Healey visits with local officials
Published on January 29th, 2003
STONEHAM, MA - Local officials from Stoneham, Winchester, Wakefield and Reading met with Lt. Governor Kerry Healey at Stoneham Town Hall this week in a dialogue about potential budgets cuts over the next two years.
The meeting brought together a pair of Selectmen from each town, their respective Town Administrators and a member of each town’s finance boards. Also present were Sen. Richard Tisei (R-Wakefield), Rep Carol Donovan (D-Woburn) and Rep. Paul Casey’s (D-Winchester) Chief of Staff Michael Auerbach.
Stoneham Board of Selectmen Chairman Anthony Kennedy, Selectman Charlie Smith, Finance Board member Jim Grayson and Town Administrator Dave Berry were all in attendance at the closed meeting.
“She was a little late arriving, but she stayed for an hour that was very productive,” said Kennedy. “I asked her to open up and say a few words, and then each of the town officials, in alphabetical order, made a short presentation to Lt. Gov. Healey.”
“Her spiel was that she was there to listen to what our problems were, and she invited recommendations to solve the problems,” said Kennedy.
Kennedy noted that Healey took copious notes during
the hour session, and asserted that the information could factor into Gov. Romney’s budget cut decisions.
Romney is scheduled to appear on television Wednesday, Jan 29 to outline a budget plan for cuts to local aid in FY2003, and may also address FY2004.
“Communities were explaining how damaging any cuts to local aid would be, and how it would probably result in overrides and layoffs,” said Kennedy who spoke on behalf of Stoneham. “Then we got into a discussion about what the State could do to help us.”
Several ideas were tossed around such as a lessening of the special education mandate from each of the cities and towns in the Commonwealth, reworking the formulas for Chapter 70, the possibility of allowing towns to set their own excise tax rate, and setting a ceiling for Quinn Bill pay raises.
“She was writing constantly, and she promised us that everything talked about would be taken into consideration,” said Kennedy. “She also mentioned that she’d like to meet at quarterly intervals, which I thought was pretty decent.”
‘The bottom line was that she didn’t have any answers or initiatives to present,” added Kennedy. “That was a little disappointing because we were hoping she would bring us something to lighten our burden. Instead she listened to what we had to say.”
The closed meeting status of the budget discussion was the fodder for argument both before and after the meeting, however. Selectmen Cosmo Ciccarello and Bob Sweeney both felt “unwanted” and “uninvited” at the meeting, and reasoned that closing the meeting to the public and the media was inappropriate.
“I was down there (town hall) before the meeting got started, and I really felt like a skunk at a lawn party,” said Sweeney.
Ciccarello was absent during the announcement of the closed meeting at last week’s Selectmen meeting, and expected to attend the summit with Healey and the four communities.
“I found out on Tuesday morning from the Chairman that it was a closed meeting with only certain people invited, and I was very upset,” said Ciccarello. “I think it’s very wrong. A Lt. Governor shouldn’t come to Stoneham, and dictate how we run a meeting...Everything should be open.”
“This is supposed to be a free country,” said Ciccarello. “So I told everybody off, and then I left.”
According to Ciccarello, Healey’s office called him at home during the meeting to apologize, and invite him back to the meeting.
Ciccarello declined, and also questioned why other towns were involved in the meeting.
“I don’t care about the Winchesters and the Readings,” said Ciccarello. “All I care about is Stoneham.”
Both Sweeney and Ciccarello also questioned the absence of school leadership from the meeting.
While Ciccarello and Sweeney were criticizing the terms of the meeting, other Selectmen theorized about their complaints.
“Cosmo know about this meeting last week,” said Charlie Smith. “He’s just mad because he drew the short straw, and couldn’t go to the meeting.”
Kennedy first announced the terms of the meeting at the Jan. 21 Selectmen meeting, and stated that Lt. Gov. Healey’s office required several conditions. Her staff requested that the meeting be open to four members from the four communities, and that it be closed to the public.
When Healey arrived, according to Kennedy, she immediately recanted the conditions, and she chided her office for a “miscommunication.”
“When I spoke with them, her staff indicated they wanted a closed meeting,” said Kennedy. “Today she said that she had received a complaint from someone from Stoneham about it being a closed meeting.”
“She said it wasn’t their intention to make it a closed meeting, and she apologized for the misunderstanding,” said Kennedy, who added that Healey’s handlers wanted a focus group of municipal officials having a “frank” dialogue about the budget. “Her staff told me that’s how they wanted to proceed, and I did what I was told.”
“I was pleased to have them decide to come to Stoneham that I didn’t want to throw any negatives at them,” said Kennedy. “I can certainly see the benefit of opening up the meeting next time, and allowing more participation...but it was worth the risk of alienating a few people to gain the opportunity.”
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