Framingham bullied into funding Quinn
The other night, in a moment of fiscal irresponsibility, TM approved funding for the Quinn Bill. Over the common sense objections of Ways and Means, Audrey Hall explained that this will be another unfunded mandate that will never go away. While the Fin Comm group weighed in with approval, Chief Carl expalined he could not get qualified canidates to aplly for the open positions on the Police Force without Quinn. Town Counsel weighed in by saying some Towns have been brought to court over not funding Quinn. CFO Kelley did point out that the State is still funding Quinn for State Police and Enivoromental Police.
In the back of the hall stood a group of local cops, peering over the crowd as their superiors stood along side the selectman's corner. I wonder how many of the bullies even live in this Town and how many others being investigated have had extra education.
The political perk given to cops way back, was just nothing short of getting votes. While I do agree any education in any job related coarse is good for both the employee and the business, in these troubled times, it makes no sense to award a perk that the state no longer funds for Towns. If they don't fund it, we shouldn't either. Reminds me of the DARE program.
I did not vote for this. Next year and perhaps even this financial year, lay offs will happen. Health care costs are skyrocketing, foreclosures are rising, unemployment will remain around 9% and next years fiscal troubles are already on the radar, 3 billion more is what they now say for 2012.
Last night a young man sat down next to me and while a presentation was going on. With no Town Meeting paperwork in front of him, he opened a notebook and brought out two devices. One a very large calculator and a texter. He clearly was doing some homework and was a distraction to me. Finally I asked if he were a TM member and he showed me his badge. While doing his homework, he voted on the artcales presented.
Attendance was 117 last night and the night before, out of 130 that showed at the start, 50 had left at 9:30, leaving barley a quorum at 84. It is disturbing to see the lackadaisical attitude by some of TMM's and even more is the amount of people who leave early and don't show up at all. The fate of our Town is being decided by less than 100 people. I'd love to hear from a Town Meeting defender supporting this form of government..
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 9:11 AM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
I think you will be hard pressed to found a TM supporter at this point. I was shocked that Quinn funding was approved after Ways and Means spoke so articulatly against it. What were TM members thinking? Tonight when the school budget is being discussed, will teachers be standing threateningly at the back of the room?
I lost a lot of respect for Chief Carl on Tuesday night. Only 2 applicants for a job in this economy? I find that very hard to believe, unless he posted the job on one phone pole outside the station and not on Monstor or one of those job places.
You mentioned you are now on the rules committee. Can you set rules about town meeting members having to show up, and about policemen not intimidating town meeting members? It just does not seem like things are run very well in this town as far as the town meeting goes. I am not yet ready to throw in the towel and give up on town government, I just want to get people involved in town government who care and actually show up.
Why have a ways and means committee if you don’t listen to their recommendations? What power do any committees have if their advice is not listened to when they bring it to the floor of Town Meeting? I give Audrey Hall credit for standing up at that meeting with all those cops there and saying we should not support the Quinn funding. Wonder how many speeding tickets she will get this year.
Quinn funding is a joke. My job pays for me to take classes, that is not the bad part of the bill. But I am not guaranteed a raise just because I took the class. That is what is wrong with the Quinn bill. You can be a lousy police officer, and as long as you go to school and pass your class, you will get a raise. What happened to performance pay?
Are you saying a kid still in school is actually an elected town meeting member? You also said many of the TM members are pretty old. What the hell is that about, we only elect kids or extremely old people? What type of government do you think we are going to get from that mix?
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