Moorecol.12-17-2004. . . . .20 Hed : Trying to make sense Of spending $87 mil On unrelated projects By BOB MOORE The long-awaited $87 million capital budget plan landed kerplunk in the midst of four boards Thursday night. Only it wasn't a plan. It was a mishmash of capital needs Town Manager George King thought up for the immediate future. "I've thought it out", King told the conferees. "Now it's yours to figure out." So the four boards probed and tested, questioned and doubted, suggested and finally after exactly two hours decided on an eight-man ad hoc committee yet to be named by selectmen. To see if it will fly and if so, how and when. Soon, they hope. "Hold on a minute", Jeanne Bullock told King. "Some of your projects belong in our committee. We're already working on them." Bullock is chair of the Capital Budget Committee that evaluates all capital projects for Town Meeting. Bullock had just received King's plan two days before and she said it conflicted with the normal budget process which includes her committee, The last-minute report, first promised in September, rushed in suddenly with un-numbered pages - an inch thick. An eye-killer. Seated around a huge four-sided conference table in the Ablondi Room were members of the Board of Selectmen, the Standing Committee for Ways and Means, Capital Budget and the Finance Committee. All invited by King. Originally, King promised in September to visit, one by one, each committee for their judgments. Now views from all four criss-crossed all at once, for the first time. WHAT'S THIS? -Stop a minute. Originally, proposed to as a one-time request for $90 million to pay for - among other things - $24 million to modernize the 75-year-old Memorial Building adding a three-level parking garage to the rear; $24 million for updating roads, intersections and road drainage, as well as smaller items like upgrading Bowditch Field, adding a library branch, rehabbing two schools and a townwide wireless system. None related to the others but King said they were examples of what needs to be done all at once to avoid delay and added cost of rising prices. To be done through a debt-exclusion override that would boost costs for 25 years but would be done when the plan was completed. No other way. This bypassed the normal capital budget procedure leading up to and through Town Meeting. That hit the fan. Precinct One Steve Kruger insisted this was abandoning a system already below state standards and failing to analyze the process. Procedure abandoned. After nearly two hours, Selectman Charlie Sisitsky and FinCom member Dennis Giombetti called for an ad hoc committee to sift the plan and the multitude of suggestions made Thursday night. FinCom Chairman John Zucchi pressed for a small committee of those informed on financial matters: Too many, too little achieved. Finally, an eight-person ad hoc made up of one selectman, two from Ways and Means and FinCom and three from Capital Budget. That's where it stands. Zucchi hoped for an immediate selection and a prompt start of the ad hoc study carried in these crowded times. Don't forget - no work has been done on the as-yet-unseen Fiscal Year 2006 budget which goes before Town Meeting in late April. Not to be forgotten - these same conferees will also be working on the budget once it's formed up. DETAILS? - Don't forget either - none of the projects are related to each other and up until now, no details to sustain the cost and time elements have been spelled out. Details are what you work on offering a judgment. Bullock said some projects were so small that extending payments over 25 years would make them more costly and needn't be in any $87 million package offered. She also warned that state aid strictures have not been considered and could cost money. Zucchi said action would be best concentrated on work to be performed by the Public Works Department. "We should recognize we have an excellent department under Peter Sellers. It is organized, top to bottom, with responsibilities clearly defined. It's financially responsible. If we spend money, we'll get our money's worth there." In 2001 Sellers told selectmen that bringing our long-neglected road system up to snuff would cost $25 million. This year, Zucchi said Sellers told FinCom that estimate is now $39 million. Updating the system involves several factors : Basic maintenance carried out and followed through year after year is involved, says Zucchi. A slow project. We're revising six miles a year today; nine is the goal. "Improving our roads is an intricate problem," added Zucchi, "It must be synchronized with improving our sewer and water systems. You can't do one without the other, That's where the cost runs up. But it's money well spent." OTHER MATTERS - King has set no deadline for action on the $87 million plan that is really a collection of infrastructure improvements that need attention now. It is not part of his FY 06 budget. King has thrown some projects before the public to remind everyone that much remains to be done if Framingham is to remain competitive and affordable to residents. Still the ad hoc committee needs to work quickly on the suggestions. Even more, it needs to know just what it is to come up with. That hasn't been spelled out. It may be that a shakeout of what the future holds will be the result, without taking immediate action. A picture understandable to residents, old and young. After all, members of this committee will be working on other, immediate projects. One problem that worries some is the fact that spending time on the water and sewer rates has not been tackled. That has a bearing on immediate costs. Especially, the new needs and funds available for the budget. So much to do, so little time to resolve. This is the deadest pre-Town Meeting-preparation that I have seen in years. No one talks about it. Like the silence that fell over the $87 million project after its proposal and promises made in September. Taking it up one at a time with these committees might have cleared the air, but the Administration has been occupied in a lengthy quarrel with a Comcast contract. About the only event of note is the "No More Override" sign campaign waged by selectman-candidate Harold Wolfe. It shed no light on financial affairs. It stirred a rumble. Now it's time for some serious thinking. MINUTES - Precinct One Steve Orr's complaint to the District Attorney that minutes of the Housing Partnership are among the missing brought some results : About six tardy minutes showed up in the library. It did more than that. It called attention to the indifferent operations of some important committees involved in controversial housing plans. There are reasons for minutes to be kept. If you're interested in knowing just what's been happening, it's hard to check up if minutes are never filed. Pressing for regular keeping of minutes is just one way of shaping up our local government. Judging from the reaction through e-mails on Frambors, there's apt to be some follow up from residents who like to make sure our government is hewing to the line. I, for one, am interested in how the DA handles the right to be curious. ___________________________________________________________You can reach Bob Moore at edmoore4@aol.com or at 1-508-620-1449. [Let it ring; he's slow but he listens.] To unsubscribe, send email to majordomo@syslang.net with body unsubscribe frambors (the subject is ignored). Please read the Frequently Asked Questions maintained online at http://frambors.syslang.net/faq/about.html before posting or replying.