Ad hoc committees can be to local government what the punt is to football: kicking the ball downfield and allowing the defense to take over. Making the ad hoc committee play is a too familiar call from some in Town leadership when they feel compelled to Monday-morning quarterback and issue they may have fumbled. While committees—ad hoc or otherwise—can be used as a way to increase community input or examine an issue, they are equally a way to divert the responsibility of decision making to a group rather than an individual and steer an outcome without leaving footprints on the field. …

Reading's new Community Alert System, or RCA, as it is being called, isn’t exactly Facebook or Twitter, but it could be a significant step toward better communication between local government and those of us who live or work in Town. How Town Hall will utilize RCA will likely unfold gradually. Will it simply become another version of EDline, the system used by the schools to keep parents informed, or a modern variation on the now defunct Emergency Broadcast System notifying us of important public safety issues such as hazardous weather conditions?   Ideally RCA will become something more—…

Who’s to blame when the Town makes a decision that goes against the wishes of a majority of the community? Is it the fault of the great, silent majority of the community who is too busy to focus much on the day-to-day minutia of town government?  Is it the Town Manager—the career government official—who is responsible for the operation of the town and one of the Board of Selectmen’s leading resources on the details of an issue? Or, does the buck stop with the volunteer-based, but elected, Board of Selectmen who must bear the burden of making the final call? When controversy boils up, …

The 2012 budget, which Town Meeting approved last week, cut costs and set expectations for what Reading needs to do moving forward to pay its way. By all accounts, assembling the 2013 town spending plan is going to be at least as challenging as this year’s budget was. We have been very successful at managing the town’s needs in the past, but it’s clear that we no longer have the resources to run local government “business as usual” if we want to maintain our high standards and quality of life in town. While the move to regionalization and shared services is a major step in the right direction…

Based on the recent news that someone circulated an email regarding School Committee Candidate Charlie Arthur just prior to the April 5 elections, this is as good a time as any to shine a little antiseptic light on the notions of anonymity and it’s evil twin, retribution, in our town. No matter what the validity or merits of a comment, insinuation or accusation, they should not be made behind the cloak of anonymity.  Laws that ensure that accusers literally face the individual they accuse and that the accused is given time to respond to the accusation date back to the Romans and remain a part…

In the runup to the April 5 Town elections, one phrase heard about town was:  Politics have no place in Reading town government. True enough, given our Town’s form of non-partisan, semi-direct representative Town Meeting.    However, when some go the next step to suggest that major political party politics have no influence on how Reading town government runs, the assertion becomes questionable—if not naïve or at least a bit disingenuous. If one were to look at the roster of the local Reading Democratic Town Committee or the Reading Town Republican Committee, one is likely to find the names …

As the Reading / North Reading Chamber of Commerce pauses this week to recognize Sheila Clarke as Reading’s Outstanding Citizen of the year, it seems like a good time to celebrate Ms. Clarke’s well-deserved recognition and tip our cap to all the other Doers in Town. From her early volunteering with the EDC, to her role as the Co-Chair for the Reading Fall Street Faire Ms. Clarke exemplifies the positive impact one Doer can have on her community. Fortunately, Reading has an abundance of Doers and they come in all shapes and sizes. This column hardly has the space required to recognize them all…

According to some sociologists, nearly 60 percent of marriages end in divorce as the result of financial troubles. Do relationships in a town work the same way? More importantly, do they have to? The hard part about living together, especially in a community during difficult economic times, is how we accommodate our differences, not our similarities. Like it or not, when it comes to solving the Town’s problems there is no “them” there is only “us.” Not living together in a town really isn’t a productive option, while living together well is.  Those who were around Reading during the last …

It’s time Reading has a serious conversation about the balance of rights between the private property owner and the town itself. Reading's bylaws have the bad habit of asserting significant town authority over the rights of private property owners, but few make the point that the town is overreaching as easily as the Historical Commission and its demolition delay bylaw. The ultimate purpose of the Reading Historical Commission has its place and value. The concept of working with private property owners to protect and preserve buildings of historic significance is a laudable goal.   For …

Some say our community is not the type to accept change readily.  If that is true then we have forgotten our heritage. Reading area residents played an active role in the American Revolution, fighting from Day One at Lexington and Concord. If the American Revolution was not about change, what was it about? Drawing a connection between the origins of our country and current local politics is not intended to be a cheap flag-waving rallying cry.  It is intended to remind us that even our forefathers knew, despite the risks, with dedicated, courageous leadership, much good could come from change…

Pretty much everyone decries the role of “special interests” in politics and government until budget time. Then, everyone becomes one. The public comment period of the February 8th Board of Selectmen’s meeting was a succession of representatives speaking on behalf of the departments that will see cuts in their administrative budgets this year. Each of them argued that Town will not be the same after their department budget is cut. They are right. Town will need to operate differently as a result of the budget changes.  As advocates for the various departments spoke, the selectmen listened …

Driven by the effort to reduce costs, increase efficiency and grow substantial new revenue, town leadership has identified a number of town bylaws that should be updated and, in some cases, eliminated. This is a thoughtful move, presumably made based on decades of experience working in government in a state like Massachusetts, and a town like Reading, which often mistakenly equates overzealous local control with definitive self-determination. Growing up, I often heard two pearls of wisdom:  “Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should do it”; and, “More is not the same as …

The town manager has stated that the 2012 town budget is the most challenging in his 30 years of public service; however, it may also be his most wisest, most prudent plan yet.  His budget proposal responsibly preserves first-rate police and fire departments as a top priority while making every effort to minimize negative impacts to educational resources like the schools and library. At the same time, the proposal moves toward regionalizing services for more efficient and cost effective delivery through shared resources with surrounding communities.While municipal employees may resist the …

Despite a struggling economy and home sale prices in Reading averaging $25,000 less in the second half of 2010, back in December the Board of Assessors recommended the town increase property tax rates. The Board of Selectmen adopted the Assessors’ recommendations at their final meeting of last year, enabling the Town to raise needed revenue, while leading some to face a property tax increase in excess of 20 percent.  At the same time—to their credit—the Selectmen resisted the Siren’s call of moving to a split tax in Reading, for now. The big questions left on the table after the December …

We're not entirely sure how this happened, but columnist Dave Mancuso found a "Naughty and Nice" list in his stocking this year. Perhaps the home that Santa visited before Mancuso's supplied Santa with egg nog instead of milk. In any event, here's what he made of that list: There were a few lumps of coal along the way, but the word from the North Pole is that, all things considered, Reading has successfully made the "Nice" list for the 366th consecutive year.  Here is a summary of what the ECNN (Elves Committee on Naughty and Nice) reported to Santa:  ECNN Executive Summary Reading, …

Six years after two perceptive selectmen highlighted the need for Reading to improve its' permitting process, town management has focused time and resources on the business of automating the way Reading processes permits.  While it may seem odd  to say, they need to slow down. According to a presentation at the recent Economic Development Summit, the town has hired a consultant to help identify permitting software to automate the 115 individual forms Reading uses for permits and licenses.  This is good news, but not quite good enough. Automating is not necessarily equivalent to streamlining …

A hot topic this election season is whether or not the government really represents the people the way they want to be represented.  Reading's Town Meeting style of government is one of the most representational forms of government you can have.  Yet a close look at our current town charter, which is essentially the local equivalent of the U.S. Constitution, reveals subtle limits on the direct authority your elected Town officials have to represent you as a voter and citizen of Reading. In Reading, we elect our Board of Selectmen and Town Meeting Members to represent our interests in Town …

Reading's Economic Development Committee (EDC) has been talking-up the idea of assigning a liaison to every business in Town, a simple action that would put the town on a path toward a more harmonious if not prosperous future, not to mention that it better fulfills a mandate of the Town's Charter. Reading's Charter calls for the Town Manager to appoint himself or another full time town employee to serve as an Ombudsman to help "all citizens" successfully navigate their way through the complexity of interacting with Town government.  Today, the Town Manager fills that role, presumably, due to …

It's no accident that Reading's town finances are well managed, and more than a small portion of credit goes to members of the Town Finance Committee.  In good years, FinCom planned ahead for difficult times by adopting a reserve policy as well as guidelines for debt and capital spending and recommending that the town save windfall revenues for the future.  Recently, FinCom supported raising new revenue to protect existing community services.    Great financial management is as much about leadership and vision as it is about math, particularly during times of economic challenge like today. It…