Malden Taxpayers For Accountability

The 2010 Efficient and Fair Program for the people!

2010-12-15T12:14:00.000-08:00

We are proud to announce our "2010 Malden Taxpayer’s for Accountability “Efficient and Fair Trash Program for the people.”

The award goes to the City of Medford and Mayor Michael C. McGlynn for his city’s rollout of a single- stream recycle program. It took Medford about three weeks to fully implement the plan.

Here it is:

http://www.medford.org/Pages/MedfordMA_Recycle/MedfordRecyclingPostcardFINALOct42010PDF.pdf

The entire program and what they offer can be found at these two links:

http://www.medford.org/Pages/MedfordMA_Recycle/index

In the above link this demonstrates how the program works: AUTOMATED RECYCLING-TRASH COLLECTION VIDEO

http://www.medford.org/Pages/MedfordMA_Recycle/MedfordNewRecycling%20andTrashProgram%20FAQs%202010.pdf

The highlights of the innovative program are that Waste Management the trash carrier owns the barrels. If you want another one it costs you an extra $150.00 a year to rent it. Also, they do sell bags for $9.99 for five of them and they are green ones! They are only used when there is an overflow and the excess does not fit into the 64 gallon solid waste barrel. This seems to be a fair program. Recycling is picked up every other week as that must save the environment and city money with only two weeks of pickup in the month. The 96 gallon recycle bin has a lot of items that go in it and it can be covered with a lid that is attached to the unit (like the one in the picture). Maybe after we really determine what types of monies do or do not exist in our city. The Medford program could be so more beneficial for us as it would still save money for the city, protect the environment and still bring monies into the city coffers for sales of the bag. With the trash bins with lids it could reduce the need for street cleaning on a monthly basis as this would also save us money.

We would assume since the barrels are picked up by an automatic mechanical device. A bar code on the barrel would allow for the proper accounting of who is current on an optional fee for the service? If the house did not have the barrel, there would be no pickup. That is still a Pay-as-You-Throw trash system-minus the light weight good for nothing tax trash bag. This way everyone wins as the city gets the money all up front or in installment payments. The people get an easier solution to discard their trash. The recycle goods are all in one trash receptacle and not blowing around the city. This would reduce the stress on street sweeping resources. The current Mayor could actually finish his career as being the leader who did truly give us a worthy recycle program that everyone that lives or works in the community can be proud. We challenge anyone to drive or walk into Medford on trash days and see the orderly program they now have in that city.

The dream for our city would be to have a day like Medford had where there was a massive recycle day where Medford City Hall was the central location to discard the old trash bins that will never have to be used again:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/medford/news/x684373066/PHOTO-GALLERY-Medford-recycle-bins-residents-raise-concerns-over-trash-program

\The Mayor has stated that he favors a property tax increase and while our city next year faces potential budget shortfalls. The MTFA advocates for the finances to be posted from the last four years which includes: bank ledges, cancelled checks, bank accounts and audits (that cost us $185,000 a year) to be released to the taxpayers. The MTFA believes if you want additional monies from us, you must demonstrate that the cupboards are truly bare. Open up your books from 2007 to the present and give us transparency.

Malden, have a great week as our year ending blog in a few days will review the council year. Also we have a few individual awards for our elected officials next week.

The MTFA

“Don't let yesterday use up too much of today.”
-Will Rogers, Comedian, Political Pundit and American Actor as well as a hero.

2010 MTFA get the facts

2010-12-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

The City of Malden has won the 2010 Large Municipality Award from the Massachusetts
Recycling Coalition. This award is for political leadership that implements a trash bag tax without community input. They are also being recognized for balancing a budget for fiscal year 2009.

The MTFA questions the mission of the Massachusetts Recycling Coalition when they state on the group’s website:

Mass Recycle, founded in 1989, was organized in response to a need for statewide advocacy to establish recycling programs. Its founders and early members recognized that widespread recycling would help to conserve natural resources, energy, landfill space and open space. More recently, recycling has been recognized as an essential component of any comprehensive strategy to reduce greenhouse emissions. The economic benefits of recycling have become evident by the over 19,000 recycling jobs and the estimated $600 million that recycling contributes to the Massachusetts economy.

Mass Recycle is a statewide coalition of individuals, governments, businesses, institutions and non-profit organizations dedicated to promoting and realizing the vital environmental, social and economic benefits created by reducing, reusing, and recycling waste materials, and by increasing the utilization of recycled products. Our members include recycling coordinators in all 351 municipalities in Massachusetts, individual residents, non-profits serving western Massachusetts to the Boston area, and businesses across the state.

If it was supposed to be about the environment, where does it say that it is okay to over ride property taxes and balance local budgets? It is the opinion of the taxpayers group, the coalition must advocate for political leadership that goes against the basic foundations of our nation which is democracy. The MTFA believes that the people need to determine if what they write about is true when they visit the coalition’s website at:

http://www.massrecycle.org/aboutus.html.

The people then can make a determination if they are not just stuffing their pockets with our trash dollars.

Now go to the 2010 award winning trash recycle program and compare it with ours:

http://maldentax.blogspot.com/2010/12/2010-efficient-and-fair-program-for.html

Happy Holidays!

MTFA

Always question authority in the face of facts that are placed at your feet. You never know what you may find when you look down.--unknown quote---

Press Release Residency Tax

2010-12-12T13:33:00.000-08:00

Press Release
Contact: Bob Miler
Phone: (781) 420-3818 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12:30 P.M. EDT, November 29, 2010.

Malden Taxpayers group response on the Residency Property Tax Exemption.

The taxpayers group applauds the potential home owner exemption from 20% uo to 30%. This could be a possible $1,000 to $1,400.00 savings to the 8,500 homeowners that qualify for the exemption. We support Councilors Christenson, Kinnon, Nestor and Lucey for sponsoring this legislature.

MTFA wants the community to realize that someone is paying for this reduction in property taxes for certain residents

There is a press release that backups the estimate of taxpayer savings from last year: http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/malden/2009/12/the_following_statement_was_is.html

The group wants the taxpayers to realize that local government is not giving you something for free. They state that someone, somebody or some group of people are paying for your savings. The group knows that many people in these tough economic times need to save money where and when they can.

Local business response has been one of disbelief over the increases in property taxes. The watchdog group issues a warning to the City Council on the continued pressure to pay more taxes to the city from this group. When last year’s totals are taken into consideration, the MTFA estimates that the Residency Exemption if implemented by the Council will be an increase to the property owners to about $2,000.00 dollars.

The taxpayer’s advocacy group has spoken to dozens of business owners and some of the comments have been the following:

• The highest increase mentioned to me was about $8,000.00. They either can’t leave Malden because their clients are here.

• Will pass it on to the renters of the property.

• It’s getting too expensive to conduct business in Malden and they will just have to look elsewhere to open up shop.

The group wishes everyone a happy and safe Holiday Season and they encourage everyone to access this week’s blog at:

http://maldentax.blogspot.com/2010/11/when-is-tax-good-or-bad.html
-END-

Press Release City Council Appointment Authority

2010-12-12T13:30:00.000-08:00

Press Release
Contact: Bob Miler
Phone: (781) 420-3818 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12:30 P.M. EDT, November 29, 2010.

Malden MA-In response to Councilor Christenson’s request for the Council to review the following positions that report to the Council: City Solicitor, Assessors, Treasurer and Controller and make a recommendation to have these positions be appointments by the Mayor.

The Malden Taxpayers for Accountability position on this is as follows:

• Even though the Council is a not a full-time position, these professionals should remain with the direct representatives of the people.-The Malden City Council.
• In the opinion of the MTFA if the Council actually does decide to opt out of these appointments, then why do we even need a governing body to represent us? The Mayor would then control all appointments of any consequence in the city. This in turn could warrant the professionals that fill these positions to never have to return an e-mail or phone call to our elected representatives.
• The Councilor believes that the reporting structure should be modernized to better suit the needs of Malden. We agree with him, but, he should let a Charter Commission elected by the community make these decisions.

The group supports Ward 7 Councilor Neal Anderson and At Large Councilor Deb Fallon for their poignant defense of keeping these positions reporting structure with the Council. Anderson and Fallon both believe that this is an important function of the City Council. That if they give them up, that it will diminish their influence and leverage with the Administration. The MTFA supports their positions and hopes the Council only changes the term of years served by the appointee. A few other job duty changes that require ordinance approval by the Council and signed by the Mayor should suffice.

The MTFA still believes that a citizen charter commission be formed to review the city’s charter. We question when was the last time it had citizen review and why it is not online for us to have the ability to see it and have transparency that the Council claims to have given us over other issues this year.

The group wishes everyone a happy and safe Holiday Season and they encourage everyone to access this week’s blog at:

http://maldentax.blogspot.com/2010/11/when-is-tax-good-or-bad.html
-End-

Press Release Finance Committee

2010-12-12T13:24:00.000-08:00

Press Release
Contact: Bob Miler
Phone: (781) 420-3818 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12:30 P.M. EDT, November 29, 2010.

The Malden Taxpayers for Accountability response to Tuesday night’s finance committee meeting.

Malden MA-The taxpayer’s watchdog group still stands by their original positions on the budgets with the city: Full disclosure of the check registers, bank statements and audit reports from the past four years.
The MTFA asks the City Council how anyone can believe anything that is told to us if there is no transparency with our citizen reporting structure that currently exists in our city? The group questions what accounting system with citizen oversight is in place to assure us that our leaders are actually watching our tax dollars? The answer is obvious that there are none in place.

Besides the requests for actual documentation, the taxpayer group suggests a citizen financial oversight committee that would audit the books at the end of each fiscal year.

Is it time for actual citizen participation with our city’s tax dollars?

The MTFA believes that without clear citizen participation with the financial reporting system of the city. There will be continued doubt about how our tax dollars are being spent by our elected officials. The group has three simple points why the citizens need to have input and review of the budgets:

1. The MTFA believes that if an independent group of citizens would have been able to notify the Mayor and City Council that the budget was due in May. The June 14, 2010 submittal, in our opinion left our other elected officials and unions with very little time to review the budgets and make intelligent decisions for us and their members.

2. The proposed independent citizens would be able to research and question state statutes along with city ordinances which relate to our tax dollars. This in turn could lead to the full disclosure of all our monies being held in accounts that we have no access for the purposes of review.

3. We ascertain that the citizens would legitimize the budget process of the city and erase the doubts that we now have about the accounting procedures and policies of the City of Malden

The current Finance Committee Chair James Nestor states that the budget is online and anyone can follow it.

The MTFA position on this budget is that until the miscellaneous line items and the actual revenue of the city are itemized in the budget. Along with the actual check registers, audits and the results (that we pay $185,000 for) and bank statement registers are posted online. We will not support any tax or spending initiative until the city discloses this information to the taxpayers of the city.

The MTFA can defend its claims of the need for citizen oversight with these facts over the past few years:

The council wants to move forward and forget the acts of the administration that demonstrate complete disregard for our tax dollars. We can’t and will not until the City gives us total transparency which is the actual day to day accounts and reports of the city.

The tax watchdog group backs up its argument with monies found over the past few years:

• This year $1million dollars was “found” to pay for services.
• 2.1 Million dollar surplus for the senior center construction. Where is that money now?
• 1.5 Million dollars from a failed bond initiative that is used to balance a budget.
• $700,000 in negotiated in good faith pay raises that the council had no idea about. This amount was not accounted for in the budget. In response the City Council creates an ordinance to address this issue.
• 3.0 million dollar surplus in the water bill fund that is now being used to finally pay for infrastructure upgrades.
• $500,000 in employee indiscretions that lead to questions of improper accounting practices in the city.

The group wishes everyone a happy and safe Holiday Season and they encourage everyone to access this week’s blog at:

http://maldentax.blogspot.com/2010/11/when-is-tax-good-or-bad.html

Also the MTFA position on taxes and the reporting structure in the city:

http://maldentax.blogspot.com/2010/10/mtfa-position-on-taxes-in-malden.html
-End-

Press Release Parking Sticker

2010-12-12T13:22:00.000-08:00

Press Release
Contact: Bob Miler
Phone: (781) 420-3818 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12:30 P.M. EDT, November 29, 2010.

The taxpayer’s watchdog group position on the the City- Wide Parking Sticker Program which is proposed by Councilors Christenson, Kinnon, Lucey and Spadafora.

The MTFA believes that the sticker program has merit as a revenue neutral program and applauds Councilor Murphy for her stance on this fee that can appear to be a tax.

In regards to funds for public safety, if the Council wants to earmark potential expected monies from the additional excise tax dollars generated from the addition of registered vehicles, we suggest they do that and follow the lead of their fellow Councilor from Ward 5.

Are there benefits from this program?

Besides the additional revenue from the excise tax (which was suppose to stop after World War II), it would also be another potential way to identify illegal boarding houses and other housing issues that permeate throughout the community. This places pressure on our public safety personal who are already at their limits in regards to the protection of the community.

The Taxpayer’s watchdog group hopes that At-Large Councilor Spadafora will support Murphy’s plan for minimal financial burden on the taxpayer. Why does the MTFA stress this from him?

He is a recent recipient of support from the Citizen’s for Limited Taxation. We believe because of this he should support Murphy with her position, as it should now be his.

The group wishes everyone a happy and safe Holiday Season and they encourage everyone to access this week’s blog at:

http://maldentax.blogspot.com/2010/11/when-is-tax-good-or-bad.html-End-

When is a tax good or bad?

2010-11-26T22:18:00.000-08:00

I differ from many of the anti tax purists in the area that insist that all taxes are bad. Some can be good, while others seem to be an over reach of power by government (think of our trash bags and the state’s double alcohol tax). This past Tuesday was the culmination of me watching this all play out at our City Council meeting. First of all, the room was almost completely full to listen to the Finance Committee discuss the budget. I want to state that until we are shown the audits and current actual registers with bank statements from this year and the past four years. The MTFA will never support any increase in fees or taxes.

There are a number of items in this post that you should really discuss with your elected City Councilor. They will be at the Holiday Parade or whatever local business that is still open after some of the Administration’s past tax practices. This is a two part blog as our present to you will be written hopefully before you make your last turkey sandwich next week.

Let’s begin: our City Council’s finance committee wants to implement a meals tax. These funds allegedly will be earmarked for capital improvements such as acquiring land for recreational use for the people of Malden.

I went to the first public meeting to listen to the discussion of the tax in the Council Chambers. The Ward 6 Councilor mentions that the property the city wants to acquire and I will paraphrase him, says that it is just like the Fellsmere Pond area of the West End of Malden. I did some research, as I spoke to a few of the homeowners that live near this parcel of land. My question to the Council is how can you compare these two areas of the city with each other? With no disrespect to the residents that live near the land (and have fought very hard to keep other houses built on it) that the city may buy (or bond) it appears to be a case of comparing apples to oranges. Can anyone get in a car and drive to the new piece of land, park in front of a home, physically walk the property? Can the elderly and the disabled have any access to it? Why would Malden buy something without having a plan for its use? My opinion is that I would rather give some money to the bike path people once they can convey a clear message to the Council and the public on what they want to accomplish with the additional funds. Also it appears that finally certain Ward Councilors have ideas where the monies should be spent (other than more land acquisitions) in their own wards.

At the public hearings for the meals tax increase I heard a few people state: this tax doesn’t affect me. See it does when you might now have to pay more for an item at a convenient store, when you go out to eat, buy a product at a drugstore or your monthly and sometimes weekly order of food.

Now, let’s talk about the commercial property owners in relation to Malden’s own business community. When I think that it could not get any worse for the business owners in Malden. This past Tuesday, the Ward 1, 4, 6 and an At-Large Councilor-who calls Ward 5 his home, introduces another raise in the Residential Property Tax Exemption from 20% up to 30%The initial estimate of savings for the home owner’s who lives in the house, will be in the range of $1,000.00 to $1,400.00 a year.

Here is last year’s press release that backups the estimate in taxpayer savings:

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/malden/2009/12/the_following_statement_was_is.html

I want to let the homeowners in on a little secret: local government is not giving you something for free. Someone, somebody or some group of people are paying for your savings. I state this because I know that times are tough and people need to save money wherever they can. This also means an increase of taxes that our city must pass on to all of the property owners which are the following: commercial, dwellings over six units and absentee land lords. This amounts to about $2,000.00 per property owner if last year’s totals are taken into consideration.

The past few months I have spoken to a number of professionals that own properties and buildings in Malden. The highest increase mentioned to me was an increase of about $8,000.00. What I usually hear from this group (if they remain in business), is:

• They either can’t leave Malden because most of their clients live here.

• Will pass the tax on to the renters of the property who will eventually
pass it on to you and me.

• It’s getting too expensive to conduct business in Malden and they will just
have to look elsewhere to open up shop.

Do you still think that the tax does not affect you or cost you anything Let me ask you another question. Do you own a car? Your local mechanic eventually must raise his price to repair your car due to the fact that last year he knew his long term clients were all hurting because of the recession. The local mechanic fearing that you may go elsewhere absorbs the property tax increase on his garage. Last year he did not pass on the extra thousands from his property tax bill to fix your ten year old Chevrolet. Do I need to write about this anymore? How about the local barber or hairdresser that cuts your hair-I hope you get the message.

Some of our City Councilors will be submitting for Sub Committee review a few more items for discussion. Since many of you will be out shopping for gifts, we will give you updates on what occurs at City Hall. I would suggest that you personally appear and any people that have made their announcements to run for elected office should appear at these meetings. It also is the standard practice of the MTFA to not mention any Councilors by their names but by the Ward they represent in this blog.

Here’s what was submitted on the Council docket and referred to Committee this week:

1. City-Wide Parking Sticker Program Fee/Tax: The following Councilors from Wards 1, 6 and At Large Councilors from Ward 5 and the other-he is from Ward 3 wants to collect fees to earmark for the police department. I guess the MTFA was not that far off from when we stated many years ago that we would be paying for basic services in the city. When will the street sweeping and line painting fees go out to the taxpayers?

Also, the MTFA questions if the Ward 3 At Large Councilor who received an endorsement from the Citizen’s for Limited Taxation will support the Ward 5 Councilor when she voices her opinion that this program should be revenue neutral after all the other taxes that they propose. She states that if it is for public safety-like the sponsors of the parking sticker suggest, then it should be to benefit the community. As the Ward 6 Councilor states that the city will see additional State Excise Tax money from cars that should be registered in Malden. Kudos to her as it makes up for some of her earlier statements about the budget this year and the cutting of coupons for people facing possible layoffs.

2. Implementation of Additional Appointment Authority of the Mayor: From the Ward 1 Councilor a review of the appointment authority of the City Solicitor, Assessors, Treasurer and Controller. Make a recommendation to have these positions vesting appointments by the Mayor. He believes that the city needs to modernize certain job functions.

• My personal opinion is that while the Council is a part-time position, these professionals should always remain with the direct representatives of the people.-THE MALDEN CITY COUNCIL!

• If the Council actually does decide to opt out of these appointments, then why do we even need a governing body to represent us? The Mayor would then control all appointments of any consequence that would warrant the professionals that fill these positions to ever return an e-mail or phone call to our elected representatives.

The Ward 1 Councilor should let a Charter Commission elected by the community decide if this is a good idea to lose the appointment authority to the administration over key personnel of the City of Malden. Saugus and Everett have commissions in place and review the entire Charter of the city. The MTFA questions why would we expect this from them when they do not even list it online for us to review it! Is this transparency?

The Ward 7 Councilor and the lone female At Large Councilor from Ward 3- believe that the Council should not give up this important function as leverage and a source of power for the Council. I personally support their views and will take it one step further if the Council even thinks of giving away this power. I recommend an abolishment of the City Council and the Mayor’s position. In its place a city manager with five to seven councilors where some would represent the entire city and some two wards each.

Malden, this was not even close to what we wanted to discuss this week. We also will not support the idea that there is no money in the budgets until the audits from the past four years with registers and bank accounts are on display for the entire city to review the results. See, to believe once again in our government we must be all on the same page and right now? We have our doubts about the process of how our monies have been accounted for.

We hope that you had a great Thanksgiving and enjoy the Holiday Season!

Bob Miller and the MTFA

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

Abraham Lincoln, 16th US President, who brought the emancipation of the slaves, 1809-1865.

Town Hall style politics comes to Malden?

2010-10-03T16:04:00.000-07:00
You know the old saying, “I went to hockey game and boxing match broke out.” Well, I went to a City Council meeting and a town hall vote broke out.” In all my 35 plus years of visiting our City Council Chambers, I thought, I would never see and witness a City Councilor actually poll the citizens by asking them to raise their hands for their opinions! This outreach was to get a sense of what the money from a proposed meals tax should be spent on. The only problem is that only two groups appeared this past Wednesday night for public input. One group involves public service personnel trying to get their jobs back. The other is a neighborhood organization in one of the wards that wants the city to acquire what they describe as open space that they compare to Fellsmere Pond.

Malden is a large city, but still small enough when it comes to gatherings like this where people on both sides of an issue know one another. I respect the sacrifice of time and energy that people spend in community groups. The dedication and loyalty that our public safety personnel give to our city is unmatched. However, I feel that if we do acquire open space, there needs to be the following to ensure that the money is well spent: have a plan for all citizens in our community to utilize the land, as existing city committees should oversee this project. The Recreation Department and Conservation Commission are just two that come to my mind.

Before anyone continues on with reading this post, I do not support increases in tax dollars to support either of these causes. I am not saying they are not in need or worthy ones to consider for our community. I know I would dislike ever being a Councilor and have to make a decision to spend this money, solely based on what I saw and hear from just two Malden groups. First of all, in my opinion, one week to get this out to the public is insufficient time. Second, with what we have going on with our other properties, why the rush to get this done? There was a very professionally prepared Power Point presentation from the Ward 6 Councilor. I also wanted to see pictures of what we are going to acquire, as it would have been appropriate for this type of presentation to us. I also have heard through the grapevine, that one of our Councilors, just recently visited the open space, before the meeting. That leads me to believe that this project, which has merit, needs a few more visual additions to make it acceptable to the public. Lastly, not that anyone seems to care about our small business owners. I hope that the Council at least can see the hardship from the increase of this tax to this group of taxpayers. That it will cost some businesses in the city resources that they do not currently have. There is even a mention of a business in this city, where the owner of a pizza shop, must work a second job to make ends meet. What people need to start realizing is that we can only take from the same well, so many times before there is nothing left to drink!

The week before in a City Council Subcommittee meeting, a few of the councilors wanted to fix the fire hydrants in the city with the meals tax funds. There are approximately 500 hydrants that will require $3,000.00 to $6,000.00 dollars each to repair. After speaking with a few of the councilors this week, the taxpayer water and sewage fund might be able to pay for this emergency need in our community. I wonder if we did buy this open space, that we can put a fire out from a hydrant around the corner from our newly acquired land? How about in front of the small businesses that pick up this additional tax? Some now, do not pass this tax on to their customers-it's called competition and building customer loyalty. People need to also realize that this same business may own the property and this year they paid for the home owner exemptions. Please tell me why anyone now would want to open a business here in our city? On Wednesday night, people testified that this tax did not affect them. Yes, it does if it only helps you! I also question, is there a plan for the rest of the city to immediately benefit from it? I would hope that a drawn up plan would exist where our 57,999 residents can enjoy the same open space that the people whose backyards join the land. This should be just like the pond on the Fellsway.

Now, let’s continue with the town hall meeting concept, as I ask the City Council, how can anyone of you, now, not allow an open microphone at the end of your meetings? Like anything else, after the novelty is over. It will be you, the crickets, me and the MTFA with you to observe how you spend our tax dollars. Granted it might just take a few years for the people to lose interest in how you govern us. But, I am opportunistic when I see more people appear at the meetings the past few weeks. It is obvious to me, that many of them are upset at government, as they are starting to heckle the Council and openly make comments in the Chambers. I ask the Council, to give the people a forum to ask questions about their city! The Council wants people to attend their meetings, but, there is no chance to have our voices be heard. What I like to tell people is that our Federal politicians are only seen on television, while our State politicians hide, duck, weave and bob, to avoid us. But, alas, the local council person, alderman or selectman, lives with us. Their family members attend our schools and drive our streets. We can contact them at home at any time of day and night. We also see them at the local grocery store and it is very hard to avoid us at the deli counter on a Saturday afternoon.

The City Council’s, time honored and age old tradition of having to be sponsored by a councilor to address them at a meeting is humiliating and disrespectful to us. I have always felt this way and it is the reason, I would not ask to speak about the trash bag tax. Would you treat your family members this way and expect to get an invitation for the Holidays? Did not the British make us feel this way over two hundred years ago? Maybe when the Ward 6 Councilor, this week, asks us to raise our hands, this is a preview of things to come for the citizen’s of Malden. The people need to thank the newest At-Large Councilor for the City Council discussion of an open microphone at the end of council meetings. It should be discussed in the next few weeks and the people should attend these meetings to show their support for it! Maybe this will eventually mean that I can finally stay home on Tuesday nights and continue watching American Idol. I can then switch my night out to Monday and gain some new friends on the school committee.

For those of you that wonder, Wednesday night, I did not raise my hand for any options. I thought that with only two groups to split our tax dollars, further discussion should occur, as again, a one week notice to the community looks rather politically expedient. Not that would be the first time this ever occurred in our community.

Our position on this tax and the potential property tax increase is here at Boston.com:

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/malden/2010/09/the_following_is_a_statement_1.html?comments=all

And our blog:

http://maldentax.blogspot.com/2010/10/mtfa-position-on-taxes-in-malden.html

Malden, I still believe that we need to see the books before any tax dollars are spent or raised by our city. Have a great week and be well.

Bob Miller
MTFA

This week we will forgo the quote as I believe some of the people of history whose words we use would want us to show our elected officials and residents who the meals tax also affects in our city:

• Cafes
• Cafeterias
• Canteen trucks or wagons
• Catering businesses
• Cocktail lounges and bars
• Coffee shops
• Diners
• Dining rooms, including hotel and motel dining rooms
• Ice cream or other food product stands
• Lunch counters
• Private or social clubs
• Salad bars
• Snack bars, including theatre snack bars
• Street wagons or carts
• Taverns
• Vending machines or “honor snack trays” that sell snacks or candy with a sales price of $3.50 or more.
• Store is any establishment that is not primarily engaged in the business of selling meals.
• Restaurant.
• Restaurant meals delivery company.

The meals tax link can be found here and now do you know people that are affected by it?

http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=dorterminal&L=6&L0=Home&L1=Individuals+and+Families&L2=Personal+Income+Tax&L3=Forms+%26+Publications&L4=Publications&L5=Publications+Index&sid=Ador&b=terminalcontent&f=dor_publ_meals&csid=Ador

MTFA position on taxes in Malden.

2010-10-03T15:53:00.000-07:00
Here is the press release that went out before Wednesday's meals tax meeting.

Taxpayer watchdog group speaks with over 150 people this past weekend at a community event. The general consensus is no to any tax increases until the city opens its books to the public.

The Malden Taxpayers for Accountability (MTFA) were out this past weekend with volunteers to discover how the community feels about local government and the proposed tax increases by the Mayor and City Council President.
The MTFA wants the citizens to realize that their leaders want to raise taxes as they state:

On June 14, 2010, thirty days late with the budget, the Mayor announces in his 75 minute budget presentation to the Council. That a property tax increase or what we know it as a Proposition 2 ½ Override will possibly be needed to bring back some basic services. Within the last week the Council President declares in a phone interview with the Boston Globe the same need for additional funds after the most recent rash of violence on Salem Street.

The taxpayer group position before tonight’s scheduled public meeting in regards to the meals tax and any other taxes:

The position of the MTFA is that any tax increases by the City of Malden will not have support from the MTFA. They state, “The city from the past four years must make all financial records open to the public.” This would include the following: bank statements with cancelled checks, lists of yearly itemized revenue and the $185,000 a year auditor’s reports. These items are currently not for review by the taxpayer.

The watchdog group uses the following facts to defend their position:

Since the city has released public safety personnel starting in July, monies that total a million dollars have been “found” in the budget. The MTFA states that from these finds that the books of the city from the past four years should be open for review by the citizens. The Mayor told us that he is responsible for reporting of only the general fund of 119 million dollars. Recently, the city’s controller, states that there is 151 million dollars in the budget. After this statement, which the MTFA knows includes Federal and State funds, the taxpayers group wants all of the financial information to be online. The group feels that this will eliminate any doubt if the city does or does not require more funds.

The MTFA asks the leaders of the city if they will post the city’s charter online.

Since the most recent ruling from the City Solicitor that the Mayor violates the Charter of the city, they request that a copy of this most important document be posted on the city’s website. They believe that the city must become more transparent when it wants to take additional money out of the pockets of our citizen’s! They make an appeal to the city’s leaders, “Just don’t tell us you require the money from us. Open up your books from the past four years and prove that the coffers are empty.” They conclude, “If you treat us with respect and common decency, we just may surprise you and assist you with the funds we may need to keep our city operational during these tough economic times.”
-END-

Here we go again, more taxes!

2010-09-14T16:39:00.000-07:00
We hope these past few weeks that you enjoyed the three part series on corruption in our city. Please remember we want the reader of our blog to think about what we write about from the meetings that we attend at City Hall on Tuesday nights. We take the city and State of Massachusetts data, along with the council meetings, and public statements from our political leaders, to formulate our opinions. We expect our public officials to differ sometimes with our conclusions. This means that there are many different viewpoints from the ones that are broadcast over public access television and what sometimes the print media takes from the local government to place in their newspapers. What we write about this week is how the City Council President, who also represents Ward Three, mentions that there could be a Proposition 2 ½ property override ballot vote. This is because of the recent cuts in public safety by the Mayor, in the police and fire departments. The unions that represent these hallowed and respected defenders of our city, did not accept the Mayor’s offer to have them pay more for the medical insurance premiums that they have taken out of their paychecks.

We have been questioning why the city can have an education surplus of $5.3 million dollars. This is now the dollar amount after the Federal Government sends another 1.8million for “relief” and one million for the city’s share of the race to the top award money. This last amount is really for the future of education in our city and to prepare the students for college. We would also hope that it would address the students that decide to brave this new work world without having an advanced education. We hope that they are shown what the future looks like for them without a degree. It might make more kids decide to stay in school and realize that the economy of the future will be a competitive one that requires workers with skills beyond high school diplomas.

The MTFA wants every student to have the ability to go further than their parents-that’s what makes our nation a great one to live in. However, we feel that to advance our community, we must have adequate protection on the beat and in the trucks. It seems absolutely absurd to receive the monies listed above (which are earmarked for the specific purpose of education) and the schools have budget surpluses and can acquire land, athletic facilities and make bids on our public parks to own them! We do understand that these education plans (Charter School from the audits they have online from 2009 had the bond monies secured to build a possible facility) were already planned. But, after last week’s shootings on the east side of the city, many people feel unsafe and wonder why public safety personnel were terminated in July. We were also told that no city employees would lose their jobs if we gave into the idea of the blue trash bag tax. What is going to be the reason this time when they want to raise the property taxes? We guess it will be to hold us hostage for basic services. That is okay with us as long as we start the process of outsourcing or privatizing all non-essential services. City Hall should be closed and the committees should meet at facilities that we own. Rent office space in downtown Malden for the clerk’s office and to pay bills with the city. This would allow extra walk by business for the stores on Pleasant Street. At least this time when the Council and Mayor are taking more of our dollars from us, they at least can tell the small business owners that they are thinking of them as they reach more into the pockets of the little guy on Main Street.

The MTFA believes if the Mayor and Council President want this additional funding from the residential and business owners. They need to make them whole with the public release of audits with actual check registers with cancelled checks from the past four budget years. This would also include an itemized list of all revenues that the city receives from all of its resources. A review process needs to occur by each ward, where all questions can be asked and answered by the Council. This will hopefully make the taxpayers believe again in their local government. The MTFA challenges City Hall to demonstrate to us why you actually need the dollars that you request from us.

Until, the city makes an attempt to properly present their case to us and demonstrate an acceptable plan for the need of a Proposition 2 ½ override. The MTFA will not support any increases of taxes-which includes property, meals or the raising of the price of the trash bag. Until the City opens up the books from 2006 to the present, as we have witnessed too many times additional monies that the city finds in past budgets to pay for the needs of the city. We also use the examples of the employee theft of $518,000 a few years and how the exact details of how this occurred has never been disclosed to us. Most recently, the city finds $500,000 additional monies to pay for police officers for this current budget. These are just some of the documented discoveries (like the five time submitted, 2.5 million dollar education budget surplus) that our group over the past few years as discovered. This is what gives us the moral right to have access to the books to make a determination if the city actually needs the extra funds.

We know we sound like a broken record, but, that’s how the current City Council and the Administration sound to us when they continue to not disclose any information to us. Maybe we can listen to them when they release to the public, the employee theft and the actual itemized financial information from 2006 to the public. Let the citizens make the determination that we need increases in taxes for services. This should be based on what we see from the budget years that we question. The MTFA has witnessed the administration along with most of the council’s being complacent in the game of Russian roulette that the Mayor and his cohorts play with our public safety. In our opinion, these long standing negotiation ploys by all sides are finally affecting the everyday lives of our citizens that live in the city. We say that enough is enough and that this game of playing chicken for pay raises and or increases in the medical insurance premium payments, must stop. We are the ones without proper protection on the streets that we walk, run or drive. The audacity that anyone or group should get continued increases in salaries is upsetting to us, as the private sector has been decimated the past three years. In case people that read this post forget who we are that write this blog---we pay the bills from the taxes you want to raise on us. Just take a look at the increased unemployment rate this month in our nation (how many thousands of Malden people are out of work?). Again, we state we realize that some of the unions in this city possibly do not trust the administration when they sit down at the negotiation table. We’ve witnessed found monies in the budget, paid raises for certain unions, when the Mayor has instructed percentage cuts to city departments earlier in the year. Now, these games are starting to cost us more of our dollars and we should ensure that there is a true need for additional funds.

We ask the people that read this blog to get involved with us, as we now have the time to organize and ready ourselves for another Mayoral led, City Council and School Committee (some of them next year might be running for higher office) money grab without any accountability, public input (like the trash tax bag, Salemwood swindle and monies that appear in budgets) or transparency to make us believe they need our additional tax dollars.

Malden, have a great week and please question whatever the Mayor or the other elected political officials are going to tell you why they need more money from us. Just read our blogs from the past few years and make the determination if you can really trust any of them. At the moment, we do not, until they show us the information we request from them.

MTFA

“A man who has no share in any form of organized power is not independent of organized power. He is at the mercy of it.”

Harvey Ferguson

What is wrong with Malden Part III

2010-09-06T11:46:00.000-07:00
Take a drive someday this week down Commercial Street and visit the Malden side of River’s Edge with its lone office building and business in it. Please also realize that there are apartments in this same area. The Mayor is one of the directors of the three city sites with the other mayors from Medford and Everett. You must be thinking what does this have to do with me, and the taxes that I pay to live in Malden? It does not as an individual homeowner, but if you owned a business property in the city, you paid substantially more to “do business” in Malden. If you owned a home and lived in it, you were given a home owner exemption of 20% off your property taxes this year. Do you think the money just disappears into thin air? Someone paid for it, and it was your local doctor, corner store, apartment complex and small business owner.

There is an obvious monetary increase to what the Malden Ordinances describes as the commercial property owners, which includes dwellings with more than six housing units. The ramifications to us are as follows: 1.) A local business with this type of tax increase (even your local convenient store) might just want to do the following: upgrade to the Mayor’s facility, move out or just take the increase. 2.) The opinion of the MTFA is that while River’s Edge is extremely appealing to the eye, the apartment pricing is a bit more expensive than some of Malden’s current rental stock. With these increases of property taxes to the dwellings over six units and businesses of the city. We question, who is absorbing the extra cost in a slow economy? The answer would be us as the tax increase is passed on in the pack of gum or the sunflower seeds we buy at the corner store. How about that visit to the dentist’s office and you notice a slight increase from last year’s bill for the cleaning of your teeth?

Do you think it stops only there? How about trying to rent out an apartment in the house that you live and own? River’s Edge becomes your competitor in an ever tightening Greater Boston rental market. What about when it comes time to sell your own home or condominium? You now just might need to eventually sink even more cash into a home that has been declining in value for quite some time. We hope that the values make a rebound in the future. The competition created by our Mayor and his other mayoral cohorts might make you have to pay additional monies out of your own pocket that supersede what you get from the home owner exemption. The MTFA believes that River’s Edge needs the continuation of the involvement from the Mayor’s and their designees. However, before it becomes another mini MDC or MWRA, it should be privatized by the state. It seems that we see no money in our city budget from this venture and we can now demonstrate how it can affect our pocketbook. We naturally will stand corrected, if monies are given to our budgets, but, due to the lack of transparency from our city government, how would we know?

Let’s back up what we write about in the last sentence written above, as the quasi state/three municipal organization has no apparent meetings http://www.cityofmalden.org/Mystic-Valley-Development-Commission/ scheduled or disclosed whomever they select as the designees from the specific city-the Ward One Councilor is ours. I would like to see the meeting minutes from the 4 million dollar eminent domain case that River’s Edge recently lost:
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/malden/2010/07/appeals_court_orders_4m_paid_i.html. It is an election year, and we would assume that the President of River’s Edge should pick up the cost of the settlement award. Then it will be passed on to us next year, in the form of State Aid cuts.

You can make up your own mind about River’s Edge lack of transparency in disclosing the details to us. Here is the official website:

http://www.riversedgema.com/history.html

Need an affordable apartment?

http://www.apartmenthomeliving.com/apartment-finder/The-Residences-at-Rivers-Edge-Medford-MA-02155-204719

Finally after all of the Federal (think- Telecomm City) and State monies that has been invested in this land, we can now have access to it? There is a another vision in our collective heads, and it’s from the movie Caddy Shack, when the kids who are the caddies are allowed one hour, a year, to swim in the country club’s pool. Our Mayor offers us what Bill Murray’s character cleans up in the final pool scene, and it’s not the Baby Ruth candy bar that he has in his rubber gloved hand.

Read this link and now think of the movie if you have already watched it: http://www.cityofmalden.org/Economic-Development-Rivers-Edge/

But, to be fair (more than most of our elected officials, have been to us), this blog should be attached, as it would enhance the value of the park to the citizen’s:

http://environment.blog.state.ma.us/blog/2010/06/malden-river-event-draft.html

See, we believe it’s sometimes more than just about the money. There were tons of it shoveled down Commercial Street the past fifteen years. We were lucky that we missed the technological wave of a few years ago as it would have left most of the buildings empty. What we now have is the opportunity to witness a reclaiming of our waterways. But, again, we hope you can now see by reading this post, that without transparency and adequate notice to the community in matters that involve us. The perception of closed door politics, along with back room deals that our elected officials pass eleventh hour laws. Will always remain engrained in our minds as our citizen’s are made to feel like second class citizens and fools by some of our political leaders. One final thought, the voters this year, have a belief that most of our elected officials benefit only themselves first, and then give to us the crumbs (candy bars-think above) from their tables that they sweep to the floors.

Malden, have a good (we mean only that) week, and please think about what we write in this three part blog. The time is coming in 2011 to take a stand against what we know is corrupt insider politics, where the ends just do not justify the means!

MTFA

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

- Mohandas K. Gandhi

What is wrong with Malden-Part II

2010-08-30T17:38:00.000-07:00
You must have heard about the Roosevelt Field or Salemwood heist or swindle, right? I will include a preview brochure from the group Concerned Citizen’s that highlights the Mayor’s definition of what is a good deal. From the last two words of this sentence, I hope that you are getting it now, from our first blog in the series, do images of Pesci and Dinero start to appear in front of your eyes yet? Please read on with this post. After you read it a man in a blue shark skin suit with greased back hair and a smaller man with a squeaky voice, may just make a visit to see you. Please read what the Concerned Citizens have compiled for the Mayor's good deal:

http://www.maldentax.com/images/documents/mtfaccnodesign.pdf.

The Mayor’s deal to lease a public park in the city and then to be possibly acquired by a business is in my opinion and the MTFA a bad deal for the taxpayers of Malden. Whether you say you do good for us and have the best intentions for the community. It still, doesn’t give you the right to think that you can lease and then sell off a public park to a business in the city without open communications with the citizens-first!

I have read the Mayor’s deal in regards to the park. Our opinion is that whether it passes muster with State of Massachusetts agencies that oversee ethics and or the rules of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. There is still a moral and ethical issue of how it was conducted by the Mayor. There is certain city elected officials (past and present Ward Five elected officials) that possibly knew about it, as did the rest of the Mayor’s administration. Just the fact that the business in question will donate a third of the money for the artificial turf without any value attached to the bid. Not to mention that the business leader (a current ward councilor and the Mayor’s former campaign manager) must excuse himself from the deal. This should only have made them stop the negotiations to seek an opinion from the legal resources of the city and the State-four to six months ago! But what did they do? Proceed on and finalize a deal that basically the citizen’s could lose a public park. This can be done if the business decides to acquire it within twenty years or maybe even tomorrow!

Want another kick in the teeth?

The Mayor’s good deal is announced to the public almost at the end of the sixty day period to revoke it! Does this remind you of anything? Come on, I know our collective memories aren’t that bad….it’s just like the last minute passage and implementation of the trash bags two years ago without public input. Remember the stolen $518,000 we will never get back from the employees. How about monies that materialize in the budgets to fix problems. Want more? This year’s 2.5 million dollar public education surplus. Then, there is the blatant delay of this year’s budget to the City Council from the Mayor. These stall tactics and delays leave the city’s unions with very little time to accept or reject the contracts. Some of the unions (which the Mayor being the Chief Negotiator of the city has knowledge of) must wait thirty days to conduct a vote amongst its members.

Alright, some of you are looking for the red meat on this topic and wondering why I don’t mention the name of the business that benefits from the Mayor’s good deal. The citizen’s group that champions this cause (mentioned in the first paragraph) must do that, as my group and I, have a big enough bulls eye on our collective backs. The target is there from what we observe and report to the community these past few years on how City Hall spends our tax dollars. I have always questioned before in the past, why a business that educates our children can acquire property, accumulate wealth http://www.boston.com/yourtown/malden/articles/2010/05/06/mystic_valley_charter_school_in_malden_taps_savings_to_buy_vacant_car_lot_for_44m/ and then have enough of it left over to assist a “partner” like the City of Malden acquire artificial turf.

If any of the public school fans out there reading this post, think that I or the MTFA are giving you a pass on your performance this past budget season. Please wipe that grin, right off your face. Read this recent blog post and hang your heads after you read it:

http://maldentax.blogspot.com/2010/07/money-budget-and-our-kids.html.

I also, question why every budget season our public education system always seems to have their hands out and in our pockets looking for more money. I want to know which system works the best to educate our kids and is most efficient with our tax dollars. Is that a lot to ask for from all of these apparent good deals? Here’s an update as the city tries to possibly cover up its own tracks of corruption from the Mayor’s good deal taken from the City of Malden website:

https://imageserv3.team-logic.com/mediaLibrary/181/rooseveltsobroadwayrfp_1.pdf

I’m not an attorney, but, wouldn’t this mean that the business won the bid and any other party or entity would lose? Let’s see, who else has money to spend for those fields? Malden Catholic, Rugby, Pop Warner or just maybe the entity that is now described as the business in the advertisement. Will they also place a bid on Maplewood Park? This leaves one to question, what other good deal friends of the Mayor will come crawling out from under their rocks to put a bid on our public parks.

Personally, I never thought the City Council would allow the Mayor to conduct such a transaction. Maybe we need Charter reform changes like Everett and Saugus. As a few of our Councilors have mentioned that they will be proceeding on with this type of committee in the fall:

http://www.everettindependent.com/2010/07/14/charter-commision-gets-nod-to-proceed-state-approves-review-of-everetts-system-of-government/

They have a number of proposals that may need citizen approval, but, I am still in favor of an elected representative from each ward on a Charter Commission.

However, when you read this possible law, maybe this is the reason the city will hold an open RFP on the fields: MGL 30 Sec.16 at

http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/30b-16.htm.

This states that CHAPTER 30B. UNIFORM PROCUREMENT ACT addresses Chapter 30B: Section 16. Real property; disposition or acquisition
Here are a few laws and did our Mayor and his business partner follow them:

(a) If a governmental body duly authorized by general or special law to engage in such transaction determines that it shall rent, convey, or otherwise dispose of real property, the governmental body shall declare the property available for disposition and shall specify the restrictions, if any, that it will place on the subsequent use of the property.

Would not this mean that the Mayor’s good deal with the Salemwood heist is null and void.

(b) The governmental body shall determine the value of the property through procedures customarily accepted by the appraising profession as valid.

Did that happen for Roosevelt Park? What is the value of the field with artificial turf? I and the MTFA would assume that there is 20 year's of life on the artificial turf that the business contributes 33% of the value of the project. Would not that mean they are only entitled to 6 years? One million divided by 20 years is $50,000 a year and that means the business needs to produce another $600,000 for the twenty years. I dislike City of Malden Math-

http://maldentax.blogspot.com/2009/02/city-of-malden-math.html

as it seems that our elected officials always work for their friends more than the taxpayers, when the bill is due to be paid.

(c) A governmental body shall solicit proposals prior to:

(1) Acquiring by purchase or rental real property or an interest therein from any person at a cost exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars;

Well, well, this explains the advertisement and why RFP’s are now required for the Salemwood Heist? Maybe for governmental reporting and auditing, the advertising will now be used to cover up the Mayor and his cohort’s good deal?

(c) The governmental body shall place an advertisement inviting the submission of proposals in a newspaper with a circulation in the locality sufficient to inform the people of the affected locality. The governmental body shall publish the advertisement at least once a week for two consecutive weeks. The last publication shall occur at least eight days proceeding the day for opening proposals. The advertisement shall specify the geographical area, terms and requirements of the proposed transaction, and the time and place for the submission of proposals. In the case of the acquisition or disposition of more than twenty-five hundred square feet of real property, the governmental body shall also cause such advertisement to be published, at least thirty days before the opening of proposals, in the central register published by the state secretary pursuant to section twenty A of chapter nine.

I and the MTFA believe that the people in the Council Chambers (I was not one of them) that listened to the Mayor sell this good deal to them. Along with the entire city are owed an apology by the Mayor and his cohorts for this over sight and now an obvious mockery of the laws that govern bids. Maybe this is the reason the advertisement appears in one of the Malden Newspapers:

www.maldentax.com/images/documents/mv_mra_bids_to_lease1.doc

But, alas Malden, the backroom deals, old boy network, the atta boy, pat the hack on the back attitudes continues on in our city. This good deal, with no transparency that uses and abuses our tax dollars, only mushrooms into a 13 million dollar deal and we still might be out a public park. All of this was conducted by the Mayor and his cohorts:

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/malden/2010/08/state_to_assist_mvrcs_financin.html.

There is one more subject of corruption in our series that we will report on over the weekend. It is shorter than this post and was a group effort these past few months to write it-almost like the Mayor and his friends. With the exception, that we don’t play with your money and act like it’s our own. Basically, the Mayor and his friends are now selling off or leasing our public parks and the potential time on them to the highest bidder. I think of the political quote from Boston’s own Joseph Welch, from Hale & Dorr when he attacks Senator McCarthy the leader of the communist witch hunt of the 1950’s over his ruthlessness in pursuing Welch’s client: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" This good deal was conducted without any oversight and public opinion, again!

Malden, some of you might not like me or the group for what we observe and write about. But, we are not afraid to speak up about City Hall and advocate for the truth. We applaud and support the Concerned Citizen's group that passed out many brochures last weekend.

We hope the rest of the work week goes well. Please stay safe and dry on the weekend. We welcome any comments that you may have and contact us at info@maldentax.com. Let us know what you think as we listen to any reasonable opinions, as we always relish a good conversation with the people that follow our work.

Bob
MTFA

“A holding company is a thing where you hand an accomplice the goods while the policeman searches you.”

Will Rogers

What is wrong with Malden?

2010-08-20T20:06:00.000-07:00
This week in one of my classes my professor has given me an assignment to write about one of the social problems that challenges my city-Malden. Sometimes it is nice to be able to write about a topic and gain credit for it. Others can read, possibly learn from it and make their comments known to the public. Since what I write is a blog and hundreds of people will review it. I think that I will write about corruption in our political system of our city. My hope is that after you read this post, you will get involved with the political community. You will find and or support candidates to run for office next year. Naturally you will view us as your watchdog group on how your taxpayer dollars are being spent by City Hall.

I hear a lot of people on the street talk about some of our elected leadership and the first comment I usually here is, “He’s a good guy”, then “We went to grammar and then high school together” Followed up with,“We weren’t that friendly then, but, now? Oh boy, our wives are friends” and or “Our kids play ball and hang out together.” I say that is all well and fine. But, it does not stop the groupthink or one way thought process that most of our councilors seem to have in regards to the Mayor and his agenda. When you start to hear the good guy routine enough, I start to get visions of Ray Liotta, Robert Dinero and Joe Pesci in Good Fellas. Sorry, but what is the difference lately in our city, state and nation? I am not writing that I think there’s much of this type of activity in Malden. I could be wrong,

In a city like Malden with almost 58,000 people in it. You hear stories of corruption. With only on average about 5,000 to 10,000 that vote in town elections, our city is small enough where you hear almost everything that goes on in it. You must determine what is fiction and what is real. I know, I believe nothing until it becomes public knowledge and in Malden Massachusetts, most rumors never make it to the light of day....or the Boston newspapers.

Here’s a possible rumor that a city employee somewhere in our city or elsewhere, allegedly took their city owned vehicle to other states to drop off their kids for college. Then ruse it, by travelling with an elected city official to attend a convention on their way back home. The only problem with this road trip is that the person driving the car did not pay a toll. How did the employer find out? The pictures of the plate with the ticket were sent to the city to pay the fine. That’s just a story, it probably happens in other cities and towns in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, it doesn't happen in Malden, right?

Please feel free to circle as many of the definitions of curruption that apply to the story listed above. This is for your viewing pleasure for this fictional story.

1. The act of corrupting or state of being corrupt. 2. Moral perversion; depravity. 3. Perversion of integrity. 4. Corrupt or dishonest proceedings. 5. Bribery. 6. Debasement or alteration, as of language or a text. 7. A debased form of a word. 8. Putrefactive decay; rottenness. 9. Any corrupting influence or agency.

Okay, here’s another story as a few years ago, there are two elected city officials that tell many people they were going to run for mayor in a city. One of them owned a business, plus had a pension from the state. The other official also worked for the state. They both mysteriously have a change of heart and decide not to run for the mayoral office. Then a few months later, after the mayor of the city runs unopposed, through the goodness of the mayor’s heart, gives one of the elected officials a job as a director of a city department.

The other one had to do a little more to win favors with the mayor. Maybe the elected official was actually going to (wink-wink) run against the mayor. This official from a new home in Metro West that no one in the city realizes exists. Champions an unpopular tax on the homeowners of the city. Presto, this elected official is awarded a few favors as the business he owns in the city is sold. I wonder if that will apply again, as the rumor is that there are more people four years later that allegedly want to run against the same mayor. It leaves one to wonder how many more jobs and favors that the mayor can dole out in a bad economy to keep his seat without any real competition.

What are your thoughts on corruption, based on the definition from Wikapedia:

The abuse of public power, office, or resources by government officials or employees for personal gain, e.g. by extortion, soliciting or offering bribes.

This last story is incomplete, and is a work in progress for possible corruption. It is sure destined to end up in favor of the mayor and his friends in the city. There is allegedly a vendor who conducts millions of dollars of business with the city. They acquire a piece of property with a well respected member of the community. This person gives it credibility and is a possible shadow owner. Besides this friend of the mayor, another one opens up another business on the same busy street that is now getting new street light fixtures and infrastructure from the city.

Then there’s a possible eminent domain proposal to take three businesses on a very large parcel of land where these two new businesses are located. What is this for? The rumor is that the mayor wants to bring a minor league baseball stadium and team to the area. This brings with it seasonal jobs that doesn’t pay a lot of money and eliminates fulltime positions that are currently employed at the large parcel of land. Also, all of this will be financed without the use of taxpayer dollars. Do you believe that? While the merchants and existing business entities will make even more profit and money?

Please feel to send us your opinion at info@maldentax.com and let us know if you think this story is true or false with the definition of:

Corporate corruption is the abuse of power by corporation officials, either internally or externally.

Remember, what you read about are only rumors and stories, that could never really happen here in Malden! In a few days we will continue with the second of three parts on our corruption series with a real Malden story of political corruption.

Malden, have a great week and be well!

Bob Miller
Chair
MTFA

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

Nelson Mandela

The Deal to Conceal the Truth

2010-08-03T18:04:00.000-07:00
I now write what I would do if I was on the other side of this debate. I would want to wrap up everyone that has been involved with the Trash Bag Tax-that is us! Why would the Mayor answer us so fast like he did yesterday? In politics you never let anyone define who you are and what you stand for. We, obviously did that last year with the 68-25% Question One victory. I believe that we continue to demonstrate that this Mayor and his employees leave the taxpayers holding the bag (no pun intended). I’m going to give you the details of a number of political moves that I would make, if I was in the Mayor and Council shoes and they are as follows (Don't think that some of our elected officials meet and make decisions this way):

1. Use the excuse of public safety layoffs, to move the $760+ for waste disposal from the Malden DPW budget to the Trash Bag Tax Enterprise Fund.

2. Then, raise the price of the bag to generate more revenue.

3. This could then pay for the 20-25+ personnel that have been given their layoff notices.

4. How would you sell this to the voters if you ever wanted to run again for Mayor in 2011?

5. Announce that the Environmental Protection Agency gives the Trash Bag Tax a merit award, now, and not disclose the fact it was four months earlier in April. Then, use it to demonstrate to the people that the ends do justify the means. That our opinions didn't matter to them. Would this be manipulation of the people? Maybe it is or not, you decide.

6. This also prepares the way for a Proposition 2 ½ override that the Mayor discussed in his budget presentation this past June. This would explain why he also spent campaign funds to covertly take the “no” position against Question One a.k.a. the Trash Bag Tax. The Boston Globe had to investigate a mailer that was sent to the voters without any individual or group name on it. They discover that it was from the Mayor. Was it an oversight by him? Maybe or maybe not…

We ask you: are we not more intelligent than that? Read on and decide for yourself if you believe what we write.

-How can you defend a 2.5 million dollar budget surplus in this year's education fund? Not have people think that you have other monies in reserve? Please, read this link if you want evidence: http://maldentax.blogspot.com/2010/07/money-budget-and-our-kids.html.

-If we witness extra monies over the years that appears from thin air to balance budgets. It makes you wonder if the unions feel the same way we do about the Mayor and his cohorts?

Who is to blame for how we are governed? Look in the mirror at who you see each morning when you get up. We have in the past kept our eyes forward, ears closed and mouths shut, as we let this go on in our city. No wonder why the Mayor and his administration do not care how they operate programs in the city. In my opinion, they do not respect us, but our apathy causes them to act the way they do towards us. You want to see arrogance and contempt? Look at what we discovered about the conference in Boston from the Mayor’s employees and contractors:
http://wastecon.swana.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1005.
You can surmise for yourself what these people gain or not from the “Success Story.”
In my opinion, this is a slap in the face to the taxpayers of Malden. We pay the salaries and the rest of the bills in the city. I think we need the books from 2006 to the present, so we can see if there are any other consultants like Mr. Dancy from WasteZero. This company is an out of state entity that the city pays to order the trash tax bags for the Malden businesses that are sold to you! I wonder, is there no city employee in our city government that could have done this for us and saved money and a position?

Here are a few questions to ask yourself about the Trash Bag Tax consultant-First of all, where did he come from? Second, why was he hidden from us. Third-would our city ever hire a middleman and eliminate a public safety professional? Never! Fourth- if the Mayor has nothing to hide, again we state: would it be a problem to open the registers and ledgers from the past four years, so we can determine if there are other “consultants” like out of state Dancy? Last thought from Dancy being on the books and I have never fed into conspiracy theorists. But, if we discover him, one must wonder how many additional consultants and other spending is on the books that isn't being disclosed to us on the budgets?

We will also post our press release in the blogs, as some news services have called our release a statement.

This lack of transparency, communication, respect and oversight must end in our city. Before we have minimal public safety personnel left watching the streets and we keep on paying more in taxes without oversight from the citizens.

To conclude, Malden, I might be incorrect in my thoughts, but, most of what I discuss are the facts and what if I got some of it right? Enjoy the rest of your week and be well!

Bob-MTFA

“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Press Release

2010-08-03T17:52:00.000-07:00
For those of you that correctly guessed that our statement was a press release. We wanted to demonstrate it was sent to the media in the format listed below. Please submit an email to us at info@maldentax.com, identify who you are and we will gladly submit the actual transmission that went to the media on August 3, 2010.

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2 P.M. EDT, August 1, 2010.

Malden Taxpayer’s group questions why City Employees are speaking at a convention about the Trash Bag Tax.

Malden, MA-August 1, 2010—The Malden Taxpayers for Accountability (MTFA) notifies their membership and the community about the Malden Trash Bag Tax (TBT) employees who will be speaking at a convention in Boston. It will be held on August 15, 2010, from 3:30-5:00pm. The taxpayers group questions the business relationship of an out of state company that works with the city and makes a profit from the bag. This same company calls the TBT/PAYT a “Malden Success Story” even though there is lack of initial participation of citizen input before the program was mandated on only a certain portion of the community. This violates the guidelines of the State.

The MTFA also discovered the City and its Malden employees received a Merit Award from the Federal Environmental Protection Agency this past April for the Trash Bag Tax. The taxpayer group questions why this information was not made public, along with a $71,132 grant for mailers from the State Department of Environmental Protection. The group gives the website of http://www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/reduce/paytfact.htm and find the Malden link as this will backup their claims they make and they encourage the community to review it.

In its recent newsletter, the MTFA asks, “When will the blatant acts of deception and lack of transparency by the Mayor and his cohorts end?” They also allude to the Mayor’s recent deals with public lands and how he deems them good for the city. The MTFA states, “The Salemwood deal, only in our opinion, continues the policies of insider and closed door politics.” They continue, “Not to mention the good old boy network, as public parks are now up for lease for twenty years, not to the highest bidder, instead to the people with the most connections.”

The newsletter also identifies and questions the relevancy of Mark Dancy, CEO, WasteZero, a South Carolina company. The MTFA wants to know who he is and why the Mayor has never disclosed his company to the taxpayers. On his website: http://www.wastezero.com/Press2.cfm. he takes credit for the past “Malden Success Story” locally called by the taxpayer’s watchdog group as the Trash Bag Tax.

The following employees of the city that attend this conference are: Charlie Toomajian, Special Assistant to the Mayor, the MTFA questions--how many cities and towns has he visited to promote this “Success Story?” Debbie Burke, Project Manager –does, she coordinate, the $47,000 in outreach spending from the city? Jeff Manship, Director of Public Works--under his leadership it appears to be easier to tax the citizens, instead of going greener sooner. Bob Knox, Compliance Supervisor—the group questions why he is in attendance as he is now in the Highway Supervisor! The MTFA stresses that these are only just some of the people that contributed to the citizens not having their voices be heard.

There is also a statement in the convention advertisement and it is taken from a quote from Mayor Richard C. Howard, “That without the PAYT, essential jobs would have absolutely been cut.” The Chairperson of the Malden Taxpayer’s for Accountability, responds, “This year we still lost essential public safety personnel, even with the TBT! The Mayor and his employees have said in public that they may still need more money from us next year for an override of property taxes!” Miller adds, “Enough is enough. Show us the books from the past four years with the check registers and bank account statements. If they add up and refute our beliefs that monies have been hidden in accounts, then we will gladly come up with solutions to center on reform of our services.” The taxpayer’s group advocates for planning now for the possible loss of additional State aid in next year’s budget.

To back up the claims of hidden monies in the accounts, the taxpayers group points to the school department’s 2.5 million dollar current budget surplus. They also have a blog about it at: http://maldentax.blogspot.com/2010/07/money-budget-and-our-kids.html. The group also encourages the citizens to contact their elected officials as to why the Malden employees at the conference misrepresent the truth to the attendees.

MTFA Newsletter:

http://www.Maldentax.com/images/documents/mtfa_newsletter_ii_2010.pdf

Convention Details:

http://wastecon.swana.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1005.

-END-

Contact:

Bob Miller, Chairperson
Malden Taxpayers for Accountability
781-420-3818
E-mail: info@maldentax.com
Website: www.maldentax.com

Credibility

2010-07-25T08:41:00.000-07:00
I am back in school and a voracious reader of books on business, history, politics and economics. During the week, I read a lot of periodicals and I also watch almost non -stop CSPAN, MSNBC and CNN. I watch Fox News for three hours a day, as I can only stand it for that long. As they drive the entire news cycle for the rest of the stations the next day. The characters that I watch on Fox are O’Reilly, Hannity and Beck. I also watch the big three of MSNBC- Olberman, Matthews and Joe Scarborough with his morning show. The difference is that Fox has the top ten watched and rated news shows on cable television. The reruns of these shows, even beat the live ones like number eleven-MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann. I know this isn’t related to Malden, but, it is, just let me run with a few more sentences. Last week we saw how the Obama Administration lashed out at a Federal worker (I’ll spare the details) over a racial comment that was taken out of context. Was it an irrational decision to ask for her resignation? Absolutely, just as bad as last year’s calling out the Cambridge Police over Professor Gates at Harvard. The facts obviously were not checked in either case and people were worked up into a frenzy of what ifs, without knowing the truth.

Okay, I know that the conservative blogger that released the video of the Federal worker supposedly making discrimination remarks at a seminar is a right wing nut. I’ve watched him appear over the years on Bill Maher’s show on Friday night’s on HBO (Malden- politically I’m a moderate, as this is a left leaning show and some of the ideas do appeal to me) he’s pompous and an elitist who can carry an intelligent conversation and will admit an error in the presentation, but never in the end results. He professes that he wants to invoke people in dialogue over the topics he covers. The Acorn community stories are ones that he started that took our Congress and other mainstream media (besides Fox) a few weeks or more to recognize with reports. I know I profess to sometimes write like this, but, the MTFA and I are taking from what our city leaders tell us at the subcommittee meetings on Tuesday nights. You don’t get to see these on Malden Access Television. We use only the information that the city either discloses at meetings or presents in its reports. So, when you read our blogs, about this year’s budget process and the meetings that accompany them. We are giving you observations that generate opinions that also editorializes the experience for the readers.

An example of this is the blog that we wrote about how the school committee acts when they are in the Council’s Chambers a few weeks ago with the fifth revision of the education budget. Sometimes we receive emails or calls that tell us we’re right in our assumptions. Very rarely over the years do we receive information that dispels the topic of what we write about. At this moment, we have not received any conflicting information about this budget season that we have posted on our blogs.

Malden, have a great week and be well!

Bob Miller and the MTFA

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
-Oscar Wilde quotes (Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and Critic, 1854-1900)

Reform

2010-07-25T08:26:00.000-07:00
Whether you like the free market system or not, if companies do not hire employees there will be eventual layoffs in government. We can’t keep on borrowing money and taxing to pay for services. No matter what the end result is on our Police and Fire Fighters that have been laid off. In our opinion, our Administration and the Unions are at an impasse because of a possible lack of trust in regards to the monies in the accounts. I will always advocate for transparency in them, and I call for a review of all accounts, registers, ledgers and budgets from 2006 to the present. Do you hear the crickets chirping over the silence coming from the sixth floor of City Hall? There’s our response. That is the only way that I and the MTFA, believe anyone in this city can believe what we are being told about our tax dollars and how they are being spent by the Mayor and his cohorts.

The Wall Street Journal this week had a very interesting article about cities across our nation that had outsourced some of their services. Here’s an excerpt and I’ll also include the link:

“Maywood, a tiny city southeast of Los Angeles, is taking contracting to the extreme. The city of around 40,000 is letting go of its entire staff and contracting with outsiders to perform all city services. The city is disbanding its police force and handing public safety over to the Los Angeles County Sheriff. Its neighbor, the city of Bell, will take over running Maywood's City Hall.”

Also:

“Faced with a $118 million budget deficit, the city of San Jose, Calif., recently decided it could no longer afford its own janitors. So the city's budget called for dropping its custodial staff and hiring outside contractors to clean its city hall and airport, saving about $4 million.
"These are cases where the question is being asked, 'Is this a core service at the city level?' said Michelle McGurk, senior policy adviser to the San Jose mayor.

Does this quote sound like our city?

“After years of whittling staff and cutting back on services, towns and cities are now outsourcing some of the most basic functions of local government, from policing to trash collection. Services that cities can no longer afford to provide are being contracted to private vendors, counties or even neighboring towns.”

You can read the rest:

Http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704334604575339153865582376.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop

There is a third rail for local politicians to never attempt to touch. I hope I will survive it when I write about the reform in education in the Washington DC School District. Teachers are losing their jobs because of poor performance. I have been watching this play out for two years since Superintendent Michelle Rhee was hired away from The New York City School District. She has delivered on her promise for her teachers to perform and be rewarded. If not they are out the door! She got her way with the unions (naturally, after they agreed to it, don’t understand it-aren’t they the intelligent ones of our society?) and I will give you the beginning of the story:

WASHINGTON (AP) — D.C.'s public school system will fire more than 200 employees for poor performance — 4% of its work force — and is putting another 700 employees on notice they will be fired in the next year if their performance doesn't improve, the school system announced Friday.
The firings are the result of a new evaluation system which grades employees and evaluates teachers in part on students' standardized test scores.

Read some of the quotes from readers that comment on the story, as this was released on Friday and it’s now Sunday. Could you envision a mayor in Massachusetts getting a vote of confidence from the electorate for imposing such a plan? We, understand, it’s alot easier to charge us for trash bags and to use scare tactics against the taxpayers and the city services employees. This is also part of reform, and while I don’t want to see anyone lose their jobs. We have to face the reality that we have less dollars to educate our children and while government doesn’t create tax dollars like a private business. They still take our money, to make and mold our present and future, which in this case is our children that use the public educational system.

Enjoy reading the rest of it at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-07-23-dc-teacher-firings_N.htm and please feel free to comment on it or send us an email at info@maldentax.com.

Malden, have a great week and take care!

Bob Miller, Chair

-The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without a teacher.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American author, editor and printer.

Money, the budget and our kids.

2010-07-15T10:01:00.000-07:00
Part 2….What I write about in this paragraph sums up the 2010-11 budget process and the standard practice of the Mayor and his entire staff. Many of us have never had to negotiate anything over the price of a car. So, I ask you to think about the selling experience and do you ever trust the salesman with his offer? Do you think the person that is selling you the car, really believes you when you tell him you need some time to think about his “best” offer? While you are getting into your old 1995 Ford Taurus with 100,000 miles on the odometer? What is missing in this transaction? Trust, as neither side believes the other’s bluff. This is what has happened this year and in the past, with some of the unions. The taxpayers get caught in the middle of these negotiations, where both sides want to do what is best for their members. Whatever happened to worrying about us first-the citizens? I say do the job and have the guts to deal with each other ethically and disclose what the excess monies are in the budgets. I wouldn’t be opposed to the general fund of the city and the school budget each having a 2-3% miscellaneous column in the budget for the known extra money to be used in emergencies. This would become part of the budget process. Instead, what we get this year is alot of drama that produces five “revised” budgets from the Malden School Department.

I also witness the City Council made to look like the bad guy by the Malden School Administration and the School Committee. Why do I make this statement? The Superintendent and three school committee members are in the audience the night after they allegedly send out a prerecorded phone call to the entire parental base of the school district. Naturally the parents appear at the Malden City Council’s regular scheduled meeting for the purpose of city only business and expect to hear about these false cuts. They also are under the impression that the Council makes the layoffs of the teachers. This totals 1.180 million dollars and is a reflection of 30 positions that are cut! I’m watching this all unfold in front of me and can’t believe that the school committee members didn’t rectify this error. There is also a person that appears to work for the school department and is passing this misinformation out to the parents and teachers in the Council Chambers. Why would they correct it? This isn’t in my opinion about the children. It is discovered a few days before through an interrogation type public conversation with the Superintendent, that he is sitting on approximately 2.4 million dollars!

Did you like Enron that had accounting practices with double books? We appear to have the same type of practices, as the Superintendent had to defer to the Controller for his totals in the budget-that now appear in the final budget. I sat there and realize that we demonize corporations and throw the people in jail for non disclosure or misuse of funds. Isn’t this the same premise, when we see these monies appear and disappear in the accounts? Also, there are only ten (10) layoffs from the lists that were distributed to the parents. Again, I state, what good came out of this practice for the children? As the School’s had to clarify that their list was inaccurate and in my opinion, this only demonstrates to me that they can’t be trusted with our money, which is the city’s future! Now, how do we know that all of the funds are making it to where it is suppose to go? There is even a mention that the population of the schools is down this year. Do we know how many children are in the classrooms? Or do we become like a lot of other cities in America? Where we wake up one morning and find half our students gone? But, have the same amount of staff and a lot of new buildings? I know people in our city might not like what I write, but, take a look at this information that backs up my argument:

http://biggovernment.com/acoulson/2010/06/05/the-u-s-economy-needs-fewer-public-school-jobs-not-more/

What the parents also didn’t hear this night is that there is an extra padding of 372k from a six thousand dollar line item in the prior budget (the fourth budget submittal) to acquire books for a certain grade level for Science and Technology. What I am most upset about, is the response by the Superintendent that he might spend this money on its intent. Never mind that the United States ranks near the bottom in Science education for industrialized nations. Read this report if you want proof:

http://www.all4ed.org/files/IntlComp_FactSheet.pdf

After I read this report and witness how our tax dollars are being played with by the school administration and committee. I believe we need a serious re-evaluation of the educational system in our city. If I had children, I would also be very hard pressed to want to see them in a school district that used money for books to prove political agendas and debates. I thought that maybe someone would discuss that fact. Instead what I saw where school administrators and elected committee members play kingdom builders and one up politics with the Council-who only approve the budget and can’t make any changes to it! I am very unhappy with the school committee finance committee. The three members that appeared at this fiasco and idly sat by to gloat over this mess should be in my opinion ashamed of themselves for not keeping the focus of their mission. I challenge them to prove me incorrect, that if it’s really about the kids, prove that the extra book fund monies that appear in the final budget are more than just a “maybe” in being bought by the Superintendent. Then, I will personally trust you with the responsibility overseeing the dwindling resources of funds to educate our children.

To conclude, without the MTFA and I being able to attend the Malden Council Sub Committee meetings in person, as this is what you don’t see on MATV Channel 3 and 16. There are sometimes many meetings and face to face interviews with vendors, experts in certain fields, professionals and Malden department heads, that the community misses that we sometimes report on. I thank my volunteers for making the efforts to appear when they can. Also, if the Charter School thinks that they get a pass from me, they better think again, as I have a lot of questions to ask about their extra money that they can acquire property with. Also, we better find out why they are successful, when others appear not to be in our city.

Malden, have a great week and be well!

Bob Miller
MTFA

Education does not mean teaching people to know what they do not know; it means teaching them to behave as they do not behave.

-John Ruskin (1819-1900) English critic

2010 Budget Season-“where is the money?”

2010-07-14T12:28:00.000-07:00
Here is a summary of my thoughts on the Council’s Finance Sub Committee meetings that address the budget in June. I think the reader would possibly become rather bored from the mundane review of the numbers. I recommend that you read our first blog about the budget which is a meeting with the Mayor in February with the Finance Team. It demonstrates and backs up what this blog tries to convey to the reader- that the Mayor knew what the budget shortfall would be:

http://maldentax.blogspot.com/2010/02/ground-hog-day-comes-early-to-malden.html.

This is the third budget season that I have been through and in my opinion, possibly the worst planned by the Mayor and his cohorts. In previous years, the Mayor and his staff discusses the budget with the Council’s Finance Committee which this year is chaired by Councilor James Nestor of Ward Four. The other Councilors are Kinnon, Fallon, Murphy, Condon, Bucci and Lucey. The Mayor, just like in past years, gives an overview of the budget that he will work on the rest of the fiscal year (which ends on June 30) and like in past years, gives an estimate of either a percentage to cut from the budget and what that will equate to in dollar amounts. Last year our own City Council and the other city departments went through a proposed ten percent cut to their salaries. This year, the Mayor estimates a loss of between seven to ten million dollars. The Mayor who obviously comprehends the political and economic climate back in February was correct with his estimate.

However, with the final shortfall amount being 10.2 million dollars, one has to wonder why did he wait so long to announce the final cuts? These are a few possible reasons for this delay, but, there is one that I do not accept and it is that he and his staff were waiting for the State of Massachusetts to finalize the final cuts to local aid. Look at what was discussed earlier at the beginning of the year by our elected officials and how close they came to their own estimate of lost revenue. The only solace that I can take in the budget delay is that this tactic is being used against the employees of the city and not the tax payers. Until, you start to realize that the Mayor, his Administration and support, conduct these blatant stall tactics to create last minute decisions by the opposition. Which this year, are the police, fire, DPW worker, librarian and teacher. Most unions require at least thirty days notice to the members to conduct a meeting to accept or reject a labor contract. The Mayor’s presentation is being conducted in a very similar fashion to how the trash bags were implemented in 2008 and in some way like the Salemwood, err umm-“good deal.” These last minute and eleventh hour eleventh hour tactics create chaos and apparent miscommunication is blatantly a continuation of arrogance and disrespect for the people that deliver and pay for services from the City of Malden. I realize that the Mayor, who is the recognized Chief Negotiator as well as the Collective Bargaining representative for the city, can do what he pleases, but, in my opinion, he publically demonstrates a lack of planning for our services. People could make an argument for him and say that he can’t divulge the negotiations. That’s true, but, only a few unions agreed early to accept the contract, while others are waiting to still vote to accept or deny it.

Since the Mayor and his staff like to use certain towns and cities to prove their arguments, here is an example of a local municipality working a budget with the community and the employees:

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/melrose/2010/04/melrose_draft_budget_includes.html?comments=all#readerComm

Before anyone goes off on the employees on how they should just take the Mayor’s offer. I will disclose that I am of that same opinion, especially given what the private sector job market looks like. Why in my opinion do some of the Unions appear to not trust the Administration? One obvious reason is how we stated in numerous blogs from 2008 and 2009, about how the money seems to always appear when it is needed, it’s great to have it, but, it creates a lack of trust. To backup what we write take a look at this:

http://maldentax.blogspot.com/2009/02/city-of-malden-math.html.

However, I want to be fair to the Administration and state that I’ve witnessed certain departments in the city, when the subject of monies for income are discussed, they tell the Council that they want it all if it’s in the budget. This in regards to overtime benefit funds, after strict orders issued to the departments to adhere to a certain dollar amount in the budgets. Also, begrudgingly, over the years I’ve watched the Council have to give monies to these departments, when the Mayor doesn’t communicate a pay raise that the city must honor. Again, as always, the magic wand is raised and the money is made available for them. The Council even creates an ordinance last year which mandates that the Mayor notifies the Council when he enters into any contract negotiations. He vetoes it and the Council overrides his veto. I just wish as a governing body they would try and create more rules to balance the Mayor’s authority.

I wish I had a quarter for every time that I’ve heard that we have a budget shortfall and then money mysteriously appears in accounts when we are told that none exists. What are we led to believe? That maybe the city’s Controller is another Copperfield or Houdini that can make money appear from thin air? Maybe it’s like the game of Monopoly when you land with your game piece on Community Chest and flip a card. It reads, you just found five million dollars in an employee healthcare account and pay off the city’s debt, before you pass go? Naturally, none of us believe these outlandish stories of how our city seems to find multiple millions of dollars in the accounts. Since, I also don’t believe in the Tooth Fairy or other fables, so the idea of mystical characters carrying the money from different bank accounts is out of the question. One must assume that there are surpluses in the budgets that we can’t see and have no access to review them. In other words-there is no transparency in the general fund budget that is presented to us. How can I make that statement? There are known funds that have been mentioned these past few years, and to the best of my knowledge, I have never seen them in the general fund. If anyone thinks that I am making this up, I can clearly demonstrate what has occurred in past years with monies that appear and disappear from accounts. But, one need only reference this year’s accounting practices of the school department. They have a surplus of potentially 2.5 million dollars. Who is the President of the School Committee? Drum roll please…it’s the Mayor, who has a bullpen made up of mostly groupthink school committee members. I will demonstrate why I write this last sentence in tomorrow’s blog.

Until tomorrow, have a good day!

Bob Miller
MTFA

“Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even.”

-Will Rogers

2010-11 Budget Review

2010-06-21T12:18:00.000-07:00
This letter was sent to the press on Thursday and Friday of last week. Let us know what you think.

Malden Taxpayers for Accountability
PO Box 618, Malden MA 02148, 781-480-3320, Email: info@maldentax.com

To: Mayor Richard C. Howard and the Malden City Council.

Subject: Report on the 2010-11 budgets

Date: 6-17-2010

Note: The group didn’t release this report to the City due to the fact that they believe that three minutes to speak at a public meeting is not enough time to have your voice be heard by our elected officials. They are paid to listen to us!

Here is this year’s report on the General Fund Budget and how it relates to the Taxpayer of Malden. We want to state, just like we did last year, that the MTFA advocates for no City of Malden employee to lose their job. In this economy, the workers along with the sometimes overlooked thousands of other unemployed Malden residents will have a very difficult time finding employment.

We have analyzed the budgets for the past three fiscal years. We appear at most of the City Council’s meetings on Tuesday night and can with confidence document and confirm the extra monies that have been “found” in the accounts.

Our records confirm what the Mayor designates as one time money and we assume the total of five million dollars to make up the budget deficit, comes from the following items which were eliminated or in reserve from last year’s budget:

1. Closing of McFadden - operating funds 1.9 Million
2. Raises-unknown to the Council $700,000
3. Raises-contractual obligation 1.1 Million
4. Leftover McFadden Funds 2.1 Million

Total = 5.8 million

We believe that the Mayor has kept the budgets lean, while cutting as much as possible from the operations of the city. We realize that he hasn’t given himself a pay raise in at least a half dozen years. The employees and the residents should consider themselves fortunate to live in a community that has shown fiscal restraint. However, if the cost to the people is the perception of backroom deals, secret negotiated agreements with our elected officials, and an attitude of ignoring the will of the people. Then we question, what do we have as our government?

Maybe, the people might just surprise us and approve a proposition 2 ½ override, like the Mayor mentions that he may need from this past Tuesday. What might be more appropriate is a series of meetings, with government and the people, to discuss now, how to keep our services, personnel and community intact for the next few years. This would possibly avoid another civil opposition from the electorate. Like the recent campaign against the PAYT, Question One, November 3, 2009. This is still being discussed in the community and after Tuesday night’s demonstration by the Administration about the benefits of the blue bag. We realize that sometimes our elected officials must make tough decisions. But, this time, ignoring the will of the majority, will be even more difficult with an override vote, as it would be a pass or fail result.

An example of a responsible government would be one that has a discussion with the business community. Why? There is a proposal from the Administration of an increase in the budget of the ¾ percent raise on the meals tax. We understand that the estimate of revenue will be over $320,000 dollars. But, last year the City Council decides to not implement it. Or has this already been decided behind closed doors?

We thank the Mayor, his Administration and the City Council for giving us this opportunity to discuss the budget for 2010-2011. We do wish you success with City of Malden business, which keeps our community safe and with an eye towards the future.

In the spirit of cooperation

The MTFA Committee

Water Bill Fund

2010-06-21T12:12:00.000-07:00
Here is a letter we sent this weekend. Let us know what you think...

Malden Taxpayers for Accountability
PO Box 618, Malden MA 02148, 781-480-3320, Email: info@maldentax.com

To: Mayor Richard C. Howard, Dominic Fermano, Controller City of Malden and the Malden City Council.

Subject: Report on the proposed water bill rate increase and Water/Sewage Enterprise Fund-State of Massachusetts report.

Date: 6-17-2010

Note: The group didn’t release this report to the City due to the fact that they believe that three minutes to speak at a public meeting is not enough time to have your voice be heard by our elected officials. They are paid to listen to us!

There is a rate increase proposal of 2.2% from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) that will affect every water bill in our city. Our estimates show that this rate amount will be an additional $250,000 to possibly $496,000 dollars.

We submit to the City of Malden, the At-a-Glance Reports from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, which is updated on 6/10/2010. http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=dorterminal&L=3&L0=Home&L1=Local+Officials&L2=Municipal+Data+and+Financial+Management&sid=Ador&b=terminalcontent&f=dls_mdmstuf_aag_aagindex&csid=Ador

The Enterprise Fund column of this report has a surplus of approximately 5.3 million dollars. It states, that there is revenue of $22,551,714 million dollars and expenditures that total only $17, 292,060. Last year we disclosed this fact to you at the 2009-10 public hearing on the budget. The total from this same column was approximately three million dollars. We also understand that the account doesn’t affect the General Fund of the city’s budget.

Our most dire concern is that the Administration and Council, wants to borrow from this surplus (which is the right of this governing body), without proper disclosure of it in the budget. Not to mention the existence of the surplus, to the water bill payers of Malden. If these totals are accurate, then why would the water bill payers have to absorb the increase from the MWRA?

We assume that the additional write offs to the water bill fund for 2010-11are as follows:

A.) Estimate of about 1.3 million dollars for administration.

B.) The Mayor wants to borrow 6.5 million dollars to upgrade and replace some of the water and sewage infrastructure. He also seeks to finance this amount, as we assume it will be over a twenty year time period?

C.) Without having the knowledge of the specific amount of funds that the Mayor wants to take from the water bill fund surplus. He admits to having a surplus from last Tuesday’s City Council Finance Committee meeting, held on June 8, 2010. We wonder if there will be an additional water bill rate increase over the amount discussed at this public meeting.

Our hope is that if the State of Massachusetts numbers are accurate, that the city should borrow less money and allocate more water bill reserve funds to replace the needed water and sewage infrastructure in the city. This would still leave an adequate reserve of cash in the water bill fund account. It would also protect the taxpayer from a possible drastic rate increase, protect the city from any unforeseen expenditures and lower the principal amount of money borrowed by the city for this much needed project. Henceforth, this would lower the amount of debt that the city and taxpayer would owe to the water bill fund.

We thank you, the Administration and the Council for giving us this opportunity to discuss the water and sewage rate hike increase proposal and the water bill fund.

MTFA

Ground Hog Day comes early to Malden

2010-02-14T17:26:00.000-08:00
February 2, 2010

I saw Malden’s version of ground hog day as I arrived late last Tuesday for the Finance Committee’s meeting and to my surprise the room was full as the only open seat is beside the mayor. I guess you could say Puxatony Phil is our mayor, as he starts his diatribe about budget shortfalls and one time monies that need to be replaced in this year’s budget. Did the mayor see his own shadow last Tuesday night? And vow to hold the bottom line and not give any raises to the employees of the city? If you listen and believe what he tells the large group in the Council chambers, is that the budget will be short five million dollars. Then the reason of one -time collections from reimbursements from the State for schools built this year is accurate. Then one can also assume that he speaks the truth when he mentions that the unions in the city will not receive any raises this year.

Councilor Kinnon brings up a good point when he asks the Mayor that in his tenure has he ever not given the unions a raise and the answer is “no.” Then Kinnon wants it to be known that if there is even a one percent raise given to all the eligible bargaining units, another $500,000 dollars will have to be found in the budget to pay for the increases of salary. The mayor recants immediately to the council (sees his shadow?) that he doesn’t advocate for any raises next fiscal year and is starting at zero for them. I think this was the Council’s notification that they are supposed to receive from the Mayor when he enters into a collective bargaining agreement with the unions. I applaud the council for gaining a moral victory over the Mayor. A pass is given to me to the administration for not disclosing this information a lot sooner to the Council. This ordinance which the Mayor vetoed and the Council over rode last year is for situations like this that at least make the Mayor admit there are negotiations taking place in the city with the unions. In my opinion our city employees should be very happy that they still have jobs. Not massive layoffs or pink slips of upwards of 200 employees like some of our neighboring communities have done in recent years.

I also know that the Controller is factoring in a ten percent cut in local aid as the Governor might not be able to keep his promises to the cities and towns of the State absorbing any budget shortfalls. If we add up these monies and the earlier budget shortfall projections, the estimate would be eight to ten million dollars that would have to be cut from the budget for 2010-2011. If these numbers are accurate, then the wait until spring and we’ll see about it attitude that the Mayor advocates for is a bad idea. Why? What happens again if we have to implement another fee..err umm tax? Will it be another 11th hour fix? Like the one in 2008? I and my organization better get our clipboards, pencils, dialing hand and maps of the city ready just in case for another ballot question signature campaign.

Here’s what we initially hear through the grapevine of what might happen to increase revenue: a citizen permit parking fee and an increase in the fines of certain violations in the city. But, the problem really is that all areas of our city needs to feel the impact of less resources, so I’ll touch the third rail in our city of protected services and recommend these unfavorable tax and fee opportunities for the rest of Malden: sports users fees, family school book and technology user fees and also for use of the library, as maybe a turnstile at the trust-fund run facility could take a credit card swipe to get in and out, child BMI penalties-the penalty would be how much overweight your child is, oh wait, the Federal government may beat us to this one, paid street sweeper cleanings and lines on our streets fees. Nothing should be thought of as a bad idea….But wait…what about the “R” word? The real third rail for our politicians, if they want to stay in office as they must keep special interests happy and at work. What is the word that we the people and the taxpayers of Malden, the State of Massachusetts need to hear? Reform.

Malden, have a great week!

Bob Miller and the MTFA

“It is a good thing that we do not get as much government as we pay for.”

--Will Rogers

2010 Preview

2010-02-14T17:19:00.000-08:00
Okay, so I can talk about the councilors and can intelligently write a preview of them and the committees that they serve on and chair. I do look forward watching Council President Council DiPietro as he has a tough act to follow as Craig Spadafora did a good job at leading the Council through some very trying times last year. Councilor Jim Nestor (Ward Four) must demonstrate leadership abilities which I think he possesses as he chairs the following committees: Finance, City Hall Relocation and Down Town Revitalization. Councilor Judith Bucci (Ward Eight) should continue her outstanding work on the Citizen’s Engagement Committee. At-Large Councilor Greg Lucey will assist her as I might not have agreed with Greg’s positions as the Finance Chair the past few years. But, he sticks to his decisions and the positions that he takes.

Here is a shout out to both old lions of the council-Neal Anderson and Paul Condon. I challenge them each to use their extra time from being in retirement to work even harder for the people. There are projects that benefit the city and the people that may just require their assistance and years of experience of knowing how this city operates. An example of this glaring need is the Malden High School construction project that has a city ordinance that requires thirty-five percent of the hours and possible people to be from Malden. Since, Neal Anderson chairs no committees and Paul just two, I would hope that they would continue their hard work to get workers on the site from Malden. Anyway, I know each one of them has a life and their last name isn’t Christiansen. But, there should be work for them to accomplish on behave of the community.

To the incoming new councilors, Barbara Murphy and Deb Fallon, I had the opportunity to speak with you both last year and if I can give you some advice it would be to always listen to the people. Fallon has an informational meeting planned on February 15, 2010 at 6pm at The Irish American Club on Emerald Street. She has a number of topics to discuss that night. Also, here are some words of advice for the Council for this year. Remember the campaign season is over, as actions now do speak louder than words.

Malden, have a great week!

Bob Miller
Chairperson
MTFA

“[On filing for tax returns]This is too difficult for a mathematician. It takes a philosopher.”
---- Albert Einstein

The homeowner property tax exemption

2009-12-20T09:12:00.000-08:00
What I've been thinking about these past few weeks since the election is if we do make a difference when we report on how our tax dollars are being spent by City Hall. I and my group naturally would reply "yes" and our opposition-city hall and their cronies call us critics, naysayers, troublemakers and state that we don't know what we're talking about. Then, from the feedback from the responses of what we've been described as. We, must be getting our message out.

Here's an example of what we mean as last year there was a 10% property tax exemption given to Malden residents that own their own home and live in it. This year it increases to 20%. But, as they say, the devil is in the details as the exemption should be around $540-600 dollars which is based on the average tax bill being about $2,800.00 a year. The City's Accessor states that this year's is about $872.00....read the rest of the post that shows how much extra money is being raised by the city from this program.

We understand that there's a certain threshold of renters to owners and when reached it can cause issues in the community. This is the possible reason for this resident exemption program, which, again we support. But, the people deserve to get the entire picture of where all their tax dollars go and that's our responsibility to the citizen's of Malden.

This week's press release

What the property tax exemption means for the taxpayers of Malden.

Malden MA- The Malden Taxpayers for Accountability wants to laud the City Council and Controller for the increase in this year’s property tax exemption for home owners that live in Malden and own their own home. This is a savings of approximately $872.00 for the estimate of 8,050 homeowners that qualify for this exemption. It should appear on their tax bill this year. If not the homeowners that qualify for the exemption have until March 31, 2010 to notify the Board of Assessors.

Impact on the budget

While the MTFA believes that any reduction of a tax is a start in the right direction for the citizen’s of Malden. The 16,000 non-exempt property owners will add an additional estimate of $13.9 million dollars to the budget. We, again, want to state that we support the home owner exemption. But, this increase of monies should also be remembered by the taxpayers and our elected officials when budgets are announced this spring.

Why?

When threats and are being made by the Mayor’s Office that city services will be cut if certain programs face elimination. These types of comments should be viewed with skepticism. After this property tax exemption, the residential property taxes increase approximately 15% as the taxpayer’s watchdog group estimates an additional 3.5 to 4.5 million dollars is added to the city’s budget.

It just makes you wonder if the people in elected and appointed offices in this city think that some of us go around with blinders on and not notice the specifics of their good deeds. Wouldn't it have been wiser to admit this extra money and where it would be spent? We know that there's a fear at City Hall that the Commonwealth is threatening more local aid cuts. Tell us that's the case and not hide it from us.

Our estimate based on the monies from last year that are left over in the budget and with this found money will be in the neighborhood of 6.7 to 7.7 million dollars. These tax dollars will be floating around in the budget once the tax bills start coming in over the next few quarters. This number is substantially lower from our previous year's estimates, but, they've had to spend the reserves that they don't openly report to us that should appear in the General Fund.

The group wishes everyone a happy and safe Holiday Season and they look forward continuing their mission in 2010 of monitoring how City Hall spends the community’s tax dollars.

Bob Miller, Chairperson

When will this end?

2009-12-20T09:01:00.000-08:00
Here's a press release that appeared in the papers about a month ago and how it relates to the people's voting results from 11/3/2009.

Response to the Council’s 6-5 vote to table the PAYT

Malden MA- The Malden Taxpayers for Accountability wants to thank the following Council members for their failed attempt to place the PAYT trash bag tax back into ordinance for a discussion: Kinnon, Christiansen, Nestor, Spadafora and Matheson. They clearly understand the voter’s results from Election Day. These Councilors recognize, represent, respect, include and want to empower the citizen’s that voted to repeal the PAYT trash bag tax. They clearly understand a mandate that (68-25 percent) represents the public opinion and sentiment towards City Hall. Again, we thank them for their attempt at a commonsense approach to furthering the democratic process in our city.

What did the trash bag tax gang of six (Anderson, Bucci, Condon, Dipietro, Furlong and Lucey) have to say about the Election Day results?

The group questions the sincerity of the Election Day comments from the tax gang six. In the MTFA’s opinion they’re politically expedient as they claim they want the people to be involved with the discussions. Also, the tax gang’s Finance Committee Chair that brought us the PAYT trash bag tax states that they heard the voters? Does this groups waffling and pandering to the community, reflect their sentiment after a clear mandate by the voters on Election Day that the PAYT trash bag tax is illegitimate? We think another member of the trash tax gang that implies that changes need to occur to the program, only makes this statement to have their own voice be heard and not the voters of the city.

One Councilor even needs an apparent civics lesson

It is evident to us that in these past few weeks the trash bag tax gang of six has made a mockery of the vote by the citizen’s with their comments and current actions. The Ward Two Councilor (general good guy) Paul Condon believes that the majority of registered voters that don’t vote matter more than the ones that did on Election Day. This argument is very hard to defend as he states that, “What we’re talking about here is 20,000 voters unspoken for” This is, in our opinion an overreaching statement, can be construed as self serving and very disingenuous on his part to make. We’d like to see him issue an apology to the voters of the city for his rather undemocratic statement about all of the electorate.

Response from the MTFA to the Administration:

From the Mayor’s recent comments and his sentiment that the vote totals send him mixed messages from the results. We state why wouldn’t he say this when he spent money from his own campaign fund to oppose Question One. The PAYT trash bag tax is a clear mandate on his administration’s implementation of it to the citizen’s that never get an opportunity to voice their opinion on it until fourteen months after its passage.

Get the facts why Question One fails

A two tier thresh hold of voters is needed
A twentieth century rule (which we must obey) states that 1/3 of the registered voters must appear at the polls on Election Day. Then that same number must vote yes to repeal it. What are needed were approximately 9,400 voters to appear and 9,400 of them to vote yes. Is this a realistic number for our city? The MTFA states that usually only 10,000 voters appear for a municipal mayor’s race and substantially less for the type of election ballot Question One appears on.

Why did the trash bag tax gang of six really vote to table the PAYT until May 17, 2010?

In our opinion scare tactics will be used on the municipal employees by our elected officials. There will be the threats of layoffs if the bags are eliminated. The MTFA has never supported any employees to lose their employment with the city. We have made numerous public statements that will back up our claims of no layoffs for our city employees. Why? The taxpayer loses when City Hall terminates the employment of a worker, as we still have to pay the person’s salary and benefits upfront. It’s better to have the municipal worker at their desk, chair and office than on the street without a job.

Delay tactics are being used to implement scare tactics and to also hopefully have the voters forget about the gang’s PAYT trash tax bag votes. There might be more pressing business in the city in regards to budget shortfalls, crime and its prevention, ordinances to increase fees and the future of the city. But, the MTFA questions how a democratically elected governing body can lead its people when the perception is that they have turned a deaf ear to the people that they work for.

The MTFA has projects in the community that we’ll address with our members in January so please contact us at 781-420-3818 or email us at info@maldentax.com. It’s time that the community finds out and learns about how our politicians spend our tax dollars.

Enjoy the Holidays!

The MTFA

Quote taken from the Group's Chairperson: "On Election Day, we won public opinion on their tax, that's something that City Hall will never be able to take from the citizen's that decided to vote and have their voice be heard."

Thank you to the voters

2009-11-11T15:22:00.000-08:00
The Malden Taxpayers for Accountability wants to thank the voters of Malden who came out this past Tuesday to voice their opinion on the Pay as You Throw Trash Program. In a non-Mayoral Election year, to have the unprecedented amount of voters appear at the polls should send a clear message to City Hall: democracy won and the citizens expect their government to follow realistic rules to make the playing field “fair.” Based, on the city’s rules called Acts 1950, we had that opportunity.

In the past few days many concerned citizens have spoken with us about Question One’s victory. It’s been very difficult to tell people that the question lost, when in actuality they won. Again, we thank the voters who gave us their vote and a clear mandate of public opinion in regards to the Pay as You Throw Trash Program. If you follow our fourteen month progression from the signatures to the ballot question, you will find out that we’ve never waiver from our core beliefs which are that we want our voices to be heard by City Hall. We also have always supported the recycle efforts of the City. In our opinion for the Pay as You Throw to become a model trash disposal program we now believe that citizen participation and public input is in need that will garner proper support from the community.

Time will only tell if the City Council, which is the governing body that authorizes us to be on this year’s ballot, will listen to our voices. We do believe that they have a duty to the voters of Malden to discuss the ballot question’s results. When will this get done? Your guess is as good as ours. But, if you’re serious about finding out join us on the third floor at 5:30PM at the Council Chambers (200 Pleasant Street) on any Tuesday night and really see what is being discussed when it comes to the spending of our tax dollars.

Malden’s elected officials have had some time to reflect and review the vote totals. Our hope for them is to listen to the people, so, we can meet on common ground where all sides will accept the Pay as You Throw Trash Program. Let this not be taken as a sign of weakness from our group. But, as an offer to put aside our differences as we ask City Hall to move forward as we all work together to have a program that the citizen’s truly care about, will support and be proud of. In our opinion, there are other issues in our city that need attention, but, the energy that this one continues to generate needs to come to a positive conclusion that the majority of people will respect and honor.

We make another plea to the City Council and Administration that many people need relief because they’re jobless, the winter is fast approaching and fuel bills will be due, homes are in foreclosure or just living each week paycheck to paycheck. Hopefully our political leaders after this Election Day now understand that the Pay as You Throw Trash Program needs changes, modifications, alterations or repeal to truly reflect the public’s sentiment on how a community accepts additional fees and or taxes to justify maintaining its services.

The Malden Taxpayers for Accountability
781-420-3818

"We won, lost and really won public opinion last Tuesday"
-Comment from the Chairperson of the MTFA-Bob Miller on the groups 68% to 25% Question One victory on November 3, 2009.

Election Day

2009-10-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

This letter was sent to the local media and is really for the Mayor:

On Nov. 3 all citizens of Malden will have a vote on whether to repeal the fee we pay for blue city trash bags. Referendums like this are truly government by the people - the best form of democracy. Referendums cause people to become involved in their government, educate themselves on issues, and inspire them to vote. This is why the Malden Taxpayers for Accountability (MTFA) brought the Malden community together through a massive petition effort and put the trash bag tax (PAYT) on the ballot. This controversial new fee was swiftly passed last year in the summertime just before government recessed and public involvement was at its least.

Two short years ago Malden had very few challengers to elected office; little public involvement in vital government decisions; and no debates, petitions or referendum. This year Malden politics has a different look, and the PAYT trash bag fee has a lot to do with it. Much of the economic benefit of PAYT will continue as long as we keep recycling, and there are alternatives for other revenues, such as charging only for excess trash beyond one barrel per household. Government should not legislate like a parent, but provide more opportunity for public input and referendums like ours.

After Tuesday’s City Council meeting when the Mayor speaks about how the Pay as You Throw is a “model program.” It seems that most of the Council agrees with that statement and it’s their right to feel that way, however, now our elected officials should get a dose of reality on Election Day from the voters. It also appears that most of these elected officials support the Mayor’s political flyer against Question One which he mails out anonymously to the voters last week.

The Mayor not disclosing his own name on a political advertisement against Question One isn’t a State of Massachusetts ethics issue. It’s a moral one, based on the fact that he tries to tell us that there is no money in the budgets. What hypocrisy as he can spend almost $8,000.00 or more to send out a piece of campaign literature, when thousands of our own citizens are jobless, without health care coverage, living pay check to paycheck, nearing foreclosure and don’t know what their family’s futures will hold. Maybe a challenge needs to be sent to him and his campaign staff to volunteer their time to reacquaint themselves with the needs of their constituents.

Furthermore, the Mayor when he threatens the community with his scare tactics with the reduction of staff and services if Question One passes. Is a blatant overreach of his authority and responsibility as the leader of our city. When he should know that at any time our own City Council can eliminate, modify, alter or use a timeline to implement changes to any ordinance. The Mayor and Council passes the trash bag law without public input, four days before a ballot question deadline for its appearance on Election Day. Is that a model program that City Hall and the citizen’s can support?

The Mayor continues to bend and stretch the truth, as evidence last year’s five million dollar budget shortfall is his reason for the trash bag. When in reality surpluses exist that far and exceed his estimate loss of revenue. Then, when the sale of the bags lost money, it conveniently becomes good for the recycle efforts of the city, and now, when push comes to shove it’s again to balance a budget or good people and services will be affected.

The Mayor should have taken the MTFA up on offers to debate over the merits of his “model program” as the voters deserve the opportunity to witness a discussion over this issue. But, what can the citizen’s expect from someone who practices misinformation and hides behind technicalities of the law to ruse his views on a program he supports.

Bob Miller
Chairperson
Malden Taxpayers for Accountability
781-420-3818

Democracy's the worst form of government except for all the others. - Winston Churchill

Why every vote counts!

2009-10-18T10:42:00.000-07:00
We want to also let people realize why the ballot question appears the way it does-which is a yes vote to repeal it. This may seem like old news to some of you the read it, but, when the city last year on June 26, 2008 at the end of their session before summer break passes the bag tax. Unbenowst to us there is a 20 day period to try and get a ballot referendum written, approved, signatures gathered and then certified by the city so it could appear in the next municipal election. The problem was that the deadline to do all of this was June 30, 2008! If we had been able to somehow accomplish this feat then a ballot referendum would have occurred where a pass or fail vote will count.

What do we have now?

An initiative petition, which must be written to strike out or repeal the lines in an ordinance. The major difference between the referendum and initiative ballot question?

We now need approximately 9,500 registered voters to appear on Election Day and that same number to vote yes to repeal it! Is it fair? Based on their rules, it is. But, how hard will it be for City Hall to go against public opinion when Question One passes?

We’re not conspiracy experts just a taxpayers advocacy group from Malden Massachusetts.

You make the decision on Tuesday November 3, 2009 whether the ends do justify the means. The City Council is now possibly asking for reforms for the charter from the State of Massachusetts. The petitioning process is one of the Council’s issues that they want to address. We do applaud their efforts (Christiansen, Nestor and Kinnon), but, we suggest that they post or can provide all of the City’s Charter to us.We need to see what the rules are and how they apply to us. Shouldn’t transparent government relate to having the ability to review all the laws and rules that we must follow? Even if there viewed or needed once in thirty years? Here are just a few of the rules that apply this past year that there is no official notification of the place to view or Internet posting to readily access them: the ballot question process, the At-Large Councilor succession and a few others under review from the City Council’s Charter Committee.

Update: the council’s charter review sub-committee wants the taxpayers to come to city hall to review the copy of the Charter. I ask you do you or I have a few hours to do that? Well, maybe I do….

But, enough of that topic, if you want a lawn sign please contact us at 781-480-3320 or 781-420-3818.

Here’s a copy of the ballot as it will appear in the voting booth:

SAMPLE BALLOT
MUNICIPAL ELECTION
MALDEN MA
NOV 3, 2009

INSTRUCTIONS TO VOTERS

A. TO VOTE, completely fill in the OVAL to the RIGHT of your choice (s) like this:
B. Follow directions as to the number of candidates to be marked for each office.
C. To vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot, write the candidate’s name on the line provided and completely fill in the OVAL.

COUNCILLOR AT LARGE
Vote for not more than THREE

GREGORY LUCEY
30 Huntley St. (Wd.5) andidate for re-election
CRAIG SPADAFORA
75 Elm St. (Wd. 3) Candidate for re-election
DAVID D'ARCANGELO
183 Bainbridge St.(Wd. 5)
JEFFREY ALLEN DONAHUE
56 Tremont St. (Wd. 4)
DEBORAH FALLON
37 Woodland Rd. (Wd. 3)
BRIAN F. O'BOYLE
72 Claremont St. (Wd. 8)

Note: There are Ward Councilor races is wards 3, 5 and 8.

QUESTION 1

Do you approve of the measure summarized below?

Summary

The proposed measure would eliminate the requirement that approved trash bags be purchased for the weekly curbside pickup of trash by the city trash contractor from residential properties containing 6 or fewer units. The proposed measure would not eliminate the requirement that approved trash bags be purchased for the weekly curbside pickup of trash by the city trash contractor from commercial properties or residential properties containing more than 6 units. The proposed measure would not alter regulations relative to recycling, white goods or hazardous materials.

Fees for approved trash bags for trash collection at residential properties containing 6 or fewer units (commonly referred to as “Pay As You Throw” or “PAYT”) were implemented in October of 2008. Approved trash bags may be purchased at various locations throughout the City and are currently available for a fee of $2.00 for a 35gallon bag or $1.00 for a 17 gallon bag. The present ordinance provides that the property owner will be responsible for the proper disposal of trash but does not require homeowners to participate in the city trash collection program.

A YES vote would eliminate the fees and the requirement to purchase approved trash bags for collection of certain residential waste by the city trash contractor.

A NO vote would leave in place the fees and the requirement to purchase approved trash bags for collection of certain residential waste by the city trash contractor.

Next week there will be a posting devoted entirely to the current councilors and candidates on where they stand on the pay as you throw tax trash bag. I believe it will assist you in making a choice on who will best serve us---the taxpayers of Malden. I’ve always stated that in politics we may not agree on a subject but I respect you on the position that you take.

The MTFA can’t openly support any candidate. I will write in this slot that in my opinion this election is the time to make change. My committee and I have attended nearly 99% of the council’s meetings and believe that change is good----for the people that voted for the bag. The trash bag seven or five that are on the ballot need to take a rest and reflect on who they serve and work for----us the taxpayers and not the Administration. Who are they? You’ll have to read our blog next week to find out who they are!

Malden, only a few weeks to go until we have our voices heard by City Hall.

Bob Miller
Chairperson
Malden

The steeper the mountain the harder the climb the better the view from the finishing line

New campaign slogan and translation

2009-10-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

There’s about three weeks left in the campaign to decide the fate of the trash bag tax. We think that now would be a good time based on Malden’s vast ethnic diversity to include a list of the most popular languages spoken in the city which are: Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, French, Thai and a few more. The english version of our most recent campaign slogan states to repeal the trash bag tax, the rest of the translation, "explains itself" once the logo is reviewed by the reader. We hope that this will assist the voters in the next few weeks to get the word out to all of their neighbors and friends in the community. Which is:

問題 1
投票是取消
2009 年 11 月 3 日
還是一稅！

Câu hỏi 1 bình chọn Yes để Xóa The Blue Thùng rác Bag thuế Ngày 03 Tháng 11 2009

¡Pregunte 1 Voto Sí Revocar El Impuesto de Bolsa de Basura el 3 de noviembre de 2009 Es todavía un impuesto!

Questionner 1 Vote Oui Annuler Les Déchets Retiennent l'Impôt le 3 novembre, 2009 c'Est toujours un impôt !

问题 1
投票是取消
垃圾包税
2009 年 11 月 3 日
仍是一税！

Interrogue 1 Voto Sim Revogar O novembro Azul de Imposto de Sacola de Lixo 3, 2009 é ainda um imposto!

ออกเสียงลงคะแนน 1 คำถามใช่แล้วที่จะยกเลิก
การจัดเก็บ ภาษี ถุงสีฟ้าลงถังขยะ
วันที่ 3 พฤศจิกายน 2009
มันยังคงเป็น ภาษี !

We have lawn signs, bumper stickers and flyers for distribution. Please contact us at 781-480-3320 or 781-420-3818.

Malden now’s the time to get the job done and get to the polls on 11-03-2009.

Have a good week!

MTFA

What has destroyed liberty and the rights of men in every government that has ever existed under the sun? The generalization, concentration of all cares and powers into one body.

-Thomas Jefferson, Third United States President, (1801-1809)

Why we need to vote on November 3, 2009

2009-10-04T08:18:00.000-07:00
Here's a Letter to the Editor that was written as a response to comments from the Mayor's Office that appeared in one of the newspapers this week:

The Malden Taxpayers for Accountability (MTFA) has a few questions for Charles Toomajian from the Mayor’s Office. He makes statements to this newspaper about the trash bag tax that my group believes are smoke screens for the truth.

The MTFA welcomes the release of the first ever recycle report that Mr. Toomajian champions in last week’s article. We hope that this report will give the “tonnage” saved results that he mentions and will also give the community the exact details of how the current waste disposal contractor won their bid. This additional public information would ensure that the taxpayer have the knowledge that the waste disposal contract is the lowest possible cost for the disposal of the refuse in the city.

Toomajian mentions from the article that, “It’s not really a loss.” This statement is made in regards to the trash tax bags not hitting their estimate sales total of 2.5 million dollars. We feel that the administration must stop costing us money and bending words to suit their own purposes when it comes to our tax dollars. We’ve been very patient this past year attending all the council meetings. We only report to the public in our blogs what we hear and see in relation to their tax dollars that affect them. So, when we announce to the community that this year our city has out of date accounting methods and practices that cost us nearly a million dollars, we wonder how many trash bags will that cost us?” Also, maybe Mr. Toomajian would like to debate us over this and other topics in regards to the budget? We can also present alternate recycle plans that everyone in the community can benefit and participate in.”

The MTFA wants to know if Toomajian and or the Mayor will agree to not raise the cost of the bag to offset the –it’s not really a loss on the bags -statement that they make. There’s already an estimate from one current City Council Financial Committee Member that forecasts another “bag” shortfall and has gone on the record with an estimate of a half to three quarter of a million dollar “bag” shortfall. Our research from other communities demonstrates that within a short time period the tax trash bag can increase in cost by 300%.

We want the voters to realize the essence of why Question 1 appears on the ballot:

1. City hall disregards our own State’s guidelines in the proper notification of the trash plan to us---the taxpayers. As our city was supposed to eliminate the perception of a tax before they voted it into law.

2. Our city uses Federal and State funds meant for other elderly and low income programs to buy trash tax bags meant for other services.

3. The water bill increase of ONLY 2% and how this year they could’ve increased it by as much as 6%. At the time of that statement being made by City Hall they had a surplus of 3 million dollars in the water and sewage account. We advocate for no increases based on the current economic conditions of the taxpayers.

We believe that the voters must decide for themselves do the ends really justify the means? Our elected officials last year without any public notice, rushed to pass the trash tax bag at the end of their session last June. They never let it be known to the public that they already have this same plan with the business community and mandated the trash bag tax on its citizens to balance a budget.

In our opinion, City Hall, now wants to champion the recycle numbers to defend their position against Question 1. When there is other just as efficient recycle programs that could benefit the people, city and still enhance or make better the recycle efforts of the community. The MTFA encourages the voters to exercise their rights in a democracy to have their voices be heard and decide the fate of the trash tax bag by casting their vote on Election Day, Tuesday November 3, 2009.

Malden, we thank you for your support this past year and now please finish what we start and get the word out that we need all registered voters to appear and cast a vote of yes to repeal it!

Sincerely,

Bob Miller
Chairperson
The MTFA

"There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.”

-Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England 1940-1945 and from 1951-1955

Question One

2009-09-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

The Malden Taxpayers for Accountability wants to thank the City Clerk Karen Anderson and City Solicitor Kate Fallon for their work on Question One. The MTFA believes that it’s a fair, well balanced, unbiased and a professionally written ballot question. The group states that their work with these two city departments these past few months from interpretations of campaign ballot rules, reports and now the ballot question are a good example of local government working for and with the taxpayers. The question will be on the ballot in six weeks and this will finally decide the fate of the Pay as You Throw trash tax. Please tell everyone you know that’s a Malden registered voter to appear to exercise their right to be heard and vote on Tuesday, November 3, 2009.

Here is the question as it will appear in the voting booth:

Question #1

Do you approve of the measure summarized below?

The proposed measure would eliminate the requirement that approved trash bags be purchased for the weekly curbside pickup of trash by the city trash contractor from residential properties containing 6 or fewer units. The proposed measure would not eliminate the requirement that approved trash bags be purchased for the weekly curbside pickup of trash by the city trash contractor from commercial properties or residential properties containing more than 6 units. The proposed measure would not alter regulations relative to recycling, white goods or hazardous materials.

Fees for approved trash bags for trash collection at residential properties containing 6 or fewer units (commonly referred to as “Pay as You Throw” or “PAYT”) were implemented in October of 2008. Approved trash bags may be purchased at various locations throughout the City and are currently available for a fee of $2.00 for a 35 gallon bag or $1.00 for a 17 gallon bag. The present ordinance provides that the property owner will be responsible for the proper disposal of trash but does not require homeowners to participate in the city trash collection program.

A YES vote would eliminate the fees and the requirement to purchase approved trash bags for collection of certain residential waste by the city trash contractor.

A NO vote would leave in place the fees and the requirement to purchase approved trash bags for collection of certain residential waste by the city trash contractor.

The MTFA stresses that as they enter the last phase of the campaign that now is the time to have your voice be heard by City Hall and vote on Question One on November 3, 2009. They have a few yard signs and bumper stickers for their supporters to display on their cars.

Bob Miller
MTFA

Here’s our You Tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CciY_QKykE

When women are the advisers, the lords of creation don't take the advice till they have persuaded themselves that it is just what they intended to do; then they act upon it, and if it succeeds, they give the weaker vessel half the credit of it; if it fails, they generously give her the whole.

--Louisa May Alcott, taken from Little Women.

Facts about the trash tax

2009-09-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

This is about the time in a ballot campaign when rumors and misinformation abound about the question. Ours is no different as we want to share with you a sampling of some of the comments that we hear from the voters of Malden. Naturally, when we ask these people we’re they’ve heard the misinformation from most of the time it’s from someone with deep roots in the community just like us that they trust and respect.

Sometimes when we hear different opinions from people we focus on what the worst case scenario will be and in our opinion they’re scare tactics. Is it a game of bluff or what we like to call, hide and seek with our tax dollars? As we start to visit the neighborhoods throughout the city we want to let you see what we’ve heard people in the community tell us what will happen if the trash tax is overturned by the electorate:

Some people now feel that the program is fine that they’re use to it and will stay home come Election Day. We respect their opinion about the trash tax. But, we ask them if this is still America that they live in?” They usually reply to us in the affirmative and we tell that in a democracy everyone wins when the voters appear at the polls and exercise their right to vote which gives them the opportunity to have their voice be heard to either keep it or not.

The MTFA advocates for the city to implement alternative trash removal programs that communities use that benefit and lower the cost for the taxpayer. One of these programs is Recycle Bank-which is a points driven reward plan and with these tough economic times, shouldn’t we receive some incentive for our efforts? Why didn’t we get that opportunity to discuss it with our own local government last year?

We also hear that, “The trash tax may go on our tax bills” in our opinion these are just plain and simple use of scare tactics by the elected officials. The Mayor originally wants the trash bag tax to balance a budget. Then, when it lost a million dollars, it only then was good for recycling. If it’s good for our recycle efforts as a city, then why not reward us? Or offer one bag for free each week? We have other solutions to offset the revenue loss from the bags.

“People will lose their jobs” is the only solution that the Mayor proposes to the City Council in June. To elicit this response the Council President Craig Spadafora asked him what plan B was and this was his only reply.
We’re fair and very reasonable people and this past year we’ve offered numerous times to meet with the Mayor to offer compromises and solutions. The requests from the MTFA’s leadership have been ignored by him.

We’ve witnessed over the past nine months millions of our tax dollars appear from accounts that have no record of vast amounts of money in them. So, until the City demonstrates transparency in the budgets. We will not blink an eye on the Mayor’s bluffs and neither should you! It’s financially rough out there and in my opinion our city plays games with our money. They can’t even keep track of some of it……do you trust and believe them? We don’t….

City Hall actions over the summer that affect the taxpayer

The MTFA wants the taxpayers to realize that it’s not all about the blue trash tax bags. The city announces a few weeks ago that they could’ve raised water bills by 6% based on the current rate increases from the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority. The city mentions that they only raise the rates by 2% which the MTFA supports and feels it’s a step in the right direction. However, many citizens over the years have felt they have been overcharged for this service since the city switches from a quarterly to monthly billing cycle.

The taxpayers group discovered this past year from State of Massachusetts reports a three million dollar surplus in the Water and Sewage Enterprise Fund. The MTFA questions why the entire amount didn’t cover the increase? Could it have been that the city attaches an estimate of an additional 1.3 million dollars of new expenses-spending to the water and sewage account?

Malden this Tuesday is Primary Day get out there and vote. Have a great week!

---MTFA

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.

-John Quincy Adams, Our Nation’s second President of the United States of America

We're back!

2009-09-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

We do hope that your summer went well as it’s hard to believe that Election Day is just about seven plus weeks away as we now need your help to get City Hall to listen to our voices! We just didn’t take that last sentence or rally cry from the recent town hall health care debates. It’s what we’ve been advocating for since last July- We want our voices to be heard over the Pay as You Throw Trash Tax.

We’ve been in contact with many people in the city about how they still feel about our City Government. Most voters are rather upset about the way that the blue trash bag tax is mandated by city hall and that there’s no debate over it. What’s also becoming very apparent to us is the anger over the scare tactics that the mayor uses when he tells the city council that only layoffs are the solution if the ballot question passes in the fall. We say that if he can still balance the budget with a one million dollar loss on the trash bag, state cuts and non- city council approved pay raises. This total of extra found money is nearly five million dollars then we have a very hard time believing what he tells us.

Take a look at the photo in the picture on this blog post; you can contact us if you want to make a donation for one of the items. Also, you can see them displayed from the U-Tube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OmtKGwuNJ4. A suggested donation price is $15.00 for the shirt and our pin is $5.00. We have a very talented and modest fundraising group who wants to remain anonymous as they make these items many months ago for the sole purpose of selling them now to raise funds to defray the cost of the campaign.

The most important need is for volunteers to pass out flyers in a few weeks at the primaries and hold signs on Election Day. Also for people to walk their streets and or ward to distribute campaign items and also get the word out that we need EVERYONE to vote. Why? Because to be taken serious as a collective body of concerned citizens. We must vote in mass so that our elected officials will realize before they want to ever implement any more programs (taxes). They need to discuss their ideas with us first before they take additional money out of our pockets.

You can reserve a yard sign, but, we still don’t know what the question will be named. The City’s Clerk Karen Anderson and Solicitor Kate Fallon have been reviewing the question for nearly three months. We wonder what’s holding them up from letting us see it and confirm the question number as it will appear on the ballot. Do we think they’re holding it off as long as possible so we can’t get the word out? You can formulate your own opinion on that subject.

We can yell, scream and get frustrated over not having the ballot question. But, what’s most important is the need for us as a city to vote whether we want the Pay as you Throw Trash Tax or want it gone. You need to appear on November 3, 2009 and also anyone in your home that is a registered voter of Malden should exercise their right to vote. If you or any other registered voters that you know can’t make it that day please petition the city by 9/28/2009 to receive an absentee ballot. Also, anyone you know that isn’t registered to vote must also adhere to the same deadline date mentioned in the last sentence.

Why do we need all these voters to appear on Election Day? There’s a 60 year old rule on the books that dictates that 12,000 voters or more must appear to vote on our ballot question. We ask you, is this fair and reasonable for that many tax payers of the community to appear? No! But, not for the reason you think as it gets even better -9,000 voters must vote the way the petition is written for it to be valid.

Please contact us at info@maldentax.com or call 781-420-3818 if you want to assist us with the campaign. Volunteers can take bumper stickers get them on cars, post a sign on their lawn, walk their neighborhood and spread the word why we need everyone to vote.

Maybe after you read this blog, you’ll contact your ward councilor and ask that person the status of the ballot question. If possible the city’s clerk could receive a phone call from you as her number is (781) 397-7116 or an email cityclerk@cityofmalden.org. After you read this last sentence you may question- why you should get involved? Hundreds of your neighbors, friends and family members want City Hall to treat them with respect and as a community partner. Shouldn’t you honor their work efforts and do what you can to make November 3, 2009 a successful day.

In reference to the apparent delay by the city with the ballot question and the 60 year old rule that requires 12,000 people to appear and vote on Election Day. Is fair government at work for us or against us?

Malden, Happy Labor Day and see you very soon...
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--Malden Taxpayers for Accountability

“Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated.”
Mark Twain

Just another Monday morning in our city....

2009-08-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

Diapers and Baby Food Jars

Last Monday when I took my dogs out to do their morning rituals I spotted some debris at the corner of the street in front of the telephone poll near my home. I walked up to it and what do I see: baby food jars and what err umm smells like diapers in a green thirteen gallon trash bag. First of all I wouldn’t go to that great length to get this type of publicity as you can view what I saw from the pictures in this post.

As a sidebar I learned after these pictures were taken that my family this week becomes a statistic of the health care debate in this country as our medical benefit coverage will disappear at the end of September. Now we’re one of the 14,000 people on average that lose their coverage each week. I still feel the same way as I did then, which is if the person (s) are dropping their trash off because they can’t afford to feed their family then I’ll gladly use the trash tax bag on something other than my animals excrement-in my opinion it’s a more honorable use of them. If they’re being lazy or careless about dropping their thrash, then what goes around comes around and I’ll have a camera set up next trash day to catch the culprits. That drastic course of action I naturally will not take as our City possibly has an ordinance about such things….

I have a few questions that maybe the readers can answer for me: how many of you have either been the victim of this or seen it happen in your neighborhood? I feel as though this might be a health concern for the entire community and especially people with conditions where infection can leave them down for extended periods of time or worse….. (disclosure I have Multiple Sclerosis) In one of the pictures in the gallery section you can see my cane as it is shamelessly placed there to make my point. Here’s another question for you to ponder, would you rather take the fine by our City Government then be exposed to something like this being left out in front or near your home? You may ask yourself.”Why should I care about something that doesn’t affect me?” You should care what happens as the people that are dropping off their trash randomly at your home are giving you waste of their children that maybe are sick. I’m not even talking about the swine flu pandemic scare that we had a few months ago.

See, sometimes we rush to implement programs for what we believe are for the good of the community, society, budget and or the environment. But, this past flu scare’s average age appears to be 16 years of age. Can that change in the fall, absolutely, but containing it might be more difficult when we’re making families chose between buying trash tax bags and feeding their children. I know what I’d do………I’d be thinking, “I’d better find another place to drop off my kid’s diapers, used formula bottles and baby food jars because the guy with the two big dogs has already paid ten bucks for me! I think I’ll give him a break and go elsewhere.” Okay, maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part to have it stop. I’ll admit it, but, remember what we see sometimes isn’t what we get.

Here is a post that I wrote in Boston.com about results of some of our tax money:

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/malden/2009/07/city_may_switch_banks_after_em.html

Note: I did get to speak with the Council President over the weekend and this is only a preliminary discovery by the Council. As there will be more fact finding sessions and State of Massachusetts investigations that the Council will get an opportunity to get our money back.

Malden, hope you have a great week and remember 11/3/09 to VOTE!

Bob Miller
Chairperson
MTFA

“It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.”

Tom Brokaw-NBC News Anchor and Author of the Greatest Generation

Get the Facts

2009-07-16T07:36:00.000-07:00
Last week our Mayor made comments in the Malden Advocate that describe us as critics. While we respect his opinion we hope that he will also do the same with us. As we believe that he should just stick to using the facts about his Pay as You Throw Trash (PAYT) program. We feel that his inaccurate statements only make us look stronger with our facts and opinions about or City. Also that he is using scare tactics against the community. The Mayor’s comments in the opinion of the writer of this blog should leave the reader very disheartened by his replies in the Advocate. In our opinion, we must question after reading last week's article what else is being misquoted or mistated to benefit their positions against us- the taxpayers of Malden.

Read on and wish we had the article online to reference it to you—here’s the press release and we think you’ll get the essence of it:

The Mayor states “without the (PAYT) program, I would have to cut jobs.”

Last week the MTFA met with the Controller and Treasurer up at City Hall for nearly two hours and asked them if the listed amount of $1,000,000.00 dollars in the 2010 City of Malden’s General Fund (Page 48) it can be found on the City’s website- http://www.ci.malden.ma.us/download/misc/SUBMITTEDBD-2010REV2.pdf was a shortfall for the current PAYT from last year’s inaugural trash bag program. To the best of our knowledge that money was covered by the budget and we ask the readers based on the Mayor’s current statement why no one this past fiscal year lost their jobs? Doesn’t this demonstrate what we wrote about last week about the Mayor using scare tactics?

The Mayor goes on to mention that “there are close to 300 cities and towns that use a similar program for trash disposal.”

We encourage the Mayor and or his staff to visit the Massachusetts DEP website at http://www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/reduce/paytfact.htm and in October of 2008 the State has 124 cities and towns that have some form of PAYT. However, only about four dozen to the best of our knowledge actually utilize the trash tax bag.

Another statement which we question just like the Mayor’s of their being “300” PAYT programs- “doing our very best to keep costs down.”

Until the taxpayers in our opinion are given total transparency on all budgets, audits and bids we will remain very skeptical in regards to the Mayor’s claims in regards to the spending of our hard earned tax dollars.

“It’s a model program,” is another statement that the Mayor makes about the PAYT and we question the validity of that statement.

In the past year the MTFA has never been against the recycle efforts of the city and we encourage any improvements to the environment. But, our neighbors in Everett and Medford are potentially dealing with our lack of proper execution of the PAYT when the city didn’t follow the program by State of Massachusetts Guidelines.

Here’s proof that what we write about is accurate as there’s a link from a Medford Newspaper that quotes a city official from that city suggesting that his city must start a permit process for drop boxes because of our “model” program:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/medford/homepage/x488823514/Council-discusses-drop-box-restrictions

In regards to the second part of the Mayor’s comments about the PAYT being a model program and how he states, “were getting calls from other cities as to how we’re implementing the program.”

We know that his staff has personally visited a few other cities about the PAYT. We question the Mayor and ask who pays or compensates the taxpayer for these visits from his administration to non-Malden governmental meetings? Also, a lot of other communities might want the revenue producing program, but once the citizen’s get the chance to voice their opinion before the final decision to implement it they usually end up with choices that place recycle first and usually no trash tax bag.

In regards to the Mayor saying that we’re looking or to paraphrase him-reacting for a headline is in our opinion very inaccurate and misleading to the reader of the article. We have not changed our positions on support of recycle efforts of the city, assertion that the trash bag is an override of proposition 2 ½ and that the voters of our city deserve a right to be heard. As even the Mayor now admits, from this article that he, “agrees that there may have been other ways to introduce the plan to the residents but firmly believes it was the right way to go for the taxpayers.” Another point we want to make is that we receive many compliments from people in City Government that our campaign and blogs on http://www.maldentax.com/ are usually very fair and balanced on issues that face the taxpayers that can be linked to the trash tax bag. Maybe, he should read them and make comments based on those instead of in our opinion some of his facts that he uses in this article.

In our opinion the taxpayers of Malden (5,114 signed the petition) have only been half served by having the PAYT on the ballot on Election Day, November 3, 2009. When they exercise their right to decide whether they want it or not, then the taxpayers in our opinion will be made whole by the democratic process. Which in our opinion the Mayor and City Council forget about when they passed the PAYT last year without our input or feedback. Watchdog groups such as ours are always villanized in our opinion by authority figures such as the Mayor when he calls us critics. We know this when we hear some of the misinformation like this article has in it. What we expect is that the City will change their scare tactics again. If we weren’t good community partners with the citizen’s we’d have gone ahead with a special election a lot earlier in the year and if you believe City Hall we’d have caused the layoffs of a few employees. How many were laid off last year in the City Budget? The answer is none. We encourage the voters of Malden to get the facts about how their hard earned tax dollars are being spent by City Hall.

Malden, have a great week!

-MTFA

"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd."

-Bertrand Russell, British Philosopher 1872-1970

Scare Tactics

2009-07-05T10:19:00.000-07:00
As we all head off to our summer haunts and start our campaigns our City’s Administration has given our City Council only one solution if the PAYT is voted out on November 3, 2009. It’s that people will lose their jobs at City Hall. The President of the Council, Craig Spadafora, asks the Mayor at a Council meeting what Plan B is and his reply was none, other than layoffs. Before we give you our reasons why the Mayor takes the position he does let’s give you the definition of what scare tactics are in response to his “only” solution.

Scare Tactics

Which are coercing a favorable response by preying upon the audience’s fears. Scare tactics are not direct threats, but are coerced conclusions. Instead of threatening a consequence onto a person, scare tactics highlight the possible negative outcomes to the extreme, while merely suggesting causality (like loss of services when you can change an ordinance to assist the taxpayer’s of Malden). The audience is supposed to use its own logic to draw the obvious negative conclusions. This is dangerous, for people often believe their own faulty logic because we feel that we can trust our own decisions (simply because they belong to us). If we base these conclusions on fear, however, then we have committed a logical fallacy.

Scare tactics work often in real life, perhaps because some people can more easily imagine the details of a dire consequence than to rationalize the remoteness of its possible occurrence (who would be responsible for the layoffs? The City needed the bags to balance the budget-it came a million dollars under expectations). This may explain why many people fear flying in light of statistical evidence that proves it to be the safest form of vehicular transportation.

Why do we feel the Mayor is using scare tactics in regards to the PAYT vote in November?

At any given time the City Council can change, amend, modify, place a timeline and or eliminate any Ordinance in the City’s Charter.

It is a lot easier to come up with a solution that works best for the State and City Hall. Did they ever mention what was best for the people?

Future revenue increasing programs like PAYT that will encourage additional taxes through pay go systems.

Why didn’t our City Government offer to show us the PAYT program last spring? They had it implemented with the Commercial entities in our city since the year 2000. Why did they hide it from us until its last minute passage last June?

What the Council and Administration conveniently forget to tell you about the PAYT.

They never engage the community and under State guidelines this would have eliminated the perception of a tax.

To balance a budget- this isn’t the intent of the PAYT. It’s to promote the recycle efforts of the community, which the MTFA supports. It still lost a million dollars!

Provide financial relief for the elderly, disabled and other protected classes of people in the City. A former Mayor believes like we do that it was done after the fact.

The MTFA asks the voter’s to think about these questions that they pose:

Why should our Local Government get a free pass on approving only one solution in regards to the PAYT? Don’t they tell us to come up with ideas when we say no?

We believe that in the end the Citizen’s of Malden must make up their own minds and decide if they want to keep a program where they had no say in its implementation. In reality we all must decide do the ends really justify the means? In our opinion when we vote in mass numbers this November-which we must to meet the requirements for passage we will send a signal to City Hall that past practices by our elected officials with our money are unacceptable. We wish everyone a safe and happy summer while we hope they realize their City Government needs to provide solutions first to the citizens and not for other groups or entities outside our City.

City Council Notes:

Kudos to the Ward Six Councilor Neil Kinnon for his accurate portrayal of this past year’s estimate of funds raised by the PAYT. It was a budget shortfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars. I thought the Councilor’s report was written last week! That’s how relevant we believe his prediction for this year’s $500,000 shortfall for the PAYT will be. If true where will the money come from? Won’t that mean more personnel will have to be cut as the Mayor stated a few weeks ago when he presented the budget to the City Council? Or will it be business as usual this year with monies that appear from the thin air. The Controller Dom Fermano who may just have an S under his dress shirt swoop in and save the day and have the money in another account? Bottom line is that it’s our money and the shell games with it must end as it’s costing us more money.

Malden, have a safe, and great Fourth of July

Bob Miller
Chair
MTFA

“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.”

Samuel Adams 1722-1803

The past versus the future......

2009-06-29T13:46:00.000-07:00
After sitting through most if not all of this year's City Council, Sub-Committee and Budget meetings I feel confident to ask several questions and make a few comments in this post. One of them is the fact the Council has in my opinion had an audience, sometimes just one person, has certainly had an impact on the way things have come down. We have witnessed some shows of high drama and some snooz-a-thons. Without a doubt, the blogs have also had an impact. People may not comment yet you can be assured, they are being read. Our Internet numbers tell us this….We all want the same thing: a better Malden. How it all comes about is a different story. We are now in the midst of a massive sea change again in my opinion of old school vs new school way of running this city.

It is no secret a handful of families dominate the political and employment opportunities in Malden. Their friends dominate the second tier. Then, there are the rest of us who have allowed them to do this as it all seemed to run okay for a while. Then the roads became a mess, a lot more crime crept in, the graffiti was everywhere, the SUV’s started showing up, the schools are filthy because no one is taking care of business and now a tax to toss out trash. And Dad and Mom are losing their jobs or taking a pay cut. The only ones living the good life, it seems, are the people running our city and most of them don’t even live here.

Something has happened in the last ten years where a lot of people moved up and out of the city and now new demographics have moved in. While collecting signatures for the petition drive I was able to meet many people who were not born here in Malden. We all share many of the same hopes, dreams, desires and problems. Time and again, people asked me for an explanation of why “they” had to do this to the citizens. When I tried to explain it was because the city needed the money, no one believed me. I didn’t believe me! I still don’t believe me. Money appears and disappears on such a regular basis we come to expect it and know it’s a game they play. It’s the old “Boy who cried wolf” routine.

Recycling is not the reason either. If it were, why was there no attempt to teach us more about recycling before this tax? The DPW was woefully unprepared in my opinion to issue the stickers for the barrels to be turned into recycle bins and they certainly didn’t have enough smaller recycle bins for people who requested them.

There is nothing like demanding people fork over more of their hard-earned money for the ability to toss out trash to galvanize a community! I am thrilled recycling is where the city has made the most impact on our budget. It may be confusing to some we advocate eliminating the trash tax AND be behind the recycling movement. No doubt there has to be some kind of carrot and stick to make the recycling work to its maximum to produce the most savings. All we have ever asked for is to be part of the process where it affects our pocketbooks. The Malden Visioning project asked for our input. We were excited to finally be part of the process in our city. It seemed like a new day was dawning on Malden where it was important to listen to its citizens and, for a change, care about what the people who paid the bills thought. Silly us!

The Efficiency Committee in my opinion was another token attempt at luring us into believing the city was seriously interested in cleaning up its act and doing the hard work of looking at ways to save instead of spending. Thank you former Councilor At Large Paul Anderson for trying to make a difference in making the attempt to facilitate change in our City. How many recommendations were taken up by the Mayor and added into the budget or seen the light of day? It is not all about revenue streams. We all know there is huge waste in our government. It is disgraceful our Mayor is proud of the fact he is computer illiterate. He may encourage the rest of us to use a computer, but he is above the need for one? Are you kidding me? Maybe if this was some backwater town with less than 1000 people and a tiny budget he could get away with that thinking. No wonder he needs so many admin people! Funny, I don’t recall his department taking a hit or his salary taking a cut. (at this time we see a tentative cut of $54,000-we’ve not seen last Tuesday’s 139 million dollar budget.)

If you were to believe the current administration and department heads, without the trash bag tax, this city will crumble. What we are having a hard time understanding is why they won’t sit down and talk to us, the people, to figure out a way to make more money! We have offered suggestions to make this a win-win for EVERYONE and end up with more money coming in. The present ordinance must be eliminated first. It isn’t fair to all the people and it isn’t making the money they had hoped for. You know what happens when they don’t make the money they hope for—they raise the price of the bags. Get ready for it; it’s coming if this tax is not eliminated in its present form.

Here’s an idea for making money for “them” AND giving the people something they deserve: If you park on the street (your driveway is free!), you must purchase a sticker for $20 per year or get a $25 ticket. The revenue from that goes directly into repairing, painting and repaving the streets in the city. We have more ideas, just ask.

They don’t understand people are upset every time they have to buy these bags and every time they see $2 tossed in the trash. At least if you spent $2 on a scratch ticket, you’d have a chance to make something! Or that $2 cup of coffee does the job of waking you up and moving what needs to be moved. We the people look forward to having this question on the ballot right beside all the incumbents who are running for office. The sea change of new school thinking is hopefully on its way. Maybe all the seats will have a challenge. You can then decide if your councilor is worthy of your vote. If they didn’t ask your permission for this tax, they don’t deserve your vote on November 3, 2009.

~Annie Oppedisano
MTFA

“All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.” - Orison Swett Marden

Some controversy from our very own City Council

2009-06-20T05:14:00.000-07:00
The City Council finally decides the fate of our petition and to no one’s surprise they let it expire past the deadline. With them doing this, it automatically ends up on the ballot on November 3, 2009. Here’s a blog post on Boston.com/Malden from Annie O and I think that it best sums up the night as it appears from our vantage point from where we sat in the cheap seats at the New Senior Center Auditorium:

“RB and CMurphy: I, too, want to eliminate this tax and continue to recycle as this seems to be where the Maldonians are making real progress in reducing our expenses. If you read my blog: http://maldentax.blogspot.com/2009/05/just-factsand-truth-about-payt.html you will see what we need to do as a 'compromise'. Our city leaders have refused to sit down and try and work out an equitable agreement so there is a 'win-win' for all. They prefer having our certified petition expire and force a vote this November 3, 2009.They had 20 days from when we certified to vote put it on the ballot or to eliminate and have a 'do-over' now. Instead, they chose to discuss in committee and then hold the council vote for the next week when it would have expired by ONE DAY! Paul Anderson called for a vote to eliminate and give the councilors one last chance to make this right. Chaos ensued (maybe it’s on MATV?) while they took a break to figure out how to wiggle out of this one! From out of nowhere, they declared he was out of order as the opportunity had expired by ONE DAY and there was no choice but to put it onto the ballot! And then they voted to put it on the ballot! This is the kind of ineptness running our city!!! The sentiment from them was 'We didn't realize it would expire and in a perfect world we would have been aware!' Yeah, right. What kind of baloney is that? Probably from the same ones that come up with this scheme in the first place!”

Our report that was submitted to the City Council Finance Committee this past Wednesday on the City of Malden’s 2009-10 Tentative Budget:

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/malden/2009/06/taxpayer_group_questioning_cit.html

Now what do we do?

I think where we stand can best summed up by another blogger-our very own Kay Mitklisch as she also posts on the Boston Globes website:

“I can't agree more! Annie O - Right on! Oh, I'm sure the MaldenTax.com group will be ready in the fall to get the word out. CMurphy, RB, real103 and all - call Bob Miller at 781-420-3818 and give him your support and phone number or email address to add you to his list of current members. We will need your support to assist further. Get your neighbors attention and let them know all this if they don't have computers or don't read the newspapers. How do I say this to everyone......remember AMWAY. What started with one member and it grew and grew and grew to form a huge triangle of a support team and one BIG company. MTFA is that kind of group and will need YOUR support. Just like a bird takes a flower seed and replants it in another spot......we sow our seeds in our neighborhoods. Good chatting with you!”

This was in response to a few similar posts like this one:

“I am so glad that this is finally going to be on the ballot, but people are going to have to get together and make up flyers and go door to door and deliver and also make phone calls to let people know that this is going to be on the ballot, for some people do NOT read the local paper and will not find out and obviously the City is NOT going to advertise this and a lot of people do NOT vote but this will be motivation to do so. I hope that people do not get scared away by the scare tactics of Malden saying about cutting to make up for the shortfall, that is bogus!”

If you want to help us, we need all we can get from the community. Thanks Kay you did a great job explaining how people can volunteer and get active and have their voice be heard by City Hall. Thank you again to our signature gatherers and the signers of the petition. You let us keep our promises and committments to you to have the petition become a ballot question this November 3, 2009.

Malden, have a great week---

Bob
MTFA

“A politician will do anything to keep his job-even become a patriot.”

William Randolph Hearst

Now Hiring: Many Positions Available

2009-06-13T17:00:00.000-07:00
Need a good part-time job with full benefits and a pension after only ten years of service? The City of Malden has positions available as City Councilors and School Committee members. The only requirements are:

A strong desire to become involved in shaping the future of the city and its response to the needs of the people.

You must be over 18 and a registered voter in either the city for an “At-Large” position or the ward you would represent.

Papers can be pulled by June 30, 2009. It is a matter of simply going to the Clerk’s Office at City Hall and requesting the papers. You can then get the required 50 signatures for ward representation or 200 signatures for citywide representation. The signatures are due back in three weeks, here’s the link:

http://www.ci.malden.ma.us/index.asp?L1=news&L2=index&action=detail&article=537&category=7

So, what’s in it for you? Plenty! The salary for the Council is at $17,500 with a hint of cutting it only 10% ($1,750) next year and $9,000 a year for the School Committee. The salary comes with full medical benefits which we all know are top shelf. The pension kicks in after ten years. Each year you will contribute to the pension and if you don’t make it to the ten-year mark, all that money will be refunded to you.

Typically, the Council and School Committee are off during July and August. You would be encouraged to sit on the various committees, such as licensing, public property, ordinance, finance etc. Meetings are held every Tuesday evening with the full Council meeting on the first and third Tuesday and the committee meetings being held on the second and fourth Tuesday evening. As a special bonus you get your own parking spot in the police station underground garage!

There is secretarial assistance available for your needs and an email account. You are given about a $2,000 budget, usually used for the Fourth of July ward celebration. In addition to that, many people work on the party and contribute to this event.

The clerks in City Hall are your friends and are there to help you get elected. They have voting lists to help you to determine who you will target your message to. This list is available on a CD and paper. Once you get your signatures, they will certify them and you are good to go! Any registered voter in your ward or the city (depending upon either an at-large or ward run) can sign your papers. Even if they have signed someone else’s paper, they can sign yours! I am offering a special deal to anyone running for At-Large, my home Ward 6 and or the other seven wards to contact me at aoppedisano@juno.com and I can guarantee you at least ten signatures between my friends and family on my street! And would be willing to assist you with all my new friends across the city I met this past year to sign your petition.

There has not been a better opportunity for someone to run for office in this city than now. The select few and their friends who are in charge have run this city into the ground and cannot keep this sweet deal a secret any longer. I took someone’s advice off a Malden Internet site, as I went to the source and asked at the Clerk’s Office. There are other perks and benefits not mentioned here, I am sure. More importantly, nowhere does it say you have to have special expertise or a law degree to get involved and work to make this city better. You would not be the only one making these decisions and not every one requires your input. It is critical that you are a voice of the people you represent.

From where I sit, my vote would go for someone more concerned with what they can do for our ward and city than what they can do for themselves, regardless of the list of degrees after their name. Life experiences sure do count for something. I have spoken to people who would do great things for this city, given the opportunity. They feel they do not have the “qualifications” or “credentials” or education. Seriously, have you noticed what a mess we have on our hands with all the “suits” in charge? I have a hard time finding common sense and integrity among some of our “leaders”.

Any change we have could only help make progress happen to our benefit. Our Mayor has the arrogance to refuse to embrace even simple email as a communication tool. He would rather drag people up to his ivory tower to sit at another time-consuming meeting because he can’t grasp how to make technology work for us. That attitude flows downhill.

So, the time is now to step up and give your ideas and new blood a chance to make a difference for change. When you and your friends step into the voting booth, November 3, 2009 to eliminate the blue trash bag tax, you can eliminate a politician who does not represent you, either! C’mon down!

~ Annie Oppedisano
MTFA

Annie O as she goes by on the blogs, is a founding member of the group. She assists with the collection of thousands of signatures to have our voices heard this November 3, 2009 about the PAYT.

Ballots and Budgets

2009-06-13T12:28:00.000-07:00
I’m the type of person who likes to look at a statement that someone makes and take some time to reflect upon it. When I can’t get it out of my head I like to share it with other people. Well, to paraphrase our Mayor from a recent Finance Sub Committee Meeting in regards to dwindling State Funds- He states that we must become self-reliant and decide how much we can afford to pay for our services. When you start to hear our own President mention we must pay as we go (I wonder if we can charge him for the recent air flight that he and his wife took for their date?) for our programs. One starts to see a trend develop where an older workforce is staying alive longer and in their jobs. Combine this with higher life expectancies and our taxes are going to increase to pay for medical coverage and social programs.

After you read the last paragraph, you probably are thinking to yourself, “Did the writer go to the other side?” “Did they finally turn him against us?” Or is he the Manchurian Malden Advocate/Organizer? People, relax, I’m still me, but here’s how I look at what we must do to get our elected officials to work for us again to create change and transparency in government:

Anyone in office for the next few cycles (2009-2011) who votes for tax increases needs to be shown the door if they have held more than two terms in office. Remember the early 1990’s and the voter anger over taxes and the perception of mismanagement of our tax dollars?

Any incumbent that takes special interest or PAC money deserves the same as item number one-immediately without the two term limit.

If any candidate is unopposed in the already mentioned cycle years, then simply leave it blank. Maybe if the voter dissent is large enough this will create a few voter scenarios such as the incumbent actually finding out why their constituents act like this, support for reform that we so desperately need and possible challengers will arise from the masses to run for seats the next time there’s an election. I watched a TV show last night and the head of the NAACP mentions the very same voting technique.

Getting back to the Mayor’s comment, which in my opinion is very accurate and true. It was made in reference to the Pay as You Throw Trash Bag Tax. But what he fails to mention and people need to never forget is that it was passed (and signed by the Mayor) before the Council’s summer break…..last year! In my opinion they thought it would be forgotten, people would accept their fate and if they didn't we couldn't get it on the November 2008 (19,700+ voters appeared) ballot. Well, we’re on the ballot as democracy won out. Now, we need you to assist us with placing our yard signs on your property, bumper stickers on your cars, get the word out to VOTE on November 3, 2009, donations of time, energy and if you can spare it---a few bucks to defray campaign costs---we’ll gladly take the symbolic donation of the cost of a small or large trash tax bag.

Notes from the Ordinance Subcommittee Meeting on the Petition to Eliminate the PAYT:

As I sat in the Council Chambers last week listening to the Ward One Councilor congratulate the “Taxpayers group” and the Citizen’s of Malden that collected signatures for the Petition. I realized he was talking about my group! When you immerse yourself into a cause you sometimes insulate yourself and don’t take the time to smell the roses….well I did last Tuesday night and I am very proud of the people of the MTFA-for without them we’d never be galvanized as a group of concerned citizens to continue on to the next level which is a campaign.

Kudos to the Ward Six Councilor who again states in Boston.com/Malden that the PAYT is a tax:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2009/06/07/malden_trash_fee_raises_ire_instead_of_money/

Also big thanks to the Ward Four Councilor for his support:

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/malden/2009/06/payt_ordinance_one_step_closer.html

This week there is a public meeting for the budget and I had the chance to review the “tentative” one posted online:

http://www.ci.malden.ma.us/download/misc/WORKINGBD-2010REV1.pdf)

I’m not going to bore you with the details of it, because in my opinion it’s still only about a quarter complete and really not ready for public input. I believe that there are some important comparisons for you to think about this weekend when you read it. Also, why don’t we ever get to see the estimate of revenues from the City? If you attend the public meeting it’s on Wednesday at 6:00 o‘clock in the Council Chambers.

Summary:

The Enterprise Fund Budget surplus of 3 million will go to some good use as it’s been possibly increased by 30% to 4.2 million dollars. Why is this significant? It’s the water bill account and where your money goes into when you pay your bill each month. It also appears from this budget that the rates might not increase---don't hold your breath though.... Let’s see how the trash bag tax will be attached for expenses by the administration come 7/1/2009. I really do respect and like the Controller and the Treasurer I want to suggest that they maybe write a recap of the budget, chapter monies that Malden uses and where our money actually goes in the overall budget----they could start by explaining the Cherry Sheet totals from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue to us:

http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=dorterminal&L=3&L0=Home&L1=Local+Officials&L2=Municipal+Data+and+Financial+Management&sid=Ador&b=terminalcontent&f=dls_mdmstuf_aag_aagindex&csid=Ador#M

Go to the link, find the M’s and click on it and Malden is the first City that appears. Also, why is there an 18 million dollar budget surplus in the General Fund? Doesn’t the Administration advocate that they are only responsible to report this Fund to us? If so, where’s our money? And did we the taxpayers with paying for bags and City of Malden Employees givebacks need to balance this current budget? You decide after you read this information.

This year’s current budget had 1.3 million in salary increases and next year is only at $230, 584. Take the tentative employee early retirement/buyouts of $523,546 it’s minus approximately $293,000. Notable salary eliminations are in the Mayor’s office at $54, 646 and the Library at $4,332. To me this demonstrates leadership while our own City Council which did vote a salary cut -isn’t on next year’s budget. They actually have an increase of nearly $3,300…okay I realize that it’s a tentative budget, so I would assume that this oversight will be taken care of as I did witness a vote to decrease each of their salaries by $1,750.00 and $12,000 for July 4, 2009 a few months ago.

When our City Leaders this summer ask for your vote and tell you that there’s a potential loss in revenue because of the elimination of the PAYT. Ask them to explain these past events that I’ve witnessed that either eliminates these totals from the budget for 2009-2010 or are known available money:

Trash Bag Tax with recycle efforts 3.6 million
McFadden Manor 2.7 million
Enterprise Fund transfers 1.3 million
Salary increases/decreases past two years 1.1 million
Leftover monies from the Senior Center 2.1 million
Negotiated in good faith raises without apparent
Council knowledge .700K
----
Grand Total = 11.5 million

If the State does make the estimate cut of $5 million it still leaves us with approximately 6.5 million and if you apply our formula (city of Malden Math) they still have how much money left in the budget? I think you can take these tentative numbers to the bank. Also, why should anyone have to lose their job in our City (1.5-2.0 million in teacher salaries) and still not have a compromise on the bags?

Malden, have a great week and remember----

Had enough of the blue trash bag TAX?
VOTE on November 3, 2009

Bob Miller
Chair

“You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.”

President-Dwight Eisenhower

Sometimes it makes you wonder........

2009-06-05T11:47:00.000-07:00
With the good weather finally upon us as we meet every Saturday at the Fellsmere Pond at 8:30am-it’s an open invitation to the city. I thought I’d keep the topics very light this week. I receive a lot of emails about many subjects in Malden naturally about taxes, budgets and programs. From time to time one will come by my desk that I must share with the group and our army of petition gatherers. This week a citizen sent me an advertisement from allegedly a person from Everett who posts on Craig’s List-the link expires and with the issues the website has the past few months I thought it best to not publish it. Basically it states that they want people to dump their trash at their residential home so they would receive points for their waste through Recyclebank.com.

This advertisement would confirm what I’ve known for quite some time that recycling levels are phenomenal in our City. What’s not happening is the sale of the blue trash tax bags. In a Finance Committee Meeting a few weeks ago the Controller states that there’s an estimate of only about 1.2 million in revenue that the the trash tax bags makes for City Hall. But do any of us really have faith in that being the number? All I know is that we close out the petition on May, 19, 2009 with the Clerk and the Council addresses it the following week and sent it to the Ordinance Committee for discussion. They have 20 days to either eliminate it or send it to the ballot on Election Day (November 3, 2009)-where we actually get a chance to voice our opinion on it. There will be in our opinion no losers here as we get to finally exercise our rights under a democracy where free people will not fear any retribution, retaliation or humiliation from any Government entity or their surrogates. We’ve kept this movement very positive and not personal. I feel the reporting on this blog is fair and balance when it comes to the facts that I and the MTFA witness every Tuesday night at the City Council Meetings.

Here's the explanation of what we need as a community to make our elected officials really listen to us on Election Day:

1. 1/3 of the registered voters of Malden must appear to vote on the ballot question. To be safe we’ll need between 12,000 to 14,000 people to vote.

2. 1/3 must vote to accept the ballot question or it stays. When the question is complete and ready to be on the ballot. The MTFA will let you know what yes and no will mean-all our new friends that we’ve made this past year will know and relay this back to their wards.

3. Do the ends really justify the means? We have newspaper articles on our website from the Boston Globe that state it’s to balance this year’s budget-so it’s a tax!

After all the signatures, meetings, handshakes, one on one conversations and phone calls it comes down to us getting ourselves, family, tenants, next door neighbors and friends to the polls. We’ll even offer to pick you up and drop you off to your doorstep if it’s a matter of you casting your vote either for or against the Pay as You Throw Trash Tax and the Trash Tax Seven-the Councilors that vote for this. Note: we believe that you must be registered to vote by October 1, 2009.

Next week, I’ll compare this year’s budget with the tentative working one that the Administration has posted on their website.

Here’s the link:

http://www.ci.malden.ma.us/download/misc/WORKINGBD-2010REV1.pdf

Maybe after you review it, I’ll get a few email questions or two about it, my address is info@maldentax.com.

Have a great week and remember--

MALDEN: Had enough of the blue trash bag TAX?
VOTE on November 3, 2009

Bob Miller
Chairperson

“It takes one person to make waves”
-President Barack Obama-taken from Dreams from my Father

Just the Facts.....and the Truth about the PAYT.

2009-05-30T16:32:00.000-07:00
This past Tuesday’s Ordinance Committee meeting had an update on the PAYT program from Mr. Jeff Manship, DPW Director and City Controller, Mr. Dom Fermano. While the program itself is “going great” according to Manship, the jackpot of $2.5 million has been a dismal disappointment according to Fermano. Fermano reluctantly admitted it was “almost a wash” between costs and what it brought in. Congrats, Malden citizenry on our efforts to recycle! Tonnage of trash is way down and recyclable tonnage is way up. Almost a total flip. I can see that in my own household. Who knew so much could be recycled? We certainly didn’t. The city admittedly did an extremely poor job of its recycling efforts in the past and used the ruse of PAYT as its first attempt at serious recycling and reducing the costly tonnage of trash disposal.

The question begs asking: Is PAYT simply a revenue stream or an effort in recycling? Sure, now that people have to pay to dispose of their trash, recyclables are way up. But how’s that revenue stream working? Not very well and it doesn’t seem quite worth the effort and time being put into it. As of May 12, 2009 the revenues sit at $820,920 not nearly the projected $2.5 million target by June 30, 2009.

Don’t forget the Malden Housing Authority is paying the city $270,000 which comes out of their funding and could be used for other things for those tenants. It doesn’t make sense the MHA wouldn’t have their own dumpsters or pickup—they have to have special bags as it is because the blue bags couldn’t handle the trash compacters weight of compressed trash at the high-rises. What happens to the revenue stream when they do decide to seek an alternate solution? Or is the MHA in the tank for the administration on this and not the tenants they work for? Not sure how much is coming from TRICAP or other sources which pay for distribution of bags to low-income citizens.

Funny thing, the projected savings in tonnage of trash was originally thought to be about $500K and has actually been closer to saving $1.6 million as of now! This is the “wash” factor. How much of this savings in tonnage has been deposited in surrounding cities or the workplace of people not buying the bags? By now people have a routine and it is not likely to change much or enough to impact the sale of bags. It makes me think there are a huge number of people who are performing a silent majority act of civil disobedience by taking their trash out of the city. How many of these will be in the voting booth in November not only voting to eliminate the PAYT, but to also eliminate the Trash Tax Seven?

So, let’s review: Revenue stream, dismal failure. Recyling, huge winner! The only way I can think of the city improving the revenue stream is to raise the price of the bags. Oh, and rest assured they are licking their chops at the thoughts of how soon they can get away with that!

How do we keep the recycling high to keep down the trash tonnage? Even I know once you get rid of the bags, the tonnage will creep back up and we don’t want that. The real task here is to keep down the tonnage to effect the most “revenue”. Other cities have tried various methods and perhaps we might look at some combination which would make a partner of all those involved-the city and the citizens.

Just this week a story ran in the Globe North section:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/28/4_towns_automate_trash_day/

This is about the innovative trend involving automating trash collecting. Allied Waste Services of Massachusetts has down-sized the number of people necessary to collect the trash by using uniform 64 gallon barrels which can easily be emptied with just a driver alone. By cutting costs of collecting trash, their contract is a lot cheaper. If the citizen uses more than the 64 gallon barrel, they must then purchase additional bags or pay a yearly fee for an additional barrel. Recycling is free. This method allows for the citizens to put no more than approximately two bags of trash (which is what the 64 gallon barrel holds) out as part of their city services and recycle or pay for additional trash disposal. They are also cutting the cost of pickup, which the company is passing along to the city/town involved. Burlington, Billerica, Tewksbury and Tyngsborough have joined together in a joint bidding process. David G. Cressman, Tewksbury town manager, quoted in the Globe article, calls automated trash the wave of the future. This method has been employed in California for the past ten years. Or use the Everett system by rewarding recyclers. Both methods employ standard barrels which allow for the automating of pickup and as a bonus, make for a more aesthetically pleasing look for trash day with uniform barrels lining the streets, unlike our streets, where the recyclables tend to blow all over in the wind.

One of our members came up with a great idea: how about the city selling the yard waste bags? You have to buy them somewhere anyway so why not buy them from the city like they sell the trash tax bags? Jeff Manship told the meeting about how it used to be where the yard waste truck would dump their load about once a week and now it dumps every one to two days! How many bags could the city sell for that amount of tonnage? It would certainly be paying for itself if not make a few bucks.

It is clear this city didn’t put a lot of thought and research into our PAYT program, much less consideration for its citizens. It is time for the city to perhaps consider a “do over” and try again with a better PAYT program than we currently have. Listen to the 5,114 citizens on our petition. Eliminate the trash bag tax NOW.

Annie Oppedisano
--MTFA

Annie O as she goes by on the blogs, like Kay Micklitsch, a founding member of the group. Assists with the collection of thousands signatures to have our voices heard this November 3, 2009 about the PAYT.

Just another opinion

2009-05-30T12:37:00.000-07:00
Thursday, May 28, 2009
A Matter of Opinion

"Malden is not like Waltham or Bedford, having the opportunity to be big corporate America on 128's Technology Highway!

After an hour of hearing the Mayor talk about the financial budget and the reality we face with being at least a $3 million shortfall still on the budget, it could not be a sadder time as now we must still look at means of chopping services and civil servants. The meeting was grim and so was the outlook.

The statement made above probes a question though. Well, why aren't we? Who is doing the selling of Malden? What happened to the Telecom City venture, now called the Mystic Valley Development Commission, a revolving loan fund program of EPA grants of approximately $1.6 million which was to encourage the cleanup of the 207 acres of chemical and revitalization of the area of the three joint communities of Malden, Medford, and Everett. Currently there are no updates as to why this proposed office park complex of 1.8 million square feet of space has been put on hold or continues.

Malden has ample vacant building space, Super Fitness (35,375 SF), 171 Medford Street (49,200 SF), the old Ruderman building (79,294 SF), the DOE on Main and Rt. 60, and other smaller prime real estate that could be consumed by big business. And "why not" is the question here. Those businesses could offer Malden residents a reprieve from skyrocketing tax hikes (trash bags) and are sending City Hall into the a spiraling budget crisis these days. In an effort to revitalize Malden, there is clearly viable space for office buildings, as Malden is right off major Rt. 93, less than 5 miles outside of Boston, and clearly has an advantage of two MBTA stops that we can offer in our community.

Malden offers a thriving workforce that could power those businesses at an hourly wage less than those cities mentioned above. Malden needs to find these business opportunities. Malden must have a strong sense, a real estate development group in sync with City Hall to offer sites for development of business and technology. Yes, we are in an economic crisis now, however, I only ask you to rethink what our position was on business development before these times and what can be done to jump start us for the years that are ahead. Business Weekly's article on Malden for being a "Top Ten Best Community to Raise a Family" has a whole lot more to offer for business growth. Our City Government should be experienced to facilitate this action either giving "tax incentives" or other appealing factors to attract businesses. Or are we just being lame and remain loyal to our grand city's reference as a "transit oriented" apartment community?

I realize the Planning and Visionary Committee is working hard on the vision of what the community needs for it's residents, but "business" is also needed for economic development success!

Posted by Rubbish Queen at 6:30 PM

-----Kay Micklitsch-MTFA

Ms. Micklitsch is an instrumental part of the group which produces 5,114 certified signatures. This leads to a ballot question on November 3, 2009 about the Pay as You Throw Trash Plan.

Annie O to the Rescue.......

2009-05-22T10:44:00.000-07:00
Makes you wonder……

She's back from the playoffs from the Garden and we asked her to write this week's blog. Let her know what you think by sending her an email at info@maldentax.com....enjoy:

Last year it was the PAYT, this year it is McFadden Manor. Our city council is out of control and out of touch with the people they represent and who pay the bills here. I keep turning the question of “why” around in my head and I do not like the answers I am coming up with. Why would there be a unanimous vote to move ahead with a Geriatric Authority, push a bill through the state legislature, miraculously the Mayor “finds” $1.2million to fund it, get the most vulnerable of people’s hopes up and then cut the legs right out from under this monumental effort? This was a case of bait and switch and the Attorney General should be on speed dial for this one.

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: there is money in City Hall we don’t know about. It appears and disappears faster than the checks Mrs. DiSantis Cox cashed. Who knew the Senior Center came in on time and under budget? To the tune of at least $1million—we don’t really know just how much under budget, do we? Remember last year when the Mayor wanted to shell out $14million to move City Hall? How about all those additional plans for the high school for how many more millions? Just making the plans alone cost “someone” (I’m going to guess, us!) money. How is it that Middleton can build a whole new school including furniture for $32mil and it will cost us $77mil just to rehab the high school? How many millions are hiding in that project? But I digress.

From what was said by the ten councilors who had the guts to at least explain their decision (ok, I’ll tell you—the one who voted against yet didn’t speak was the Ward 6 councilor who typically loves the sound of his own voice) had a problem with the presentation the previous week. I admit I was not there and those who were did admit it was not impressive in the least and was in fact what sunk the project. It’s funny how the guy who made the presentation is a “closer of facilities” and not one who is familiar with “creating” a winning operation. Now, why would you pick someone who didn’t have their heart in making this dream a reality? Wasn’t he the same consulting firm who sued the city over non-payment of $500,000 in fees in the other missing $1mil earmarked for McFadden improvements? Why wasn’t there a committee discussion before the regular council meeting? Why was this ramrod through the council just like the PAYT? If they had questions why didn’t they table it for a week and give the McFadden group a chance to answer the questions the council had? Or to come up with someone who was capable of giving the project a proper and positive presentation. This was a “bag” (no pun) job if I’ve ever seen one. There was no intention on any of their parts to make this happen. Do you think perhaps the fact no one would commit to heading the Authority be because of a lack of real support from the Mayor and his people? They may not put it in writing or speak publicly but when they’re together in the behind closed doors or tossing one back, people talk. Easy to commit money to something you have the votes to knock down. Gee, what can we spend the money on now we found it? It won’t be on the elders unless the seven think they can toss hot dogs and chicken at them to keep their vote. Or maybe they think Nana or Papa will forget by the time November rolls around.

The Ward One councilor spoke with passion and eloquence, literally begging his fellow councilors to give this one last chance to see this through all the effort expended this past year and allow one last chance for our worthy elders to have a local place to receive the impeccable care each councilor admitted goes on there. As a charter school parent I have listened to how it’s not the building but what goes on inside as a response to why the students still don’t have a proper school setting. All the pieces were in place yet seven councilors chose to abruptly cut their legs out from under the McFadden group.

It defies explanation unless you step back and look at the big picture. The Mayor is a real estate man. He’s interested in building buildings, not the welfare of the actual people who built this city into what has been described as one of the best affordable places to raise a family. McFadden Manor was a cash cow for this city for many years. How many people found work there and placed their family members there? Based on the hard work of the staff, they maintained a wonderful reputation regardless of how the city (admitted by the council) neglected the building and were more interested in spending the revenue it produced. It is not enough for them to just cut the Manor loose, they want the land it sits on to sell to a developer for millions. Perhaps the charter school could buy the building and rent it out to someone else as is their habit. Or maybe the group developing the land across the street has got plans to gobble up more property and stuff more housing on it.

So, we come down to these councilors and what they are all about. Clearly they have no more clue than we do just how much money the city has and where it all goes or comes from. The Treasurer and Controller didn’t even have a clue more than $500,000 was being siphoned off until they were told. Why are they still employed after this public display of their incompetence? There has been a feeding frenzy going on here for far too long. When you ask people to give up services and pay more for what they are already paying for, you need to show us more transparency and accountability.

The seven councilors just care more about keeping the gravy train running and don’t for one minute buy their scare tactics about laying off teachers, fire and police. This isn’t a place like Winthrop who truly doesn’t have the money. We have it; it’s just being mismanaged and funneled into certain pockets. How many SUV’s, minivans and pickups does the city have? Whose idea was it to buy PT Cruisers? How many people are we giving full insurance and a pension to for just ten years of employment? FOR LIFE. All those workers from McFadden have been considered city workers and are also entitled to their full benefits. Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to continue working and not take an early retirement? Why haven’t we switched to the state GIC insurance program like Melrose and many other communities have to SAVE MILLIONS? That’s an easy one and a no-brainer, but no, let’s charge people to get rid of their trash. We’d rather follow the communities who squeeze the taxpayers. Let’s flush Nana and Papa down the drain and off to some place wherever they can be accepted no matter how far away it is. Don’t even think about the kind of care they will receive once they get there, either. If you haven’t been through trying to place a loved one in a facility, let me tell you it is not an easy feat. It is extremely emotional and can be quite stressful. Things are not always what they appear to be once you leave your loved one behind. McFadden Manor is where I believe good care takes place and should have been given the opportunity to continue. To quote the Ward One councilor, without this funding we will never know.

What a show we got to watch this past year. If it wasn’t for those “pesky” people who have fought so hard and valiantly for our elders, they’d be breaking ground for the newest apartment complex or another unnecessary building the Mayor can lay claim to. Hey, how about moving city hall to McFadden? It may need repairs but it’s probably in better shape than the leaky 200 Pleasant Street they keep whining about. Oh, I get it now: the charter school will buy the property and lease it back to the city! Now, that’s the ticket!

--Annie Oppedisano
MTFA

Politics and budgets......

2009-05-16T09:00:00.000-07:00
What I’m going to write about isn’t a show of support for or against McFadden Manor Nursing Home. This past week the Administration with the Geriatric Commission and their Consultants present their plan to the Finance Sub Committee. Basically the consultant who when given questions about his experiences with nursing homes never to the best of my knowledge has any with the turnaround of a facility like ours. The nursing home itself has many challenges to overcome such as modernization of the entire building. It would make them competitive with the other nursing home complexes in the area. Also there are twenty nine residents in the home and fifty seven is the break even number for the sixty three bed facility whose location is on Forest Street.

The Mayor apparently isn’t in support of the Home and states this but mentions that if there is a comprehensive plan he’d let it move forward with safeguards in place to protect the City. The Geriatric Commission must recruit another half a dozen residents within a three month time frame to fill the beds or it will be closed for good. The residents that remain will receive transfers to other facilities of their choice. The City will commit 1.2 million dollars of an additional “leftover” two million dollars in what they call Chapter 108 monies from the Senior Center construction that allegedly came under budget and on time. I ask where these monies came from.

The marketing of the plan is discussed by the Consultant and there appears to be a lot of generalizations of how it will be done. Helpful hint: if you have an administrator in mind for the position, now would be a good time to let that person sell the plan to the public. As I know some of the people on the Commission and their work and community service experiences should assist with the word of mouth referrals that will be in need to keep the facility open. I do feel bad for the workers of the Home as the care they provide is top notch. The nursing staff should have no problem finding work as the health care industry is still hiring people. But the others may just have issues finding work like the other 8.9% of unemployed America. Note: of the 1.2 million, $920K+ will be for employee salaries. If this plan doesn’t work, the City must pay unemployment and other benefits to the employees of the facility.

One wonders how the Council is going to vote on this as in prior meetings they state that they owe the taxpayers revenue neutral and efficient programs. Also stating that if the Council doesn’t make an effort to either raise money or cut costs City employees will lose their jobs because of it. We agree as it’s also our right to have a Special Election-we can produce the necessary signatures- but the price for democracy would cost sixty five to one hundred thousand dollars and that’s how many employee paychecks? I don’t envy the Council on this decision. Kudos to the outgoing Ward Five Councilor for finally voicing his opinion on whether he can support the Nursing Home. As his committee that he chairs (Public Safety) has a Fire Department that needs a few new trucks. These trucks cost about a half million dollars each. All I know is that our City preaches about having pride in Malden. Do we have that when we borrow apparatus from Lynn Massachusetts (I’ve heard for upwards of three years), is that a contradiction in philosophy?

Now, let’s add up the money from this plan and what we’ve already seen appear, disappear or made it to the Boston newspapers or Middlesex DA’s Office:

1. $518,000-Employee Theft.
2. $5,000- Ferryway Gate to clean the school on Holiday Break as employees neglected their duties.
3. $700,000-negotiated in good faith contract raises that are not approved by the Council in the budget.
4. Finds 1.2 million from a bond initiative that fails last November which does balance a budget shortfall from the State.

When you add it all up it equals 2.4 million dollars. Include the Chapter 108 Money it's now 4.4 million dollars (not in this year's budget)that appears before our eyes.

I want you to think about this dollar figure 7.0 million. When you add the blue trash bag tax estimate of 2.5 million dollars and the monies we now find we ask why did they need to charge us for the bags?

MALDEN, remember you get your chance on November 3, 2009 to vote and tell City Hall you’ve had enough of the blue trash bag TAX.

Have a great week…

Bob Miller
Chairperson

“Once we certify the petition with the City of Malden. We all win as we get an opportunity to either vote to eliminate or keep a tax that we didn’t get the chance to voice our opinion about.”

-----MTFA Committee

5,114 Certified Signatures

2009-05-09T11:52:00.000-07:00
It’s been two weeks since we’ve written a blog and we thought it was time to get the campaign on the road. We’ve heard through the grapevine that our opposition wants to know where the money is going to come from in the budget when we win. We say where are the ideas to ensure that the lowest possible price is being used by our City for trash disposal. We know that people have requested contracts that appear to be out of date from the City. Maybe what City Hall is telling us is that these are the accurate and current contracts? All we know is that our City Ordinances state that any service and or product that costs more than $10,000 requires a minimum of three “competitive” bids. We wonder if that has occurred over the past few years in our City.

Here are our suggestions taken from our report to the City Council’s Efficiency Sub-Committee on Waste Disposal:

a. The Malden Housing Authority gives to the City $270,000 can it be done any more efficiently by the Department? We assume that they conduct an analysis of their waste disposal system.
b. City wide off weeks or only two weeks a month for collection. Would this save us any additional monies?
c. Acquire in-house pickup trucks for recycle and regular trash collection efforts-like Melrose and other communities.
d. The community needs to know the amount of bags sold and tonnages saved to make intelligent decisions.
e. Think outside of the box and encourage people to reuse their recyclables. We realize the State DEP is spending a lot of “granted” money (our already taxed dollars) to increase the State’s recycle rate to 56% by 2010 (from 47%) but wouldn’t it make more sense to do this also? Take a look at this site----http://www.recycling-revolution.com/reuse-trash-ideas.html.

We think it’s become easier for City Hall to keep the same carriers, vendors and companies in place for their own purposes. If, what we write is incorrect, then give us the bids, contracts and the exact facts and figures for all expenditures over the minimum amount (from our very own Ordinances) and this includes the Waste Disposal bids.

Another tactic the Administration uses and we’ve proven it this year is that they hide money in line items of the budget. We’ve witnessed in person and counted well over two million and a half million dollars in taxpayer dollars to pay for a wide variety of expenses. From our earlier blogs do you remember COMM or City of Malden Math? Basically for every dollar they say they need or discovery of it multiply it by three. If this is wrong, then let us review the audits (from 2005 to the most current) that cost us $175,000 a year. Also, there are a lot of miscellaneous line items in the budget as well as categories labeled “other” spending. Again we state prove us wrong in what we claim. Discredit us, try and do that, we welcome the challenge from the people that want to keep the status quo in our City.

Last but never least is the way that the PAYT was implemented by the Trash Tax Seven: eleventh hour, no public input and misinformation from the Mayor in regards to budget numbers. That person states on numerous occasions in the Boston Globe and the Beebe School Meeting held in late August that they are only responsible to report on the General Fund. Great, then we say where’s the thirteen plus million dollars that you owe the taxpayers of Malden? That’s the difference in the revenue that is brought into that account and what is spent on us! If you take the Education out which is mandatory spending, the amounts remain the same.

Here’s a challenge to the Administration, let’s have a series of debates in the fall in four consecutive weeks with this order: Controller, Special Assistant to the Mayor, Trash Tax Seven Members (if they're not too busy fighting for their seats) and then His Honor the Mayor. We think that the City deserves the opportunity to see us meet and discuss the merits and detractors of the PAYT. But, we will not hold our breath over the acceptance of our challenge as we’d be flat lined already if we waited for them to respond to our last request (four months ago) to sit down and discuss the PAYT with them. Other communities get more attention from our own Administration as they visit various Cities and Towns in the Commonwealth to show them how to beat down their own citizen’s with the PAYT. We wonder if when these trips are taken if we’re also paying for this.

Malden, have a great week---

MTFA

"You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life."

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England, Taken from the Top25 Quotes of Churchill.

Nickels and dimes for kids versus millions spent on trash.

2009-04-23T10:41:00.000-07:00
This past Tuesday was a very slow night at the City Council as I was wondering what I was going to write about in this week’s post. As I sat listening to the Public Properties Sub Committee and its Chair the Councilor from Ward Two (and a member of the Trash Tax Seven) banter on about revenue neutral rents for the non-profits that use the Emerson School. I must disclose again that I know most of the good work that is done by the groups as I operated a youth sports organization that rented a classroom at the facility a few years ago.

Here are some of the facts:

• $225,000 was spent on an elevator that doesn’t work. (I was maybe the last person to get stuck in it!)

• $300,000 was spent by the City on the boilers as it’s either too hot or cold. The windows in the classrooms in my opinion are sometimes left wide open (the Ward Two Councilor states this on numerous occasions the past few months) because of the apparent lack of modern technologies to regulate the environment. The Council’s opinion is that the building is an overflow property for classroom space and a possible new school if its population increases in size.

• There is approximately forty five thousand dollars ($45,000) on janitor salaries and another $6,000 in supplies that the non-profit day care provides.

• The Church which appears to be the only group directly paying the City each month. The total is $20,000 for two rooms and three hour weekly use of the auditorium.

The largest non-profit entity brings directors to the meeting which includes their Treasurer and Attorney. Their opinion is that the facts listed above are the terms of the negotiated contract with the Administration. They also feel that they didn’t get enough notice from the City about this meeting (this is a surprise to any of us?), as it also appears that some of the entities are given rent in lieu of the services that they provide to the community. Another asset that is discussed by the Chair is that they add to the neighborhood which is located in that persons Ward. I agree with him on that statement and I hope he and the councilors from Wards Three, Five, Six and One are possibly ready to open their homes to the displaced children if there isn’t a place to put them on July 1, 2009. Maybe the Councilors that have kids can demonstrate to the Ward One Councilor how to change diapers and watch children.

Then presto it hit me like a ton of bricks what I was going to write about this week after the Ward Two Councilor says that the rents must be just like the bags. I shook my head and cleared the cobwebs from my mind to listen to him say again that we’re in a tough economic situation and everyone must contribute. He states that they don’t want to make money off the rents from the non-profits as they provide value. But it’s okay to make money off the bags and water? To paraphrase the Chair the bag issue well that’s an example of us having to do something we didn’t want to do. Also, I want to remind the Chair that you did it without letting us know, passing it before the summer recess hoping it will blow over. Btw, this past Tuesday we submitted another 350+ signatures to be certified by the Clerk and this should place us over 5,000 certified signatures.

In my opinion what’s really going on at the Emerson School are nickels and dimes in comparison to the millions that we the bill payers are giving the city over the trash bag tax. Also, these non profits apparently already receive State and Federal funds. I must also disclose that my organization also received (like all other recognized Malden youth sports groups to the best of my knowledge) funding from the City. I ask you how this really compares to the trash bag tax. Then the Chair/Ward Two Councilor states that fifty people are losing their jobs up at the School Department. The room went silent as he fails to mention to them that nearly sixty percent of those people are the workers-you know the Indians as many are making about $20-30K a year-you know the ones in the classrooms actually working most of the time with our children. Then the Ward Six Councilor believes a fair market price should be given on the Emerson by a realtor for rental purposes. Okay, do any of you see where this is possibly going? Why not (I think this was mentioned) just lease it to the largest non-profit entity already in the building with the stipulation that when we need it back for classroom space or to actually build another school on that same exact site they must all find other accommodations.

In my humble opinion, I think the Councilors need a dose of reality on this one as a big thumb down on not doing the research as it is discovered that the Administration negotiates this deal with the non-profits-many years ago. Also, the Council Sub Committee keeps on mentioning that it’s not fair that other Malden based non-profits don’t have the same opportunity as these ones have for a cheap source of rent. I challenge them to show me the other groups (we just may need them as replacements) that actually want to be in a building with no handicap access or elevator, no controls on the heat, limited janitorial services and now possibly no place to park school buses that are kept in the Adams Street entrance. One must wonder what is in store for the little building whose location is on Highland Avenue. Will it be gobbled up by the Charter School? I would hope that the building would stay in city hands unless a business wants to give us a lot of money for it-like twenty million to balance our city budgets the next few years. After the Chair from Ward Two states, “Hey, we the City aren’t in the real estate business.” We can only wait and see what the powers that be have in store for it….

Malden, have a great week!

Bob Miller
Chair
MTFA

“Politicians use polarization for their own purposes.”
Our 44th President, Barack Obama, taken from Dreams from my Father.

Efficiency Reports and Phone Polls

2009-04-18T06:45:00.000-07:00
I’m going to try and keep this week’s blog focus on two topics: the Sub Committee Report on Efficiency and the Double Pole Gate that Verizon creates in our city. Ah, yes, lately my two favorite subjects Government and Corporate America, they do have more in common than you may realize.

Let’s start with the Efficiency Report which I want to commend the Chair and both Councilors from Ward One and Four, the Finance Team and Accessor on a great job of listening to the Department Heads and us-the taxpayers of Malden. Having witnessed every meeting I would say it’s very accurate and to the point. But…….I know, here I go again picking out a few items that I believe, well, I hope don’t ever see the light of day in our city. Item number six of the report is to establish an Innovation Bank to reward city employees and departments for their cost saving ideas for services they already deliver to us. These "new" ideas would have to decrease costs on projects and services. Okay, so, am I missing something are the employees holding out on us all these years and now must receive monetary recognition for doing a part of their job? Does anyone else have an issue with this program? I think it could also create animosity between some of the departments. If not, then in my opinion, why do we continue to go after all of Corporate America (it pains me to write this) any longer as most company’s already offer these same type of incentives for their staff. Instead, how about a whistle blower award? How much would people been awarded for the indiscretions the past few months at our City Hall. I’m in favor of that law being passed, but, I think I have a better chance seeing more toll takers on the Mass Pike on Sundays than that ever happening in our State and or City.

The next item-seventeen on the Efficiency Committee’s thirty five points for improvements involves the “temporary” consolidation of the open DPW Highway Supervisory position with the Solid Waste Inspector duties. I would assume that when the Controller states that only “trash” personnel can be written off on the Enterprise Fund for the PAYT he means what he says. So, now, that’s two potential transfer city employees on the trash or Solid Waste. I know that we wrote last week that the trash bag tax fund might become the hide a- worker- here- and -there- fund. But, could you guys wait until it’s there a few months to gobble up our money? When we win this year with the ballot question this is only two positions that would be lost. They will also tell you that 2.5 million will be gone by its elimination as it will potentially affect the General Fund of the City. Commonsense seems to only be with us at the moment and until we’re given more respect from our leaders and a break from all the fees then let them start a reward program for their innovations of service delivery now at City Hall. We believe that efficiency in services and programs needs to be part of a city employees job and a year round effort. If not, in my opinion then the yeoman like work of the committee is all for naught as efficiency in delivery of services needs to be in the forefront for the foreseeable future for our future. Or there just might be a whole new department of workers under the hide a worker ….I meant to write the Enterprise Trash Fund.

Okay here’s what’s happening with Double Pole Gate-it seems that the telecommunications carriers all want to do business with our city. But, when it comes to ensuring our safety with the poles, they just don’t want to replace them. Comcast is in compliance and has resolved most of their issues with the poles. However, Verizon is another story with well over TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY (260) and maybe might get to 20-25% of them by the end of this year. I listened to their representative tell us that there are tough economic times and it affects the company’s performance and also that their short in staff. You know the same yada- yada beat up old company byline they all use to make excuses for their lack of performance. I wanted to tell the representative from Verizon to knock it off as their stock is $31.30 a share (thanks to the Council President’s quote from his cell phone) and it’s only off $7.00 from its 52 week high. I ask you how’s your 401k or other retirement investments stack up to this company’s only 20% drop in stock price.

Kudos to the Malden Fire Department and the Chief for getting out there with one man with ONE bucket truck and working on 150+ poles-like the Council I am in amazement that Verizon with all its resources can’t beat our Fire Department of one! The council scores a big thumb up also for shutting the telecommunications giant down as their requests for any future work in the City will be held up until the corporate heavyweight rectifies the poles. We (I) allegedly have the person’s phone number that is responsible for this possible public safety issue. If anyone reading this post wants it they can email me at info@maldentax.com and I’ll gladly give it to you. Hopefully the Verizon Government Affairs Representative who appeared late and unprepared for this meeting isn’t giving us a general number as there are a lot of zeros associated with it. It's an old corporate trick that alot of the larger carriers like to play on the bill payers (AT&T likes to give you the impression that you're actually speaking with the President of a Division in Texas and the person you're speaking with location is another State!)

Just for the record here are Verizon’s last few headlines from their Corporate Communications:

1. Verizon Stock (NYSE: VZ) Technical indicators for the stock are bullish and S&P gives the Company a positive 4 Stars.

2. Verizon Wireless expands 3G Wireless Networks in Leicester MA.

3. 'Green' Initiatives help Verizon Wireless and Its Customers Be More Earth-Friendly.

How about replacing the poles and seeing a press release headline that reads- being a good community partner ? Your competition (which I only use), oh btw, that’s Comcast, seems to get it.

Malden, have a great week.

Bob Miller
Chairperson

“There’s no virtue in bipartisanship, the virtue is in independent judgment and the willingness to listen and think about something.”

U.S. Senator Arlen Spector, taken from a recent Newsweek Article.

Just another week.......

2009-04-11T08:28:00.000-07:00
This week culminates with meetings in which we observe the Efficiency Committee have discussions with the Schools (which we’ll give you our impressions later in this blog) and for us to go on the record with our suggestions on improvements and possible inefficiencies of services that exist in our city. Please go to this link to read the report that was filed by us on Wednesday Evening in the Council Chambers:

http://www.maldentax.com/images/documents/MTFA_Efficiency_ideas.pdf

Finance Subcommittee:

Water and sewage users prepare yourself for quarterly billing, again. There still will be monitoring for leaks in the system. Also, the State suggests a monthly billing cycle as they believe it helps with conservation. There will be a savings of approximately $58,000 to the Enterprise Fund. What we find fascinating is that we can scan the entire city in about four (4) hours when it used to take three (3) months! That’s modern technology at work, as we now must leverage it to enhance other departments in the City. The price tag for this upgrade was $3.6 million dollars.

There have been issues this year with the Administration in our opinion not properly communicating Union negotiations with our Council. We’ve been writing about raises that are approved by the Mayor which is his right to conduct under collective bargaining rules. Then the Council when they are told about the raises looks to be possibly out of the loop when the Unions come looking for their monies (which they deserve). This week the Administration sent down their Special Assistant (for another $300,000 in raises) and that person stresses that the Mayor is the CEO of the Corporation and has the right to enter into an agreement. That person is correct, but, the Special Assistant stresses Chapter 32 of the City’s Ordinances. We say until the taxpayer (us) can see that Chapter online than their argument is null and void! The Council is supposed to approve the raises and we need to have transparency to confirm the Administration’s argument. We do believe them as there are 1400+ pages of the City’s Charter (only 381+ pages are online) and there are only thirteen (13) chapters for public view. To the best of our knowledge that Chapter is nowhere to be found in the Online Ordinances and how can you argue it when only one side apparently has the proper information? One must question the motives of our Administration when they dictate their will on our elected officials who represent us. But, our Council has to push back and make requests for clarification in written form when it exists-like Chapter 32. Maybe they have a hard copy of the entire City Charter at their disposal, we don’t and we own it. No?

Regular Council Meeting

Comcast’s Government Affairs appears in front of the Council to discuss their need of usage of one of the twenty four conduits in the City for hookups for River’s Edge on Commercial Street. They are offering our DPW free cable TV and Internet Access. Great, like they need any more distractions not to work….lol….we’re only kidding, but, how many thought that when we wrote it? However the Administration writes a very strong letter of support for the Corporate Behemoth (for past community support) as the Ward Two (2) Councilor feels as its nothing to get that excited about! We agree with that statement especially since the Schools state the very next day at an efficiency meeting that they need to add to their bandwidth. One of our points that we make in our report is the lack of communication between City Departments and an apparent us versus them mentality that exists in our Government. Think this example makes our case? We do…let’s see--- our future at Malden High School is with new PC’s that we pay for with a bond for twenty plus years. Our analogy is that the students are now driving an equivalent of a Cadillac possibly running on only two cylinders while our DPW receives free five hundred plus stations, fast YouTube uploads and On Demand Services at Mercedes Speed. Our analogy might not be that severe in nature, but, you get the point of it. Also, the Council passes an Ordinance that requires the Administration to notify them when Union negotiations start (9-1 is the vote, Ward 5 votes against and Ward 6 not in attendance).

Notes from the School District’s meeting with the Efficiency Committee

This week sees the elimination of many of the Vocational Shops at MHS. We say if we’re going to have to pay almost the equivalent student tuition like a Malden Catholic per child. Then the Superintendent (who impresses us with his stressing of efficiency in the schools) telling the committee that the programs that are coming back-Pre-Engineering, Bio Technology and Culinary (they better be able to make us Belgian Waffles) in the future will only enhance the chances of non college bound students in landing a decent job in the Global Market. This will be a great value for the community in the future. What we do feel bad about is that this current group of students just might miss out on these shops and what is left for them now? What about a formation of an Internship program from these students to work at City Hall? Just an idea we had…as we just don’t say no to taxes or fees without giving ideas that hopefully will foster dialogue and discussion in the City.

Malden, we wish you a Happy Easter and have a great week---

MTFA

“I translate what I hear into action.”
-President Barack Obama, excerpt taken from Dreams from My Father.

Books and learning versus trash.

2009-04-04T08:46:00.001-07:00
I should be happy by this week’s passage by the City Council (8-2 vote, Ward 5 wasn’t in attendance) of the trash tax bags into the Enterprise Fund. Why? With its possible elimination via a city wide vote there will be to the best of my knowledge no educator, police officer, fire fighter or librarian that will lose their job. But, I’ve been exposed to a lot of the departmental needs through the Efficiency Committee and what some of the department heads want to do to avert layoffs. It’s very admirable what they want to try by moving some of their fulltime employees into the trash tax Enterprise Fund. But, I’ve witnessed as have many others how certain Department Heads boast that the program is now in compliance and needs minimal supervision. This is while I’ve watched public safety personnel tell the Efficiency Committee with pride how much they’ve saved the City through grants and other resources. Some departments use funds from the year before for training of their staff. The Finance Team appears to bid certain supplies at bulk rates.

What the Efficiency Committee listened to this week from a Director is that an employee (I will not give the specifics as it wouldn’t be fair to that person) will be possibly moving to the trash to assist with compliance and "other" duties. Before this was discussed, the Library came in with the Director and gave us a very detailed description of their services. I will give you a few highlights (maybe lowlights after you read them) of what they provide to us and our children:

• $571,000 last year’s endowment towards the operations. See, the Trustee’s must do something for us as how many of you know they have this type of funding? Update-the former State Senator is giving back most of their pension.
• Salary split is 70-30 percent the city to private.
• Have not received many increases in operational costs since 2003.
• Programs, readerships and subscriptions are up nearly 30% since about 2005.
• Children’s hours will be cut back nearly 35%.
• May still receive 90% of their State funding with the proposed cuts in personnel.

How could we forget that the library must also eliminate $100,000 in salaried positions. I know I don’t care if any transferred worker walks on water and speaks twenty four different languages (I hope that person would be employed somewhere else-like the UN as a translator). But, when we are told that the enforcement is going well, why add another body to it? My feeling is that if we don’t keep an eye on them the “trash tax” fund may just become the hide a worker here and there fund. I think the heads of the departments mean well and don’t want to see their workers out on the street. But, I would hope as would our elected officials that the teachers, librarians, police and fire would take more precedent over trash. Aren’t there compliance officers that report to the City Council and already enforce compliance of City ordinances... now-like trash? I say, write more hours off on the trash bag tax account from the Council’s compliance staff as they are already performing those duties. I say stop the waste (no pun intended) and any hint of citizen/taxpayer cynicism that might come with hires or transfers like this.

I also listened to the Information Technology Director more commonly known as the computer “guys.” I have a working background in that field and I place the same type of person as a recruiter. In my professional opinion, our city needs to take a good long look at how we can actually leverage this technology to enhance productivity. I would need a few more hundred… no more like a thousand words to describe what we need. I will mention as I believe the Efficiency Committee possibly sees a consolidation for all of the city departments that utilize technology. In my opinion to make changes will take a few years and cooperation of the entire City. Again, also in my opinion the inefficiencies that exist with our departments usages border on lunacy. I realize that most cities lag behind the private sector when it comes to IT expenditures. But, with long range outlooks of dwindling resources from our own Federal Government, I believe we can’t wait any longer to invest in an upgrade to our data processing capabilities. My opinion is that people need to embrace the changes and adapt to them. It just may make their work lives a lot easier. It's hard to believe that some employees still have a secretary hand them notes for phone messages. Bottom line is that people up at City Hall must be open to technology changes that will enhance their productivity which in future years will be a benefit in actual dollars saved.

Tuesday night’s Regular Council meeting had an update from the Mayor’s Housing Task Force and the person in charge appears to be extremely competent when they talk about the project being a team effort. This person in my opinion just doesn’t preach and mention “team” for the sake of saying it. I think if our City put together a twenty-six person intra-city department like this effort any initiative would be a successful venture. But, can we clone the Task Force’s Director as he appears to have the know-how to effectively communicate with his staff and to build it to last. A big thumb up for that person and his team! On the subject of communications and a thumb down, why is this week’s Finance Committee meeting which was held in the Council Chamber so loud that we couldn’t hear people speak? I thought I was at Tammany Hall or Fenway Park instead of a meeting to discuss our tax dollars. From what I could decipher over the other conversations in the room is that our water bills are going back to a quarterly billing period.

Malden, have a great week-

Bob Miller
Chair
MTFA

Innovation doesn’t happen by accident. Support from the top is a necessity.

Kevin Sharer, Chairman and CEO of Amgen.

Do we have a responsible government? Or should we say when we win, we still lose!

2009-03-28T08:58:00.000-07:00
If you look at the title of the post it was a tough call of what to name it. We would answer yes to the question of having responsible government. However, it usually in our opinion is when it suits their own purposes that it matters the most to them. Do we think the best interests of the public are on their minds when they make decisions for us? Possibly, but, we think in the past some of their decisions are based on their information from the Administration. The petition that we have your signature for is to eliminate the Pay as You Throw Trash Tax and after you read this blog you will realize that it might be disenfranchised by the Administration. What does that mean to them? That your voice doesn’t really matter and they don’t care about your opinion. This is a very serious accusation that we make against them. We’ll give you both sides of the reasons why the Pay as You Throw Thrash Tax might be going into an Enterprise Fund and why it may just stop it from being on a ballot for you to cast your vote to either keep it or not.

If you have been a constant reader of this blog, you’d realize that there appears to be a communication problem up at City Hall. The Council has been in our opinion out of the loop on some very important issues that in our opinion are ones that they need to know about for US. Examples of this are the Union pay raises (which we support) that aren’t in the current budget ($540,000) but it wasn’t approved in the final budget which is approved at the end of June. This money appears from the city employee’s health account to cover it. Also there are Departments that don’t let our elected officials know when they close an emergency facility because of a lack of proper safety apparatus. Let’s never forget that you’re reading this blog because our elected officials decided to not follow State Guidelines and communicate with the community before they implemented the trash tax bag-henceforth the naming of the trash tax seven….the six councilors that vote for it and the Administration who signed it into law conveniently before their summer break on June 26, 2008.

Let’s get back to the subject at hand, which is why we might not get the opportunity to be on this year’s ballot. Here’s the PDF file which explains the State’s Enterprise Fund-

http://www.mass.gov/Ador/docs/dls/publ/misc/EnterpriseFundManual.pdf

More specifically please refer to page seven where it states that the fund can’t be rescinded for three years. But if you look at page eight, we also assume that it can’t be implemented until the next fiscal year’s budget (2010-11) as it needs to be submitted by March 1 of the year of implementation or 120 days prior. As we write this it appears to be a no win situation for the taxpayers that sign our petition. Because if the bags stay in the General Fund and the ballot outcome is elimination, we still lose because $2.5 million dollars of services (to the best of our knowledge the schools wouldn’t be hit with any layoffs) are gone. And you see what could possibly happen with it being in the Enterprise Fund. There will be an opinion about this from our City’s Solicitor in the not too distant future. It just continues to prove our point that the City Government works for its own best interest rather than yours or ours. A few months ago we made public offers to sit down and speak with them about the petition and this is their response. Your comments and thoughts about this situation are always welcome by us.

For better accounting purposes the City’s Controller states that the Enterprise Fund is the best way to go for the PAYT. We agree with him, but, we need to see an entire accounting for it EVERY YEAR and how well it performs-moneywise (not by DPW enforcement standards) for this year. Transparency needs to occur from day one on this account and we’ve seen no hard numbers, such as how many bags are sold and Federal/State dollar amounts taken from us to start the program. We also ask why after this week’s Efficiency Committee the DPW Director wants to put in non-PAYT programs into the Enterprise Fund. That person mentions nine people are needed originally to enforce the start of the plan and one is still writing tickets to illegal dumpers which amount to an estimate of about two to three thousand dollars a week.

What we also question is the oversight of this program and the reporting structure. As it should appear on the State’s Department of Revenue at a Glance Sheets just like the Water and Sewage Costs. Also, the Council suggests a Committee to oversee the program, we say why waste the time? The rates would be set by the Council by the Standard Waste Ordinance. If and when there not met there’s an automatic increase on the bags the following year. Remember our research that mentions the bag will increase in cost 300% in seven (7) years! Well, now add a few more people to enforce and administer the PAYT and we’re not that far off from our prediction being a reality. The Ward Two (2) Councilor comments that he is only in favor of keeping the trash bags at the current price that they sell at. Our hope is that this person reads this blog. Here’s the kicker, let’s say that we make money next year after expenses on the trash tax bag, we will lose again as it’s kept as ‘Retained Earnings’ like the water and sewage’s $1.8-$2.2 million dollar surplus. We ask is this fair or equitable for us? Maybe our past prediction of paying for the cleaning of streets and other services isn’t that far off base. We guess the old saying that when you give ANY money to government you very seldom ever get it back.

Kudos to the Malden Police Chief for a phenomenal presentation at the Efficiency Committee meeting that we attend. The Chief’s innovative cuts and savings of funds the past few years is commendable and a testament to running a very lean and efficient operation that others in the City should take notice of. As well as the Human Resources Director for their securing of online certificates for training purposes for their staff from last year’s budget. It really made us feel a lot better that they are only taking $4,000.00 from their $15,000 training budget for overtime. The Fire Department maybe in the business of saving our lives and they do it very well, but, show us the cost savings, write them down for us, be organized like the Police Chief and tell us what you need-you’ll get it from us…in this City everyone else but the taxpayers gets what they want. This tongue and check comment doesn’t excuse the Administration from letting the Fire Department potentially take another Emergency Vehicle off the road because of potential cuts. We could see that this week the top Fire Brass is visibly upset over this as they take immense pride in their profession of protecting us. Another big thumb up for the Fire Fighters Union they saved us $25,000 this year and at least they appear to be reasonable people just like us.

Have a great week.

MTFA

“Strongest minds are often those whom the noisy world hears least.”

William Wordsworth, British Poet

Trash bags and books go together like..........

2009-03-21T09:19:00.000-07:00
I thought about the Ward Three Councilors statement at Tuesday evenings Sub Committee Meeting that coincidently had a Boston Newspaper Reporter in attendance. To paraphrase the Councilor he states that the people are more upset over the former State Senator/Malden Public Library Trustee’s pension increasing by $32,000 a year than the trash bags. What’s even more upsetting to me (other than someone apparently only attending 3 or 6 meetings out of three dozen) is that our Library Trustee’s apparently are a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization that we might pay and be a private entity! Maybe we can get some money back on this one as the Council appears to have some motivation to close this travesty out. However, take a look at the budget from the link and advance to the Library Section on Page 23:

http://www.cityofmalden.org/download/misc/City%20of%20Malden%202009%20budget.pdf

I did notice this subtraction in salaries from the Library's funds and thought it was maybe a donation of their time. But now I question why negative numbers are listed on the line item entry. At least last week's discovery of non City of Malden employees that work for a non-profit on the city's medical plan pays their entire health care costs!

What I want to clarify for the Ward Three Councilor, also a member of the trash tax six, is that the people are still upset over the bags and the following:

• $500,000 taken from us (the taxpayer) by a City Employee as the Treasurer will explain to us in full detail when the Middlesex District Attorney finishes their investigation.

• $1.8 to $2.2 million dollar surplus in the Enterprise Fund for the water bills as many of you are correct when we speak with you that you’re being overcharged for the service. Next week on our blog we’ll review the Enterprise Fund Laws.

• Almost $2.4 million dollars that appear from nowhere to fund potential buyouts, overtime, negotiated in good faith by the Administration pay raises for employees that aren’t in the budget that the City Council approves for this fiscal year.

There’s more....

Listed below is this year’s current budget link, weren't we told last summer and all of the fall that it was 142 million dollars? I know when I read the State’s Guidelines (there’s that word that’s seldom followed by our Government) for accounting that the reports can vary but by thirty one million dollars?

The General Fund's Revenue is $129,253,665 and the Expenditures are $116,739,674.0

The total of all Fund's Revenue is $169,459,151 and the Expenditures are $173,091,203

Don’t believe me, look at it for yourself:

http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=dorterminal&L=3&L0=Home&L1=Local+Officials&L2=Municipal+Data+and+Financial+Management&sid=Ador&b=terminalcontent&f=dls_mdmstuf_aag_aagindex&csid=Ador

Here's another question to ponder: what money is being spent in the "other" columns of this report? Also...

Take a closer look at our General Fund column, doesn’t this mean that we’re being shorted thirteen (13) million dollars in services? That ten or twenty percent exemption they give the homeowners in our city isn't that much of a bargain when you look at this information.

Isn’t transparency a good policy to follow? Now, since our own State Department of Revenue under Local Services is offering us these numbers. Why can’t our own City Government do the same and itemize their entire budgets for us to see? This would also include all revenues and expenditures for the year and let’s not forget contracts and all bids. If we have to pay a lot more in the future for our services at least let us know that it is the best possible value for us. It will eliminate the perception (I know that I'm sick and tired of reading and hearing about this subject) from the community that someone’s friend, business partner/associate or family member benefits from it.

One last comment from the Council Meetings this week, the Treasurer at Wednesday’s Efficiency Meeting in Room 609 discloses that the City had 1.2 million dollars put away for a bond initiative of $17 million dollars. It was explained that when the financial markets where really bad in the fall that the City couldn’t find any financial houses to take the money. These funds potentially could have been engulfed by one of the financial giants that went under last year, but the money actually went to balance the State’s mid-year budget shortfall of $1.5 million dollars. My hat is off to that person for making that information public to us. That’s all we ask for sometimes, to just let us know why monies appear or disappear. We all live and some of us work in this community and we deserve to know how our money is being spent. These past few weeks just take a look at Washington DC and how upset and outraged the taxpayer is over AIG and their bonuses. I have a different take on it…but most of the time I do…

Malden, have a good week…

Bob Miller
MTFA

“Hence in friendship there is very little scope for reform.”

-Mohandas Ghandi,
Taken from his autobiography on experiments with truth.

Another week of surprises at City Hall

2009-03-14T10:19:00.000-07:00
Just when we think we’ve heard it all from the Council they discover that there are non-City of Malden employees on the City’s self insured health plan. The people on the plan pay for it themselves which amounts to an estimate of $16,000 per person. The Controller (who we’ve mistakenly written about the past few months as the Treasurer) mentions this issue in a Public Property meeting and the Ward Six Councilor immediately makes a motion to have the city’s professionals deal with this issue and remove them from the medical plan within a certain period of time. The Chair who is the Ward Two Councilor with the Mayor’s Special Assistant both agree that this isn’t the forum to make such a motion and the Councilor (Ward Six) needs to wait to address it in the Finance Committee later that night. At that time after regular business is discussed the Ward One and Six Councilors have different views on how to handle the health care plan participation of the non-city workers. We believe the Ward Six Councilor request for (any and all non-City of Malden employees)immediate city professional staff intervention is in need to protect the City and us the taxpayer. But, the Ward One Councilor’s issue of researching the situation and discovery of the facts of why these workers are paying into the plan shows us that there should be constraint and not potential over reaction to a situation that may just have an explanation. Either way, the Malden taxpayer that we represent will have some protection from this apparent long time arrangement that could cause us hundreds of thousands of dollars if God forbid if one of these non-employees fell ill and requires major medical treatment. This just makes one wonder what other surprises are lurking in the ledgers for us to see and hear about? Last week it was the council’s non- approved / administration’s negotiated pay increases for two unions that aren’t in this year's budget. This in our opinion continues the apparent lack of communication with the Administration and the Council (up for re-election this year) and we believe that our elected representation needs to start requesting proper and well documented information to make decisions on our tax dollars.

A big thumb up for The Ordinance Committee interviews of re-appointments and the first two individuals have a combined thirty one years (31) on the City’s Planning Board. They are both well educated (CPA and Master of Taxation) care about the City; understand the plans for the future of the neighborhoods and the direction that the City Council wants to take. We say these individuals offer a lot of value to us and we believe it’s a no brainer to approve them.

The Efficiency Committee meets with the Finance Chair, Director of Human Resources and Controller to discuss the potential budget shortfall of between $3.8 to now $8 million dollars for the upcoming 2009-10 budget. We haven’t mentioned our calculation (City of Malden Math) of $7.2 million dollars that we believe that the city has in its accounts. Again, we say, prove us wrong and give us transparent budgets that demonstrate accurate accounting that has been audited by an outside firm. We ask our City Government this question, “Don’t we pay for this service at a cost of $185,000 a year?” The Efficiency Committee’s members (Ward 1, 4 and the Chair) will break down the departments of the City between them and research the cuts that each Department Head must make to their personnel. Not every Department will be evenly cut and some may require the Administration to make those cuts based on the Mayor’s directive of personnel cuts only. It is starting to look that about half of the employee layoffs will be early retirements and or buyouts. We hope the employees realize that most of their counterparts in other communities don’t have that same luxury as they do in Malden. One city official in Revere believes that the current Mayor of his city isn’t letting go of enough of the employees as he makes an idiotic statement that they would find work a lot easier now! Let’s all hope that individual stays in his community or moves far away from us---like Metrowest or further.

Also, it appears the Efficiency Committee’s Chairperson requires full revenue reports from the Administration. With this request and the dire need to have budgets complete before the middle of April we believe there will not be enough time in our opinion to have community feedback and proper review of inefficient programs, waste and potential redundancies in services. We feel it would be more prudent to conduct a survey and establish an ongoing review of all the department’s functions, revenues, costs and services that may require reform, modifications or improvements now and in the future. We have a suggestion that since the Lion of the Council (Ward 2) and Ward 7 both apparently have extra time due to their retirements, barring family obligations they should start a study on all city departments (including the finances) and discover what’s inefficient in our programs, processes and services in the City. We also believe an extensive review of the School District and an explanation of the different departments that exist there, not to cut them (which we can’t for our future and theirs) but to understand why the expense is so high and the trash tax bags appear to pay for this year’s new hires.

Final Thoughts

Our Chairperson spoke with the City’s Treasurer (who we’ve inaccurately mention in our blogs as the Tax Collector) and they want to mention that the theft of the alleged $500,000 from the city’s taxpayer funds is still under investigation by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office. The final results with potential wrong doings will be made and we assume with possible arrests of other people. We would like to discuss this in detail with that person after the investigation is over and give them an opportunity to explain and disclose in detail what they can to us. We want people to remember that we still live in America and that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. This person is very upset over this situation and we believe they will give us a full accounting when the time is right.

A reminder from the Ward Eight Councilor who is also the Citizen Engagement Chairperson to the readers of this post about the city’s new Emergency Communication System which can be accessed by www.cityofmalden.org. Once you get to the site, it’s very easy to click on the banner that is moving in the text and it is self explanatory from that point, it takes a few minutes to fill out the contact information. You will receive important information from the Emergency Providers of our community via phone and other resources that you list.

We paraphrase The Ward 2 Councilor who is also the Chairperson of Public Property, when they state that if we aren’t revenue neutral on all leases in our buildings we do a disservice to the employees and the city. He goes on to mention that the amounts could mean a few additional people losing their jobs. We hope that person and his counterparts in City Government realize we came to that same conclusion about conducting a Special Election on the Trash Tax Bags. The estimate would be between $65,000 to $100,000 to have our voices heard. And we ask is this the price for democracy that would put how many employees on the street? Even though in our opinion that the city is inefficient and careless in their spending, accounting practices, reporting of monies to the community and projects that places us in this predicament of paying for a basic service (that potentially borders on double taxation) that could have been implemented with an incentive based recycle system rather than creating a revenue stream for the City….next week we’ll demonstrate what we mean by this….the numbers tell all……

---Enjoy the week!

Here We Go Again.......

2009-03-07T06:28:00.000-08:00
We’ve had a few days to think about what we witnessed at this past Tuesday’s Malden City Council Joint Ordinance and Finance Committee Meeting. We just want to ensure the Fire Fighters and Police that we support their pay raise for this current fiscal year. It was negotiated in good faith and under the collective bargaining agreement it is a valid contract. As it is common knowledge that anyone that sits at a table (The Mayor) to negotiate with a union has the authority to enter into an agreement and finalize a deal. The number, well the really big number for this oversight in the budget by the Council and Administration is $538,400. At this point of the meeting it is very apparent that our elected officials had no clue about this raise and approved the budget without it in it.

Take a look for yourself:

http://www.cityofmalden.org/download/misc/City%20of%20Malden%202009%20budget.pdf)

In the Council’s defense, we vaguely remember someone mentioning to us that these unions were negotiating with the city and would receive a wage increase. But, what gives? The Finance Committee (the same one that approves the trash tax bags from the Administration) doesn’t catch this number as well as the Treasurer and Tax Collector.

Just when you think that we’re sunk and broke as a City. Surprise, surprise the Treasurer has extra funds stashed away in the city employee’s health care budget. To paraphrase the Treasurer who states that if the unions knew that the City had money in the accounts they’d want more or most of it. Well, we the city’s taxpayers ask where’s our money? Where’s our reduction in the cost of the bags and how about an elimination of them (or not if you the taxpayer chose to keep them), that’s what our petition is for. Does anyone that reads this post really think that our City doesn’t have money in the coffers (read our past blogs) after these "found monies." Don’t we all now need to keep an eye on City Hall and demand transparency in the City’s budgets and contracts? A big thumb down for everyone on this one as we do question why the unions wait this late in the fiscal year to mention their raise, when they know that we face a fiscal crisis. Or maybe they know about City of Malden Math (COMM) before we can figure it out….....

How our money since last November are being spent in regards to the city’s budget:

Alleged theft by an employee = $500,000

Free Cash = $870,000

Two unions owed raises = $538,400

Ferryway School needs
an outside cleaning
company to do the
work of the employees = $5,000.00

School District extra
money = $230,000

Possible buyout monies
for early retirees = $300,000

Grand Total = $2,443,400

Now, let’s apply our formula:

A is the known amount, multiply is by B the $3.00 will give us C, which is the ballpark number of money hanging around City Hall. Let’s apply what we now know:

$2,443,400 x 3= $7,330,200

Okay if we take the estimate of 3.8 to 5.3 million in State of Massachusetts local aid cuts for the 2009-10 budget this leaves us with an estimate of between 2.0 to 3.5 million. We can now multiply it by three again and can you see why this equation is a plausible one given these additional expenditures the past few months by our City Government.

This is starting to become like a very bad TV sitcom where we the taxpayers tune in every week to watch the characters-us get abused with just different subplots and stories to break up the scenes. We know that sometimes we can’t keep our opinions to ourselves, couldn’t the fire fighters who need another engine have done something novel for the community (they got their $350K+ in overtime paid this year, when it was in the budget for only 125K) and instead of taking the raise earmark the money for a new engine. They and every other union in our City should look at other communities around us that are letting go of their workers, (remember it’s more feasible for the taxpayers of Malden in this economy to keep the workers on the job), closing facilities, reducing hours, freezing raises and taking days off of work. Our hope is that they will feel fortunate and lucky that more City employees aren’t being laid off in a few weeks. There’s even a politician a few cities over from us in Revere that makes a statement that his mayor should lay off more employees now so they can find work. The Chairperson of our group wrote a similiar Letter to the Editor to one of the local newspapers for this same type of accountability …last year when the economy and job market was a lot stronger than it is now.

Citizen’s Engagement Committee News

The Ward 8 Councilor who also is this Sub Committee’s Chairperson asks us to mention the city’s new Emergency Communication System which can be accessed by www.cityofmalden.org. Once you get to the site, it’s very easy to click on the banner that is moving in the text and from the instructions that were emailed to us it only takes a few minutes to fill out the contact information. We know it is very difficult for that person to ask us for support for this most worthwhile program for the people of our community as they did vote for the PAYT. We mentioned to that person that we do see eye to eye most of the time on the issues. Just right now we have one that we differ on…..we do respect that person’s sincerity and dedication to the citizen’s of Malden-which in our opinion is demonstrated every week. We, like the Ward 8 Councilor want the best possible basic services for the citizen’s in regards to their hard earned tax dollars.

----Malden, we hope you have a great week….

MTFA

“Volunteer nothing, but listen to everything. If you accumulate enough gossip, it becomes information, and enough information can reveal truth.”

-Robert L. Genua, Author of in Managing Your Mouth: An Owner’s Manual for Your Most Important Business Asset.

The future or just a repeat of past practices?

2009-02-28T11:37:00.000-08:00

I want to start this post with a few paragraphs from last week’s President Obama’s quasi State of the Union Stimulus Bill speech. Here they are…

"Now, I know there are some in this chamber and watching at home who are skeptical of whether this plan will work. And I understand that skepticism. Here in Washington, we've all seen how quickly good intentions can turn into broken promises and wasteful spending. And with a plan of this scale comes enormous responsibility to get it right.

And that's why I've asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort -- because nobody messes with Joe. (Applause.) I -- isn't that right? They don't mess with you. I have told each of my Cabinet, as well as mayors and governors across the country, that they will be held accountable by me and the American people for every dollar they spend. I've appointed a proven and aggressive Inspector General to ferret out any and all cases of waste and fraud. And we have created a new website called recovery.gov so that every American can find out how and where their money is being spent."

In my opinion only time will tell if what the President says in this speech becomes a reality for the American taxpayers. However, we should be able to monitor what our city will hopefully garner in the next few weeks and months from the Bill. Let’s hope that our city receives “shovel ready funds” that will benefit our infrastructure (Disclosure: the City's Treasurer is only aware of a few projects as there appear to be more on stimuluswatch.org and Miller Park on Harvard Street which is dedicated to my Father is one of the projects) and also our State. I’ve briefly reviewed the plan and a lot of the spending will occur in later years. But, unemployment and other social economic programs will receive additional funds almost immediately once the State government okays the Federal conditions in later years. After fully reading the Stimulus Bill (besides having a head ache from looking at all the small print) I can see how each State must look at the impact of what Federal dollars means to their laws and budgets. I just hope that our leaders in Massachusetts realize what they may be getting themselves into after these funds are long gone from our memory and pocketbook.

Transparency is what we seek from all levels of government and locally a big thumb up for the Ward 8 Councilor and Chairperson of the Citizen’s Engagement Committee and with the Administration’s assistance for their improvement of the content on the City’s website, take a look at it:

http://www.ci.malden.ma.us/index.asp?L1=govt&L2=boards&L3=housing

This link shows us the people that sit on the different boards in the city. As it’s in my opinion a start in the right direction for us to see who is being appointed by our own city government. I wonder if the current Library Trustees that take no salary (minus $30,000.00 in the line item of this year's budget) are also benefitting from their pensions like a former State Senator has in the past? I know that our City Council is looking into that matter and we hope to hear the results very soon from them.

Information from the City Council Sub Committee Meetings that you the taxpayer need to know about:

Meetings From 2/17/2009 and 2/24/2004

Ordinance

I have witnessed a number of citizens being interviewed by the council the past few weeks for board appointments. Since I am a fourteen year staffing professional, I feel very confident about making these observations:

Transparency in this process is good but it exposes some of the candidates that interview in my opinion to have limitations for the boards that they sit on. Again, I interview people that make a decent living from their knowledge and there is a seat for everyone when it comes to employment (yes, even in this economy, it just may take a bit longer to find). I realize that most of the boards in the City of Malden to the best of my knowledge are volunteer based and have no compensation. I can see now, why sometimes there are only a set or certain amount of people that apply or are chosen for these positions. But it seems to me that the Council has certain ideas and directions that they want to guide the appointees into and some of the candidates in my opinion demonstrate limited depth, knowledge and ability to carry out the desire of the Council. My hope and it seems by listening to the councilors and candidates themselves for reappointment that the heads of these City Boards seem to be very competent and professional individuals. As someone that doesn’t know the entire situation I come away from it with a neutral feeling on the process. All I know is that if it was my choice I’d actually not vote to approve some of the people and or ask for other appointees from the Administration for comparison of abilities.

Public Properties

The Ward Six and Chair with the rest of the Council wants all city owned properties to be revenue neutral and this applies to the Emerson School. The Ward 2 Councilor states that this building is the overflow school to educate children if additional classroom space is in need. He also states that when he travels past the building (it’s in his Ward located on Highland Avenue) the windows and doors of the facility are sometimes open and the heat is being lost. I say that they should ask the tenants their thoughts on the reasons why (Disclosure, I was the Director of a youth sports non-profit group that spent two years at that facility and rented a classroom at that location) and the Ward One Councilor suggests that they meet with the tenants to discuss the rental increases. The Ward Three Councilor and Human Services Director who was in attendance make a suggestion that some of the tenants which are all non-profit be given consideration from their in-kind donations to the City in lieu of payment of rent.

Finance

One of our cases of City of Malden Math has possibly been solved as the $1.5 million dollar State cut is in 9C monies and the determination of the amount of the actual funds will be made in June-the Treasurer made this statement to the Efficiency Chairperson. Also, there is talk of about fifty employee layoffs with half being offered an early retirement bonus of between ten and twelve thousand dollars. The Ward One Councilor states that other government entities offer substantially less buyout dollars. The Treasurer states that the buyouts must occur by April 15, 2009 and the President and Chair who are both At-Large Councilors agrees with Ward One and Three that the monies are taxed as income and there will not be any back fills from the current staff. Also, if the people that take the early buyout come back to the system then they must repay all the costs incurred with their early retirement. There has been steady conversation about revenue neutral spending and costs. We ask you the reader of this post-does this job advertisement listed below fit that directive?

http://cfweb.smartedu.net/malden/news/drilldown_Detail.cfm?ID=857

Maybe it’s a replacement hire or that extra $230,000 (wink-wink nudge nudge) from this year's school budget surplus that pays for this position. If this isn’t a replacement, it in my opinion is a direct slap in the face to anyone that is losing their job in the next few months in the City. I personally don’t care what President Obama’s directive is in regards to education, which I agree with him about. It just continues in my opinion to demonstrate the lack of coordination, transparency (why is the position open?) and just common decency by our city government towards the people that are leaving early to save other people’s jobs. Couldn’t they wait until the city employee job cuts are final and made public by the city government? I’m told by many City officials that they feel the workers are an extension of their family. I ask them and you this question, “Would you treat one of your family members like this?” The people that I work with in the MTFA are reasonable and compassionate people that communicate with one another. Don’t the city employees and the taxpayers deserve the same treatment and respect from our own City Government?

Malden, have a great week....

Bob Miller, Chairperson
MTFA

“No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.”

-Michel de Montaigne

More of the same....

2009-02-22T06:34:00.000-08:00
We were going to post about this week’s City Council meetings, but we feel the continuation of giving you more examples of City of Malden Math needs to be written. Next week we’ll get you caught up on what the City Council is doing. We want to state that there is a lot of hurt out there in regards to families paying for rent, mortgages, utilities, food, gas and a lot of other basic necessities. Our hope is that our community leaders realize these facts from this current economic data:

• 1967 was the last time that we have as many Americans out of work-over 5 million and counting.

• More Americans are on extended unemployment benefits. The original claim is 26 weeks as the majority of these people were out of work this summer.

• This month’s February estimate total of nearly 700,000 people out of work will surpass a 1974 monthly record.

• Locally the last recorded monthly Massachusetts unemployment rate jumps from 5.9% to 6.9%.

• Gasoline at the pump has gone up in price 15% in the past few weeks.

• 19 cent proposed gas tax on each gallon sold in the Commonwealth.

• 39% of companies in the United States still plan on layoffs for 2009.

We’ll stop writing about these rather bleak economic numbers, but, as they say the numbers don’t lie as the economic outlook for this year and next is terrible. Are there any positive bits of news to report to you the taxpayer? Yes, if you’re in the Healthcare, Alternate Energy or Information Technology Industries you may just keep your job the next few years. Oh, heck, let’s even include government as we’re all going to be working for them in one way or another. In the Stimulus Plan there are also various tax cuts and credits for individuals and businesses that will help us weather the current economic crisis. But, the question that may not have an answer for many months is will this economic stimulus package create or keep jobs while maintaining our tax base? Your guess is as good as ours as only time will tell and we believe that President Obama has only so much of it until we the people become disillusioned again.

There's a comment we want to make and its that this unprecedented spending bill has again no meaning for the American people. The New Deal had that and to continue undertaking these large and grandiose plans (like Iraq) without cause for us to contribute and to sacrifice at home is in our opinion only a formula for potential failure. We say give us incentive to pickup mops, shovels, rakes and brooms to clean public venues or other projects that contribute to our community. Or maybe we don’t wait and take up the mantle ourselves by volunteering to mentor a family or a child. We need something to get us back into our communities and off the couches and PC screens at home (some of us are out on Tuesday at City Hall and Wednesday for our regular meeting we’d enjoy having more company on those nights). Here’s an idea, maybe we can buy recession bonds similar to the U.S. War Bonds issued during World War II. Can our city issue these same types of bonds for us to contribute after we eliminate the trash bag? Let’s call them the Malden Community Bonds and make the absentee landlords, us and apartment/condo owners buy a certain set amount every year with incentives to hold them-again we state after the trash tax bag is gone. Maybe an acceptable maturity date similar to what is in existence by our own government would be the standard. Doing anything positive that gives back to the community is better than nothing and feeling part of this Nation and community is what we all should strive for in the next few years.

Now to more cases of City of Malden Math……

Last week we wrote on this blog that the Malden City Council decides to take their 10% reduction of their budget in a combination of Councilor salaries which total $19,200 and half of the July Fourth monies which totals $12,000. However, upon further review of their budget and taking into account the Mayor’s request of the cuts being only from personnel the total that they need to apply now is $29,300.00 (not $30,900). How they get there and negotiate with the administration is their right as a body. It just demonstrates in our opinion a lack of communication and working with each other to do what is best for everyone. This means us, the bill and taxpayers of the community.

Here’s another number that we want to correct that our City government banters around on a regular basis. Which is that half of the city’s budget comes from the State of Massachusetts. We ask you the reader where do the lawmakers on Beacon Hill get their money from? Are you having any difficulty with this one? While you’re still pondering our question (wink wink nudge nudge) let’s break down the current City of Malden $142 million budget for you. From listening to the administration and reviewing the budgets the past few months we know that we pay about $60 million in property taxes, 10 million in water and sewage and we receive $70 million from where? The State…we meant to say us. That leaves an estimate of $2 million that the city brings in from fees, tickets, compliance tickets, permits and fines. Does that number seem low to you and do you the reader see something missing from this total? Ah yes, that priceless blue trash tax bag. Doesn’t our math formula the past two blogs apply? Until we have transparency in budgets and have the ability to review audited accounts that costs us $185,000 a year, why wouldn’t our COMM be correct? Doesn’t it seem rather odd that the $1.5 million that is cut from this current fiscal year from the State is now covered by the City?

Now read this link from Fox 25 News about our police department and the directive for each officer to write one ticket a day in the city:

http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/Report_Malden_chief_wants_more_tickets_020809

This article estimates that the force writes about 1,500 tickets a year for revenue of approximately $75,000. If we take the Chief’s directive which the Council President supports it would now look something like this:

60 officers (20 per shift) or 60 tickets a day times 364 days a year (maybe Christmas will be an off day) and the total would be a staggering 21,840 tickets written for $1,092,000! We could factor in higher ticket prices especially if it’s lucrative business for the city. We ask you the reader is there any oversight of this and what’s to say they won’t up the bounty on the number of tickets each Officer must write every day? Here are two different opinions that we hear voiced in the community. We must write tickets to maintain our way of life and that is why they need to be written. Some others in the community may look at it as cannibalization of the population. We think our police force is top notch and provides us with excellent protection, security and support. But, when there is a perception that you’re intentionally going out of your way to take from the citizen’s are you really giving us the best possible care and peace of mind when you play the role of tax collector for your employer? Beside the point don’t we have (as we’ve stated before) parking enforcement police (I hope they work on Saturday as I saw one driving on Main Street during the morning) and compliance officers?

There's an initiative by the Council to also possibly allow school crossing guards to issue tickets in school zones. Isn't this a bit too much and leaves us with the question of why isn’t this being enforced by the police? In our opinion alot of the guards have a tough enough time with the kids let alone ticketing carergivers that park illegally at the schools. The comments that we hear is that the Police availability times overlap on the shift turnover in the mornings. After reading the link do you the reader believe there is enough law enforcement to cover the schools? Apparently aren’t there tickets at those schools to give out to violators and wouldn’t it be a sign of good faith after the city had to spend $5,000 to get the Ferryway school cleaned during the Holiday break because of the apparent lack of communication by the janitors and administration? Here’s what we envision: a Malden Police Cruiser at the schools enforcing the laws of the city during drop off and pickup times of the students. This would now (not that it didn't before)legitimize them writing tickets and eliminate a lot of the perception that the police are enforcing the laws now because they each have to nab someone in the city breaking the law. The writer of this blog is the Chairperson and takes full responsibility for this comment as his uncle was a 20 year plus veteran of the force. He has the utmost respect for the Chief and his Officers. Hopefully if this blog is read by them it will be taken as constructive criticism and nothing more than that…..

We have another case of COMM and it appears during the Malden School Committee’s January 26, 2009 meeting. The purpose is to raise the hourly rates for the Malden non-profit youth groups that use the six facilities for after school and weekend practices. Before we can write about it, we had to review MATV’s streaming video a number of times to ensure that we got the numbers correct. Also, some of us had to pinch ourselves a few times to make us realize that the Ward Four Member actually didn’t check their numbers for accuracy and authenticity. Please, remember these are the facts and we’re just recanting them verbatim as we can’t find the numbers in the budget to confirm what the Ward Four Member uses for energy costs for the School District. Here are the facts: there are 24,000 billable hours at an estimate of $45 an hour with a minimum reservation of 3 hours to pay the janitor to open and close the school. Also pay for the rental ($33.00 an hour for the janitor, $12.00 to the school). This money for MANY years has gone back to the Schools even though the city owns the buildings, pays for the janitors (remember Ferryway Gate) and the upkeep of them. With all of the time and energy that has been expended by the entire committee over this issue the past few months they could have been on more cultivating and meaningful subjects. To paraphrase one of the Members the committee’s primary focus is providing quality education for the future of the city and not to be a hall rental agency. We agree with that statement, but, in our opinion the Ward Four Member has VERY inaccurate numbers for possibly these reasons: just saying these totals to justify the rate increase due to higher energy costs in running the entire Malden School District. Maybe, this person has an agenda to rid all the groups from the gyms. Last but not least, maybe they actually believe these are the correct totals. If, this is the case, we’re all in big trouble as a fellow School Committee Member should have questioned these totals!

Here are the numbers and they are as follows:

$2.1 Million (appoximately the non-profit youth groups use $1,647,926) is the amount of money to heat and light the schools.

We estimate 19,000 hours is what the youth basketball, soccer and other sports rent throughout the year and only 4,932.35 for the other after school programs.

Okay, we say the hours are believable, but, we spoke to a few of the people (who were notified of the meeting but never given the reason why!) in the audience that night and they question like we do, what are the hours that the schools use during the day is that taken into account by the District? Why do we ask this question? The Superintendent wants to run an energy audit this past fall and he states that the District has no way of knowing what zones are in use and who uses them. Also, if we take that into account then the Ward Four Members statements that the youth groups use 77% of the energy is very misleading to the people of Malden. Why? Just multiple the 19,000 hours x $45.00 an hour and the grand total is $855,000. Even if we assume that the non-Malden groups subsidize the others and pay a higher fee for a grand total to $1,000,000 then by utilizing the Malden School Committee’s numbers of 1.6 million dollars for these groups it just doesn't add up and it would be a $600,000 dollar loser, right?

Check out the feed for yourself and advance it to the 23:00 mark of the video:

http://www.matv.org/school_committee_meetings/2009/02/school-committee-meeting-12609.html

Did the School District forget a possible zero at the end of the $67,000 that they claim they are losing on these rentals or is that their share or more? As stated before we can’t find the numbers in the budget that they use for their estimates. This case of City of Malden Math stinks to high heaven and we just can’t believe that any elected official would continue to make presentations like this to the public. But, when the School District can give back to the city $230,000 from their budget does this case of dysfunctional math calculations from our defenders of education really surprise us? We’d also like to correct the Ward Four Member as he also tells the youth sport people that the money goes into the General Fund of the City of Malden. Maybe now it does, before it allegedly didn’t and that was a statement from that same person in 2008 as the school’s business department has wanted it apparently for awhile to go into the general fund of the city. This blatant disregard for giving us the truth, doing due diligence by researching the numbers and making us the taxpayer feel confident in the leadership that we elect to make good sound decisions for us is very disheartening. How do you, the reader of this blog feel now about it? Are we making this hocus pocus accounting up that the leaders of our community use to justify taking more money from us without believable facts and information that we can view for ourselves. Also, we forgot to add in last week’s blog does the city now get reimbursed the $5,000 from the School District for the Ferryway School fiasco?

----MTFA

“Innovation flourishes in the interstices of unlike ideas” Leigh Buchanan, Editor-at-Large, Inc. Magazine.

City of Malden Math

2009-02-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

We wonder does anyone in the city really listen to our elected officials or the administration when they speak about the budget. In our opinion you the reader could start on your own by attending the weekly meetings on Tuesday at City Hall. Watch MATV or visit their website to review the meetings. But, to get the best coverage of the subcommittee meetings we suggest that you keep reading this post on a regular basis (tell your Malden neighbors and friends about it) to discover what City of Malden Math or COMM is and how it hits your own pocket book. Keep this fact in your mind as you continue reading the post: the trash bags cost us what…. and how much a year does the city gross from this tax? The numbers that we focus on are $1.00 or $2.00 for the bag and $10.00 or $20.00 for a box of ten. The really big number is the 2.5 million dollars a year that this pig of a program makes and an estimate of 875% profit from it! Now that’s priceless…..

In our last blog we reported that the city would be 1.5 million dollars short in this year’s budget (We were very close to our estimate that was conducted over the Holidays). But, now it appears that they will be set and not require any layoffs for this fiscal year. We say great, but after last week’s the sky is falling finance meeting how can this be? Did we hear this incorrectly from the Treasurer? Or is it COMM. I am starting to think that every time the city mentions a dollar amount we need to multiple it by at least three. Here’s how it works, you tell department heads to cut 10% personnel, which scares them because they may have to layoff someone that they feel is like a family member to them (heck, this is Malden, it maybe their own sibling or spouse). Then you mention it to the council and keep on telling them certain tax and fee programs are in need, such as the umm... tax bags. Then some of the trash tax six (the ones that voted for it and stayed living in the city) will start making statements of support to gain favor with the administration. So, in keeping with the COMM formula, the Treasurer states last week in the Finance Committee Meetings that there is only $870,000 in free cash and there is a look of peril on everyone’s faces including the committee’s Chairperson who looks concerned about the shortfall. Then, low and behold a week later, someone from high above waves a magical wand and poof the 1.5 million dollar budget shortfall isn’t an issue any longer. To paraphrase the Tax Collector he mentions that it’s all taken care of. So, one could come to a few possible conclusions and they are that a person maybe donates it to them? This is highly unlikely that it would occur as would a lien, tax payment or an insurance claim being large enough to generate that type of cash. So, here’s the first case of COMM and it’s applied as follows $870,000 + $630,000= $1.5 million dollars, presto the money is there! But, does that leave us with any money as a city? We highly doubt that as both the Mayor and Treasurer appear to be very competent administrators and wouldn’t leave them and us without money to start the next fiscal year on July 1, 2009.

Okay, students, let’s get back to the subject at hand which is City of Malden Math. Now, utilizing our formula the city has at least another 1.1 million or more stashed away in their accounts. Please, remember this is not an exact math formula that we use as without knowing what the city is taking in from revenues we can only estimate their totals. Class, now pay attention: whatever number they say is now A and we multiply it by 3 or B. The example is $870,000 in free cash which we’d multiply three times for C which equals $2.6 million. Now, let’s take out the $1.5 million and we’ll have a balance of the original amount that we mention above in the first sentence of this paragraph. One doesn’t need a degree in math to now figure out why the city needs to charge for the trash bags and require our water bills to be paid monthly. You think with this type of cash flow (which would be the envy of any city or town in the USA, not to mention a business) that they’d at least pay for the online transaction fee if you pay your bill that way. So, does this mean at the beginning of the next fiscal year there will be at least $3.3 million or more hanging around City Hall in the accounts? One must wonder after the last Finance Meeting if the estimate of the State budget shortfall of between 3.1 to 3.8 million will be covered and the bags with the employee cuts (10% of personnel) are just a ruse by the administration to keep their extra cash flowing like a water spout (no pun intended). This is just like how the City uses “granted” already taxed dollars from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to create a revenue stream to levy a tax on us-not to mention that priceless mailer.

Our hope is that we never as a community forget the trash tax six as the Ward 5 Councilor who continually wears a blue shirt in honor of our groups efforts (I told that person it was funny the first five times he mentions it to me) is stepping down after his term is over and is citing his reason as family obligations. We know that this person is a good family man and has done a lot for the kids of Malden. But, we say that person is still part of the collective and even though he wants out of the image or perception of being a member of the trash tax six, saying to us that it should be five. Our opinion is that person should now be involved in trying to alleviate and or eliminate the expense of the bag and leave that as his legacy. Now, that’s leadership that the community will remember. We assume that the Malden School Committee this year which can send back about $230,000, under the COMM must have $690,000 using the math formula. How can we be proven wrong? Show us the audits and the accounts, put our minds back at ease that it’s all not a game and that our elected officials actually still do work for us. We have a few other cases of Malden Math that we’ll write about in next week’s blog, we just may need an entire post to explain it once we review it again on our DVR.

City Council Meeting Subcommittee highlights that you the taxpayer need to know about.

Finance Committee:

The council will cut $19,200 ($1,750.00 each) from their own salaries to offset their committement of $30,900 that they must eliminate from next year’s budget. They also want to eliminate $12,000 of the July Fourth Celebration Ward money. We say that’s a great idea, but that line item isn’t in their budget it’s in another and we realize why they want to eliminate half of that total. But, how can you truly provide leadership to us when other departments must adhere to the same standards that their boss, the mayor has set and the directive from him is 10% of personnel cuts. The Tax Collector states to this subcommittee what the Mayor’s directive is and it is in our opinion being blatantly disregarded by the council members. So, why didn’t they all oppose the trash bags or seriously ask us the bill payers our opinions last Spring? The, do as I say not what I do should apply to the council as well. The fact of the line item not being under the council’s budget was brought to the attention of the efficiency chairperson and they were shown this fact by us. We spent many hours over the Holiday Season reviewing the budgets.

One final comment that we’d like to make is that when the subject of salaries of the council and other departments was brought up by the Ward Six Councilor they mention that if people or others bring in large sums of money or revenues increase then salaries should go back to their original levels. Hopefully this will happen in a few years is the general consensus of his fellow members. The Council President states that the figures will remain in the budget, because the ordinance would need to be changed to reflect the reduction of salary. We say the taxpayer gets paid first and eliminate the bag. Why? If there are any “large sums” of money or additional monies from transactions that the city earns that will benefit the community. We believe in this axiom of law and how it applies to us the taxpayer and it is: But not for the people paying for the bags and their property and water taxes which they are having a tough time being able to afford. Would you the City of Malden be able to have the opportunity to negotiate, receive grants or assistance, sell, rent or lease any public venue or property as it belongs to us-the citizen’s of Malden Massachusetts? We’re also going to give our own Math formula in regards to the trash tax bag and here it is-----there are 58,000 people that live in this city and they all benefit from the $142,000,000 budget-which even with the State’s mid year cut in our opinion (remember the $630,000 that appears in this year’s budget?) wasn’t 5 million dollars over budget. So, by our estimates the bags in a year should cost every citizen and not just the ones in the dwellings under the minimum housing standard occupancy number. If anyone wants to dispute that fact email us at info@maldentax.com. We advocate for full elimination of the bag as outlined in our petition.

Ordinance

The Chair who is the Ward Six Councilor has the call records for the police and the numbers are staggering in regard to disturbance of the peace, domestic and emergency calls. Non health related calls cost us the taxpayer $318.00 each time our public safety personnel visit a home or a business in the city. Naturally there are exceptions to these calls and without giving the exact business or residential addresses, they may just warrant increases of their taxes that they pay because of the constant drain on the emergency system. Now, that’s accountability for you! By our standards it might be a little bit Big Brother is watching us type of program, but, with resources on the wane in this community and the nation. We say, it’s worth the time to investigate the reasons why these “Hot Spots” as the Chief of Police describes them are off the city’s watch list as problem areas in Malden. The Ward Three Councilor wants the domestic calls monitored and feels that it's important that the city realizes the difference. A big thumb up for both Councilors and the Ward Seven one as well for his candor in wanting to investigate the reasons for the calls at some of the business locations. That person states that there are other reasons why calls are coming from the locations that are in question.

Citizen’s Engagement:

There will be an attempt by the Planning Board to continue on with the Malden Vision Plan as the Malden Redevelopment Authority has granted (this one actually benefits people and the community) $50,000 for another round of sessions with the citizen’s to get their opinion on the city’s future plans. We wonder how much the city is going to push the need for the PAYT in the survey and possible face to face community meetings. Especially after all the commotion the past few months.

Did anyone notice this week that the City of Winthrop might have a Proposition 2 1/2 Override vote this May? So much for the possible implementation of the PAYT as the citizen's are sent a mail survey (just like the trash bag mailer) about paying for trash and the response was overwhelmingly no. One of the major reasons? The citizen's felt they already pay for trash removal in their property tax bills. At least the elected officials listened to the people and will do what is right by them! Isn't this what democracy is all about? A big thumbs up for all of the people of Winthrop MA....

I am a patient man -- always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance; and also to give ample time for repentance. Still I must save this government if possible. What I cannot do, of course I will not do; but it may as well be understood, once for all, that I shall not surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed.

--July 26, 1862 President Lincoln’s Letter to Revered Johnson

MTFA

Give us what we need.......

2009-02-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I, like many Americans listened and watched President Obama’s inauguration speech. I thought it was okay until I read it and was just utterly blow away by its substance. There’s a sentence that applies to all of our elected officials and their employees and I quote, “And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account-to spend wisely, reform bad habits and do our business in the light of day-because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.” I had to read that sentence a number of times to grasp the full context of it and how it relates to our community. I speak for only myself as the chairperson of the MTFA as I challenge our local officials to really adhere to the words of this sentence. I know that in prior posts we’ve advocated for streaming videos on the Internet of Malden City Council Meetings. Well, hats off to MATV as they now have School Committee Meetings on their website. The Council should take their lead and follow suit and give the public another outlet to view their meetings. Also, there isn’t any reason that a camera can’t be placed in the back of the council chambers and if the committee chair for the specific subcommittee would allow their meeting to be filmed it would let people see the process of how the council really conducts its business. The Finance Committee is probably the best example of letting the public see what they are trying to accomplish in these tough economic times.

Our group is made up of very reasonable people that only want our voices to be heard as we’re only 753 certified signatures away from a special election. We met with the City Clerk on January 12, 2009 to discuss the specifics for the election and the estimate of the cost of democracy is very high. Is it worth it? Quite simply, yes, as our elected officials need to realize they didn’t want to listen to us last spring and pass the trash bag tax with the mindset of the citizens won’t like it anyway. We say come out of the shadows like the President’s speech mentions and do something a real leader would do to quell the anger, angst and disgust with the PAYT that many people have over its implementation. These feelings are still evident to us when we call our petition signers to conduct a survey this past month. Many still feel that our leaders need to contact and inform us on issues that affect their bottom line. I’ll leave the readers with this last thought-if you are registered to vote in Malden you need to seriously think about who is your local representation and know their name. Primary day is September 15, 2009 and the Elections are on November 3, 2009.

Here is the Finance Committee Meeting notes from 2/3/2009:

The Treasurer states that there are numerous options on the table that the administration is considering to offset the States 1.5 million dollar cut from this year’s budget. Some that are being given consideration are layoffs, pay cuts, reduction of hours, days without pay and early retirements. Next year’s budget 2009-10 has an estimate of 3.1-3.8 million in cuts from the State of Massachusetts. Education will not be touched as it shouldn’t be. Except, now is the time that we take a look at all of our services and if they’re efficient they stay or not they must go. The Treasurer as do I, feel very skeptical in regards to the State’s estimate increase of 1% in the meals and hotel taxes. Our city it appears can also levy another 1% and the State’s Department of Revenue will collect it for us. The Ward 6 Councilor voices his opinion that it just places more pressure on the small business owner in our city as the economy is stagnant. I agree with him as I like many other locals have cut back on my spending and going out to eat was one of the first luxuries to go from my budget. The city may offer buyout bonuses for its employees to save money, instead of layoffs, but, they must find the funds to pay the people that except these offers. As an employment professional, I wouldn’t suggest anyone take such a bonus without knowing their rights to collect your unemployment benefits.

There is also talk about the elimination of the Nextel Cell Phone Plan that the city uses for all its employees. The only people that will have them are emergency personnel and any city official that may want to continue paying for their own plan. The car pool is mentioned and it seems only a few employees are not in compliance with sharing vehicles, I wonder if they’re the same people that still believe in past practices apply to them in these tough economic times? The Mayor is very determined it seems to enforce this policy. I say any violators should be docked a day’s pay and then if they do it again they are written up for blatant insubordination. Let’s run our city like a true-142 million dollar business and not some employee’s personal playground. The only employees are directors that have cars from the city to take home with them. They’re the Chief of Police and Fire, DPW and Public Facilities. Anyone else seen on the streets after work hours should be on an emergency call. So, if you see someone other than these four people driving around town at night or the weekends call your councilor or Mayor and let them know what you see-get the license plate number, date and time of day and department that the car belongs to.

The Ward 1 councilor recommends and the Finance Committee Chair agrees that the council sets the example, takes the leadership role and eliminates 10% (approximately $30,900) of their budget for next year. There is talk of reductions in their salaries and the elimination of the Fourth of July monies which is $24,000. However, when I look at the budget those monies aren’t THERE! Maybe that’s just an oversight as the Mayor’s request is 10% in personnel cuts. Maybe the council should take that pay cut and lose one of their compliance officers that are under their budget also there’s a stipend that they could eliminate. The Finance Committee Chair states that their salary pays a lot of out of pocket community donations and the Ward 2 Councilor states that no one is feeding their family off this-being a city councilor. I agree with that statement, but, everywhere I go and I ask people about the bags all I hear is that they can’t afford them. They’re eating less, doing without certain necessary items for their kids, putting off ordering prescriptions just to buy the city’s bags or charging them and what’s that cost I ask you? I ask the reader of this post when you have to go to a store to buy a trash bag that cost 25 cents to make and are charged $2.00 for it aren’t there less expensive options that would serve the administration and council’s purpose.

The next group to appear in front of the Finance Committee is the Fire Fighters and they are well over the overtime budget by nearly $150,000. There is talk about one emergency vehicle being cut and that they may be able to early retire some of their employees. My hope is that everyone puts their heads together and comes up with a department that still gives us quality protection from emergencies. They do provide a lot of support and rescues that during the course of a year you can forget that they perform. From our neighbor’s life threatening health issues, car accidents that require split second decisions and the proverbial cat up the tree. I just wish the communication between them and the council/administration was better because in my opinion too much has been either ignored or misinterpreted over the years by these groups.

One final note: the School Department has about $230,000 of extra or unused money that the city is entitled to have. That’s a bargain, considering, we, the taxpayers paid $350,000 for their PC upgrades this year and it’s on the books for the next 20+ years. Maybe this money can now become a down payment on that fire engine that we need covering our city.

Regular Meeting Notes

Kudos to the Ward 1 Councilor for wanting to meet in person all of the appointees to city committees as it would be a good policy to do so. The council agrees and will request sit downs with all the people appointed for the Arts Council-now I say that’s running it like a business. No more appointing everyone in a group as there could be issues with someone and you may find that out in the interview process. Also, I question is the Human Resources Director for the city really checking references and conducting background checks on these appointees? In what maybe one of the liveliest local political seasons in quite some time candidates for elected office in Malden can pull their nomination papers on June 30, 2009. The deadline to get them back with the correct amount of signatures to appear on the ballot will be July 23, 2009. The other important dates once made public will be posted on the city’s website and ours. Congratulations to Karen Anderson the City Clerk on 25 years of service to the city. She has been a very helpful and a fair resource for us with the petition.

----MTFA

Yes we must do more with less...yes we can!

2009-01-24T16:03:00.000-08:00
This week’s inauguration of President Obama has a theme of personal responsibility and the utilization of fewer resources. Also greater efficiency of our services and programs are in need. The one constant theme and desire from the masses that went to Washington DC is the need for change. What they exactly want seems to be a wide variety of issues that a president, super hero or even Ophra Winfrey might have difficulty being able to deliver to them. Especially given the facts this week from Wall Street that our economy is potentially again in a free fall situation in regards to the lending institutions. We need to temper our wishes and expectations. The yard stick for success of the new president is usually the first one-hundred days in office. If you listen to the media it’s now going to be 180 or 365 and maybe even 1,000 days to gauge the administrations effectiveness. It still doesn’t change the focus of conducting our services in a more efficient manner that saves us money. Not to save it (even though that’d be great), but to put more care providers in the homes, teachers and paraprofessionals in the classrooms and police and firefighters on the streets. To paraphrase what President Obama says in his inauguration speech- big or small government isn’t the solution. Efficient government is what we need to weather the next few years.

How does this all relate to our city? Many millions of dollars will be eliminated from the next two fiscal years or more from the State of Massachusetts. Increases of taxes like the trash bags, layoffs of the people that provide our services and absorbanent fines to our citizens can’t continue for us to survive as a community. Everyone must be willing to sacrifice a reasonable amount of their time, dime and energy to help our city succeed to become the best possible area to live in. Awards are great, shiny new buildings are improvements that we need as a community. While parades to beat our chest are a necessity and part of being an American and Maldonian. What we need is public input, the ability to feel that our voices are being heard by our elected officials. We think that the Malden School Committee’s Public Comments part of their meeting is essential to their legitimacy as a governing body. Why doesn’t our current city council offer the same opportunity for us to communicate with them? We’ve sat in their meetings the past few weeks and we could have brought a deck of cards with us and play solitaire as there is no one from the public at these meetings! Shame on our citizen’s for not attending them. But, leaders invoke their followers (the people that pay the bills) and afford them an opportunity to voice their concerns about issues that affect them.

Final thoughts: with words such as enforcement, mandate and required associated with recycle plans can’t we look at one word…change. As in: we should go paperless in regards to all circulations, books and newspapers. It doesn’t have to be overnight. But, this February the Federal Communications Commission officially eliminates the analog signal (think rabbit ears) to your television set. This phase out took many years to implement and the same must be done with paper. How many trees does it take to read the Sunday newspaper each week? Also, we hope that the Mayor’s office wasn’t in Winthrop on our dime championing the Massachusetts State Department of Environmental Protection’s Pay as You Throw Trash Program as their citizen’s have been ringing our phones off the hooks this week. Maybe (wink-wink-nudge-nudge) granted money was used to send that representative to that city?

City Council Meeting Notes from January 20, 2009

The DPW Director appears in front of the council and mentions that they’ve done a good job in regards to implementation of new snow removal programs. The comment from this person in regards to the efforts of his department is that some storms went well and some didn’t. We agree with that statement and by our account their record now stands at 3-1-2. Anyone else want to comment on their performance this winter season? Also, the council is considering fines for residents that don’t shovel their property. We told you they’d charge you for snow removal sooner or later. Actually it’s an ordinance that they discover a few weeks ago on the books and mention in a sub-committee meeting. We hope you can now see why you need to attend these meetings. Since, we the taxpayers paid for the new snow removal machines; shouldn’t we at least receive an opportunity to benefit from it? If not (and it cost us $150,000 financed through a bond that the city will pay back over 20 years) then don’t fine us as the first penalty. How about a warning and then start the fines from the compliance arm of the DPW. Instead of the proposed $300.00, have we thought about the many elderly home owners and disabled persons that are going to need assistance with their walkways?

Ward councilors 3, 5 and 8 mentions that the citizen’s should be proud of the efforts that the DPW and the overall support of the city have given to us this winter during the snow storms. Also, let’s hope for good and unseasonable weather the rest of the winter as the budget for snow removal has nothing left. Personally the poster of this blog was out in the ice storm on 1/7/2009 and the response from the DPW, council and police that the Ward 8 Councilor speaks about was phenomenal. Kudos to them as their efforts are first class all the way!

In what was maybe the most refreshing statements of the night came from the new Councilor at Large as he starts to stress 21st century ideas. This person advocates for more green policies and comments that the City of Everett receives a grant of $400,000 from National Grid to mount solar panels on their public property. Also that person mentions with the new President of our country economic stimulus package will seek construction and green initiatives projects and we should be proactive and have plans ready for funds. The Ward Two Councilor announces that the Police department will be using fuel reduction devices on two patrol vehicles that can reduce gas use by 20%. In three months the results will be known and a decision to implement them will be decided by the Police Chief. It’s good to see that the old lion of the council isn’t a dinosaur….and after reading this post that person maybe has a sense of humor.

Highlights of the School Committee from January 12, 2009 that affects you the taxpayer:

Congratulations to Malden High School for receiving a huge award for scholarships from the South Broadway Improvement Association of over $600,000. Now that’s something to write and feel good about! It means that more of our kids will get an opportunity to better their lives through higher education. More importantly they may just stay in our community to make it a better place to live now and in the future.

Okay, the user fees for the weekend gym time will see a possible increase of $10.00 an hour. Any group after six o’clock will have to absorb the increase. It also appears eventually the only groups that will have access to the facilities are youth, non-profit and for-profit entities from Malden. The Suprindentdant and Mayor demonstrate a real understanding of the need for the gym time while certain council members only show a penchant for increasing the fees. The Supritendant wants a study on the exact hours that are utilized and that his hope is that it doesn’t create a hardship to the numerous youth groups from Malden that uses these facilities. We wonder if the hours in question by these groups if kept at the 24,000 level would create a budget surplus. After last’s years shortfall of $67,000 where’s this money to go? The Ward Four Member calls this a little cushion. I guess when the City of Malden owns the buildings, pays for their upkeep and the people that work in them you can have a little cushion to pad your own budget and agenda. Why not take some of the money from the fees that the Malden youth groups pay and earmark them towards the almost $30,000 a year in uniforms and $4,000 in calculators that are bought every year at Malden High School?

Kudos to the school committee for letting the groups that utilize the schools have an opportunity to be heard before they increase the hourly rental fees for the gyms. At least they are giving the people the perception that they may have a chance to change the policy and or contribute to the process. It still doesn’t excuse the Ward Four Member for his mention of the trash bags as we don’t really see the relevancy to this issue. Well, I guess it does as he and his fellow members realize that they must let people have their say. Even if one person shows up to speak their mind at their meeting then democracy wins when we learn to listen to others that differ from our own positions. I guess what the MTFA has done with the collection of signatures has maybe made some elected officials stand up and take notice for the need of listening to the people that pay the bills.

Thumps up goes to the Ward 6 Member for asking a few questions that need answers from the Mayor. Also the Ward Three Member receives a slap on the back for his feedback on the weekend user fee’s collection periods and the statement that the schools aren’t in the business of hall rentals but education of children.

If anyone ever wants to dispute the fact that the education budget is separate from the City. Just listen to this meeting where the Ward Two Member thanks the Mayor for the city paying the $5,000 bill for the private cleaning company to work on the Ferryway School over the Holiday break. However, our opinion on this Cleanup Gate is that it appears to have been a habitual problem for quite some time and both unions (custodians and teachers) have a duty to report it to their leadership. Shame on both of them for causing us to pay for their lack of communication and community pride.

Americans can take it on the chin, as long as you explain it to them.

-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Get the facts on the mailer

2009-01-11T07:52:00.000-08:00
Can 4400+ signatures be wrong?

As I listened to the Mayor and the Finance Committee of the City Council this past Tuesday talk about the shortfalls for this year’s budget and next. The posters mind drifts back to the letters that I wrote to the Editors of many of the local newspapers and to paraphrase them I suggest (I am a placement and staffing professional) personnel cuts back in the spring (May 31, 2008) to assist with the balance of the budget. It would have given the then out of work people in my professional opinion a fighting chance to find a job of possible equal or greater value. After last month’s revised total of nearly 700,000 people out of work and the highest level of unemployment since 1993 at 7.2%. We’re now bracing for this year an estimate of 9 to 11 percent or higher unemployment. How will those former employees fare now given this last bit of information? We believe the current administration is very forward thinking, not just when it comes to increases in personnel last year.

Why should you care? Government, just like business needs to change the way they conduct themselves. I thought that our city pays into the State’s unemployment fund. I find out that’s not the case and the city self insures its workers as well as the medical coverage. There isn’t any COBRA for the employees (which require the worker pay 102% of the premium). Bottom line it seems that it’s more feasible to not terminate that many employees. But, in the next budget they’re all getting raises (read on the amounts are in this post). I ask you if you still are lucky enough to have a job, are you getting an increase in your salary. Maybe it’s just politics being played by the City and the unions, but, they’re playing with our money. Do you now really know why we want our voices to be heard? Can four thousand and four hundred registered of Malden Voters be incorrect in wanting a say in the way that their tax dollars are being spent?

Facts that you need to know about the mailer that was sent to you this week:

1. We’re not against recycling efforts of the city, as we support recyclebank.com.

2. There is an estimate of a cost savings to the city of about $800,000 for this fiscal year.

We ask:

Does this include the nearly $350,000 of State of Massachusetts and Federal monies that take away from many services in the city.

Isn’t the city using already taxed dollars to increase their revenue stream?

In the guidelines for the PAYT the State of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection advocates for special classes of people to be accommodated and the community to have input before implementation of the PAYT. Did any of us get that chance?

If we didn’t have the petition would there be a possible increase in the cost of the bag for 2009-10.

3. The State of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection which is using this as a model program for other communities to replicate.

Why wouldn’t they say this? They gave the City of Malden a grant (taxed money) to market the blue bag to us with the mailer.

We also assume they advocate for leaders of the community to go around a property tax law and tax us on a service that we already paid for. I wonder what our three state representatives think about this program from one of their agencies.

Top Five reasons to forge on with the certification of signatures for a ballot question:

1. Once we have reached the thresh holds to then not put it on the ballot, unless PAYT was rescinded beforehand, would show a complete lack of good faith to all who signed and ultimately would mean that your organization and those who are part of it would lose total credibility. Clearly that is not an option to us.

2. People who signed were told that the objective was to get the PAYT program on the ballot so that the citizenry would have the ability to choose whether or not this was a program they wanted or did not want. PAYT is very controversial and no matter what the Government types try to frame it as- indeed it is a tax increase which in Massachusetts is supposed to have a right to vote on. People were clearly told and the law states that if a certain thresh hold is reached then a special election would be held if a lower thresh hold were reached then it would go to the ballot at the next municipal election.

3. We need to send people out to vote in good weather and if we don’t proceed on now the better the chance that people will just accept it. This is what the city may want from its citizens.

4. It matters not whether the State or City is in difficult times as they have an obligation to receive input from the voters as to whether or not they believe the services they receive are worth the taxes they pay.

5. In most of the private sector, cutbacks and freezes on positions and pay increases are the norm. Should our government be exempt from the same experience that the general populace is experiencing this year?

We ask:

Did the City of Malden allow for the School Department to add 2.1 million in new salaries?

The city about to sign contracts which will give 1.0 million in raises next year to the teachers and 1.0 million in raises to the rest of the departments?

This doesn’t even get into the efficiency or the relevance of all the positions that exist. Is the City doing things differently today in a different manner than 25 years ago?

Get the facts as we advocate for 21st century solutions with new rules that don’t apply from the last century.

We thank you for your support.

Bob

---MTFA---

Happy Holidays....

2008-12-26T11:18:00.000-08:00
It seems like such a long time ago from this past summer that we started our signature drive. Back then, wasn’t the weather awesome as it was sunny and in the eighties when we receive the petition back from the City Clerk’s Office-the date was August 23, 2008. We met at the Fellsmere Pond that is now not only covered in snow, but after the last city council meeting (where an ordinance is changed to protect public lands from illegal dumping) covered with trash bags that we may start seeing again a few days after Christmas. Is there a solution to this illegal dumping madness? Yes in our opinion there is…..reduce the cost of the bag from $2.00 to closer to the .24-.27cents that it costs to make them. Also, the approved trash bag state vendors (yes-you need to know that the State of Massachusetts is also assisting our city levy this tax on us) doesn’t include any local plastic bag maker-there is one in our city. Also, the new smaller trash tax bag (hitting a local business near you on 1/5/2009) for $1.00 costs .12-.14 cents to make. Remember, the reason for the new fifteen (15) gallon bag is that your leadership listened to you at the informational meetings held after the ordinance was passed. Now, that’s democracy in action…no?

With another exemption passed this month by the City Council for economically disadvantage people. This brings the total of Federal and State funds and already taxed dollars to implement the PAYT to well over $300,000 dollars. I guess we do have a bailout occurring in our city-take that Detroit and Wall Street. The subsidies come from our Malden Housing Authority complexes, Malden Redevelopment for low income fuel assistance programs and now from the Community Block Grant. It is clear to us that there was no planning in the implementation of the PAYT. We would assume with the Mayor now asking all departments in the city to start estimates of six to ten percent cuts in expenses that there is still fat in the budget to trim? We believe that without input from the taxpayers some of the cuts might be seen as token at best if the administration starts to again levy fees masked as taxes on us. What we need to look at is what the State House wants to implement to help the cities and towns with the expected budget shortfalls. Some proposals are a gas tax, city/town employee’s enrollments into the State Health Group plans, hotel and local meals tax increases. So, let me get this straight the State of Massachusetts isn’t eliminating any positions? But, our city may have to in the next budget? Also, with so many pizza shops and other fast food places in our city (do you receive at your house what seems to be 100 menus a month?) isn’t the little guy going to get it again? I hope that the council and its compliance army give them a break in regards to any minor violations or infractions that may occur in 2009. Remember, they, like us, are going to be paying more of the bills in the next few years. Wait, we are the little guys-look at the proposed tax on gas that Beacon Hill wants to levy on us. Didn’t gas finally get affordable again for us? I guess that’s an excuse to take more money out of our pockets and still not give us twenty first century solutions.

After review of the city’s budgets by our group, we have some questions about relevancy of some of the positions and miscellaneous department expenses. We hope that after the budget process from the city council and school committee that there is an opportunity for the community to ask questions about the budgets before final approvals. It might be too much to expect a city/town hall style meeting before the final budget approvals. This would ask for input from us---the taxpayers. But, we believe proper communication with the community is essential for this government to be able to properly lead and guide us after this last budget season. Why do the taxpayers want to be heard? It’s the old Clinton phrase-“It’s the economy, stupid!” We want input on where our dollars are being spent and how they are being allocated to the people that need them the most. Would it be a new experience for the city to actually listen to us on an annual basis on the finances? Yes, but the outcome of sharing information with us and getting our feelings about the budget should be a part of the process of full disclosure and transparency to the community. Here’s one statement that I want to be made by us: we don’t advocate for teachers or paraprofessionals that are in the classroom dealing directly with students to lose their positions. After all they are the molders and shapers of the future of our city. We also advocate for no books or other materials (maybe math calculators paid for by the family) would be eliminated from the budget. Same goes for the police officers and firefighters that go out every day and lay it on the line for us. Remember, we can make this statement due to the information that is provided to us by the city-we thank them for posting budgets online (we have them linked on our website). Before we give any specific suggestions we need to meet with city officials to properly ensure we understand the funding source of each position.

If for anything else 2009 will be a very interesting year for our city and the Nation in regards to taxes.

Notes from the City Council meeting from December 16, 2008

Okay, count me a believer in Ward 7 councilor and DPW Director’s plan for snow removal this year. At least after the first storm, the second one left a lot of moisture on the ground that makes it an ice skating rink. I saw a lot of City of Malden plows and three to four sanders make stops on my street. No, they didn’t plow me in when they saw the MTFA bumper sticker on my car. An At large councilor states that they want to know what the procedure is to get the word out to the community for a snow emergency. It seems that the DPW Director didn’t know how the Internet is updated and that it wasn’t his responsibility. Ward One Councilor suggests that the City continue looking into sending text messages out to the community as part of the emergency plan. Our hope is that our public money goes only for that purpose and remains private. There is also made mention that the State of Massachusetts could also be making mid-year additional cuts in funds to the City. The Ward Two Councilor then nominates the fourth place write in candidate to replace an At-Large Councilor that resigned on December 15, 2008. We assume that the person will join the "trash tax seven" as they didn’t sign our petition, but made innuendos about the discussions and deliberations about his appointment with the council taking longer than the ones over the PAYT! In our opinion it’s a rather funny and comical statement to make, but, until proven otherwise that person is still in our opinion being branded a supporter of the trash bag tax. One final note: congratulations to outgoing Council President and overall good guy Ward One Councilor (we’ll suspend our own rules and give his name) Gary Christenson and we welcome his successor Craig Spadafora.

Speaking of rules the current Council President mentions that next year the Charter should be reviewed in regards to elections. Our hope is that the Acts 1950 which our Initiative Petition is under be reviewed by them and they reconsider some of the numbers and deadlines needed for a petition. As it seems that we want and require twenty first century results, but, we are still utilizing twentieth century policies, rules and regulations. Also, it wouldn’t hurt in our opinion to have the entire city of Malden Charter on the City’s website. A perfect example would be the recent appointment of the Councilor at Large position. When you look at the ordinances the rule that makes that person the next At Large Councilor isn’t anywhere to be found. We ask you, is that transparency?

Highlights from the School Committee Meeting from December 15, 2008:

This will be very to the point: the apparent drama over the school gym usages must end as it seems in our opinion that to squabble over nickels and dimes aren’t what we need at the moment. We think that any situation where we the tax payers pay for the schools, janitors and apparently the supplies warrants any Malden community organization to use those facilities. The Mayor seems to support the essence of what the gyms mean to the non-profit youth groups from our city that utilizes the gyms. Here’s some free advice that doesn’t require a consultant or a hired teacher’s coach to write it up for anyone: let the business manager conduct their job (we pay that person very well) to write up new policies. Then the committee can make modifications and approve them after legal counsel reviews and makes any corrections to the policy. It just seems to us that too many people on that committee want to hear their own voices and make themselves appear to be more important than they appear to be. We ask you is that what the children in their care need? One last comment about the apparent lack of cleanliness of some of the schools (Ferryway and Buildings A, B and C at Malden High School)-we say shame on the janitors and their union for the taxpayers having to pay outside cleaners to do your jobs. If, there are issues with the school the employees at those sites in question need to notify their union head and get it addressed with the Head of Public Facilities. Also, apparently some of these schools lack soap for the students to even wash their hands? Again, shame on the workers at those facilities if this is the case.

Happy Holidays and have a Safe New Year

--MTFA--

Did all the horses really leave the gate this summer?

2008-11-30T08:19:00.000-08:00
We read a few months ago in one of the local newspapers about a quote from one of the city councilors in regards to the passage of the PAYT. We like to label them the trash tax seven. This person represents Ward Eight and to paraphrase her, “that horse has already left the gate.” We know that after more than doubling our signatures on Election Day that we can finally answer that person’s statement. We believe that it was an accurate assessment then. However our gate was blocked or held shut when this ordinance was passed at the end of the session in June (6/26/2008). That handicapped (no pari-mutuel horse racing pun intent here) us from the start. Because there was no way humanly possible for us to launch a successful signature drive for 2008 to get it on the ballot this past November. The deadline for ballot question submittals was four days from the signing of the ordinance (6/30) into law. Was it deliberately done by City Hall? That’s something the reader would need to decide.

However, if this is a horse race, we now feel we are half way through it. We believe the thousands that signed the petition get's us out of the starters gate as we are fast approaching the horse in the lead-City Hall's-Goliath. Our horse, who we'll name David (to the reader did you expect any another name?) is closing ground everyday that signatures are brought to City Hall by us and certified by the Clerk's Office. We heard that some of the experts in the city thought we'd be lucky to collect 2,000 signatures. We already have much more than that number certified.

In the end no matter what happens at the voting polls next year. We all cross the finish line as winners. Why? Because, no matter what side you take on this issue, democracy wins when people’s voices are heard. While the elected people in charge listen to them. There are other issues in the community that people talk about with us and we plan on advocating for them next year and beyond. In future blog postings, we’ll profile the trash tax seven and what wards they represent. How to get on the ballot to run for a seat in the city. Also, how City Hall is coping with the anticipation of funding cuts by the State of Massachusetts and how that relates to the reduction of spending for the city.

Notes from the City Council meeting from November 18, 2008 that affect us

The Council President states that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts may have to cut funding to communities next fiscal year by eight to ten percent. Does this mean the trash tax bags will automatically increase another dollar in cost? Also, the rumor is that the bag’s total sales for this year are one million dollars off the initial estimate of two million five hundred thousand dollars. That calculates to about 750,000 bags being sold this year. Or, is it actually about 600,000 bags sold when you factor in the Malden Housing Authority and Redevelopment authorities contributions to this new revenue stream to balance the budget for the city?

Okay, enough on that subject. The council president brings up the subject of limiting or eliminating all travel, out of state conferences and to review what the city is spending on it. He states that the Commonwealth is applying the same measures and that our city should consider taking similar steps. The Ward Six councilor makes a point to have the council realize that some travel is beneficial if the city can bring in monies for programs. We suggest that all travel/conferences be justified through committee review and that more teleconferencing options be utilized by the City.

The Ward Seven councilor states that the city is cutting their initial estimate of gasoline usage. Henceforth it’s a savings of $4,000.00 that will be reduced to $2,000.00-because of the current cost of gasoline. The city will closely monitor the miles and he is very confident that they will maximize the benefit from it. We say it’s a good start, but, there is a feeling we get that the council is squeezing pennies out of a budget that has a few more dollars …heck…a lot more dollars to come out from it.

One final note as the council went into Executive Session to discuss an employee that alledgly stole many hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from the city. We feel confident that the Middlesex District Attorney will investigate the wrongdoing and give us the facts after the investigation is over. We will wait for the findings from his office. While we also want to remind everyone that we believe that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. We hope that the city will take additional measures (which we know they will) if these charges of employee theft are accurate. We the taxpayers need to have our trust restored by City Hall with proper documentation of all accounts and monitoring of them, statement of the purpose of each account and disclose the totals to us.

You can't have it both ways.

2008-10-27T07:09:00.000-07:00

Many of us are happy that we have a DVR from our cable provider. This allows us to finally have the opportunity to watch the last Malden City Council, School Committee and PAYT “Informational” meeting that are broadcast this past weekend from August 27, 2008 at the Beebe School. There will be thoughts and comments from us about some of these events in the next few paragraphs of this post. But, what we want to reflect upon is that to have an opinion about ANYTHING you need to have the facts. While these meetings are a great public service to the community and we need to watch them on a more regular basis. In our opinion without the budgets and reports to follow or review after these televised meetings. We the taxpayers can’t get the proper information to form our own opinions. Why did it take the school department so many months to post their yearly itemized budget online for us to see it? We say enough of hiding the facts and give us the information in real time. Not when budgets, ordinances and programs are already implemented, running and taking our dollars from our pockets. Isn’t it quite obvious that we’re now craving the city’s information to discover the truth? Our city preaches to us on most occasions when the subject of attendance at their meetings is brought up that we need to attend them to find out the facts. Well, you can’t have it both ways. Why? We hear many elected officials and city hall staff issue these words when we seek out accurate information from them, “Use the Freedom of Information Act and apply for it that way.” When that phrase is made by someone the first thought that usually comes across their mind is, “Okay what is someone trying to stonewall me on finding out about.”

Here are some of the issues that affect us the taxpayer from the last City Council meeting: the City Clerk made a prediction that on Election Day on November 4, 2008 there could be a voter turnout of nearly 85% of the 30,000 registered voters. This year there are 3,000 new voters and this fervor makes the city hire new staff for the day-they call them an “aggressive checker.” The clerk continues and stresses that people should find out where they are to vote before they arrive at their designated polling place and contact their office for the details. The city has spent extra money on signage and banners which instructs people where they are to vote. While there is suppose to be a scanned copy of the ballot online on the city’s website for review by the public. There is a discussion that would consider increases in fines for illegal dumping. Hopefully, that’s only an afterthought as the city predicted a 90% compliance rate with last week’s trash bag tax program. Our recommendation would be to give it at least until the end of the month before you increase fines. How much more can you impose your will, power and influence over the people that you govern and lead?

School committee: Again, personally it’s been awhile since some of us have watched a school committee meeting. Names of past members such as Darish, Holland, Boyle, Mini and Erickson come to mind. Kudos to the Principal at MHS, the leadership programs that he champions are much in need and are a positive step for the students. However, we must question the committee’s response and discussion on the weekend usage fee’s that the community pays for the school’s gyms and other facilities. A few of the committee members point out that there are two organizations (we must disclose that our chairperson graduated from one of entities that is in question of non-payment) that have not paid their bills to the school department from last year and the year before. We ask them and you the following question: why do you have a business office and are they not supposed to collect the money? The time that they want to justify the utility usage is applicable and appropriate by the superintendent. However, isn’t it really just nickels and dimes when comparing it to a five million dollar budget shortfall in this year’s budget? The mayor is correct in ascertaining that the community groups do benefit from the usage of the gyms and the intent was ALWAYS to use them that way. Kudos also goes out to the mayor as he remembers and educates his committee on past practices set forth when the schools came online in the 1990’s. Also, we question the validity of needing a business manager when an item like this is brought to the light. We are under the impression that no group is ever allowed on Malden City property without a certificate of liability insurance. Also, it is just bad business practice in our opinion to require any entity to pay for services or goods before they are used or delivered. One more comment if the committee wants to single out non-paying groups from the city, than why not ask that non-city Malden programs not use the facilities? Is that a business or political decision…you can’t have it both ways.

Another question as the school superintendent seeks an energy audit for the entire District. How much will it cost and is it in your budget to spend that kind of money for this year? Won’t that eat up any profit that you’d make from increasing the weekend usage fees to the many community non-profit youth groups that use those facilities? It’s just a thought that we want people to realize that when you make business decisions based on political ones sometimes there are ramifications that don’t justify the original reasons to change or modify a program.

One final observation is what we like to call double convenient speak by our elected officials. An example of this is when the PAYT is mentioned by our leaders they want to emphasize that 125 communities implement it across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts? What they fail to tell you is that maybe a half dozen communities implement it that fit our urban demographics(See our front page about what program our next door neighbor Everett Massachusetts uses-ABC-TV thinks very highly of it). While many others offer their citizens alternative plans to recycle. So, now, consider when our schools need corrective action or are in accountability status from the State. They compare similar urban MCAS score results to backup their less than favorable ratings. One of the reasons is sighting a potential flaw in a test that the State will not admit to. We say, than prove it to us. You’re the educators and do some due diligence for our children. God knows these days it cost enough to educate them, why not advocate and do what is right for them. Also, we ask when a state agency (DOE and DESE) recommends adding personnel to the school system. Why didn’t in-house people first receive consideration for promotions and training paid for by the District to fill those openings? Then to top it all off when another state agency has guidelines that say to not “tax” the citizens or give that perception that it is a tax. You ignore that “directive” and balance a budget with it. Again, you can’t have it both ways. Remember there are eight days until the election. Please, get out there and exercise your right to vote, while you're out there sign the petition against PAYT. It's still your decision to decide if you want it on the ballot for next year.

We have our notes from the Beebe School meeting from August 27, 2008 and we’ll use some of those remarks when next year’s budget is discussed by the council and committee.

“A leader’s commitment to decency is tested every time he or she is faced with an inconvenient truth.”

-Steve Harrison, Human Capital Expert.

MTFA