Visualization of the Watertown, MA Teachers Contract text 2006-2009

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Matt

Hi,

A number of parents have been invited to a meeting organized by Deb King the president of the Watertown Educators Association, to learn and discuss with the union about how the lack of a contract will be handled by the teachers next fall.

Here is the email from Deb:

Hi Everyone~

As you know Watertown teachers still do not have a contract. We will hold a parent meeting on Tuesday, June 21 beginning at 7pm. The meeting will take place at the PVT Charles J Shutt Marine Corps Hall located at 215 Mt. Auburn St., Watertown. The purpose of the meeting is to update you on what is happening with our ongoing negotiations, to discuss possible actions that will take place in the fall and to answer your questions. I hope you’ll be able to join us on June 21 and please feel free to share this information with other parents.

Sincerely,
Deb King
weapres@gmail.com

I wanted to learn more about about the last teachers contract which I was able to find in the Compensation section of the Watertown Public Schools website. The teacher contract is 56 pages long but I wanted a quick way to get a sense of the tone in the document so I downloaded the PDF version of the Teachers Contract, used a PDF to Text conversion service to extract the text from the PDF and then uploaded the text to a tag cloud word generator.

The visualization below contains the 50 most used words in the contract. The size of the word depends on the frequency of use. I’m struck by the fact that student isn’t the largest word in the document. I realize this is a legal contract and document but I wonder if Deb and the other teachers could help explain why grievance, member, committee, association, leave and a dozen or so other words are more frequent than student or kids.

I hope to spend some time this weekend reviewing the previous contract and learning what actions the teachers are planning for next year if a contract is not in place. See you next Tuesday.

Thanks,
Matt

Update 06/17/2001: A parent and teacher asked some questions about why I chose to use Wordle and what I was implying by creating this visualization
Hi Alli,

The document is big 20,000+ words. I choose Wordle as a way to get a general sense of the language and focus of the document. I understand that it is a legal contract and after reading a number of contracts at work over the years they rarely deal with the material substance of the actual work product. I understand that. My point in using the word cloud and highlighting where the frequency of the word “students” sits in the document was to call attention to the fact that what is being negotiated between the WEA and the School Committee and most likely what is causing the impasse has little to do with our children.

Alli, I’m sorry if you found the post insulting, it wasn’t intended to be an indictment against our teachers. This is an issue with the Watertown Educators Association not individual teachers. I also understand that other contracts are written in this same manner but I’d honestly love to see a contract like this get much shorter and focus more on the students rather than explicit details about how to file a grievance. I believe that the vast majority of our teachers care deeply about educating and working with our children and spend significant effort to work with them. Ella has had a great experience with Mrs. Tarr and Mrs. Breen and I make sure to tell them how great of a job I think they do whenever I can.

To clear up any assumptions or implications… I am NOT implying that the majority of our teachers care more about the contract than our kids.

I have a few thoughts after spending time with the 2006-2009 Teachers Contract and reviewing our Watertown expenditure and revenue trends.

  1. I support free market labor unions and believe organized groups of workers can more effectively negotiate fair compensation and provide safe working conditions with for-profit employers
  2. I am supportive of cost of living adjustments (measured by the Consumer Price Index) and pay increases for quality teachers
  3. I do not support guaranteed and scheduled step/raises, specifically increases that are not in step with revenue growth
  4. I believe the town MUST have flexibility to address pay increases annually as town revenue and expenditures fluctuate yearly
  5. I believe the Watertown Educators Association, School Committee, parents of school age children and all residents need to have a voice at the negotiating table and come to agreement on a new Teachers Contract

I’m curious to hear thoughts about how the WEA might react to a proposal that would update a Teachers Contract so that we give the town and it’s citizens the flexibility to address year to year changes in revenue by moving from the current fixed schedule pay increases to a system that ties wage increases to revenue.

I also think that parents have a right to know the major sticking points that are tripping up negotiations between the School Committee and the Watertown Educators Association so that we can collaborate with the WEA and offer alternative solutions. If both the School Committee and the WEA agreed to hold negotiations in public or at a minimum agree to publish the primary areas that are causing the negotiations to break down we as parents could better grasp what is going on.

I support our teachers – I don’t support these contracts.

Thanks,
Matt

I created this one using Wordle.net

created at TagCrowd.com

Posted in Government, Municipalities, Schools, Watertown | 1 Comment

Discuss crime and fire incident data in Watertown, MA with Chief Deveau and Chief Orangio

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Matt

Hi Chief Deveau and Chief Orangio,

A commenter on an article that I wrote in the Watertown Patch made an astute observation about relationships being key in establishing mutual trust and respect. I agree. My initial information request asking for more useful data had no malicious intent or agenda but I now realize how it could have been interpreted as being out of the norm, custom and not realistic. I would like to meet and work to establish that common trust and respect.

Since I made my initial information request I have learned that many Police/Fire Departments are protective and sensitive about access to incident information. In the previous 50 days while researching this data I have found that there are growing numbers of progressive Police/Fire Departments that are providing direct raw access to this information without copyright restrictions.

My goal is to provide the public with useful, ongoing, copyright free access to the crime/fire incident information for our own research and knowledge purposes. I would appreciate the opportunity to meet and discuss this goal and better understand your thoughts, concerns and questions as it relates to this goal.

I will be traveling for business on Monday and Tuesday but would enjoy a face-to-face conversation afterward when it fits into your schedule. Please let me know when we can meet to discuss this.

Thanks,
Matt

Posted in Fire, FOIA, Government, Municipalities, Police | Leave a comment

Thinking about a Watertown, MA data catalog

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Matt

Hi,

I’ve been thinking about how we could share the data already collected by the town and what services might be created in a Watertown, MA if we build a data catalog. I would love to see a data catalog be made available and services built in Watertown – just like what the big guys are doing: http://data.dc.gov/, http://datasf.org, NYC data mine and our nearby Boston data portal. There is so much awesome data sitting in those catalogs and I hope that our town is interested in doing the same here. I’d love to work with officials in Watertown to create our own data catalog. Some of the questions/services that I’d love to be able to see if we had the data:

  • A trash pickup reminder SMS service so I don’t have to scramble out the door on Wednesday mornings.
  • SMS me when my kid doesn’t show up at school.
  • I’d love to know exactly where construction projects are happening today in Watertown when I look at a Google map.
  • How many kids graduated from high school this year? How many didn’t?
  • How many kids are in school today?
  • What are the list of police incidents today?
  • Send me an SMS/email when there is a snow emergency
  • What is my current water bill?
  • What is my current tax bill?
  • What is my assessment?
  • How many police/fire officers are on duty right now?
  • How many miles/feet of sewer are there in town?
  • What are the GPS coordinates for all the sewer lines?
  • Where are the hydrants in town?
  • How many rapes, robberies where there last week/month/year?
  • Where where those rapes/robberies/homicides?
  • What was the response time for each of those incidents?
  • What are the 10/50/100/1000 recent library books checked out?
  • Where are the public parks?
  • Which streets have sidewalks?
  • Send me a text message for today’s school lunch menu?
  • School closings
  • Building permit service
  • Post office locations?
  • Where is the closest mailbox?
  • Where are the voting locations?
  • Where are the different school districts?
  • How many kids are in each school?
  • What is the current state of the more recent health inspection for any restaurant? (Printed QR codes on the door would be awesome)
  • Where are the vacant properties?
  • Where are the spray parks and the hours?
  • Where is the library?
  • Where are all the local government buildings?
  • How many firetrucks are there?
  • Where are the local movie theaters?
  • Where are the bike lanes in town?
  • Where are the different zoning areas?
  • Where are the traffic signals in town?
  • What is the quality of the water at my house?
  • How much water is the town using right now? Past day/week/month?
  • How much sewage has the town processed today/yesterday/week/month/year?
  • What are the 10/100/1000/10000 most recent vendor payments?

I’ll add more and hopefully work to check a few of these off the list. What would you want and which would you want first?

Imagine if each restaurant in town had a QR code for their latest health inspection on the door:

qrcode

Thanks,
Matt

Posted in Municipalities, Watertown | Leave a comment

A response to retired Watertown Police Department employee Harry Palmer

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Matt

This is in response to a number of comments that Harry made on an article that I wrote in the Watertown Patch. The Patch limits comment responses to 1,500 characters so I had to respond in full here.

Hi Harry,

A few points:

Regarding time spent.
I have sent a total of 11 emails to WPD employees in the 49 days since I made my first Freedom of Information Request on April 23rd of 2011. When I sent my first email requesting this public information I was hoping that it would be well received with minimum friction and impact. I have since learned that the Watertown Police Department is more interested in providing roadblocks and presenting challenges than working to provide this public owned information to the public in a format more reasonable than physical printed paper at the police department offices. The WPD has not provided me with information regarding how much time the Watertown Police Department has spent on this request. I would estimate that my 3 phone calls have totaled approximately 40 minutes and the single sentence email responses from Capt. Rocca can not have taken more than 2 minutes per. I’m not privy to time spent on any internal department, face-to-face conversations that have taken place surrounding this request.

Regarding access and visibility for this information.
Since learning more about how the incident information is stored and sent to CrimeReports.com I have provided a solution that would allow the WPD to publish this information on the official Watertown website in the “Document Center” so that this data is easily accessible to all citizens of Watertown. This identical information is being provided to CrimeReports.com, a for-profit organization located in Utah and by publishing the data to the Watertown website it would provide equal access.

Regarding costs.
I asked Capt. Rocca of the Watertown Police Department if they would be willing to let me and/or other citizens of Watertown pick up the cost or perform the work “in-kind” so that this change could be made. I was told by Capt. Rocca on the phone “I don’t know about that.” When I asked who would know Capt. Rocca stated that I would need to speak with Chief Deveau or the Town Manager. With a previous email request I have done that. I do not know the extent of time spent within the WPD so I can’t speak to the opportunity cost that may have resulted in the “hampering” of other duties performed by Capt. Rocca but he heads the Bureau of Administrative Services and the WPD website states that the areas that he oversees fall into this category. To my knowledge nor via my request has an on duty officer been pulled from duty to help satisfy this Freedom of Information Request. The time and effort spent by the Watertown Police Department to work with Crimereports.com to satisfy their request would have been significantly more than my ~40 minutes on the phone with Capt. Rocca. We also continue to pay $1,200/year to that organization. I offered to create a free service that performs the same task.

Regarding my dress/appearance at Town Council or other meetings.
I assume you were referring to my flipflops, camouflage shorts, t-shirt and my Red Sox hat. I don’t see how this is relevant but I came directly from my work/office and didn’t feel the need to change.

Regarding zip codes of current and former town employees.
I did request this information as I think having information about how many of our current and former employees are paying taxes in Watertown is a relevant question to be asking when our employees are asking for increases. The data may show that a large portion of both current and former employees live in Watertown and thus the increases in retirement/pension and healthcare benefits, along with pay increases would carry more weight. If a significant portion of our employees live outside of Watertown and are not paying taxes here, the decisions to increase our taxes does not impact them. I don’t care where a specific employee or retiree lives – I want to know about the aggregate so that I can make more informed and knowledgeable statements and decisions.

Regarding making demands.
I am making Freedom of Information Requests that are allowed by law. If Watertown and local governments in general thought about sharing information and data with the public by default then I and other citizens would not have to make these requests. I’d be grateful if you could please point me to the State statue that references this matter. I googled for it and couldn’t find it. It may be that the statute only requires the paper log format be provided at the police station. The statue doesn’t mean that the Watertown Police Department can’t improve on it and do better. I think it is pretty clear at this point in our information age that reviewing a piece of paper at the police station isn’t nearly as helpful for the public as having it online. The District of Columbia Data Catalog and the city of Chicago Data Portal are two great examples of how local governments are working to provide more useful information to citizens. Data.gov is also starting to provide more useful data.

Regarding entitlement.
You are correct that the public does not have an entitlement to view our own public data in any other format that the state statute requires. That doesn’t mean that the Watertown Police Department can’t adapt and adopt a reasonable change request.

Regarding “back doors” and setting up a server in the Watertown Police Department.
I want to be clear about this. I suggested this as a solution after learning that CrimeReports.com operates in this exact same manner. To be very clear – crimereports.com has a piece of software that runs on a computer inside of the WPD station network inside the computer firewall that has direct access to the “sensitive/private” data that resides in the Computer Aided Dispatch system from IMC. I asked Capt. Rocca that if I were willing to write software that performs the same functions and provide it to the town for free would they allow that. Watertown pays Crimereports.com $1,200/year for this same service. I was offering a free solution and that the resulting data would be available to the public without the restrictive Terms of Use and copyright that Crimereports.com layers on top of their website. When I flat out asked Capt. Rocca if I wrote this software for free and provided it to the town would they use it and he stated that “I don’t know about that Matt.”.

Regarding being a “computer wonk”.
Yes, it is true that I enjoy being preoccupied about the arcane details or procedures that surround using computers and/or writing computer software that can help people. I had not looked up the definition of “wonk” before so thanks for forcing me to learn the exact definition. Because Merriam-Webster has converted their paper based dictionary into a piece of “digitized information” Google was able to answer my question about the definition in ~(0.15 seconds).

Regarding spending money on digitized information.
This information is already in a digital format as it is stored in an ODBC based database within the Computer Aided Dispatch system. The data does not have to be digitized – it already is – and crimereports.com is profiting from it. The act of printing this information from the computer and requiring a human officer to be present to help reporters and citizens review the daily logs might actually be more of a time suck and financial burden on the town finances than if a proper digital information sharing workflow were put in place.

Regarding sensitivity and privacy.
Removal of this “sensitive” information is already taking place within the existing Crimereports.com workflow, I am only asking that the resulting data from that “scrubbing” be additionally sent to the Watertown website Document Center. I understand that some data in the CAD/IMC is sensitive, I am only asking that the same data be made available to all Watertown citizens without the attachments of copyright restrictions that Crimereports.com is placing on it.

There could be benefits for the citizens of Watertown and the town employees if the Watertown Police Department and other town departments decided to encourage increased collaboration with the public and make data/information public by default. I’ll mention this article again: http://cairns.typepad.com/blog/2011/04/whats-in-a-name-open-gov-we-gov-gov-20-collaborative-government.html. I’m picking up her book, Wiki Government, from the Library tomorrow.

Thanks,
Matt

Posted in FOIA, Government, Police, Watertown | Leave a comment

Watertown, MA school district enrollment trends

Posted on June 4, 2011 by Matt

Hi everyone,

Hope you are enjoying a beautiful afternoon. I’ve been playing around with data from the Department of Education Office (DOE) http://finance1.doe.mass.edu/statistics/ trying to better understand the Watertown, MA enrollment trending data. During the School Committee presentation on Tuesday I was interested in better understanding slide 9, WPS Enrollment Trend (anyone have the pdf?). I was hoping to see a few things presented slightly differently in that chart, I wanted to see longer term trends and 0 based Y axis charts, so I went to the DOE website so I could use their data.

I plugged all the data from the DOE into this data exploration tool:

Powered by Socrata

Large version here.

Which resulted in a few questions:

There is a discrepancy between the total enrollment presented in the budget review and what the DOE is presenting. In 2009 the School Committee stated we have 2,516 students yet the DOE data shows 2,386. There are 130 students missing somewhere (call their parents!). I’m guessing there is just a difference between in how the values are counted. I sent an email off to the Superientendent and the School Committee to see if they could help me understand the difference.

If the DOE data is accurate the Watertown school district enrollment is fairly stable, peaking in 1998 and slowly declining until 2005 when it start a slow rise again. I’m going to look at including some additional datasets into the Socrata tool so we can compare data.

I was curious how Watertown compares to the school enrollment trend for all of Massachusetts. The data shows enrollment going up until 2003 where it peaked and then has gone down slowly.

Powered by Socrata

I’d love to be able to do some of this same analysis on more detailed data that is specific to Watertown. I think having access to the crime data in town would be very interesting to learn more about.

Other datasets that I think would be interesting to add:
* Individual payments to vendors (who is profiting from our tax dollars)
* Lots and lots of Department of Public Works data would be great to see. I hope to learn more about our GIS system
* Fire call incident data
* Where are all of our fire hydrants?
* Plugging in more specific MAP data from the school and MCAS scores
* Water quality testing data, street by street. Who has the best water in town?
* So many more to ask and learn about…

Thanks,
Matt

Posted in Schools, Uncategorized, Visualizations, Watertown | Leave a comment

Access to Police Department crime reports and a suggestion to the Town Council about creating a Public Collaboration Committee

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Matt

Hi Mr. Town Manager, Chief Deveau, members of the Honorable Town Council and other Town Department Heads,

I could not find email addresses for all Department Heads on the Town website. Please forward as appropriate.

As some of you may be aware, I have have been corresponding with Capt. Rocca and Officer Knell of the Watertown Police Department by email and phone in regards to having granular crime report datasets for the Watertown Police Department made publicly available in a digital format.

I have a message that I think relates to everyone on this list, but a little backstory first:

I sent my initial request for detailed Watertown crime report information on April 26th of 2011. I had a conversation by phone with Capt. Rocca on May 27th – I had asked Capt. Rocca to give me permission to audio record the conversation, he declined so I had someone else in the room with me who transcribed the speaker phone call.

The documentation for these conversations and emails can be found here: http://www.mattmacdonald.com/2011/05/11/getting-access-to-police-incident-logs-from-a-computer-aided-dispatch-system/

I am writing to you after a conversation I had with Capt. Rocca on May 27th during which Capt. Rocca stated that he is unable to answer my questions. During this conversation I asked how I could get my questions answered and then asked who would be able to provide answers. Capt. Rocca stated that I would need to talk with Chief Deveau and the Town Manager. I was clearly told that I do not have the right as a citizen to direct a city employee in their work.

I completely agree, and tried to make it clear to Capt. Rocca that while I feel strongly that the Police Department should have a policy and culture of collaboration with the public, that I am asking for this information, not directing him.

I understand without question that citizens can only make requests of their public employees, the work of a specific town employee is directed by their supervisors and ultimately the Town Chief Executive Officer.

During the past 6 weeks I have had numerous email and phone conversations with members of the Watertown Police Department about this information request. I understand that this level of data sharing and the proposed method is unfamiliar territory for the Watertown Police Department and that a request of this nature could be seen as an “custom”, “challenging” or “setting new precedent”.

Technical hurdles, policy issues, legal challenges and employee time/cost have all been brought up during my conversations with Capt. Rocca and Officer Knell. I have spent significant time learning about the computer aided dispatch system, crimereports.com and internal data reporting systems and processes in hopes that I would be able to overcome the hurdles, issues, challenges and costs to learn more about our town.

There has been a deflection or non-response from Capt. Rocca for each of my proposed suggestions that specifically address his stated concerns. During these conversations the standard response is “I don’t know about such things Matt.” or “I’m going to have to verify that.” I have suggested what I believe is a reasonable, cost effective, technologically viable, legal method for re-publishing the data that the Watertown, MA Police Department is currently paying $1,200/year to crimereports.com for them to have access.

I have raised concerns that tax payer monies are being sent to a private corporation and that the dataset that crimereports.com is using is not made available to the general public. The legal Terms of Use provided by crimereports.com prevents me, a citizen of Watertown, access to the same information in any way other than via their website. The response from Capt. Rocca after I provided a reasonable method for the public to have access to this more granular information included a veiled threat that this information might no longer be available when he said “We provide crimereports.com as a service to the public but given the budgetary times maybe we need to think about cutting it.”

The challenge that I will never be able to provide a solution for is how to change the current information sharing and community collaboration policies of the Watertown Police Department.

A proposal to the Town Council and all department heads:
The Town Manager stated publicly during the FY 2012 annual budget overview that Watertown is implementing a program for Performance Measurement. Also in that same document the Honorable Town Council’s Budget Policy Guideline states that the town will be performing a study of the Pubic Safety departments with the focus being on the future delivery of service.

I believe that if encouraged more citizens in Watertown would take an active interest in collaborating and participating with our local government. We get the government we deserve – but we also can encourage our government to help us care.
I would like to see the following occur:

  1. The Town Council work with the public to draft and adopt a resolution that encourages all departments in Watertown to share information in more useful ways so that the government and public can better collaborate and offer more informed opinions and solutions.
  2. The Town Council consider creating a Public Collaboration Committee which would be directed to identify ways in which the Watertown government can better encourage, solicit and work with the citizens of Watertown to improve our community.
  3. An acknowledgment from the Town Manager, department heads and Town Council that events like the Public Safety study are opportunities for Watertown to tap into the collective abilities of our community and that increased access to information and data about our local government can only increase our shared knowledge, allowing us to make more informed decisions.

I hope that you would read this article from Beth Noveck, who revolutionized the US Patent Office using collaborative processes with public and private sector scientists and professionals. Beth is a much better writer than I am, has been thinking about this much longer and has solid, implemented experience in this area:

http://cairns.typepad.com/blog/2011/04/whats-in-a-name-open-gov-we-gov-gov-20-collaborative-government.html

She also has just written a book about this topic called Wiki Government which I have requested on inter-library loan.

Thanks,
Matt

Posted in Fire, FOIA, Government, Municipalities, Police, Schools, Watertown | 1 Comment

Watertown Budget and Finance sub-committee rejects COLA base adjustment with a 3-0 vote

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Matt

Hi,

With a 3-0 vote last night the Watertown, MA Town Council Budget and Finance sub-committee rejected the recommendation from the Watertown Contributory Retirement Board (WCRB) to increase the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) base from $12,000 to $14,000. There was spirited discussion and I think the councilors asked good questions of the retirement board. The only justification given by the WCRB for the $12,000 to $14,000 base increase was that “… other communities in Massachusetts are doing this.”

Some facts popped out of the discussion:

  • The WCRB can grant a 0%-3% COLA increase each year – they have never gone below the 3% increase
  • The Social Security Administration did not provide for a COLA adjustment in years 2009 and 2010. (SSA changes to COLA 1975-2010)
  • At 3% the COLA increase for retirees each year is $360
  • Adjusting the COLA base to $14,000 would increase the yearly payout to $420
  • With a new $14,000 base the town would add an additional $1.35 million to the currently $58 million unfunded liability

I believe the council members held strong to the fiscal responsibility policies they put in place starting in 2007. This was a tough test for them and I’m glad to see them pass. Last night two of the WCRB members stated over and over that “we’re only talking about $5 a month here… $5 a month – that is less than a cup of coffee per week”.

That same logic can be made for almost any area of town service. The cost for adding back the Elementary Librarian to our schools would be just $.18/month (assuming $50,000 annual salary, $98M budget and $4,400 average property tax). Individuals matter but breaking down the financials to the personal/micro level mask the impact to the system at the macro level. The school department, parents and most importantly our children had to make sacrifices – all areas of our government have had to make sacrifices our retirees should not be any different.

Noreen Lombard brought up a great point during the discussion – that with the cut to the Elementary Librarian position, parents are organizing to find ways to fill the gaps and volunteer their own time. We are all going to need to work together to find creative solutions to these challenges. Our elderly and retirees are often pushed out of mind – I know I need to be calling my grandmother more often, so I don’t like saying NO to financial help without asking if there are any alternatives.

So I’m ask the Watertown Contributory Retirement Board – Beyond increasing the financial assistance to our retirees what can we in the public do to help our former civil servants.

Also thank you to Noreen, Mark and Rich for attending last night – it was good to see familiar and friendly faces in the audience. I also wanted to thank Kate, Mike, Marilyn, Noreen and David for writing emails to the council. Vinnie, the council chair read emails from both those for and against the increase. Having those emails provided some balance to the conversation.

While the sub-committee voted unanimously the final vote in this issue needs to come before the full Town Council. The retirement board president Tom Thibaut made a vocal plea to the retirees in attendance that they should lobby the 5 other councilors hard to get this approved. I feel fairly confident that the full council would not go against the recommendation of the sub-committee but I think we should remind the entire council before the vote of how other citizens in town feel about this issue.

Thanks,
Matt

Posted in Pensions, Watertown | Leave a comment

Our Fast Food Democracy

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Matt

Hi,

There are a number of negative comments made about the effectiveness of our Watertown, MA Town Council / Manager form of government and the decisions made by our Town Manager.

A common complaint that I read in the TAB, Patch, Facebook Group, Your Town and hear outside of school and Town Council meetings, is that our Town Manager, Mike Driscoll has too much power and isn’t held accountable for his actions. Some of the comments suggest that Watertown would do better to move away from the Town Council/Manager structure to a Mayoral form of government under the belief that a Mayor would allow for better representation of the populace.

I don’t buy that.

Our Town Council form of government is capable of holding both our elected and appointed officials accountable to shared public opinion. While true that our Town Manager is appointed by the Town Council, his position exists to implement policy directed by the Town Council and also serves at their pleasure. If our councilors believe the Town Manager is not following town policy it is within their right to remove him from the position.

As a citizen if you don’t agree with the policy execution performed by the Town Manager then your recourse is to contact our Town Councilors and inform them that you disagree with his implementation of policy. If enough citizens contact councilors and they agree with the your argument, then the Town Manager will be removed and replaced. I have first hand experience with a Town Manager being held accountable as my dad was a Town Manager in Mt. Desert Maine for 8+ years, when political winds changed and my dad was forced to resign.

Unlike mayors, city and town managers are often professionals, attending masters level programs on public policy and public administration at universities. Town Councilors act as a buffer from changing political winds for town managers, which allows a professional to implement Town Council policy without fear of political retribution. The mayoral form of government may allow for citizens to more directly hold the city CEO accountable but it also means that quick, sweeping changes in policy implementation can occur.

I also believe that the mayoral form of government is more open to political perks and retribution. The elected Mayor/CEO chooses how town policy is implemented but their specific decisions will directly impact their own job. With the school, police and fire departments having extremely active voting unions I believe that an elected CEO is more prone to making decisions that benefit a small, vocal minority than what may be in the best interested of all citizens.

A common thread throughout Facebook posts, blog comments and hallway conversations is that our current local government doesn’t represent the views, concerns and values of the public. I’ll respond with a familiar idiom: “We get the government we deserve”.

There is no quick, easy way to make our voices heard and while the Town Council/Manager form of government is an existing, wide-spread and time tested system, making personal impact requires a tough tradeoff – significant time and effort on our part.

In order for us to move beyond a Fast Food Democracy we need to spend more than five minutes reading a Patch, TAB or Facebook article where internet trolls then throw one or two sentence jabs at our elected and appointed officials. We need to roll up our sleeves, turn off the TV, attend long boring meetings, spend the time to critically read and review sub-committee reports and have the courage to ask questions in person.

This quote by Andrew Jackson nails my sentiments:

“But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. It behooves you, therefore, to be watchful in your States as well as in the Federal Government.” — Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address, March 4, 1837

Thanks,
Matt

References:

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor%E2%80%93council_government
  2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council%E2%80%93manager_government

UPDATE:

A few people seem to be upset by increased citizen participation in our local government. I’ve been pretty open about who I am and that I live and pay taxes in Watertown.

—–Original Message—–
From: tflaherty1@tampabay.rr.com [mailto:tflaherty1@tampabay.rr.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 2:54 PM
To: Towncouncil
Subject: Mat who???

who is  this  ”clown”, mat mac donald?  And what does he think he is  doing? Is  this  what those  who  risk  their  live are faced  with?  A no nothing  wanna be,  a  wanna  be,  as  he  said…Like  his  daddy?
Does  he  pay  tax  in Watertown?  My  family  does (159  highland  ave)

THOMAS J FLAHERTY

Posted in Government, Municipalities, Watertown | 1 Comment

Block the Watertown Retirement Board recommendation to increase the Cost of Living Adjustment

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Matt

Hi,

I’m asking that you help me encourage our Watertown, MA Town Councilors to reject the recommendation and request from the Watertown Retirement Board to increase the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) base.

This vote will have direct long term financial impact on our school district and other city services.

I attended the 5/23 budget and finance sub-committee meeting where our town pension and OPEB liability was discussed. I was reassured to hear the steps that the Town Manager, Auditor and Council have already put in place. The $58M of pension liability and $118M in Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) liability are still enormous and daunting figures but our elected officials, Town Manager and Auditor are addressing it.

Our Town Council has put a strategy and a plan in place to address these unfunded obligations. If this increase recommendation is approved by the Town Council it will move our liability line in the wrong direction.

There is the possibility on June 1st 2011 at the budget & finance sub-committee meeting for a large group of current retirees and existing union employees to show up and provide visible support for this increase. I don’t believe this group should speak for the entire town and I know that an approval of this recommendation will decrease future funding for our schools, library, recreation, fire, police and public works departments.

Please read the Official Town Meeting notes so you can formulate your own opinion.

Please join me in providing a more balanced discussion and perspective at this meeting?

If you are unable to attend please consider contacting our Town Councilors via email (towncouncil@watertown-ma.gov) to let them know how you would like them to vote.

I created a flyer that I plan on handing out on Tuesday and Wednesday morning at the Lowell School that encourages a more diverse set of voices to speak up and ask questions.

Watertown, MA pension Cost of Living Adjustment

Thanks,
Matt

Posted in Budget, Government, Municipalities, Pensions, Watertown | Leave a comment

An update on continuing to get Watertown, MA police report logs published

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Matt

I’ve had an ongoing dialog and Freedom of Information Request with the Watertown, MA police department about getting access to the computer aided dispatch logs. I was asked to call Capt. Rocca after my latest follow up.

Please call me again to discuss your request
617-972-6535

With some help from friends I found a CrimeReports Publisher Setup PDF that describes how to the police department can provide the same information sent to CrimeReports.com to the general public. Here is what I wrote back.

Hi Capt. Rocca,

After googling around a bit I came across a PDF from CrimeReports.com
that details the setup details for their CrimeReports Publisher
software that is installed on a computer in the Police Department.

On Page 4. of that document Step 10 describes the checkbox that needs
to be clicked in order to easily have the same information that is
being sent to CrimeReports.com be made available on the city Document
Center.

“Choose whether or not you would like to archive a copy of the xml
file that is uploaded to CrimeReports.
If you decide to archive the xml, choose a destination folder by
clicking the Browse button. When you have chosen a destination folder,
click Next.”

Once that box is checked and the destination folder is selected the
XML documents that are sent to CrimeReports.com will also be stored
locally on a WPD computer. It is a minor step to then upload that XML
document to the city Document Center in the same manner as other
Police Department documents are uploaded.

I have attached the setup instructions as a PDF and they can also be
found here: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=4&sqi=2&ved=0CCwQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcms.cityoftacoma.org%2Fcityclerk%2Ffiles%2Fsafeandclean%2FOne-Stop-Web-for-Crime-Info%2F04_Crime%2520Mapping%2FCrimeReports%2FPublisher%2520doc.pdf&rct=j&q=crimereports%20publisher%20pdf&ei=TkreTY7tF5DVgAf6_eXuCg&usg=AFQjCNF6KrsgU8s-eLlAMF1_zlbkEbrsYA

Thanks,
Matt

Posted in FOIA, Government, Municipalities, Police | 1 Comment