There would be no cost too steep to get rid of these bozos!!!..can Sweet Brucey be any more annoying with his lecturing about Town Meeting and his awful one liners..How the hell did he ever get re-elected!!!..April can't come fast enough..

how about getting rid of the ITA's position.. we need it why??

Speaking of, it's hard not to think that if this town had a permanent town administrator for, oh I don't know, THE PAST FOUR FRIGGIN YEARS we might have had someone thinking about our financial future and planning accordingly - these idiots, there solution after four years of not having a permanent town administrator is to hire Boozy.

Oh April, why are you so close yet so far away?

I have had this conversation with many people, since I am privileged to represent over 1,000 organized union employees in dozens of communities and am responsible for negotiating their contracts I feel that I have some idea of what is happening out there. Yes, employing people costs money. Health insurance and retirement costs add up. Many years ago when we became self insured it saved us a great deal of money. Other towns have gone the same route with retirement, has that option been studied here in Wareham? Other communities have also looked at more innovative ways to save money, such as health insurance buy outs. That one is a bit complicated because in Massachusetts you are required to have health insurance by statute, but basically, the town pays employees for staying off the health insurance. If the insurance costs the town $10,000.00 annually and they pay the employee $5,000.00 to not join then it is a win win. Of course, the employee has to provide proof of coverage. Has the town looked into consolidating the now 5 day week into longer days or being open one night into 4 days, saving on the costs of running multiple buildings? Provincetown did it and Plymouth is about to try a 4 day week at their town hall beginning January. No employee in either town lost one penny of salary, but Ptown claims it is saving something like $40,000.00 on utility and fuel costs alone annually. That is enough money for lifeguards!

We need to think outside the box right now, it is completely unfair to place the burden of our financial woes squarely on the backs of the hard working men and women in our community. That also doesn't help the community in the long run since many of the employees live here. Money out of their pocket is money out of the pockets of local businesses too. I do not say this because I work for a union, I say this because it is true. The budget needs to be looked at with a microscope, every line item. There are lots of expenses that seem high, such as legal, or money spent on things like the computer audit that isn't really responsible in todays economic climate.

Keep in mind that the new town adiministrator will be looking for a hefty salary, we have already seen the town pay replacements of those "overpaid department heads" more money (CEDA Director). The problem with hiring new people is that they want market rate! We also must address the issue of our employees receiving no salary increases in years, how can they continue to provide for their families when everything around them is going up except their paycheck?

There are solutions to these problems, I know, not only do I design them every day but I am also an integral part of implementing them. Provincetown has been a huge success on the 4 day work week, can you tell I am proud of that? Most public sector employees are also tax payers in their communities, they understand the challenges faced in this economic crisis, the problem is that here we spend all our efforts trying to solve our budget problems on the backs of our workforce instead of working with them to find innovative cost saving measures that benefit both the employee and the community. True, those types of savings are not always large, but little bits add up and when they are recurrent savings as opposed to one time savings the money is available year after year.

I told Selectwoman Eckstrom during my campaign that I am happy, anytime, to discuss the solutions other communties are trying. I applied to the personnel board (never even got an interview). I feel very strongly that the direction of the conversation is wrong. Now is a time to work together. If dozens of other communities can do it, we can too!

Just want to mention another interesting item brought up by Brenda. David Begley (husband of Ellen Begley and contributor to a certain Selectmen's campaign) appears to be the new member of the CRC. Go figure! Another political friend of the Selectmen! You have to love them!

Looks like its turning into a bash the library fest, Brenda saying "The Friends of the Library aren't very friendly to the library," and aren't giving any money to the library.  So sad when incompetent politicians don't check the facts before they open their yaps.

Brucey sarcastically saying the "library is the third rail" that can't be touched (No Brucey, all people ever asked is that the library and the people who work for it don't be lied about).

Cronie, that bastion of ethics chiming in, getting a dig in on "the lady with the Save our Library signs."

I dunno Cronie, maybe if the library ever needs some ill-gotten dirt, no questions asked, you'll be the first guy to call.

I don't know what is worse, watching the Selectmen self gratify themselves or reading a chat session of the tin foil hat group. Both are so off base it is hilarious.

The good news is they only have until April. :)

Take Back Wareham!

So Bruce is taking all of Jan off and MAY make an announcement Dec 15. If he isn’t going to run they would want him to make that announcement as soon as possible so they can get their next candidate ready. Maybe this is the big announcement or surprise announcement David Begaly mentioned on the courier blog awhile back. I thought he said “people will be very surprised come Jan.” something like that.

My point is if John Donahue has known about Brucey not running for awhile I’m sure he has the next candidate already picked out.

I predict the Brucey announcement:

"Hello everyone, this is Brucey.  I'm announcing that I am getting a new lackey.  Bobo my lackey has served me well, but he has gone a little nuts lately, between inventing his imaginary friend Paul Shooter and accusing the library of everything from hiding nuclear missiles to using photo copier machine nickels to finance Central American third world country revolutions.  I am now taking auditions for a new lacky, who would like to be my new lacky?  Yes, each week I, the Great Brucey, will hold American Idol Lacky tryouts, follow me around for a week and if you kiss my butt the best, then you can be my new lacky, because my old lackey sucks bagels and is making me look bad."

AND THE ITA EXPECTS TO GO TO THE EMPLOYEES AND HAVE THEIR WAGES CUT????? THESE PEOPLE ARE OFF THEIR ROCKER. SOME MUCH WASTE IS GOING ON

The town has a deficit over $2 million and these clowns want to switch to a Mayoral form of government so the unemployable can get fat paychecks.

By the way I must have missed it because there were so many people and the camera never focused in close on any of them but I heard Boozy made an appearance at the budget workshop?

Welcome Boozy!  If you can get through the next three years working with the selectmen and not pick up a cold frosty one then you are truly reformed.

REMEMBER 700,000 DOLLARS IN THE DEFICIT IS BECAUSE THEY ARE CUTTING THE SEWER FEES TO NOTHING THIS YEAR. YEAH MAKES GREAT SENSE TO DO THIS NOW.

What is even more incredible it sounds like if the DA returns the computer disks the BOS is going to hand them back to the company the DA took them from so they can continue working on the disks. Remember when the DA took the disks from them they may not have been finished going over the disks to find the bloggers I mean the all the corruption that is going on in town, no I mean all the online shopping...  I’m sure K and P will then go over the findings with a fine tooth comb racking up more legal fees. How is the BOS going to justify spending all that money to discover employees that are shopping on line? Are they going to ask the town employees if they want to have their insurance payment increased or forgo salary increases so the town can spend money trying to find employees who shop on line?

I am not as familiar with fund accounting or governmental accounting, but if the employees have been overpaying for years that does not always equate to a surplus.I would have to see how the accounts used were broken down. HOWEVER, if the employees overpaid into a comingled account with the town's payments, then when the actual bills came due(and they were less than what was collected), there would be a surplus in that account. Because it is a trust account, I would think they could not move funds from this account as they do between general accounts. So, yes, I would think there was a surplus in that account. At least through 2008.

The good news is if there is a surplus, that would reduce that amount that an employee pays as a premium (up to the surplus amount attributed to emplyee deductions).

My question is what about the employees that were laid off, fired, or retired during the years in question? Are they not entitled to a refund? If not, why? They paid their premiums in good faith.

I'll try to do a little research and see what I can come up with.

Was the TA's contract finalized? I must have missed that. Anyone know the terms?  I hope they have coffee and donuts for him to meet the public. I will make time to be free to attend.  (Please note I know how to type "public."

Last edited by voter (2009-12-11 23:32:26)