Budget mtg 3/17

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

The budget meeting kicked off with the Youth & Social Services Dept. With 11 ee's (6.52FTE), their proposed budget increases from $257,000 to $275,000.

Then the Police Dept presented their budget. Unsurprisingly I suppose, there was a lot of discussion about town-owned vehicles and the gas use policy governing the vehicles... to which the Chief explained that it's against dept policy for vehicles to leave the state, except on authorized town business. I personally found that reassuring. Regardless, I think we should probably simplify things and put GPS on all town owned vehicles... not just the ones that dept heads feel would benefit from GPS, as staff wrongly suggested.

I think what jumped out at me most in the PD budget though was this:I asked if it was a typo. It wasn't. There was some reason given about it being a reminder of sorts, but... I'm still scratching my head... wondering... could something like this, even inadvertently, have a deleterious effect on employee morale?

As for the overall PD budget... the current year is $3,819,000 with estimated expenditures at $3,669,000. And the TMs proposed budget is $4,003,000... it includes two new sworn officers (currently 48 sworn officers, 44 in the union & four in mgt). And of the two sworn officers, one position is funded for the full year (July 1 2008 - June 30, 2009) and one is funded for six months (starting on Jan 1, 2009).

Finally, the library budget was presented. Their current year budget (and estimated expenditures) is $1,101,000. The TMs proposed budget for next year is $1,164,000. My main question was about the future plans of the "VHS videotape" room upstairs... to which I got an earful about thoughts on a serious revamping of the library, including some new construction. Yikes. That could get expensive, but... I didn't press for any details tonight.

I think the most surprising comments of the night came during this discussion. A resident started asking for the library's winter Sunday hours to be extended into December. And Mike Ecke rebuked the request... basically saying "enough is enough, we can't do everything" (my words, not his) I have to admit... I was pretty impressed... now if he would just say that to the TM for once.... oh well... I'll take what I can get.

Your thoughts?

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District

Pool bubble alternative discussion

For those of you who missed the discussion, here is the motion that I made:

Whereas, (in relation to the Cheshire Community Pool) the Cheshire Town Council wants to save money, conserve energy, improve air quality and protect the existing building;

Therefore, be it resolved, the Town Council directs the Town Manager to prepare and issue a request for information (RFI) for alternatives to the bubble; and

Be it resolved, the Town Council directs the Town Manager to include alternative financing options (for example, performance contracts) for the bubble alternatives in the RFI; and

Be it resolved, the Town Council directs the Town Manager to complete this RFI by May 31, 2009, so that the information may be used in the first year of the 2009/2010 Annual Capital Expenditure Budget.

And here is the discussion that ensued:

Tim White
Town Council, Energy Commission liaison

Gulf of Tonkin X: Coverup or conspiracy, part 4

I think the words of Senator Fulbright best sum up the Gulf of Tonkin situation. When I informed him, for his possible interest, that I'd finally solved the mystery of my missing sonarman, he wrote to me from his law office, "The President and the Secretary of Defense used the alleged attack to pressure the Congress to give them the authority they sought, to give legitimacy to actions which were an evasion of the Constitution's provision on declaring war. They probably knew the attack was misrepresented to the Congress and the public, but it is difficult to prove. It was a very sad and tragic mistake by the President and did great harm to the country and the President."

That just about says it all.

But not quite. In October 2005, the New York Times published a story about an historian at the National Security Agency who reviewed the long-secret Gulf of Tonkin documents intercepted by the NSA and concluded that the agency’s intelligence officers “deliberately skewed” the evidence passed on to policy makers and the public to falsely suggest that North Vietnamese ships had attacked the Maddox and Turner Joy on August 4.

The NSA is based at Fort Meade, Maryland. It intercepts foreign communications, such as phone calls, e-mail and faxes, and is charged with protecting the security of American government communications. It is the largest American intelligence agency, with more than 30,000 employees, including codebreakers, computer experts and linguists.

The NSA historian, Robert J. Hanyok, summarized his research in a 2001 internal document which was kept secret until word of it leaked out in 2005 and Times reporter Scott Shane covered it on October 30. Shane wrote a followup story on December 2, 2005, when the NSA made the original intercepts and intelligence reports public, releasing them on the Internet. In summary, Shane wrote, Hanyok thought the initial misinterpretation of North Vietnamese intercepts was probably an honest mistake. But after months of detective work in NSA's archives, Hanyok concluded that midlevel agency officials discovered the error almost immediately but covered it up and doctored documents so that they appeared to provide evidence of an attack.

"It is not simply that there is a different story as to what happened; it is that no attack happened that night,” Hanyok wrote. “Information was presented in such a manner as to preclude responsible decisionmakers in the Johnson administration from having the complete and objective narrative of events from 4 August 1964. Instead, only [intercepts] that supported the claim that the communists had attacked the two destroyers were given to administration officials.”

"The overwhelming body of reports, if used, would have told the story that no attack had happened. So a conscious effort ensued to demonstrate that the attack occurred.”

John White

Rules of Order

Some of you may have caught a comment by Matt Hall at the last Council meeting. Basically, he apologized to me for a lack of clarity in the rules governing when resolutions may be offered during special meetings of the Council (regular meetings are the second Tuesday of every month and have their own particular rules... while special meetings are most every other meeting and have their own particular rules).

Anyway, if any of you were confused about why Matt brought up the issue of special meetings... and when resolutions are permitted... it was because of me and what I felt were two sets of rules for special meetings... with one set of rules applying to the majority and one set of rules applying to the minority.

Here's my point:

Step back in time to the June 26, 2007 special meeting known as Shenanigate. Hopefully, you'll recall that the Chairman used agenda item 14 (see the agenda here) to introduce his own resolution... which he then explained to Mr. Orsini was well within the Council's rules for special meetings:

Fast forwarding in time to the February 26, 2008 special meeting, please read item 6 on the agenda here.

Yet I'm prohibited from introducing my own resolution

Anyway, Matt is the Chairman and I understand the Town Attorney agrees with him. So my next question... will someone explain to me what exactly is the difference between the Shenanigate resolution and the pool resolution?

I really did appreciate Matt's words, but it doesn't resolve this for me. I'm left with the feeling that we're still operating under two sets of rules... Rules which govern the portion of the meetings that have been predetermined by the Democratic majority behind closed doors in caucus... and rules which govern the portion of the meetings that I consider to be the "open" part of the meetings in which both the public and GOP minority are allowed to participate... allowed to participate only until being given the Heisman... such as when I asked about the town's gas use policy.

I will ask the Town Attorney for greater clarification. But until then, I thought I owed the public an explanation about why Matt made his comments during the meeting last week.

Tim White

Gulf of Tonkin IX: Coverup or conspiracy, part 3

It is the duty of soldiers to follow orders, not to question the mission they’re sent on by their government. However, in a self-governing republic such as ours, it is the duty of citizens to inspect, question and, if need be, challenge the missions on which government sends soldiers into action. Patriotism requires close citizen scrutiny of government policy and practice, especially where the commitment of American lives is involved. Moreover, being a serving soldier does not mean being apolitical. As George Washington put it, When we assumed the soldier, we did not lay aside the citizen. We the people are the owners of the country and the masters of the government including, through the right to vote, those in uniform and if you have to take some heat for asserting that against scoundrels who wrap themselves in the flag to justify their illegal, immoral actions, so be it. As Americans have learned the hard way, the U.S. government sometimes sacrifices American GIs for worthless causes such as nation-building in Haiti and Serbia, and pacification in Mogadishu and Kosovo, where there is no threat to our national security but a lot of power and wealth to be gained by what President Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex.

Our nation must never start a war. We should have a strong military to defend America “that can include preemptive strikes if a threat is clear and imminent” but war must never be an instrument of foreign policy or commercial interests. Offensive war is rightly condemned by a soldier's conscience.

The only sensible and honorable foreign policy for America is strict neutrality. That means nonalliance, nonintervention, and no meddling in the internal affairs of other nations. It means free trade with all who want it, friendly relations with all who want it, and a strong national defense against those who do not want friendly relations.

Our nation also should withdraw from all military treaties so that we are not drawn into war by proxy. George Washington warned us in his Farewell Address to avoid all entangling alliances. His advice is still sound, especially since NATO is being turned into the standing army of the United Nations.

John White

to be continued...

Next week's budget dates

6:00 P.M., MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2008

6:15 p.m. Youth & Social Services
6:30 p.m. Police, Animal Control
7:30 p.m. General Services, Town Manager, Town Council, Town Attorney, Planning, Economic Development, Building Inspection (as time permits)
8:15 p.m. Library

7:30 P.M., TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 2008 - Public Hearing on the budgets

6:00 P.M., WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2008

6:15 p.m. Fire
7:00 p.m. Education
8:30 p.m. Town Manager, Town Council, Town Attorney, Planning, Economic Development, Building Inspection (departments not covered at March 17, 2008 meeting)

6:00 P.M., THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 2008

6:15 p.m. Senior & Transportation Services
6:30 p.m. Parks & Recreation, Community Pool
7:30 p.m. CPFA
7:45 p.m. Finance, Employee Benefits (Medical Benefits)
8:15 p.m. Recap

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District

Thanks for the support!

I've been going to the spaghetti supper fundraiser for about ten years now. And I've never seen it packed like it was tonight... when I arrived it looked like every table was filled. Damn! That was really impressive. Again... thanks to everyone who supported the GOP tonight.

Tim White

Spaghetti supper tonight!

The GOPs Spaghetti Supper fundraiser is tonight from 5:30pm - 7:30pm at the Cheshire Academy Commons. I hope you can make it!

Tim White

The power of the bully pulpit

Some insiders like to accuse me of grandstanding. I prefer to call it using the bully pulpit. Either way, for my first few years on the Council, I tried very hard to ask all my questions "one-on-one." Unfortunately, it was only with time that I came to realize some questions immediately get answered and some questions will never get answered.

It was only when I came to that conclusion about a year ago that I decided some questions simply had to be asked during public meetings... and boy-oh-boy... the power of images is something. Between the TV and the Tubes, by tonight's budget meeting a few Council members must've seen this clip:
And decided that it was going to be politically risky to ignore it. So without going into a whole lot of detail, I'll just say that you shouldn't be surprised to see both:

1) video cameras being installed at town pumps (Elizabeth's suggestion); and
2) GPS installed on all town vehicles in the near future (my suggestion).

I will add that during the meeting one person generously suggested that we could ask the departments if they would benefit from GPS. To which I responded... that was unnecessary.... after all, I'm concerned about the benefit to the taxpayer... and, though I'm sure no Cheshire employee would do this... if someone was taking gas for personal use... and using a town-owned car for personal use... would they really want a GPS on the car?

I'm sure the Bridgeport boys wish GPS was never invented:

BRIDGEPORT — Four city fire inspectors have been fired after a lengthy investigation showed they spent workdays visiting friends, taking care of rental properties and spending time at home and doughnut shops. Central to the investigation conducted by Fire Department officials were the readouts from GPS units in the inspectors' new city-owned minivans. The devices revealed that the four were spending much of their time at "unassigned addresses," often for hours on end, officials said. (Conn Post, by John Burgeson)

Tim White

p.s. Thanks to Cindy over at Underground Town Hall for helping spotlight this as an area that was just asking to be abused... and though we may still need to keep pushing this... I'm guessing that there won't be much resistance to reform... besides, if they don't... everyone's gonna get a big surprise! :)

A real life RFI response!

I got the following from an email I received from Rich Ogurick earlier today (email addresses deleted):

Here is what you get when you send a "request for information" to a pool enclosure vendor.

Rich

From: the Gavin's
To: ogurick@aol.com
Sent: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 2:49 pm
Subject: Fw: OpenAire Estimate

From: "Robert Christie"
To: "David Gavin"
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 1:58 PM
Subject: OpenAire Estimate

Re: BUDGET ESTIMATE, Cheshire Pool
Location: Cheshire, CT
Date: 03/03/08

Dear David
The approximate value for the OpenAire enclosure would be $2,875,000 (based on the size you thought most appropriate). This enclosure is estimated to be 105'x218'(18 Bays) with 14' high sidewalls to the work point, gable structure with a 4/12 roof pitch, two full gable ends by OpenAire. A connecting building measuring 24'x20' with 8' sidewalls would abut this structure joining it to the existing change rooms.

This estimate is in accordance with the attached sketch dated 29/02/08. Installation is by OpenAire's non-union crew, if union rates are applicable the estimated price would be affected. This estimate is based on the assumption that the project site is easily accessible and that there is a suitable staging area available. Poor site conditions may effect the cost.

This estimate includes the design, fabrication and installation of the OpenAire building. The structure is of OpenAire's exclusive, thermally broken aluminum frame. The roof would be glazed with 1" (25mm) polycarbonate and would contain thirty two (32) operable roof panels (opening up to 50% of the rafter length). The vertical areas would be glazed with 1" (25mm) insulating glass, typically in the form of sliding glass doors. OpenAire's standard bay spacing is 12' on center.

This estimate does not include;
1) Supporting foundation
2) Heating and dehumidification systems or lighting.
3) Taxes.
4) Permits and bonds.
5) Power to the control panel.
6) Final cleaning.
7) Installation of wiring between enclosure and control box should box be located beyond the enclosure.

This budget estimate is based on today's dollars and inflation should be taken into account if the project is further out.

I trust that this is to your satisfaction.

Sincerely

Robert Christie
(613) 476-4534
www.openaire.com

Despite the fact that they had no real interest in understanding the meaning of the fund balance terminology, they did insist on understanding the meaning of the term RFI. Maybe it's just me, but I figured "request for information" was obvious, while "designated unreserved fund balance" may require a bit more thought.

Seriously though... who among you believes that this RFI example (from the "Cadillac" of pool enclosures) will be sufficient for the Council to adopt my motion at the next meeting?

Tim White

F&S Oil management

Reported by the NHRs Luther Turmelle:

A month before F&S Oil shut its doors and left 12,000 customers scrambling for a new home heating fuels supplier, the president and chief executive officer of the company was fired by the Middlebury man who owns the business, an attorney (Timothy Moynahan) for the owner said Tuesday....

“(Chris) Carr was hired to run the company early in the decade, and Mr. Stevens was an absentee owner from that point on,” Moynahan said. “He (Stevens) relied completely on Carr, and for a number of years, that confidence was validated. The results were good.”...

Stevens is listed as owner of the bio-fuels plant at 265 Sandbank Road in Cheshire, according to loan documents with the state Department of Economic and Community Development. The state agency gave F&S a $200,000 loan in December, the terms of which call for repayment over a 10-year period at an interest rate of 3 percent.

Tim White

Budget basics: cash in and out

First you have the cash coming into the town... which is primarily funded with property taxes... that's the big blue pac-man that's gobbling up all the other taxes...

Then there's the cash going out of the town:
Sorry I can't find the budget schedule handy, but there is another budget meeting tomorrow night at town hall.

And on an unrelated note... the Cheshire GOP will be having its annual Spaghetti Supper fundraiser at the Cheshire Academy Commons this Friday from 5:30pm - 7:30pm. Or if you're interested in meeting one of the candidates running for the CT-5 this year, Dave Cappiello (R) will be at the Notch this Sunday, March 16 from 8:15am to 9:30am and Chris Murphy (D) will be having his green eggs and ham at Paul's Restaurant on St. Paddy's Day from 8am to 10am.

Tim White

Request for information

Last night's discussion on the pool had several facets, but one of the recurring themes was the inability of several opponents to answer the question...

What is a "request for information?"

Fair enough. So after slogging away at researching this question for seconds on end... when I finally thought of going to google and typed in "request for information," this is what I got:

Request for information

Among the first ten hits, you'll find the NYC government, NASA, the Nat'l Institutes of Health, the Virginia DOT, the SEC and the University of Texas... and of course, Wikipedia was first... as it usually is... I assume because, as a website, it gets more traffic than any of the other websites.

And by dedicating a few more seconds of research to this effort, I googled:

definition of request for information

and found this:

Any specific time-sensitive ad hoc requirement for intelligence information or products to support an ongoing crisis or operation not necessarily related to standing requirements or scheduled intelligence production. A request for information can be initiated to respond to operational requirements.... (thefreedictionary.com)

It's a bit militaristic, but it seems fairly straightforward to me. What do you think?

And as a followup to the meeting last night... it was ridiculous and I'm sorry to anyone who saw it. I really had no idea it would get that ugly. I was just trying to do what I thought was in the best interest of the town. Hopefully I can get the video posted in the next week or so.

Tim White

Working at IBM

I got an email today. It included a link to this video.

As you may have guessed, it was sent to me in response to last night's meeting where it seemed everyone kept saying "we don't know how to do this... we don't know what you mean... Tim, please explain!"

I hope none of those people ever apply to IBM for a job.

Tim White

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

Public access may come to U-Verse

Local public access television channels could make their debut on AT&T’s U-verse system by sometime next month, 16 months after the service was launched in the state, company officials said Friday.

U-verse is AT&T’s challenge to cable television in the state. The service is operating in parts of 40 communities and 135,000 households.(NHR, by Luther Turmelle)

Frankly though, I'm still puzzled as to why we don't have Council meetings available on the town website. I figure if I (and seemingly most kids) can learn self-taught videostreaming, any organization with an annual budget of nearly $100,000,000 ought to be able to figure it out.

Tim White

Charter revision 2/26

And here's the discussion on Charter revision: Tim White

Council mtg 02/26/08 - the pool

I've been sick as a dog for most of this weekend... starting to feel better now though. So for those of you who missed the Feb 26 Council meeting, here's one agenda item... the pool.

Btw, since there were procedural issues with my motion at a Special Council meeting, I asked Matt Hall to include the pool on tomorrow's agenda.

And here is my tentative resolution on the pool:

Whereas, (in relation to the Cheshire Community Pool) the Cheshire Town Council wants to save money, conserve energy, improve air quality and protect the existing building;

Therefore, be it resolved, the Town Council directs the Town Manager to prepare and issue a request for information (RFI) for alternatives to the bubble; and

Be it resolved, the Town Council directs the Town Manager to include alternative financing options (for example, performance contracts) for the bubble alternatives in the RFI; and

Be it resolved, the Town Council directs the Town Manager to complete this RFI by May 31, 2009, so that the information may be used in the first year of the 2009/2010 Annual Capital Expenditure Budget.

Tim White

TMs proposed 08/09 budget

Hot off the presses...The police delivered it only a few minutes ago. Comment away!

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District

F&S Oil closed

If you're an F&S oil customer, you should read this WFSB article on them closing their doors and shuttering their windows:

The sudden closure left a lot of home heating oil users in the Waterbury area without an oil supplier, and many with useless pre-buy contracts. Now homeowners are forced to find a new supplier and the state is working to reclaim money from the prepaid contracts.

"Closing your doors at 5 p.m. -- literally disappearing into the night -- leaving 12,000 customers without notice and thousands of pre-buy contracts not honored is no way to do business," Rell said.

If you (or anyone you know) use F&S... please check your oil tanks and do what you need to do.

Tim White

h/t to Vin Flynn!

Public access on U-Verse

For those of you who are unaware, due to ongoing changes in the regulatory environment of cable TV... Cox Cable now has competition in Cheshire (I think it's already available for some houses, though not mine off of Bradford Drive). The competitor is AT&Ts U-Verse. I don't know that much about the product, but the MRJ (by George Moore) is reporting on one of the more contentious issues... the availability of public access channels.

As for my personal knowledge on when it will be available to you at your own house... a few months ago I was driving down my street and I saw an AT&T lineman working. So I stopped and asked him the deal. He said that the rollout is taking time because it is very labor intensive. But as the service becomes available in a particular neighborhood, AT&T will be mailing out notices to each household.

Tim White

An HTML tutorial

A few people have asked me about the "comments section." Specifically, they've asked how to use bold, italics, etc. Here's a very brief tutorial on HTML:There are other ways to get the same results, but I find these to be the easiest HTML code to remember.

Tim White

Ethics in local governments

On the heels of both Governor Rell and the Courant's editorial board calling for ethics reform, I see a survey from Ethics.org (registration apparently required) mentioned in the current issue of American City & County:

Almost one-quarter of the public sector employees responding to the survey said there is a great deal of pressure to compromise standards in their work environments. About 63 percent of local government employees in the survey said they had observed at least one type of misconduct in the previous year. While federal employees reported less inclination toward misconduct on their jobs, 86 percent of state and local government employees reported a lack of a strong ethics program in their workplaces, while only 7 percent of state employees and 9 percent of local government employees said they see a truly ethical culture on the job.

And we live in Corrupticut.

I think it would be prudent for the Council to consider some form of ethics reform... if for no other reason than to simply highlight the very serious nature of the problem... a problem particularly bad in CT.

Tim White

Council agenda 3/11

As promised... here's the Council agenda for next Tuesday:
Tim White
Town Council, 4th District

Charter revision discussion begins

The WRA reports on the possibility of Charter revision.

As many of you know, the Council has nine members... 5 Dems and 4 Rs. And opening the Charter requires a 6 members voting in favor... so opening the Charter would be bipartisan.

The WRA also discusses the timing of the process... "Elizabeth Esty, the chairman of the ordinance subcommittee, said that discussions likely won't begin until April, after the town has finished with its budget."

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District

Cappiello at the Notch

I got an email from GOP Congressional candidate Dave Cappiello today. He's planning on visiting the Notch on Sunday morning (8:15 - 9:30am)... no word yet on when Chris Murphy will be stopping by. Fortunately, in just the past few weeks I've seen both of them in town and asked them each about my #1 concern...

What are we/you going to do about America's unfunded long-term liabilities (social security & medicare)?

Thankfully they both gave me an honest answer...basically saying... it'll be tough, but we (America) need to tackle the problem.

As for pressing them for details... I'm assuming that there will be massive compromises by everyone if any sort of real reform is to be adopted. I just hope real reform is undertaken, while ensuring the social pact that exists today is not disrupted in any serious way for people who depend on the programs.

And on one more political note... the Cheshire GOPs annual spaghetti supper fundraiser is next Friday, March 14 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.

Tim White

NHR on WiLi

Here's the NHRs take on the library going wireless (by Luther Turmelle). Depending on cost, I think this could be a great thing.

And separately, I'm back from Washington. I had a fantastic time... which btw, if you're curious... while I went in the name of the town (the organizers wanted local officials), I paid for everything. I'll try to draft some bullet point ideas this weekend on how Cheshire may be able to use some more renewable energy options in the not-so-distant future... although I've already mentioned a lot of the general stuff already.

Alright... it's late. I'm going to bed... but if you're interested in the Council agenda for next Tuesday... I'll try to post it by tomorrow night, if I have it.

Tim White

WIREC update

Just a real brief update... I recalled a January '08 solid waste committee meeting. In the meeting we discussed the future of our current "waste to energy" facility. (It's a 5 town facility: Cheshire, Hamden, Meriden, North Haven and Wallingford??) Our existing contract expires in June 2009 and the town obviously needs to ensure continuous waste removal. So I started asking some questions about current "waste to energy" options... and apparently the technology has moved forward in leaps and bounds in the past few decades (or at least that's what the salesmen said!). So I'm going to try to get more information about that... though being in a five town consortium makes me doubt that a change of this nature would happen in the time available (approx 15 mos.)

Tim White

WIREC 2008

Washington International Renewable Energy Conference 2008. wow.

I was surprised when I heard that Negroponte was speaking. Then yesterday I heard Woolsey was speaking. Then this morning... I found out the Colin Powell and the POTUS himself are speaking at this thing. So I guess I get to see W speak tomorrow. I actually had a chance about a year or two ago when he came to Bridgeport. I took a pass though, but this time I'm interested.

Anyway, aside from the people who are attending... this conference is pretty impressive. The people here are incredibly knowledgable and many can explain complex concepts in layman's terms... which is good for me. :) I finally found someone who could explain wind mills to me in very simple terms... translating the town's energy usage (12,000,000kWh/yr??) into dollars. The unfortunate thing was that I had several "wind experts" tell me that CT isn't a very good place for wind turbines. So I guess I'll be looking at photovoltaics (PVs = solar) again.

I also found an expert on anaerobic digesters (ADs). For those who don't know what an AD is... it's basically a machine that captures methane (we have lots of it at the sewer plant) and uses the methane (similar to natural gas) to power a machine that to generate electricity (maybe a microturbine or fuel cell??)... or... well... it's something like that. Bottom line though... I got excited when the girl told me that ADs are good for as few as 300 cattle... I figured 4000 houses must generate more *$&% than 300 cattle. Then she told me that 1 cow = 33 gallons of #^*%. So I'm not sure if that would work... something to investigate further... maybe I can find another AD distributor tomorrow.

The last type of renewable energy that jumped out at me today was geothermal. I believe BOE member Tod Dixon was recently advocating this in relation to the electric retrofit for the back 1/3 of CHS. I didn't get any info on it today, but will ask some questions tomorrow.

Aside from renewable energies, the most fascinating presentation for me today was a discussion on the auto industry looking at "plug-in" vehicles. They're mantra was "cool cars, green grid." (Cool = electric.) GM was there discussing about their plans for plugins.

Gotta run.

Tim White

Library going wireless

According to the MRJ, the library wants to go wireless... as for the online version... it's out there, if you google it. But I'm renting a computer right now and... I can't figure out how to open up a new window... so I'm not including the link... just too complicated.

Tim White

Council mtg 2008 Jan 08

For those of you who don't have Cox cable (or are simply interested in an encore performance!), here's the agenda for the January 8 Council meeting... along with another imperfect video upload:

Part 1

Part 2 (starts with fund balance policy)

Tim White

Biofuels: cost or benefit?

Quod Felix tipped me off to this Feb 8 article in the NYTimes about the "true cost/benefit" of biofuels (by Elizabeth Rosenthal).

Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account, two studies being published Thursday have concluded.

The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent months, as scientists took a closer look at the global environmental cost of their production. These latest studies, published in the prestigious journal Science, are likely to add to the controversy....

The destruction of natural ecosystems — whether rain forest in the tropics or grasslands in South America — not only releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when they are burned and plowed, but also deprives the planet of natural sponges to absorb carbon emissions. Cropland also absorbs far less carbon than the rain forests or even scrubland that it replaces.

Just something to ponder.

And in a related topic... I'm hoping to attend this renewable energy conference this week in Washington. With names, such as Negroponte and Khosla, I think is supposed to be a pretty big-to-do. Finally, something that may be of interest to people who have ever tried understanding the "who's who" of the "renewable energy" field, this floor plan of the adjacent trade show may be helpful as a basic tutorial.

Tim White

p.s. the conference may make it difficult for me to post much this week.

List of town vehicles

In a recent post, I mentioned the town's gas use policy. My thoughts there led to some discussion about the town's fleet. So here's the most recent list (June 30, 2004) that I have handy. Additionally, if you read the list, you'll notice I was incorrect in saying the town (excl. schools) had 170 vehicles. (I recalled that number from this list.) However, as you can see, the "170" includes 23 school vehicles. Also worth mentioning is that a few of these "assets" are something other than vehicles, such as generators, chippers, etc.





Tim White

Council mtg 2/13

For anyone who missed the Feb 13 Council meeting, you can watch it here. The quality is imperfect (there's an audio/video mismatch that gets progressively worse as you near completion of the video), but I figure it's better than no online version. Click here for the agenda.

Part 1 Part 2

I haven't had the time to determine times for each agenda item. But if any of you watch it, I'm sure people would appreciate you adding times for the beginning/end of each agenda item in the comments.

Tim White

Pasta supper on 3/14

David Schrumm's annual pasta dinner (a GOP fundraiser) will be March 14 at the Cheshire Academy Commons from 5:30-7:30pm. Adults - $10, kids - $3.The Cheshire YMCA is also having a fundraiser...The Cheshire Community YMCA will be honoring Donald Wailonis, Ives Farm and Bill Fountain at our Annual Dinner Meeting and Awards Ceremony. The event will take place on March 12, 2008, 6:00pm at the Farms Country Club. Tickets are still available for the event. If you would like to purchase tickets you may call the YMCA at (203) 272-3150 or email cpeluso@southington-cheshireymca.org. Tickets are $35.00 and include dinner and a cash bar.

If you have a fundraiser that you'd like mentioned here, just email me the details and I'll try to mention it.

Tim White

Gulf of Tonkin VIII: Coverup or conspiracy? part 2

This is the sixth installment of a continuing piece about my dad's experience. For the previous installments, click here to see part I, part II, part III, part IV, part V, part VI and part VII.

Coverup or Conspiracy? part 2

In fact, North Vietnam strongly denied ever firing torpedoes at the destroyers. Giap reiterated that to McNamara in Hanoi and said in their official 1965 statement that the alleged attack was "deliberately staged by the United States to have a pretext for carrying out its criminal designs against the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam." Furthermore, the now-declassified radio messages have been made public. Captain John Herrick, commodore of the two-ship patrol, radioed this message to the Commander in Chief of the Pacific at 12:30 a.m. on August 5, 1964: "Review of action makes many reported contacts and torpedoes fired appear doubtful" He also has stated, "It was the echo of our outgoing sonar beam hitting the rudders, which were then full over, and reflected back into the receiver. Most of the Maddox's, if not all of the Maddox's, reports were probably false."

Twenty years after I'd come forward, with more than a bit of apprehension about being charged with treason for revealing secret information, I was pleased to have my story completed and to feel "cleared" of the "crime" of speaking out against what I saw as governmental deception. That deception was real and, as we now know, ultimately led to the tragic loss of more than 58,000 Americans, billions of dollars of materiel, and a clear sense of national unity and purpose. It was far worse for Vietnam and southeast Asia, of course, where the destruction was enormous and the death toll ran into the millions. (But note that many of those deaths were committed by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong against their own people.) McNamara now acknowledges that Vietnam was a mistake, but he only admits errors of judgment, not deception and coverup. Shame on him!

As for me, I never felt unpatriotic about what I did, although I was considered so by some people. I was antiwar but not antimilitary. I supported our troops but not our foreign policy. I separated the war from the warriors, some of whom were my friends and comrades-in-arms. I didn't want to see them come home in body bags because of an unconstitutional and just-plain-wrong conflict. I believe America's freedom must be defended from all enemies, foreign or domestic. I also believe there are more than a few of the latter kind in positions of social, commercial, industrial, financial and political power who use their influence and resources in what can be called conspiratorial fashion to extend their power and to increase their wealth through manufactured situations such as the Vietnam debacle. (Two of the current phrases for such phony ventures are "nation-building" and pacification.) Therefore I challenged a government policy because I felt it was contrary to the best interests of our nation, our armed forces and the world itself.

John White

to be continued...

The Saturday Night Live debate

Financial software budget

The NHR (by Luther Turmelle) continues to report on the proposal for new financial software in Town Hall:

The Town Council will take two weeks to evaluate a request by the community’s finance director to appropriate $153,500 to replace a financial software system that didn’t function properly after it was purchased last year....

“It’s a lot of money, and I didn’t get the feeling that everybody in the room was comfortable with it,” Democrat Michael Ecke, the council’s vice chairman, said Wednesday, explaining the decision to postpone the vote on the additional appropriation.

The Budget Chairman, Mike Ecke, is right.

There are a lot of people in town saying it's a lot of money.

And as I said at the last meeting... someone needs to sell this $153k to the public. Because if the public aren't sold, I doubt I'll be sold.

Tim White

Bus route proposal

The MRJ (by Stacy Graham-Hunt) is reporting a proposed new bus route in town. "The proposal is for a Meriden Transit District vehicle to travel from the Westfield Meriden mall to the Cheshire Public Library to the Southington Green, and then back to the Westfield Meriden mall." And what sounds particularly important to me is what "the new bus route will do for seniors." It will "get them to MidState Medical Center, said Doreen Pulisciano, director of the town's senior and transportation services."

Also worthy of mention... it seems the Cheshire/Southington route would go directly past the ND.

Tim White

Cappiello at Town Committee

Dave Cappiello stopped by the Republican Town Committee meeting tonight.
He personally asked for my support and I gave it to him.

Btw, does anyone know if former State Rep. Nania is running for Congress?

Tim White

Town gas use policy

I've had several people ask me about the town's gas use policy for town vehicles. So following the Feb 13 Town Manager's report, I figured that would be a perfect opportunity to ask the question and have the whole town get a quick tutorial. Unfortunately, I got the Heisman... and was yet again left with the feeling that open discussion is not welcome during Council meetings unless the majority knows where the discussion will lead.

Anyway... here's the clip of the brief discussion: And here's the followup answer from the TM on the gas use policy:

Gasoline is dispensed at the Public works garage and the Police Department. Employees who are eligible to dispense gasoline have individual access codes which they use to engage the pump. The respective departments receive monthly reports indicating the amount and frequency of an individual’s fill-ups, which is monitored by these respective departments.

...to which I wonder... yeah, it was 11:30pm, but how long would it have taken the TM to speak those words or simply say he was uncertain and would get back to me? Either of those answers would've left me feeling a lot better than the answer I got when I tried to ask a simple enough question.

Finally, for your reference... the TM also gave us a copy of the town vehicle use policy... that's the policy that governs the 170 or so vehicles in the town fleet (schools not included). Here's the policy:

Town vehicles are assigned for use to certain employees in conjunction with the employee’s performance of assigned, official Town duties. This policy establishes the parameters for the utilization of Town vehicles by employees in the performance of their duties. This policy does not apply to any vehicle assigned for use to the Town Manager.

Town vehicles are to be used for official Town business only in connection with the performance of an employee's assigned duties. Use of Town owned vehicles for personal purposes by an employee is prohibited, except as described below.

Certain employees who hold positions that may require them to return to duty during off duty hours on a frequent basis may be authorized to utilize a Town vehicle to commute to and from their places of work. This authorization is made for the convenience of the Town to enable employees to perform assigned duties required of them outside of normal working hours. Employees should limit the amount of personal stops made the amount of times family members are in Town vehicles. This provision shall apply to employees authorized by the Town Manager for this privilege. In general it will apply to the following Departments:

Police
Fire
Public Works
Building Inspection
Parks and Recreation

Employees authorized for use of Town vehicles for commuting, except for Police and Fire personnel, shall be subject to Treasury Internal Revenue Service Regulations relating to the taxation of fringe benefits and the Town will withhold taxes on the value of commuting use accordingly.

I have some thoughts on the gas use policy. But it's late and I'm beat. Any of you have any thoughts on the gas use policy? How 'bout the vehicle use policy?

Tim White

Historic District of the 4th District

At last night's meeting, the town was given an update on the happenings of the Historic District Commission. Included in Jeanne Chesanow's presentation was a brochure. The brochure included this map and photographic explanation of the 4th District's South Brooksvale Road Historic District:I love the whole area over there... between the people and the stories I'm told, I always enjoy knocking on those doors.

I think one of my favorite tidbits... the front yard of the Enos Brooks house was designed by a gentleman named Frederick Law Olmstead. And if you've never heard of Mr. Olmstead, you may have heard of some of his other work... for example, NYCs Central Park.

And another factoid I learned while over there one day... Brooksvale is derived from the Brooks family name and the word vale, meaning river or river valley. So the stream that runs adjacent to South Brooksvale (from Mt. Sanford to the linear trail) gave name to two of the main arteries in the 4th district.

And one last point of information... the Enos Brooks house has been owned by the same family since it was built in 1733. And that the longest that any Connecticut house has been continuosly owned by one family.

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District

p.s. If I got any of my facts wrong, please correct me! I'm pretty sure that's all correct though.

Council mtg 2/26

It's nearly 1am and I'm too tired to write a blog on tonight's meeting. In the meantime, here's the NHRs take on tonight's discussion about the pool and an article about the financial software that was scheduled to be discussed tonight (both by Luther Turmelle).

Tomorrow night I'll try to post on tonight's meeting.

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District

Gulf of Tonkin VII: Coverup or conspiracy?

This is the sixth installment of a continuing piece about my dad's experience. For the previous installments, click here to see part I, part II, part III, part IV, part V and part VI.

Coverup or Conspiracy? part 1

Why do I say "clearly known"? Schaperjahn told me “and he agreed to let me tape record our conversation” that when the investigation got underway, he was in the Portsmouth, Virginia, Naval Hospital. An admiral called him from the Pentagon to ask whether he knew me. Schaperjahn's recollection of my name was not clear at the time, so he answered no. That closed the conversation, but he was left with the distinct feeling that if he'd said yes, there would have been a lot of flak coming at him. Later on, he realized he did indeed know me because of our brief meeting, but by then the investigation was over. The Defense Department had used a cloak of silence about my error in naming Schaperjahn's ship to stonewall the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

To reinforce that cloak of silence, Schaperjahn was immediately transferred to a ship in the Black Sea and was virtually incommunicado during the Gulf of Tonkin hearings. At the time, he was just two months short of retirement. It is customary for such a senior person with so little time left in service to be stationed ashore prior to discharge. Schaperjahn's urgent reassignment was totally out of the ordinary and later led him to think that it was directly connected to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's search for John White's missing sonarman.

So in the interest of setting the public record straight, I offer this footnote to the history of the war in Vietnam. I also point out that the Register editorial statement about me being a contender for "most naive man" was dead wrong and would better apply to the editorial's own position since:

(1) the Navy did indeed conceal Chief Schaperjahn, through sins of both omission (the list of names) and commission (the immediate transfer), and

(2) an admission by North Vietnam was never made because, as I originally claimed, no attack on our destroyers occurred.

John White

to be continued...

School budget V: Instruction

I had an Energy Commission meeting tonight and the Council is tomorrow night. So this is just a quick post without much analysis... I figured you can take a look and see if you have any questions on this fifth (of six) parts of the school budget.Ok, ok... I guess I have to offer a wee bit of commentary. I'm an auditor and I just can't help myself. See... being a beancounter by trade means that I believe 1 + 1 = 2. And when I don't see that, I start to ask questions. Such as in this case where the "sum" of Instruction Accounts = $3,203,185... but the "total" Instruction Account = $3,272,199.Huh?

Not to worry though, by the time the $3,272,199 got transferred to the Mission Statement page, all the numbers were back in order! So what's my take on this? Not much really. I'm sure it's just a simple error. But I wasn't exactly looking for errors either. So when I take this in conjunction with my question a couple years ago (how many teachers do we have?) for which no one had an answer... and a dozen other head scratchers that I never mentioned publicly... it kinda makes me wonder... as an elected official, should I be asking questions?

Questions do require critical thinking. And that can take time. And since I'm pretty busy, it'd be easier for me to avoid thinking and avoid questions.

So maybe I'll just avoid all that and take advantage of the fact that there's a new sheriff in town... with a new motto...

Council does not need to know what is going on...

Yippee! I don't have to go to anymore meetings!

Tim White

Gulf of Tonkin VI: Solving the Mystery 2

This is the sixth installment of a continuing piece about my dad's experience. For the previous installments, click here to see part I, part II, part III, part IV and part V.

Solving the Mystery (2 of 2)

"Did you see any boats?"

"Not a one. No boats, no boat wakes, no ricochets off boats, no boat gunfire, no torpedo wakes”nothing but black sea and American firepower. But for goodness' sake, I must be going crazy. How could all of that commotion have built up out there without something being behind it?"

"Have a look at this. This is what Herrick, the commodore on the Maddox, has been putting out, flash precedence, plain language to Washington and the world in general tonight."

I was handed a few sheets of a rough communications log on which were transcribed all the messages from the Maddox since I had left the ship. The document as a whole read like a monologue of a man turning himself inside out. For the first hour or so, it was all assertive. Then every so often a message of doubt, a message expressing reservations, would pop up about sonars not operating properly, about radars not locking on targets, about probable false targets, about false perceptions due to lack of visibility. But still, it mainly reflected the tone of victimized vessels being attacked that is, until I got to the last page and a half; then, as I read down them, everything seemed to flip around. There was denial of the correctness of immediately preceding messages, doubt about the validity of whole blocks of messages, ever more skeptical appraisal of detection equipment's performance, the mention of overeager sonar operators, the lack of any visual sightings of boats by the destroyers, and finally there were lines expressing doubt that there had been any boats out there that night at all. The commodore urged a complete evaluation of the mixup before any further action be taken.

After the program, I wrote to Stockdale. A few weeks later, to my surprise, he called me. "I think I know where you can find your sonarman," he said, and pointed to a passage in Eugene Windchy's 1971 book, Tonkin Gulf. In fact, there were several references to Schaperjahn, identifying him as chief sonarman of the Turner Joy and noting his evaluation of the situation that night.

I called Schaperjahn, with the gratifying result of finding, after 20 years' uncertainty, that I hadn't been substantially wrong and that those who thought I was lying could finally have the full truth. Schaperjahn had not spoken publicly about any of this except for his comments to Windchy, who sleuthed him out in 1970, and he never expected to see his words in print. (However, he read and approved the first draft of this note for the public record.)

Now it's clear why "John White's sonarman" was never found. It hinges on the fact that I made a simple mistake by saying he was on the Maddox when he was actually on the Turner Joy. That error was due to faulty memory, nearly three years after my brief chance meeting with him in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in March 1965, after we'd returned from WestPac duty. Although the complete list of crew members on the two ships was requested by the Senate investigators, reporter Joseph C. Goulden discovered after the hearings that eight sonarmen were missing from the complete list. In his 1969 book Truth Is the First Casualty, Goulden commented that this incident is indicative of the enthusiasm the Pentagon has for inquiries into the Tonkin episode (p. 212). In other words, the Navy Department never pointed out the fact ”clearly known to it” that I'd misidentified Schaperjahn's ship.

John White

to be continued...

Operational review champion?

I've had this idea in the back of head for a few weeks, but am only finding time to mention this now....

You may remember Jimmy Sima's idea to establish a new subcommittee of the Council, a "Liaison Committee." I think Tom Ruocco gave a good synopsis of Jimmy's idea at the Jan 17 Personnel Committee meeting:

According to Mr. Ruocco, this is committee is nothing more than a suggestion box, and is a way for employees to voice suggestions to the Council, and it gives the Council the opportunity to hear a different aspect of the way the town is being run. Mr. Ruocco sees this suggestion box for employees to bring ideas and suggestions directly to the Council, giving a different perspective on how the town operates, and provide a grass roots input to town operations.

Explained in that manner, I figured Mr. Operational Review himselfwould strongly agree with Jimmy and Tom.

Here was his response:

Mr. Altieri said he has always felt that things are done on a daily basis, and if something is wrong, there is a process to go through in order to change things.... It seems to him that Mr. Sima wants to know what is going on at ground level, and Council members will never know this, and it is the job of the administration to know what is going on…not the Council. The job of the Council is to set procedures and staff oversees employees and insures they do a good job. When there is dissatisfaction with employee performance, the administration explains what needs to be worked on, offers ideas to help, and Council does not need to know what is going on at ground level.

Hmmm... were any of you surprised to learn Mr. Altieri's current long-held view on town government operations?

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District

Gulf of Tonkin V: Solving the mystery 1

This is the fifth installment of a continuing piece about my dad's experience. For the previous installments, click here to see part I, part II, part III and part IV.

Solving the Mystery (part 1)

In 1987 I located the missing chief sonarman. He is Joseph E. Schaperjahn, then retired and living in Richmond, Virginia. In a telephone conversation, Schaperjahn confirmed that he was the man I spoke with. He also reiterated that he informed his commanding officer during the Tonkin events that there were no torpedoes being fired at the ships, and that the images on the sonar scope were "knuckles" in the water, large subsurface swirls formed by the violent motion of a ship's rudder at high speed which give a sonar return that appears as a solid object. And, most important, he said he was told during the event that ship's command didn't want to hear his negative reports; the same thing was said to him in a debriefing afterward in the Philippines. (That left him, he said, with the uneasy feeling there may have been a kind of script from higher authority played out that night in the Gulf of Tonkin to give the semblance of unprovoked attack.)

I found Chief Schaperjahn thanks to Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale, coauthor with his wife Sybil of their 1984 book In Love and War, which was dramatized on television in 1987. At the time of the Tonkin events, Stockdale was a Commander on the aircraft carrier Oriskany; he flew air defense for the destroyers during the August 4 alleged attack. He was later shot down, held as a POW for nearly eight years, and served as commanding officer of the POWs at Hoa-Lo Prison in Hanoi. (The prison, now destroyed, is better known as the infamous Hanoi Hilton.) For his heroic action there, Stockdale was awarded the Medal of Honor. He is now deceased, but at the time of the TV program, he was retired from naval service and a scholar in residence at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. As I watched Stockdale’s story unfold, I was struck by his statement about not seeing any torpedo boats that night. Here is how he put it in his book as he described his debriefing after returning to the carrier:

"Did you see any boats?"

"Not a one. No boats, no boat wakes, no ricochets off boats, no boat gunfire, no torpedo wakes”nothing but black sea and American firepower. But for goodness' sake, I must be going crazy. How could all of that commotion have built up out there without something being behind it?"

John White

to be continued...

Earmark requests

If you've looked at Tuesday's agenda, you may have noticed item 10 - federal legislative requests... that's also what is known as "earmarks." Below is the Town Manager's explanation on this agenda item, along with his suggestion for an earmark:I disagree with the TM. I'm fine with his suggestion, but I think there are other issues that are of higher importance. For example, what about turf? (j/k!). Or on a serious note, there's the energy wasted by the pool every winter. And I'm sure there are other projects that would, IMO, be a higher priority than extending the linear trail... though I like the linear trail.

Maybe funding for a public safety issue... deconstruction of the Strathmore Dam?

And, of course, there's the question of whether the town should request any earmark at all?

Anyway, if you're interested in your own personal earmark, here's the form:What do you think? Should the town request any earmarking? If so, what should the request be?

And one last question... who among you believes the Council will have real discussion on this topic? Or will the discussion be purely symbolic with the decision being made beforehand, behind closed doors... as seems to have happened in the past?

Tim White

Gulf of Tonkin IV: A Matter of Conscience

This is the fourth installment of a continuing piece about my dad's experience. For the previous installments, click here to see part I, part II, and part III.

A Matter of Conscience

My intention in going public was to help end the war. It was a matter of conscience for me. While I was in Vietnam, I'd felt the U.S. was right to be there defending democracy against Communism. But after leaving naval service in June 1965, I began to have doubts as I learned things contrary to the military mindset and to what my fellow officers and I had been told by a Vietnamese general who briefed us in Danang, where my ship, the USS Pine Island (AV-12), had gone in response to the Tonkin events to set up a seaplane base immediately after the alleged attack. The Pine Island, which had been in Japan at the time, was the first ship to enter the war zone from outside, although several other U.S. naval ships were already there. I was the Pine Island's nuclear weapons officer.

The U.S. government's position is that there have never been American nuclear weapons in Vietnam. McNamara reiterated that in 1995 when promoting his book on Roger Aisles' CNBC-TV program. But that position is not true, strictly speaking. While my ship was anchored in Danang Harbor in August 1964, I had responsibility for 40-plus atomic depth bombs (technically known as Mark 101 Lulus) in the ship's nuclear weapons storage area. We were anchored there for about two weeks. Our mission was to provide naval operations support and, if ordered, to load those atomic depth bombs onto seaplanes whose targets would be enemy submarines.

In time I came to feel I'd been conned and America had no moral right to be in Vietnam. Moreover, the war itself looked more and more unwinnable by America. As the body count mounted in an action I regarded as militarily and morally wrong, I became active in the antiwar movement as a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. I didn’t march in the streets carrying a placard, but I did sign on to an ad by VVAW which was published in The New Republic over the names of several hundred Vietnam vets, including mine. (I left the VVAW about 1969, after two years membership, because my inclination toward that sort of political action waned. I recognized that the antiwar movement was not the same thing as the peace movement. The former was political, the latter was spiritual. The former was based on anger, the latter was based on “the peace which passeth all understanding.” Moreover, the peace movement ”the process of developing inner peace or enlightenment as the basis for outer peace or world unity” applied to all aspects of society and culture, not just the political. The peace movement, as slow, difficult and uncertain as it may be, is senior to the antiwar movement because it has a more fundamental aim.)

Although I felt that an ad wouldn’t be enough, I was unsure of what else I might do. Then in November 1967 I heard Senator Wayne Morse (D-Oregon) say on the evening news that President Johnson was replacing the Constitution with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Morse’s remark dissolved my perplexity and crystallized something deep within me. Because of his comment, I thought I could help the antiwar effort and my country by undercutting the basis on which the war was conducted, namely, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

I knew the resolution was based on false information. Johnson had a draft of it in his back pocket, so to speak, when he addressed Congress on August 5, 1964; his staff had written it six weeks earlier. He called for Congress to rally ‘round the flag and then stampeded it into authorizing a legal instrument which allowed him to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent any further aggression." So, after several weeks of anxious reflection on the situation ”Am I sure about this?” “Will I get fired from my job?” “Will I hear a knock on the door from the FBI?” I wrote my letter.

As the political scene heated up around the Senate investigation, an editorial entitled "Is John White's Sonarman Listening?" appeared in the Register. It said, "If this mysterious chief sonarman does indeed exist, surely he would have come forward or had been produced by now. We're certain that even if the Navy wanted to, it couldn't keep such a key witness concealed. We wonder whether White even wants to believe the destroyers were attacked when he remarks, 'I think that an admission by North Vietnam would be the most conclusive evidence [that an attack took place].'The title for 'most naive man' has another strong contender." The matter ”and my public shaming” rested there for two decades.

John White

to be continued...

Council agenda 2/26

Here is the agenda for Tuesday's Council meeting:I'll probably add some commentary this weekend, but not right now.

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District

Beef recall hits schools

The NHR reported on the beef recall(by Elizabeth Benton):

Fourteen school districts statewide received beef that has been recalled following allegations of animal abuse at California slaughterhouse Westland Meat Co...

There have been no reports of illness resulting from the meat...

Madeleine Diker, director of food and nutrition services for Cheshire, said six cases of the recalled beef have been destroyed. But a case and a half of beef was consumed by students and staff at the Cheshire High School since an Oct. 30 shipment....

Tim White

Korten on proposed ND

Above are two pictures of the location of the proposed 20 ft. Retaining wall and the approach to the wooden bridge. Note the 10 mile river in the back ground. This area is the flood plain of the river where the wall and approach to the wooden bridge will be built. The 20 ft retaining wall is necessary because there is a 30 ft. drop from route 10 to the river. The proposed map at the town hall shows a retaining wall all around this area north of the pond. They will cut down 4 to 6 ft.along Rt.10 and build up 20 ft. along the river by the pond. The cost of this retaining wall will be expensive as it is located in the mud of the flood plain. My guess is the expense will be too high and it will never be built as proposed. I am amazed that our elected officials would back a plan like this.

Bob Korten

As always, this blog is open to everyone, including guest posters on every side of every issue.