(Hour 2a)
Mark Osborne
The Derry Town Council meeting overwhelmingly rejected the proposal to use part of their surplus in order to relieve the tax burden this year. We also heard Rich describe the colorful Albert Dimmock as he excoriates the council for their performance.
We heard that the town of Derry, which has relatively little businesses, is burdened with what amounts to the tenth highest tax rate in the state, and yet lists seventy eight thousand dollars worth of pay raises, without a single line item expressed in the budget.
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You don’t have a clue what’s happening in Derry except what Osborne has told you. He apparently forgot that the top tier is the citizens/taxpayers. We are furious about these cuts. I am a taxpayer. No one in my family benefits from union contracts or is in any way employed by the town. I was there last night and the people in town are furious. Other news outlets are getting this story right. The taxpayers in Derry actually WANT to pay our taxes and keep our services. That’s news. You’ve bought in to a story by four of the least popular people in town. Unfortunately for you, you don’t have a clue what you are talking about. Your take on this situation is LITERALLY LAUGHABLE to anyone who lives here.
Hello, Suzanne.
Thank you for your comment. I actually was there, too. Here’s a link to my blog of the meeting. http://www.girardatlarge.com/forums/topic/derry-town-council-on-may-12-2015/
I have also watched other meetings and spoken with people I know in the town. As someone who has participated in Manchester city government and observed what goes on in multiple communities for a quarter of a century, I think I have a pretty good handle on things.
The questions here really should be: 1) What gives the town administrator the right to ignore the council’s directive on the budget. (You may disagree with the council’s vote, but that doesn’t entitle the TA to be king.) 2) Why are the department heads insisting that nothing different or better can be done? 3) Why are union organizations actively spreading misinformation.
I observed a whole lot more that just a meeting on Tuesday night. I’ve seen this movie before and know how it will end on Election Day if the “tax cutters” get their way. Care to bring the popcorn?
I make it a point to bring popcorn to every town meeting. Was that you typing away at the meeting?
http://www.derrynews.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-there-are-a-few-bright-lights/article_3a320b20-9a59-5f77-84c7-2a01c03eb2f0.html
Here is the editorial from our local paper on this nonsense. Extremely critical of those you are praising.
Maybe you should send them my commentary on my being extremely critical of the brute and deceptive tactics deployed by the unions, town administrator and department heads who proceed from the preposterous position that nothing better can be done and that the council’s directives, in the case of the administrator, don’t need to be followed if the department heads don’t want it to be.
I’d heard of this editorial long before you’d posted it here, though I thank you for doing so, from residents of Derry upset by it’s bias and misstatements of fact.
I strongly disagree with you. I know there is not a majority. I see no reason for the Derry News to be biased. Both newspapers in town are singing the same tune. The town administrator is not on board – BECAUSE HE RECOGNIZES THAT THE TIER THAT COUNCILOR OSBORNE REFERRED TO PUTS THE CITIZENRY AT THE TOP. Why would he risk his job? He doesn’t even live in Derry. The tax cuts don’t impact him. He didn’t do it because he has HEARD THE PEOPLE at meeting after meeting. He is an experienced town administrator hired a short time ago by the same board now judging him. He is putting his job on the line and certainly forgoing his bonus. He is doing what is right. I’m surprised that some of the councilors can be so outraged by Galen Stearns not answering to them when they in turn are not answering to the citizens in Derry.
Government functions a certain way, Suzanne. Like their decisions or not, the Town Council is empowered to issue directives to the Town Administrator and all who answer to it. In defying that directive on the budget, Stearns has declared himself the authority on what will or won’t happen. For that, he should be fired.
Just as the town administrator is answerable and accountable to the council, the councilors are answerable to the people. That is what elections are for. And, if I’m not mistaken, recent town election cycles have elected councilors pledged to lowering the tax rate.
As I have watched the meetings and otherwise followed this battle, it’s clear that the primary agitators are the employee unions and those they’ve scared to death about the budget, falsely in most cases. The departments will never voluntarily come forward and say they can do better as that indicts what they’ve done to that point and begs the question as to why they didn’t do things differently sooner.
Like I said, I’ve seen this movie before.
Leaving East Derry without a fire station is reckless and irresponsible. I have already had friends call their insurance company to ask them about the effects. They were told that their insurance could rise as high as 20%. I don’t live in East Derry but I have many friends that do. There are few hydrants and no one to drive the tanker due to a hiring freeze established in December. Now they are going to close the station entirely. It’s very surprising to hear elected officials and their conservative blogger friends state that closing an entire station has no effect on the safety of the residents in that part of town. It’s illogical. It’s also illogical to seek a $2.50 cut (initially) as well as a $2.00 cut. Even $1.00 is 10% of our entire town’s operating budget.