Great Barrington — After six months of what appeared to be tumult and polarization over the Berkshire Hills Regional School District’s organization and finances, along with insinuations by at least some residents that both the district and town are bloated municipal beasts, greedy for tax dollars to spend willy-nilly, it appears that minds have changed, wounds have been healed — or it was simply a loud minority making a grand racket.
At the annual town meeting on Monday (May 4), held, ironically, in the auditorium of Monument Mountain Regional High School whose proposed renovation had been a flash point for discontent, both the school district’s $13.5 million allocation to Great Barrington, and the town’s $10.9 million operating budget — along with a few other articles that might have gotten the wrench treatment — sailed through annual town meeting with overwhelming approval. So did 9 Community Preservation Act projects, Housatonic re-zoning and changes to the wetlands bylaws.
There were a few complaints over the school budget, but not enough, apparently, to sink it. As for the town’s requests for money, the only sticky spot was when Charles Williamson wondered how it was that a mere dump truck could cost $192,000. Turns out it’s a fancy one that also plows.
But before I knew how smoothly it would all go, how generous and supportive a spirit filled the Monument Mountain High auditorium, I was filled with dread, given the rancor of the last six months.
Turns out I’ve been going to too many meetings.
It was going so swimmingly, in fact, that the woman sitting in front of me played Candy Crush through the entire meeting, her phone tucked inside her purse. She didn’t seem worried about the school budget, the $210,000 highway pole barn, the two new police cruisers ($80,000), or a new copier for Town Hall ($10,500).
Candy Crush…
Dave Long, Selectboard candidate Karen Christensen, and Finance Committee Chair Sharon Gregory spoke in support of the school budget. Like everyone who pays taxes in Great Barrington they want the burden for the schools to be spread more evenly over the three towns in the district, and for the district to get a fair shake from the state on school choice reimbursements, now capped at $5,000. Great Barrington shoulders the bulk of paying for the schools; Stockbridge and West Stockbridge pay a lesser amount, since their student enrollment is lower.
Dave Long reminded us that there are proposals out there to reconfigure who pays more property taxes in town, and to change the allocation system to make it property value-based rather than student enrollment-based.
I turn to take a photo of outspoken budget critic George Beebe, and my 48-year-old seat collapses to the floor. I remember that there are no fire suppression systems in the building, 570 students here every day ––
My panic subsides. I look around: “the people’s place,” as it turns out, is not filled up with people. What’s going on here?
And where is David Magadini, our preacher of process?
I later learn that 111 less people attended this meeting than did last year at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center downtown. Out of 4,350 active registered voters, only 324 showed up. In a democracy — and forgive the tired maxim — “if you snooze you lose.”
Why do school budgets always evoke hematological metaphors? “We’ve got to stop hemorrhaging,” Beebe said.
“We’re bleeding here,” Williamson observed.
Despite all the bloodletting, yellow slips fluttered high in support of the budget.
The room erupted in cheers after the school vote passed. A good number of people leave. We may be down to about 315 voters.
Finance Committee candidate Patrick Fennell tries to cut $500,000 out of the town’s health insurance line. It’s a no go. But the business end of the Tea Party stake had chiseled its message: Municipal. Spendthrifts. Cut. De-unionize.
Privatize!
Someone else asked why $45,000 was going to parks improvements, in a tone hinting that whatever it was might be gilded. Town Manager Jennifer Tabakin took the mike.
“Thirty-thousand is for restrooms and a sewer line at Olympia Meadows,” she said, to the silent but perceptible inner cheers from all the baseball moms in the room. The rest of the money is for additions to Housatonic playground equipment and ADA accessibility at Memorial Field, she added.
Dark doom filled the auditorium like the sky in Harry Potter. I checked my warrant and understood why: we were now entertaining the Finance Committee’s proposed bylaw to receive “regular and special reports and statements” about town and school district finances. The proposed bylaw was the by-product of a Mexican standoff between committee chair Sharon Gregory and the school district over her requests for detailed reports. Superintendent Peter Dillon said generating special reports beyond what the district is already required to report was time consuming, and dragged himself and his lean staff away from the work of administrating the schools. Gregory said the reports were necessary to better analyze the district’s finances, especially since the school budget is half of what the town must pay.
Heat rose off of Selectboard member Ed Abrahams, who noted that the Selectboard had previously voted unanimously against the bylaw. “It solves a problem that doesn’t exist,” he said. “It implies that the town or school is trying to hide something. It would increase bureaucracy.”
“The current system wastes money,” said Karen Christensen, who added that it was “inconceivable” that anyone would vote against the creation of this bylaw.
Patricia Ryan was “appalled” that the Selectboard was opposed to it.
Vivian Orlowski was “puzzled” and “saddened” by the opposition.
Finance Committee member Michael Wise, who drafted the bylaw and who voted in favor of it, appeared pained to explain why it was necessary. The intent of the bylaw, he said, “describes current practice.”
Anthony Dapolito said the bylaw only sought “the normal flow of information,” and said that it wasn’t “meant as a challenge” to the town or school district.
If that was the case, why was everyone so grumpy about it?
School committee member Richard Dohoney said the proposal was coming from the “politics of misdirection…it’s not changing anything, but it’s certainly not going to bring us together.” He went on to say that the school district is the “most heavily regulated entity going.”
Selectboard Chair Deborah Phillips said the bylaw would not be an effective “vehicle,” since it is a “non-specific mandate.”
Gregory explained that she would “rather be analyzing data than searching for it.”
As one after another speaker went to the mike over the bylaw, Moderator Ed McCormick grew weary of so much democracy.
“I think we’ve beat this thing to death,” he said.
And in the end the bylaw was defeated, prompting another exodus. Were we down to 200 voters in a town with 6,940 residents?
“It’s what’s on the warrant that gets [voters] there,” an unnamed source from the Town Clerk’s office later told The Edge.
The town’s resolution in support of fossil fuel divestment by the state pension fund raised a few pulses. Several speakers explained that fossil-free portfolios “outperformed” standard investments. Even the Rockefeller Foundation has divested, said activist Gary Stoller, “which says it all.”
Tabakin explained that this wouldn’t affect the town’s investments, and that the town wouldn’t be able to wean itself from fossil fuels for town equipment any time soon. If this is the case, George Beebe wanted to know, why the resolution, especially since “only half the country believes” in climate change.
Christensen wondered why the Selectboard would vote against “rational financial reporting,” and yet “not take action” on the town’s investments with regard to climate change.
Tabakin said the board has no say over the town’s pension investments. The town is part of the Berkshire County Retirement System.
Perhaps the reason that 4 out of 5 of GB21’s citizen petition articles were voted down was that the remaining voters were too tired to lift their arms. But it appears that the advisory-only articles seeking to inform school-related issues were unwelcome, with even McCormick wondering aloud why these articles were being brought before town meeting rather than the school committee.
“We’re being asked to vote no confidence” on town and school volunteers, by a “self-appointed committee,” said Planning Board member Malcolm Fick, referring to GB21, the group of several citizens who intended to galvanize school reorganization and financial changes.
GB21 co-founder Karen Christensen said that the group and its petitions are “trying to solve problems.”
School Committee Chair Stephen Bannon said he didn’t believe it. “These articles are dividing, not helping.” He added that the “school committee is working on many of these items.”
Chip Elitzer, who has come up with a proposal to revise how the schools are paid for, said that GB21 is a group of residents who want to be heard. He didn’t think that board members should tell the public to “let them do their work and shut up.”
It was getting late. Dave Long said there was a “legitimate path” forward for progress, and “maybe we should take a rest on this one.”
In the end, the defeated school-related petition articles were asking: that the school district report payments above $5,001 or greater; that the school budget be decided by the majority of voters from all three district towns combined; that there be “transparency on finances”; and lastly, that the school committee engage in “proactive planning.”
The insinuation that none of the steps called for in these petitions were already being taken appeared to rankle town and school officials and residents. Ed Abrahams called the transparency article “the most offensive” in that regard.
However, the petition article seeking more equitable payment from all three towns in the district won approval, 68 to 34, close enough to require a count. If that count was correct, voter attendance had dwindled down to 102.
Chip Elitzer spoke in favor of the article, explaining that Great Barrington taxpayers would have “paid $29 million less” over the last 12 years had the regional agreement between the towns used a property-based assessment. “That is a transfer of enormous wealth.”
“The Great Barrington tax rate is 3 times Stockbridge’s to support the school district,” he added, noting that changing it is a “hard process…all three towns have to agree.”
