million, $3 million or $2 million, the Nos would have pegged the override with the puerile label “mega.”
But the prime target for the Nos is the schools and the “hardcore” union representing Belmont teachers. It wouldn’t surprise anyone that the Nos have circulated lists of teachers pay prompting one supporter wondering at candidates’ night paying a kindergarten teacher $90,000. Several times, one member of the group have suggested that the union must be made to heal to lead the town into a financial nirvana. In addition, by providing annual funding rather than a long-term approach, the school district will be beholden to the “budget committee.”
If the Nos had declared its agenda up front, they would be seen as honest brokers, rather than a very small fraternity of political operatives.
With only seven contributors and a campaign paid by a single source, the Nos remain a powerful opponent, playing to a substantial number of residents who view Belmont as the same small town of several generations past, those who believe providing a “good enough” education – in a world that punishes those who are only “good enough” – is what is required, while nervously viewing their own finances as economic forces beyond everyone’s reach ever change.
We, Belmont, must reject the fear and mistrust being pushed by the No committee.
We, Belmont, must be for something, rather than be opposed to stability and taking responsibility for the true cost of running the town.
We, Belmont, must grab the opportunity to move forward with facts and realism rather than be led back with half truths and the empty “trust us.”
Vote for the override.
On the government side of This Week:
• If you love music, come over to the Belmont High School auditorium, Monday, April 6, at 7 p.m. for Jazz Night featuring the Chenery Jazz Ensemble and the Belmont High School Jazz Collective with guest artist Trent Austin. And it’s free!
• The 7th-8th Grade Book Group from the Chenery Middle School meets Monday, April 6, at 7 p.m. to discuss My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger, choose May’s book, and enjoy some snacks.
• Tuesday is Town Election in Belmont. Get out and vote!
• Mat Yoga, a new six-week exercise class taught by Susan Harris, begins this Tuesday, April 7, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St. The level of difficulty of the new class is somewhere between the well-received Wednesday afternoon chair yoga class with Carol Wilson and Harris’ Tuesday evening yoga class. Cost: $48.
Tuesday is story time at both of Belmont libraries.
• Pre-School Story Time at the Benton Library, Belmont’s independent and volunteer run library, at 10:30 a.m. Stories and crafts for children age 3 to 5. Parents or caregivers must attend. Siblings may attend with adults. Registration is not required. The Benton Library is located at the intersection of Oakley and Old Middlesex.
• The Belmont Public Library on Concord Avenue will be holding two sessions of Story Time for 2’s and 3’s, at 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
• On early release Wednesday, April 8, from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., Chenery Middle School student can stop by the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room, work on your homework, enjoy some lemonade and cookies, and try out an activity. This is for middleschoolers only, so high school students can do something else. The activity is funded by the Friends of the Belmont Public Library. Just drop in, no registration required.
• The Book discussion group for elementary school students in the 3rd and 4th grades will be held Thursday, April 9 from 3:15 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Belmont Public Library’s Flett Room.
• The Belmont Vision 21 Implementation Committee will be meeting Thursday, April 9 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Belmont Public Library’s Flett Room.
• The Senior Book Discussion Group will meet Friday, April 10 at 11 a.m. at the Beech Street Center to discuss Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece, War and Peace (Part 1 through Part 7). On Friday, May 8, the group will continue the discussion of War and Peace, starting at Part 8 through the end of the book.
Photo: A family of Jim William campaigners,
To the editor:
Belmont has a clear choice this year for the Board of Selectmen. The best choice is Jim Williams.
Belmont made a commitment this year both to town employees and to school employees (both teachers and non-teachers). It’s a promise the town has little chance of keeping. The promise is to pay benefits called “OPEB,” Other Post-Employment Benefits, referring to post-retirement health care benefits. OPEB is in addition to any pension that employees may earn.
Every two years, the Town prepares a study of how much it will cost to pay all of its OPEB commitments. The most recent analysis found that Belmont owes roughly $196 million in OPEB benefits.
Under Belmont Selectman and candidate Andy Rojas, Belmont appropriated roughly $265,000 toward its OPEB obligation for fiscal year 2015. While Rojas claims that this contribution would put a small dent in the unfunded OPEB obligation, that’s not at all true. In 2013, the annual interest alone on the unfunded OPEB obligation was $2.175 million. The town’s payment, in other words, was just over 10 percent of the interest alone on our unfunded OPEB liability.
All of the unpaid balance, and 90 percent of the unpaid interest, in other words, went into an amount to be paid sometime in the future. The annual interest, alone, on the unfunded OPEB amount balance has more than tripled in recent years, from just under $700,000 to $2.17 million.
Belmont’s current treatment of OPEB is, in its essence, a form of deficit spending. The town delivers services today, and residents use those services without completely paying for them. When OPEB obligations are deferred to the future, the effect is to push onto our children and grandchildren the costs of providing today’s services.
Accordingly, herein lies the choice.
Rojas proposes to kick the can down the road in the hopes that “the state” will bail us out at some point in the future. In the meantime, while the interest and principal continues to accumulate, future OPEB payments will seriously impede Belmont’s future ability to deliver basic municipal services. Since an ever-increasing proportion of Belmont’s future budgets will be needed to pay the OPEB obligations, less and less of those budgets will be left-over to pay for things like paving streets and hiring teachers.
Williams proposes real solutions. While those solutions not only may, but will surely evolve as they work their way through the political process, unlike Rojas who merely proclaims his leadership, Williams is exhibiting leadership by actually grappling with the problem.
Belmont faces a real choice this year. Williams is my choice.
Roger Colton
Warwick Road
Photo: Elizabeth Allison.
Move over, Koch brothers and Tom Steyer; you may think you have a big influence on politics, but you guys have nothing on Elizabeth Allison.
According to a campaign finance report filed March 30 with the Belmont Town Clerk, the Chair of the “Vote No on Ballot Question 1” committee has all but self-financed the effort to defeat the Proposition 2 1/2 override before voters on April 7.
The report which is filed eight days before the election with the Town Clerk shows Allison contributing $5,000 of the $5,640 given to the committee – about 91 cents of every dollar taken in – which saw a grand total of six residents donate to the “No” committee since mid-March.
Of the committee’s leadership, both Campaign Treasurer Raffi Manjikian or Robert Sarno failed to contribute to the fund (although Sarno’s wife, Judith, put in $100) while Jim Gammill pony upped $10.
In addition, Allison made two “in-kind” contributions totaling $1,642.62, raising her total tally to $6,642.62.
On the other side of the ballot question, the “Yes for Belmont” Committee shows a far greater depth in the number of contributors and total money raised. Nearly 80 residents gave less than $50 and 66 more than $50 for a total of $17,385 raised from more than 145 residents since Jan. 1. On top of an opening balance of approximately $6,500, the “Yes” side had a little more than $23,900 on hand.
Nearly all the money raised on both sides have gone to print firms to create yard signs and other promotional material.
Going into the critical final week of the race, the “No” committee was running on empty with less than $200 in reserves while the “Yes” had $13,268.
Over in the Selectman’s race, the incumbent Andy Rojas flexed his money-raising muscles by taking an impressive $21,000 from about 80 contributors, which added to a running balance in his war chest of $11,300, gave the current chair of the Board just about $32,300 to use in his race with challenger Jim Williams. Contributors included members of the Planning Board, former colleagues Ralph Jones and Liz Allison, the School Committee’s Lisa Fiore and former Boston Herald business writer Cosmo Macero.
Interestingly, while not contributing to the “No” committees coffers, Manjikian ($150) and Gammill ($200) ante upped for Rojas.
In the final eight day, Rojas was sitting on just over $19,000 for any last minute push.
First-time candidate Williams found about a quarter of the number of residents – and some out-of-towners – contributing as the Glenn Road resident raised $6,055 since mid-January. Unlike the “No” campaign, Williams has been able to spend very little over that time and can use his remaining $5,359 to impress voters in the final week of the campaign.
Photo: Professor Graham Allison.
It’s the return of the robo call to the Belmont political scene.
But unlike an infamous automated call from an unknown group/individual sent to resident in 2010, this time the sponsor and speaker are out front with their identities and agenda. The group seeking to defeat the Proposition 2 1/2 override on the April 7 Town Election ballot sent the call around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 2, voiced by a prominent resident and national political insider.
“I’m Graham Allison, professor of government at the Kennedy School at Harvard, and a Belmont resident for 47 years,” said the call by Graham, the husband of the chair of the “Vote NO on Ballot Question 1 Committee,” fellow Harvard academic and economist Elizabeth Allison.
And Graham doesn’t mince words how he and the committee feels about the override and residents who are running the “Yes for Belmont” campaign to pass the $4.5 million multi-year override.
“I’ve never seen a campaign in Belmont in which advocates resorted to such crude scare tactics against fellow Belmont parents and citizens. I’m a student of government crises, and know the difference between a manufactured crisis and a genuine one. This is a manufactured crisis, a phony crisis. Belmont’s excellence in education does not require a $4.5 million dollar mega override. I’m Graham Allison and I hope you’ll join me in keeping Belmont affordable for all our citizens by voting no on question 1. Approved and paid for by the Vote No on Question 1 committee.”
Asked to respond to the message, “Yes for Belmont” co-chair Ellen Schreiber said “the YES campaign has consistently communicated the facts, and just the facts,” which include:
“The ‘No’ campaign may not like the facts. And yes, I agree that the facts are scary. But that is not a ‘scare tactic’,” she noted.
“The YES campaign has sincerely and respectfully worked for the best interests of our Belmont neighbors, and I assumed this was true of the ‘No’ campaign. We were shocked to hear words like ‘scare tactic’ and ‘phony’ and ‘manufactured’ in the ‘No’ campaign’s robocall,” she said.
“The Town Clerk wrote in her election communication yesterday, ‘Let’s start displaying that respect right now.’ We think that sounds like good advice,” said Schreiber.
The recent history of robo calls on town-wide ballot issues is one that continues to rankle many residents who recall a series of automated political calls and “push polls” – which attempts to influence voters under the guise of conducting a poll – a week before a June 2010 special election in which residents voted on a $2 million Prop 2 1/2 override for schools and roads.
The content of the 2010 calls inaccurately stated the override funds would pay for school teachers salaries and would not be spent in the designated town services. The calls were seen as motivating residents on the fence to vote “no” and defeating the override measure, 3,431 to 3,043, on June 14.
Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman filed a formal complaint with the state Office of Campaign & Political Finance to investigate the calls as a violation of reporting political activity costing more than $250. The state would end its investigation in August with no findings.
For the past few weeks, Belmont’s Town Clerk Ellen Cushman has been receiving an increasing number of calls, emails and personal visits from residents on the same topic, the Proposition 2 1/2 override on the Town Election ballot set for April 7.
But the residents were not seeking information about the Question 1. Rather, they showed Cushman examples of vitriol from neighbors or strangers on what side they took on Question 1: angry personal attacks in email and notes left on their property, political signs taken or destroyed, biting comments on social media.
“They’re upset that people are attacking their character for a political position,” Cushman told the Belmontonian Thursday afternoon, April 2.
“It’s been very bad tempered and personal,” she added.
After hearing from Belmont Police Chief Richard McLaughlin that his department has received similar messages, Cushman decided it was time to act by sending an extraordinary email to Town Meeting Members, elected officials, and town department heads to call for a return to civility in the election season.
Under the subject line, “The Community of Belmont – We All Share Responsibility,” (see the email below) Cushman spoke of “rising tide of negative emotion and malicious deeds and speech” against residents on the override question. Declaring she “abhor(s)” the actions taking place, Cushman is calling for those receiving the email to ask anyone they see participating in such acts to stop them and have the people return to “respectful discourse.”
The note is the first time the long-time Belmont resident can recall a town official requesting residents to remain civil during an election. Heated campaigning is not new to Belmont, infamous for the poison pen letters sent days before elections impugning the character of residents seeking town office.
(The Belmontonian has recently deleted Facebook and website comments for phrases and words that questioned poster’s characters.)
After speaking to McLaughlin, Cushman felt the underlying current of ugliness that “people were afraid to have conversations” about the election.
“It reached s a point where someone needed to notify residents of what’s happening,” said Cushman, hoping that residents realize they will still be neighbors on April 8.
While most of her focus is on the day of elections, Cushman said her mandate also is to make sure residents have the right to participate in the election process.
“Honestly, all I’m attempting to say is just be respectful,” she said.