Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Council mtg 3/11 (the pool)

First... there's a budget meeting tomorrow night. It'll will cover the Revenue, Employee Benefits, Debt Service and Capital Non-recurring parts of the budget... I should get a complete schedule up tomorrow....

But right now, tonight's meeting... specifically... did anyone catch tonight's discussion about the pool?? Damn.

I was truly surprised by the fireworks I lit up. Heck, I seem to recall being told (only two weeks ago) that my idea was good (for your own take, see here) and the problem were the rules of a special meeting. So I really had no idea it would get that heated... with suggestions about my lack of concern for transparency and voter participation... but I think the highlight of how nasty it got was when Matt Altieri made a veiled reference to me being immature... veiled as a comment about how he was glad I was finally showing some maturity... or something malarkey like that. And while I was even taken aback by that comment... I guess it didn't surprise me all that much. I mean I've been getting tattooed on this blog for the past year for my lack of maturity... and come to think of it... most of those anonymous comments (along with the annoying rhymes and tauntingly pro-Dem, pro-northend, pro-pavement, pro-turf, pro-Mary Fritz, anti-environment, anti-Republican, "errrt" comments) have been coming from the Wallingford Public Schools. And now that my mind is racing, maybe I should call long-time Wallingford Public Schools employee Matt Altieri and ask him who the appropriate WPS employee would be... if I wanted to contact someone under the Freedom of Information Act and determine who is using WPS equipment to post comments to this blog. Hmmm... the taxpayers might be interested to know who is using state-subsidized equipment to blog here... anyway....

Yes, the whole conversation got very heated. But I did bite my tongue several times in order to expedite the meeting. For instance, during this discussion there was a great deal of concern over terminology. Yet only two months ago, when I voiced concerns over the terminology of the fund balance... I was clearly told that it was unnecessary to understand the terminology. Huh?

And of course, with my pool proposal there was a legitimate concern about staff time being used on this... but personally, I think the $3,000,000 (one-time) and a $90,000/yr tax increase that related directly to the fund balance policy were a much bigger concern than a few dozen man hours... as well... there didn't seem to be too much concern about wasting $20,000 on that pool consultant... in fact, since one member of the majority said back in May of last year "we were looking for a third party to come in and say it is expensive to run and you're doing a good job," I have to conclude that there is no real sincerity on the part of a majority of the majority. To his credit, I think Matt Hall does want to take action... he's just not sure how to press forward.

And did anyone else notice how Matt Altieri told the world that I oppose the pool? Or something like that. Well, that's his point of view. He can say that... I can also take him to task on it... because I don't think I've ever addressed the pool in any terms other than cost... the same issue that most people have with it. So I'll probably follow up on that one particular comment, considering how outrageous I felt it was. Seriously, I believe Altieri was the person who made the motion for the pool consultant... and now he's gonna get up in arms with me over this? I hope people see him for what he is.

And one comment I've heard several times in the past six months... "(when it comes to the pool,) we need to get it right the first time... because we only have one chance." To that, I say hogwash. The only way that statement is true is if you're speaking in terms of the next election. And yes... it wouldn't surprise me to see nine incumbent Council members tossed out on their fannies in relation to another pool referendum... but I'm not about to start avoiding "tough" decisions based on reelection.

Finally, while I doubted I would find five votes to support the motion that I first introduced two weeks ago... I do believe that I got done what I wanted to get done... town staff is taking action... and before we need to hear from another anonymous poster from the Wallingford Public Schools, I'll point out that if the Council was going to take action... it would have done so years ago. If I hadn't pressed this issue publicly, we'd still be spinning our wheels.

And one last comment following the pool, I was happy I got a nod of approval from the Personnel Committee Chairman (Altieri) that he'll be compiling a brief synopsis of grievances filed by town employees. I'm basically looking to get a handle on employee relations in town... and my guess is that "grievances filed" would be some sort of indication.

Your thoughts?

Tim White
Town Council, Energy Commission liaison

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

6 grievances pending from Public Works

Anonymous said...

After watching the heated discussion tonight regarding the "POOL" I'm shocked that the TM doesn't understand what is being asked of him. He certainly understood the request for an impact study regarding the NE without knowing what the HECK is actually going to be built. If he doesn't understand the problems with the pool he must have had his head in the sand ever since it was opened. Tim, stay away from this and let the know-it-alls do it..

Anonymous said...

Believe me Tim, all our eyes are open to what Matt Altieri really is. It is sad to think tht he is the representative for my district, but does not want to listen me or many of my neighbors. He goes along and votes for what he feelsm woulf get him the most satisfaction.
I bet he never even knew you could find out who was posting as anonymous, perhaps we may see an end to those posts.
Maybe 6:02 was him?
Keep pushing for it Tim, we need answers. If this pool fiasco gets any worse, you are right, all 9 of you will be out.

Anonymous said...

Hey Tim, can't blame you for being annoyed/angry with Matt A. But it hurts your credibility and cause that you outed an anonymous source.

Anonymous said...

Focus on the solution. I was also taken back when several said they did not know what an RFI was or is What needs to be done is write the request: Looking for alternatives for the community pool that when installed will reduce energy demand/costs, stop the corrosion of the building, improve indoor air quality, meet the expectations of the user groups; which can be defined; and provide approximate total costs & financing options for the Town to include but limited performance based contracts, lease to own etc. The RFI is could be sent to pool enclosure firms, HVAC, Energy Savings Company's (ESCO's, not difficult. Also place the RFI on the State contracts web site; Department of Administrative Services, were many contracts are placed for review by qualified vendors

Anonymous said...

Posting as "Anonymous" is not as anonymous as you think.

Anonymous said...

Anonyomous postings, such as this, are anonymous to the masses so people can say what they want. After all, as our good friend Mrs Kleist says."An honest and open discussion cannot take place if every detail is out in the open."such as people who may feel uncomfortable speaking out. But for those who wish to remain completely anonymous, use an internet proxy (myinternetproxy.com) it allows you to spoof through a proxy server completely hiding your identity.

Tim White said...

12:14 thanks. That's definitely useful for people to know. Personally, I'm not worried about who comes here and says good or bad things about me. Though I generally have a sense of whether commenters are regular people or insiders. And I admit... when I see the comments that I'm confident are coming from insiders, such as:

1) "you've lost your mind" or
2) words describing me as "useless" or "a coward,"
3) telling people I "live in another town" or
4) calling my words "irresponsible,"

then I certainly do take those comments with a grain of salt. But as far as I'm concerned, those are just comments coming from good people who are lashing out because they don't care for the scrutiny that, heretofore, has been unseen in Cheshire... due to whatever reason... though IMO, the primary reason is probably that no daily newspaper covers Cheshire. And for that reason, you never get the indepth coverage of "column inches."

Now is that to say there's anything truly, truly wrong? No... but just look at the gas use policy. It's a recipe for abuse... and unless I had asked... would anyone have ever known?

But back to anonymous posting... I have no intention of outing "insiders" who are good people who come here and bad mouth me. I'm not a vengeful person... and I really do believe in having open discussions. But to keep it all simple... the above commenter suggests using an internet proxy. I say go for it... and take the trust out of it.

Anonymous said...

6:02

6 pending grievances - is that a lot? I think the union has about 40 ee's... so that would seem to be a lot to me... but that's why I asked for a trend analysis.

Anonymous said...

Yes, that is a lot. One is put in, and then the retaliation starts, as a result, others follow.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Tim,

Last time I checked, three daily newspapers - the New Haven Register, the Record-Journal and the Waterbury Republican-American -cover Cheshire on a regular basis. I'm not sure that there's enough going on for newspapers to have a Cheshire story every day. You may disagree, but what a blog may deem newsworthy may not carry the same weight in a newsroom.

Tim White said...

Excerpted from the minutes of a recent personnel committee meeting:

http://timwhitelistens.blogspot.com/2008/02/personnel-committee-117.html

Mr. Altieri trusts that the town manager and department heads are the ones who address such issues on a daily basis, get good information, and deal with it.

6:41 is that an appropriate response by a Council member? Should more questions be asked by Council members? Have too many questions already been asked by Council members?

Anonymous said...

7:45 that's a totally fair analysis, IMO. And yes, we probably just disagree. About the "dailies," I s/h said "daily newspapers that cover Cheshire on a daily basis." Anyway... newspapers are ultimately profit-driven... and if anyone thought they could profit... it would be there... so as far as that goes, you're right.

I will add though that media is changing right before our very eyes. And whether it's for good or bad... the change is happening and it's not about reverse course. I find it fascinating to see.