emergent ink

I am going to try, for the next twelve hundred words, to follow the sage advice spoken by Thumper in Bambi: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.”

Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s going to work.

That’s because, when something needs to be said, that second part (“Don’t say nothing at all”) becomes a command all by itself.

Here goes.

The Board of Finance made two… remarkable decisions this week.

The first was to cut $200,000 from next year’s school budget, because the BOE wasn’t present at their final markup last Wednesday night to answer their questions.

It’s a shame there was nobody there to represent the schools, to stop the BOF from working themselves up to that cut. Someone from the BOE could have answered a few of their questions, point out that they had either misread, forgotten, or not read at all, their budget books. Maybe remind them that they had already asked most of these questions on March 3 and March 21, and that at the conclusion of the last meeting, they were very satisfied with the school budget – and were thinking of giving the BOE more money.

There were two former BOE members in the room during the discussion. I was one. I served for four years, 2001-05. But I was there to report on the BOF. I had no intention of becoming part of the news I was reporting. I said nothing at all, and shouldn’t have. Or should have. That’s the problem with double negatives.

The other former BOE member left that board in 2003, and joined the BOF. We served together for two years. During her years on the BOE, Lucy DiRocco was willing to fight tooth and nail (figuratively) with the BOF over any of their suggested budget cuts. There were many; it took three tries each of the two years (2002/03 and 2003/04) we served together to get our budget passed.

The 2004/05 budget passed on the first try. I like to think Lucy’s move to the BOF had something to do with that.

As for sharing her knowledge of the schools, or explaining how the BOE budget worked, to her fellow board members last Wednesday night, Lucy also chose to say nothing at all, except for a call to cut paraprofessionals.

The Thumper rule prevents me from saying more.

It limits me as far as the rest of the BOF, too. Ron Graiff was unable to attend the previous meetings with the BOE, and had little understanding of their budget. We may never know why Wes Marsh, who started out wanting to give the schools more money for maintenance, thinks cutting $200k will inspire them to spend more in that area. Or how Bob Burke went from 2.9% being “bearable” to needing to “send a message.”

I can’t explain when or how board members changed their minds about the budget. Art Azzarito said on March 3 that “The budget that’s presented to me doesn’t look all that out of line.” On March 3, Roger Wise said “The budget is really tight, it appears to be deficient in one area: maintenance,” and offered an extra $800,000. On April 11, Roger suggested, “Why not cut them to a zero percent increase?”

The second remarkable decision the BOF made last week was to melt away from a discussion about the Senior Center project. They adjourned their half of a joint meeting, prematurely.

It looks like they did this because the First Selectman told them that a petition had made them “irrelevant.” I’m not sure he used that word. He did say that the petition had bypassed both the BOS and the BOF, in getting the question to the town.

That doesn’t matter. If the town’s going to vote on this, at a Town Meeting or at a referendum, it would have been nice for the BOF and the Selectmen to have a public discussion about it, and to go through the questions the BOF had taken a week to compile.

The remarkable thing about these decisions is that they were made for an emotional reason, on the spur of the moment. Which is odd, when the BOF spends so much time talking about taking time to make informed decisions.

I expect the BOF to ask questions. Lots of them. They are responsible for financial oversight of both town and school budgets. They don’t have control over line items in the school budget, but that doesn’t mean they can’t understand it. Somewhere between getting the budget on March 3, and deciding that it needed to be cut on April 11, they should have made an effort to contact the Superintendent or someone on the BOE, ask questions, and get answers. Maybe, even, visit a school for half a day, and see what goes on in a typical classroom. Instead: nothing at all. Then, call the school budget a mystery, and lop off a random amount.

We have a BOF that, when it feels that it’s been ignored, gets petulant and lashes out. If their questions were so important, then why did they forget the answers the BOE gave them in March, and why didn’t they even bother asking their questions last Friday?

The thing some of them seem to care about most, lately, is calling state agencies and trying to undermine the First Selectman’s plan to deliver a town-owned Senior Center that’s almost universally understood to be “the way to go.” The BOF is responsible for fiscal oversight. That means making sure things get done at the right price. It doesn’t mean making sure things don’t get done at all.

I think the reason people don’t come out to meetings very much is because they’re happy. People are happy with the way things are going, and it’s easier to watch a meeting on TV when you don’t have to go and insist that things get done the way they should get done.

When a board has developed a need for attention like the BOF has, going to their meetings can be a good thing.

It seems to be working for Rudy Behrens, who for the past few months has been consistently attending meetings of the BOF, and has therefore been the only person speaking to the BOF about school issues.

Rudy and I agree on some things and disagree on others. I have no problem with Rudy attending meetings and speaking out. Just as I have no problem with Art Azzarito submitting Senior Center questions that were written by Doug Thielen. There is nothing wrong with citizens communicating with their government representatives, and nothing wrong with those representatives paying attention to them.

It becomes a problem if there are only two citizens doing the communicating, and it doesn’t matter which two we’re talking about. Or does it? That’s your call.

If you care at all about the direction the town and schools have been going in, if you think it’s the right direction, then you’re going to have to come out and say so. Don’t say nothing at all.