Earlier this evening I attended the joint meeting of the Board of Selectmen and the High School Building Committee.
The meeting was pretty much consumed with wrangling over the Memorandum of Understanding, which would make the selectmen a larger part of the process going forward. While this can be a rather dry topic (as my 9-year old daughter observed, "They're just talking about the same thing over and over."), there were some interesting bits...
-- After being told that Peter Clark resigned on his own - that he made the decision and wasn't influenced by others - we heard Town Meeting Moderator David Vieira say that someone "could've made some phone calls" earlier. This suggests that Dr. Clark was asked to resign.
-- Moderator Vieira also expressed his displeasure over the process. The Selectmen and Building Committee have already met several times, but they didn't include Mr. Vieira until today. Moreover, he was concerned that the two vacancies on the Building Committee won't be filled before town meeting. He warned that town meeting representatives might be upset over the fact that they're being asked to approve more money for a project without knowing who's in charge.
He's right. I'm certainly not comfortable with it.
Looking for answers
Eventually they opened things up to public comment, and they reluctantly agreed to let me share an initiative that Carol Murphy (Precinct 9) and I have been working on.
Last week, we started a petition for an audit of the high school renovation project. Since then, this has expanded to request a "soup to nuts" review or assessment of the project which would include an independent cost estimator, and a thorough explanation of what happened and why.
The selectmen danced around the request. Chairman Murphy said that I should take this up with the Building Committee, but I pointed out that it is the selectmen who have the authority to do this under the town charter.
Selectman Bumpus then tried to brush me off, stating, "We don't have money in the budget for this."
Deer in the headlights
I responded by pointing out that we have 30+ town meeting representatives' support for this initative and town meeting approves all financial transactions.
There was a rather pregnant pause here as the Board of Selectmen looked like a bunch of deer caught in the headlights. Except Selectman Mustafa. He was grinning.
Again, they tried to brush me off. I wasn't going to argue the point ad infinitum, so I closed my statements, stating that their memorandum with the Building Committee is just one part of the big picture; that they need to address the rumors and answer the questions lest we risk losing the public's trust.
An expanding budget
I then took issue with one part of the $18.8 million override. The line item for furniture, technology and equipment was originally $2.3 million, and $300,000 has already been spent. The other $2 million had to be used elsewhere in the project, and one would assume that this would need to be replaced.
However, the override calls for $4.1 million for this line item - a $2.1 million increase. The Memorandum of Understanding between the Selectmen and Building Committee explicitly states, "In no event will the project scope of work be increased beyond the intent of the original contract documents."
I noted this, and requested that we simply return to the original $2.3 million figure. I explained that the $4.1 million figure was simply a state guideline based on $15/square foot; that it had increased only recently and without explanation.
Again, they tried to brush me off. Selectman Murphy suggested inflation, but I pointed out that technology gets cheaper, not more expensive. Selectman Bumpus claimed that we were not increasing the scope of the project "because the state would've required a public vote and it didn't."
However, saying that the scope hasn't increased doesn't make it so. Several town meeting members - myself included - have asked for an itemized list of what the $4.1 million would buy, and we've not received it. In my case, they told me that there was no list.
All that said; I'm disappointed. Our selectmen ignored a request for a complete review of this project - something that the public has demanded. The Building Committee was silent about cutting the $2.1 million increase in the technology budget.
These were reasonable requests that - as I repeatedly noted - have the support of 30+ town meeting members and are intended to address the concerns that have been raised and help move the high school project forward. Failure to fulfill these requests threatens the override.
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