"And if you belive that one, I've got four lovely acres right on the waterfront you'll just LOVE!!!!!

City Pier lands $2M
grant to clean up PCBs

Seen behind the unlocked gate of the city pier, Mayor Will Flanagan

 announces plans to clean up and revive the site. Then all those in

 attendance looked over a big map of the territory they stole from

Tom Koolan and decided to celebrate their ill gotten gains by pulling

a prank on Koolan and phoning in an order for 100 pizza's from

Pizza Hut for delivery to the Koolan household . All the pizzas

to be covered in "PCB" laden , two-headed anchovies.

***************
By Michael Holtzman
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Apr 15, 2010 @ 11:53 PM
***************
FALL RIVER — City officials, joining Lt. Gov. Tim Murray near the banks of the Taunton River adjacent to Point Gloria, offered arguably the best news Thursday in nearly 30 years for what’s known as City Pier.
Two million dollars is now available to clean up and prepare marina development of the 4½-acre site along the Heritage State Park boardwalk, Murray and Mayor Will Flanagan enthusiastically announced as the wind whipped off the river and most of the two dozen people on hand applauded.


“This will breathe life into our city’s waterfront,” Flanagan said of the long-neglected, one-time marina and working site.
“For far too long our waterfront has sat dormant,” he said, calling it the city’s “economic engine.”


“This is a great project for a number of different reasons,” Murray said shortly after the Seaport Advisory Council he chairs voted to expend the funds during a meeting at the city’s Advanced Technology Manufacturing Center.


The state grant funds would be made available to the city Redevelopment Authority, the property owner, after federal and state environmental officials approve a plan to clean up and cap the toxic concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls identified on site.
“The money would be available in fiscal year 2012, in July 2011,” said Kenneth Fiola, Fall River Office of Economic Development executive vice president and the Redevelopment Authority’s staff person.
Fiola expected the cleanup and design plan to be prepared by June of next year. The Redevelopment Authority contracted the Beta Group Inc., Norwood, to do that work through a $175,000 state grant, he said.
Fiola said the PCBs were detected about three or four years ago after the mile-long boardwalk was built between Heritage State Park and the Point Gloria riverfront condominiums.

Murray said funding a contamination cleanup is consistent with brownfield remediation support at strategic urban centers, expanding jobs and tax bases in the SouthCoast among other sectors the administration of Gov. Deval Patrick has targeted since taking office.
The Seaport Advisory Council represents Fall River, New Bedford, Boston, Salem and Gloucester.

Two years ago, early in the term of former Mayor Robert Correia, he identified the need to find a funding source to clear the PCBs, an invisible, organic compound and known carcinogen, to tap this waterfront development and revamping of adjacent Route 79.


That March 2008 Herald News story was the first time officials publicly identified the presence of PCBs.

Fiola estimated, through environmental testing at that time, the cost as $1 million to $3.5 million to remove or cap PCBs with concentrations as high as 560 parts per million when their cleanup goal was two parts per million.


He said yesterday the $2 million grant should handle the cleanup and, in most cases, capping of the contaminants, design and permitting of the site for development.
It would include leveling the top of the seawall to accommodate the envisioned public marina, Fiola said.
“You will no longer see this ugly fence,” he told the audience, a reference to the expanse of locked chain-link barring the public for years.

More than 25 years ago, when there was a marina of more than 100 boat slips and the Dockside Lounge was a well-known bar and grill, “the amount of PCB concentration nobody knew about. The source is still unclear,” Fiola told Flanagan after the brief media announcement.

Fiola told the gathering they envisioned, in a rough plan he displayed by the Beta Group, 110 boat slips and transient slips that would part of a public marina that would be privately developed.


Among those with likely the longest-term interest in what was presented yesterday was lifelong mariner Tom Koolan, a civil engineer.

From 1974 until “Oct. 31, 1982,” he said, Koolan and his partner Harry Deiss owned the marina and lounge.
That was until the Redevelopment Authority took the property by eminent domain. Six years later, in 1988, The RA signed a land disposition agreement for a group headed by city businessman James Karam, who developed Point Gloria, to build a $25 million marina, health club and high-rise apartments at city pier.


It never happened.
Koolan, standing apart from the crowd, said of the envisioned plan, “That was my marina. It changed maybe the position of a couple of docks, but that was my marina.


“The amount of money that could have flowed through my hands up to the present days was in the millions,” he said, showing mixed response to the announcement.


The city ultimately paid the partners just under $300,000 after a 1986 court judgment.


Yesterday, Flanagan, Fiola and Murray also spoke about the prospect for nearby rail transportation the Patrick administration has prioritized, and the goal of lowering and removing Route 79 for wider waterfront access.
Fiola reiterated how that could add eight to 10 more acres to the 4½ already secured. Without the priorities of Murray and Flanagan, he said, “This project would not have occurred.”


At one time, $8.5 million in federal funds was available for development of a Route 79/Davol Street waterfront boulevard. Under the Romney administration, about half of it was returned to the federal government.


The state released $250,000 for an initial feasibility study on whether the Route 79 ramps could be removed.


About $4 million remains committed for this project, and in October former Mayor Correia said he remained hopeful the state would release $750,000 for design of how such a project would be done.


Flanagan said yesterday the city envisions a hotel, restaurants, shops, and housing along that new boulevard. Last week he met with state Department of Transportation officials about the funding.
“It’s a work in progress,” he said.
E-mail Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com.

First, I want to thank my old friends "Charlotte" and "Wigberto",  in all of his unsavory forms of nom de guerre, for giving me the inspiration for looking into this wonderful news. And I must also say I approached this endeavor with mixed feelings. You see, some of the principals in this tawdry tale are the Karams, true Fall River icons, who believe charity begins at home and pretty much never leaves the front yard. At the same time, they are the people I have to believe are the architects of the best bit of "braodcast" news around these parts since Kerry Rodrigues was bum rushed in her workplace by the all world punk formally known as "The Hurricane" and then filed suit against him. The Karmas canned the Hurricane. So they get one big point for ridding the Fall River cultural lexicon of it's most dreaded syllables. And no, I don't mean "Club Flaun-eh" (To all you life long Fall River natives, just say Club Flaunt quickly with your eyes closed and  see what I mean!).

But I digress - it was good for me, was it good for you?  I cannot see how all this wheeling and dealing and, most critically, STEALING, adds up to anything less than a scheme from the Soprano's. Let's see, first the Karams probably see the possibilities for real estate development of the waterfront when it was nothing more than an extended rat catching opportunity. That's because no one in their right mind would ever interpret the Painted Pony Emporium as something to build a City's real estate revival around, that would have been , excuse the expression, FALL RIVER STUPID . Again, because of some inside baseball they got the word fed and state monies were available for just such a thing. So, I imagine, they pulled some strings at City Hall with officials and politicians they financially backed and supported for the eminent domain action, swindling Mr. Tom Koolan and his partner, when, and again I am just thinking out loud here,  they refused to sell to the Karams at a price the Karams thought was reasonable. (Who ever heard of $10 bucks an acre and all the crushed up mollusk shells they could handle unreasonable?)

Well, along comes Republican Governator Der Mittser Romney into the picture, and to paraphrase the lyrics sung by Richard Harris in the song MacArthur Park, "Der Mittser left the waterfront development cake out in the rain" and the Karams just couldn't find the money recipe again!

Then we have the "Pipe Dream on 79", where they, OHMYGAWDDDD" find there are PCB's contaminating these four, nasty, rat infested waterfront acres. I mean, the day they caught that woeful two headed fish across the river on the Somerset side that should have told them there was still a BIG problem! "PCB's...howdidthathappen?" Please, spare me the  shock and awe!

Now we have a new  Mayor with serious juice with the Governor and Lt. Governor, gladly accepting grants for this cleanup gig. I just don't think anything will ever get done. The time frame is far too long from design to work to finish. It looks like more of a publicity event to support Mayor Flanagan and the Democratic Governor's ticket for reelection than it does as a real, solid money making venture....unless....IT'S A POTENTIAL SITE FOR ONE OF THE NEW CASINO'S!!!  I would not bet against that folks....these guys know what's likely to happen a year or two before the rest of us peons find out! It's also why the Karams would be so deeply involved regardless of who they backed or who they gave campaign contributions.

The disgusting part of this is how these guys the Karams crawled all over Mr. Koolan and his partner to steal his property, all neat and legally, of course, and left him with a paltry sum of $300,000 for land that could eventually be worth untold tens of millions when all is said and done. It's shameful, this heist on the high seas, this purloining on PCB Place. It stinks worse than the natural "Oduere" which rises from this chemical stuffed seagull guano sanctuary. The only two people I feel bad for in this contrived clipping is Mr. Koolan and the taxpayers, for having to pay for some business entity's inability to flush their own toilet adequately. WE pay for the cleanup, and these thieves the Karams claim the clean land for their own. I'd rather see it go to some crooked nosed gambling interests from Federal Hill than the Lebanese Connection. At least the Federal Hill boys don't claim to be anything other than what they are.

Somebody better tell Fiola he shouldn't try to cash that check....it's not real Ken.....what a shame. To know you are taking the place of stationary equipment you forgot to bring with you is just embarrassing. Just call him the "Weasel Easle" from now on.

" THIS IS THE STORY OF THE HURRICANE " ....... Bob Dylan

Today I was reading comments made about one of the articles in today's online version of the Fall River Herald News (FRHN). Reading those comments of late is better than watching the John Stuart Show for pantloads of laughs. There I noticed a cryptic comment about " the Hurricane getting canned". I thought to myself, "Naw, that can't be, he's dug into the Karam's hide deeper than an Alabama tick!

So I checked the WSAR website. And he was still listed on the intro page to the site, so I decided to tune into the live feed. It was 4:25 P.M. But where was The Hurricane? Then I checked the list of daily on air talent at the station and he had magically been expunged from the list, as if he never existed. I thought to myself, this must be serious. Maybe he left to coach that proposed minor league basketball team, which they'll probably name the Fall River BLUNDER, not Thunder, like in Oklahoma City......Yeah, ANYWAYS!

So all I found on the station when I went back to see if he was on the air were these statements from the front page of the "SAR web site:

No matter where in the world you are, you're never far away from Bristol County's favorite stop for news, sports and talk!
1480 WSAR is live and streaming on WSAR.com from the moment you wake up with Happy Hec to the final stop at the end of your day on The Highway Home.
Hear the region's only station for local talk no matter where you are. You can even hear us live on your mobile device!
Miss that big interview the Hurricane had? Couldn't catch the Newsroom at Noon? Want to hear the WSAR Editorial again? Thumb through the WSAR.com Podcasts! Every newscast, every interview, every special event and even programming from "The Voice of Business."

So, understandably, my curiosity was peaked. I went  back to the FRHN article and saw this response to the earlier comment about "the Hurricane getting canned":

" meghen2 hours ago Report Abuse.........
FRCITYPRIDE , please tell me why you ride mike herrens jock so bad did he bang your girl/wife or your mother? "

Then I knew it must be true! How could you argue with such a comfirmatory statement by one of the true Fall River intelligencia. I tell you, that Hurricane does run with an interesting group of classy friends!

So...where does that leave me in this quest to discover, "Wither the Hurricane"?

I know.....a poster, like he's a lost puppy...because, in all seriousness, Dude is tres lost and needs help!

LOST !!

Reward for Information

Was He "Canned" by WSAR ?

If So, WHY ?

Likes to Drink Himself Into A Stupor At

CLUB "Flaunt" (pronounced flawn-eh)

Well folks, there you have it. That's this weeks public service announcement. I hope this generates interest enough so that I actually receive responses that do not include rude things said about my mother. But knowing the Hurricane's buddies, I'm sure that's an impossible request.

House bets on casino bill;
Now must sway Murray, gov on tracks’ slots
***************
Boston Herald
Hillary Chabot and Jessica Van Sack
Thursday, April 15, 2010 - Updated 3h ago
***************
The Bay State inched closer to flashing slot machines and whizzing roulette wheels last night as House lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a bill legalizing two resort casinos and up to 750 slots at each of the state’s four racetracks.
“We’re stuck in very difficult economic times and, as I stated, this bill is not going to be the end of all of our economic problems, but on the other hand it’s a good start,” said House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop).

But DeLeo’s 120-to-37 veto-proof majority vote means little if he can’t convince Senate President Therese Murray and Gov. Deval Patrick to sign onto slots at the racetracks - to which both have expressed strong opposition.


“I really feel very, very, very strongly about the need to keep the slots component in this bill,” said DeLeo, pointing to the jobs and local aid slots are projected to bring.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where Murray seems to have no immediate plans to take up the legislation.
“We’ll have to review it and come up with a plan that everyone can sign on to,” said Sen. Michael Morrissey (D-Quincy).
Meanwhile, racetrack owners and casino bigwigs hailed the House vote and jockeyed for position to claim one of the two resort licenses.
“We remain committed to building and operating a world-class entertainment complex,” said Suffolk Downs owner Chip Tuttle.

The vote comes only two years after many of the same lawmakers opposed Gov. Patrick’s bill legalizing three resort casinos.


“Times have changed Mr. Speaker - thank you very much for that,” said Rep. Brian Wallace (D-South Boston).


Most legislators in DeLeo’s leadership team who had previously opposed expanded gambling switched their votes to support the measure, including Rep. David Linsky (D-Natick).


“With unemployment above 9 percent in Massachusetts, we have an obligation to do whatever we can to create jobs,” said Linsky. He said he did not feel pressured by DeLeo.

Supporters say the bill will bring about 18,000 jobs and generate between $300 million to $500 million. The estimated $100 million generated by slots will go directly to cities and towns.

Gambling opponents spoke passionately against the bill before the vote, saying it will spark skyrocketing addiction and won’t bring the revenue jackpot supporters have promised


It's most certainly coming. I have been reporting the facts on this web site. The votes are there in the Senate to pass this bill, or some version of it. I believe the major change will be the expansion of the number of Casino's to be approved, and a tightening of possible oversight mechanism's and new agencies to regulate these Casino's. This will be agreed to by the House, because they are smart enough to know if they want the bill to come out of the Senate they will have to compromise on some of the provisions of the bill.

I note in particular this comment made after House passage of a bill:

Meanwhile, racetrack owners and casino bigwigs hailed the House vote and jockeyed for position to claim one of the two resort licenses.

“We remain committed to building and operating a world-class entertainment complex,” said Suffolk Downs owner Chip Tuttle.

What the Speaker of the House wants is 1) a race track - slot machine approval and 2) one of the casino's being placed at Suffolk Downs. Obviously this means a "Super Gaming" group of facilities, as well as feeding off local (Boston) entertainment venues, as well as visitor "scouting" trips to Cape Cod, the North Shore, maybe on old Route 1 along the sea coast into Maine, as well as skiing in NH and Vermont in the winter. You have to admit, it could make A LOT of tax revenue for the State. Such Gaming focused areas are sprouting up all over North America, but this would be the first of it's kind in New England. If it happens, it will be a smash hit!

Now.....explain to me why Representative Rodrigues was the only member of Fall River's House delegation to vote AGAINST this bill? Rodrigues was the only local rep to vote against the bill.

I know I'd feel a whole lot better if a senior member of the House of Representatives from this area was in lock step with other Representatives from the region in lobbying for one of the casino's being placed on the Southcoast, even it it's another Mega Gaming area based in Taunton , around the race track. Very curious vote by this clown. I wonder what he's up to? What ever it is, you can bet your last buck that it has something to do with looking out for himself before the interests of the unemployed people of his region. So sadly typical.

Maybe it wasn't close enough to NH to suit him!

Shepards and Their Sheep

DESE: School district recovery plan on track
***************
By Will Richmond
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Apr 14, 2010 @ 11:33 PM
***************
FALL RIVER — There weren’t any A’s as the School Committee received the district’s first recovery plan related report card, but the consensus is the system is moving in the right direction.


The School Committee learned during a special meeting Wednesday night that the district is where it is expected to be after the first six months of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education mandated recovery plan. The assessment came from Joan Connolly, who was appointed by DESE as the school district’s monitor for the recovery process.


“The administration of the Fall River public schools, under the leadership of Superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown, with guidance and support from DESE, has worked relentlessly to meet the benchmarks and deadlines in the initial stages of implementation of the recovery plan. They are demonstrating the willingness to think, plan and act in a focused and strategic manner as they take on the enormous responsibility of working in all four areas of concern at the same time. ... For this reporting period, with few exceptions, progress has been noted on the majority of action steps in the four sections of the recovery plan,” Connolly read from the report.

 The report does note the lack of progress made on reaching a collective bargaining agreement with the Fall River Educators Association. At the meeting, Connolly said the lack of an contract is a “big issue,” because without a contract there is no teacher evaluation tool in place.
“This is something we have our eyes on,” Connolly said.


The district was assessed on 77 action steps in the four main categories of leadership and governance, teaching and learning, human resource management, and financial management. Scores range from 0 to 4, with 0 representing a step is undeveloped and a 4 meaning the practice is fully embedded and sustainable.


Within the 77 action steps included in the report, the school department scored a 1 on 11 steps, a 2 on 41 steps, a 3 on 20 steps and a 0 on four steps. One not assessed was issued for developing a reliable common assessment aligned to curriculum and no 4’s were awarded.

 The highest scores were mainly reported in relation to the hiring of interim directors for the human resources and finance departments and the ongoing efforts to fill those positions permanently. The 0 scores were assessed around the district’s efforts to improve central office support for principals.


Superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown said efforts are already under way to address those concerns.
“This is an area of the plan you will see us revise as we work on strategies in order to offer the support our principals need,” Mayo-Brown said.

 Comments in the report reflect the preliminary nature of where the recovery process stands, noting that many of the action step are in the developmental stage and are not likely to result in immediate improvements in the school system, especially in the area of student achievement.


“The actions taken in the current benchmarking period are largely foundational steps, necessary but not sufficient to raise student achievement,” the report states.

 The recovery plan was written after a team from DESE’s Office of District and School Accountability visited the district for several days in January 2009. Following that review, Massachusetts Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester said the accompanying report “paints a sobering picture of a school district with persistent, serious and systemic problems.”
An initial plan was written in July. Following a request from Chester for more detail, a revised plan was submitted in September.

School Committee members thanked Connolly and DESE staff for the time they have taken to guide and assess the system, but concerns were also raised about where funding will come from to ensure initiatives outlined in the plan can take place.


“I see this report and appreciate its contents, most of which I agree with, yet where is the money going to come from,” Committee member Joseph Martins said. “Our biggest need is financial and yet no where in this report does it indicate where these resources are coming from.”
E-mail Will Richmond at wrichmond@heraldnews.com
  

The Commnn Fall River Man, er, SHEEP

"The district was assessed on 77 action steps in the four main categories of leadership and governance, teaching and learning, human resource management, and financial management. Scores range from 0 to 4, with 0 representing a step is undeveloped and a 4 meaning the practice is fully embedded and sustainable.

Within the 77 action steps included in the report, the school department scored a 1 on 11 steps, a 2 on 41 steps, a 3 on 20 steps and a 0 on four steps. One not assessed was issued for developing a reliable common assessment aligned to curriculum and no 4’s were awarded.


The highest scores were mainly reported in relation to the hiring of interim directors for the human resources and finance departments and the ongoing efforts to fill those positions permanently. The 0 scores were assessed around the district’s efforts to improve central office support for principals."

Fall River Taxpayers flocking to the slaughter of their wallets and bank accounts

More of the same is what we have here. Nothing is what we have here. No one is saying we're doing a good job. We're doing an expected job for a horrid school system just starting out in it's efforts to improve. And it's only taken us what, an entire academic school year? To get started? What's the problem here, who's been in charge of this " improvement " effort?
 Why should anyone get credit for hiring temp employees given to us by DESE , and using our own money to pay them, when we should have long ago hired professionals in a field where many exist? You know the reason as do I. PATRONAGE. Someone, somewhere wants to hire Uncle Felix or Cousin Imelda to hold those positions and have them owe their, and their extended families, lifelong allegience, and a portion of their take home pay in the form of future campaign contributions in exchange. So it's nothing but the same old same old. This City and it's politicians have perpetrated this fraud upon the taxpayers for generations. Yet the sheep keep electing these cretins year after year and then their bank accounts are taken to the slaughter house as if they were zomboid sheep. Clearly, the politicians run things here as if they go by the old saying "There's a sucker born every minute!"

So, when I see the Superintendent and members of the School Committee pat themselves on the back for a job not done at all I have to choke back my natural vomit response. It's what we have all learned to expect in Fall River. Why taxpayers in this City continue to put up with this is behhh...behhh....behhh....yond me.

Typical , decades long Fall River "Politician-Taxpayer" interaction;
Guess who the taxpayer is?! 

Maybe it's residual PCB's in the drinking water, or all those chemicals from the old tanning mills used in the process of curing cowhide that have seeped into the ground all over this City. I thought that was the reason this City has so many unfortunates cursed with physical deformities from birth. But there are tens of thousands of others we never really thought about. The sheep we call Fall River voters. "Behhhhhh...behhhhhh, I'm a suckerrrrrr Behhhhhhhhh....tell me whooooo toooo voooootte forrrrrrrr, behhhhhhhhhhhh. This is the most dangerous epidemic in the City's history and it's eventual outcome will decide the City's fate.

Enlightened Fall River Voters/Taxpayers

It's time for Fall River voters and taxpayers to demand the truth , and accept nothing but real answers to tough questions and more effective performance across the board. It is obvious to anyone who truly cares about this City that the people and ways of doing business in the institutions of government in Fall River have failed, miserably so, and there is NO CHANCE that those involved for the last 10 or more years are capable of doing otherwise. There is no incentive for them to change, so they will not do so. I believe most of these long serving pols in Fall River hope the State moves in to bail them out , all comments to the contrary, to allow them to keep their positions as well as escape blame for the mess in which every government related institution wallows at present.

It's time for you to make the decision for them.

Here we go! Hang on tight folks!

House budget would avoid raising taxes,
 but cut local aid

***************
April 14, 2010 03:36 PM
Noah Bierman
Boston Globe Staff
***************
Massachusetts House leaders today unveiled a budget for the new fiscal year that would likely leave fewer teachers in classrooms across the state and allow for fewer services for mentally ill residents, but would avoid raising taxes or dipping into the state’s dwindling rainy day fund.

The $27.8 billion proposal for the year beginning July 1 is an attempt to reconcile the state's needs with tough fiscal realities in an election year that has many Legislators fearful for their jobs.


The cuts to local aid and school spending in the proposal would be as much as 4 percent, though some cities and towns, depending on a state formula, would take a smaller hit.
Governor Deval Patrick submitted a spending plan in January that would protect local aid and school spending, setting up a conflict on Beacon Hill.


Patrick’s plan would also raise taxes on tobacco, candy, and sodas, something the House did not include in their proposal. The House was also more conservative than Patrick in protecting the state’s rainy day fund, which has been shrinking during the recession and may need to be called upon next year.


Representative Charles A. Murphy, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, took pride in balancing the budget without raising taxes or tapping reserves, but he conceded that the impact on residents, state workers, and local governments would be considerable and, in some cases, drastic.
“You’re going to be talking to a lot of people who aren’t going to be very happy with me,” he told reporters during a news conference in a State House hearing room.


Administration and Finance Secretary Jay Gonzalez said the House budget would be "a step back" in efforts to provide a world-class education for students and would reduce state aid to cities and towns when they can least afford it.


"It fails to adopt our public safety reforms and underfunds critical public safety programs. Finally, it excludes many of the Governor’s important proposals to streamline state government and improve its efficiency for those it serves," he said in a statement.


The House budget is the second step in the budget dance that began with the governor's budget. The Senate will unveil its proposal next. After the two chambers pass their budgets, a House-Senate conference committee will hammer out a compromise version that will then be sent to the governor's desk.

As if things didn't look bleak enough for Fall River in FY11. Well, kids, this is a whole new ball game. The budget proposed by the House Ways and Means Committee is not etched in stone yet, and I'm sure we'll be hoping for a few more put-backs by the Senate, but the dirty work has been done. Because the House has decided to have as a starting point for legislative discussion a budget which cuts deep in a time of revenue, and taxpayer, non support, it appears that an easy out exists for the Senate to sit on their collective hands and pass the budget proposal as is, and let the House take the blame, or glory,  come election time.

The reductions to local aid will most likely present danger for our public safety area. It is possible that we will simply not have funds sufficient to hire back more officers on a full time basis. Grant funds, both from the state and the federal government will dry up starting next year with federal office elections held in November. There is simply too much pressure for a jobless and underemployed populace to cut back federal and state spending as everyone except the wealthy is continually being squeezed.

All the tricks in budet passing will be for naught. The revenue line has finally crossed below the expence line with it's predicted vengeance and there will be hell to pay. There is no more waste and abuse to collect out of the drained government mop. It doesn't exist, and has not for a few years now. And please spare me the anecdotes about how you saw two "maintenance guys standing around doing nothing". It means nothing because you don't know the real circumstancesbehind what appears to be laziness.  There simply are not sufficient resources to provide old levels of service in Fall River.

To provide the FY 08 level of services to the City, particularly with regard to fire, police and dpw will mean the cutting of entire operations not required by law, and more positions on top of that to enable Fall River to meet unemployment insurance responsibilities. Where do we start to cut? The Schools? I don't think so, because they already do not have enough teaching and counseling staff. Maybe some of the cadre of MMB's hand picked "administrators"can be deleted, but that really won't come close to what the Schools will need to maintain teaching and counseling staff. And again, spare me the ignoramus talk about not needing counseling services, because every idiot that will come to sites like this and spew that " we never went to counselors in my day and we turned out just fine" are kidding themselves. Just talke a look at the broken families lost in the haze of drug addiction for generations in Fall River and you can plainly see that counseling for the kids of these families, and the families as well, should have been going on for the last 40 years. Drug addiction and screwed up, multi-generational problem families are the only boom industry in Fall River now, and saying "ship them out" or "shoot 'em, then they'll learn a lesson" is an idiot's response. And if that's not enough to hear for all you holier than thou's out there, just remember one thing - if you have a child in the Fall River School System, they are probably in classes with many, many of these "drug ravaged-broken family" kids everyday! Not everyone can afford to send their kids to private school!

So...tell me what you'd cut to balance a budget for FY11 that is already in the hole by about $1 million due to necessary current and projected police overtime expenses? I'd love to know. Do you want to privatize some dpw services, like trash collection? I'm open to any and all suggestions and I will gladly put them on these pages to start a community discussion. Because I will tell you one thing right now.....there is no more "blue smoke and mirrors" solution to this budget problem. It is here now, and will only get worse each year into the future. Cry all you want about your taxes. Property taxes in Fall River are one of the smallest burdens faced by homeowners in Massachusetts. Cry about your fees for water and sewer services, because the CSO was the result of YOU letting previous politicians lie to you and allow favors to be done for large business and property owners to turn a blind eye to the water pollution problem. So naive yet so dumbfounded  at the same time. That's a deadly combination.

Do I think Mayor Flanagan can produce a workable FY11 budget for the City? Yes, I have no doubt. But he's got to tell you the truth and let you know that sacrifices have to be made. If he comes out talking about how great things will be next year, do not believe him. It's time for those running this City, and it's taxpayers, to open our eyes wide. Every dollar of revenue that is below current costs is going to mean somePERSON, in some department, is going to be laid off.

Think about that before you respond....but please do add your recommendations of what budgets to cut or change.

Thank you!

" The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves. " William Shakespeare

Stormwater fee reworked,
not likely to be eliminated

***************
By Michael Holtzman
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Apr 12, 2010 @ 10:16 PM
***************
FALL RIVER — A stormwater task force headed by Mayor Will Flanagan completed reviews and issued to the City Council last week an amended draft ordinance on sewer fees that the administration considers constitutional.

Corporation Council Steven Torres noted two sections he rewrote to pass what he and Flanagan considered “constitutional infirmities.” Flanagan campaigned for mayor saying he’d eliminate the “illegal rainwater tax.”

The issue came to a head in late January when the city needed to offset a $3.5 million sewer deficit in order to satisfy state revenue officials and mail tax bills.

Two key sections govern what fee payments can be used for and how building owners can “opt out” of paying them, Torres said.


Torres, along with Administrator of Public Utilities Terrance Sullivan, who helped draft the law, said those paying are not doing so for “general usage” of the stormwater system.
“It’s not to remedy the environmental ills of the watershed,” Torres said, stating such a designation would be a tax everyone should share in.


Rather, a “stormwater facility includes combined sewers, catch basins, storm drains, drainage pipes, culverts, streams, swales, wetlands, detention ponds and ponds that have control structures such as dams and gatehouses,” the ordinance says.


Moreover, a three-sentence opt-out provision says, “Properties that can eliminate stormwater discharge from their property, thus, not utilizing any city stormwater facilities, can be exempt from the fee.”


Those exemptions must be certified by an engineer delineating the stormwater on-site collection. They could include “on-site reclamation” and other technology, Torres said.


For citizens and businesses, the pending adoption and impact of the ordinance will control sewer rates and newly defined stormwater fees.

Needing to raise $3 million this fiscal year, the council voted 7-2 Jan. 26 to more than double the rates from $2.54 to $5.40 per 100 ccf of water for most users.

Stormwater fees remained $35 a quarter for 1-8-family homes. lessening the burden on multifamily home owners.

The purpose of the stormwater fee former Mayor Robert Correia initiated nearly two years ago was to redistribute costs toward commercial users with large impervious surfaces and pay the $185 million combined sewer overflow project.

About 88 percent of sewer revenues are residential.


Under four draft options Sullivan showed to raise $17.4 million in fiscal 2011, he had stormwater fees ranging from zero to $99 a quarter.


Under those options, the sewer rates ranged from $2.55 — what it had been before raising rates for this year’s sewer deficit — to $3.62 with a $75 quarterly stormwater fee and a $6.96 rate if there was no stormwater fee.


“That’s outrageous,” council President Joseph Camara said of higher rates.


“Keeping the stormwater intact ($35 a quarter) and paying what we’re paying the last year (since Jan. 26) is extremely high,” Camara said of the current $5.40 rate.


Camara, who along with Vice President Linda Pereira voted against the sewer deficit ordinance, said he believes the sewer division is collecting “so much extra money” than needed at the higher rate.

“We’re progressing well,” Sullivan said of $2.9 million needed by June 30.


“It’s a tight time frame,” he said, stating that delinquent payers issued liens are paying those bills, helping to balance the budget. The other $600,000 of the sewer deficit would be recouped next year.

Flanagan appointed Camara and councilors Eric Poulin, Brian Bigelow and Michael Lund to serve on the task force, with the latter dropping out and Poulin missing one of the two public meetings because of a council committee conflict. They were held Feb. 24 and March 10.

“If the Law Department is comfortable that it now passes legal muster, then I’m fine with that,” Poulin said.

“My concern is to get back to the rate of $2.55. My goal is to close the gap,” Poulin said.


Bigelow noted the separate ordinance added a benefit that high-volume users could install effluent meters to measure if their water discharge was lower than their water intake. That could help laundries, as one example.


“It doesn’t look like there’s a win situation anywhere,” Bigelow said of the rates. “It looks like we’ll have to keep the stormwater fee.”


He’s recommending Flanagan call a third task force meeting to review and iron out the draft ordinance.


This was preordained. As stated on this blog months ago when this issue first came to the fore, and during the campaign last year, I had made concrete statements that the CSO fee was here to stay and needed to keep the sewer enterprise find operations  as much in the black as possible. In fact I wondered if the City had made the rate(s) high enough to provide working capital fund and reserve fund, which is essential in a sewer or water enterprise fund. I'm sure right now they have not done so. And they are still having to carry forward $600,000 of FY10 defecit into FY11.

Is this a repudiation of the "Promise" made by Mayor Flanagan during his campaign for Mayor. Well, yes, how could it not be? But it's a necessity for the City and no matter how you look at this, the amount of money reflected in the CSO and regular Sewer rates is an unavoidable burden. I know it hurts and couldn't come at a worse time for most people, but there you have it. The only thing most people can do now is to understand you need to press ANY politician for REAL facts and REAL answers.

Most politicians run for office with every good intention of being capable, competent, trustworthy and honest. But the fact remains that the largest portion of the electorate is not prepared, ever, to hear the truth about their municiplaity and the problems it has, and most critically, the solutions to those problems, which are all bound to hit your pocketbooks and wallets. It has always been this way everywhere.

So why be upset with a politician who makes claims that he has the solution to a problem and that solving them will cost little, or even nothing? Remember the old addage "If it sounds to good to be true, it probably isn't"? Well that applies to ANY politician running for any office.

What I am saying is you should never have been surprised that this Sewer rate/CSO charge would be solved in the way proposed by the Special Committee. The questions were asked about where the money to cover enterprise fund operations would come from when they eliminated the fee! Do you mean to tell me that after years of living in Fall River you still blindly believe this collection of sociopaths and professional liars we all call local politicans? That is naive stupidity. How more plainly can it be stated.

It's not the politicians fault. They know what lines you'll fall for, what issues need to be stressed and how much leeway they have in not telling you the truth to motivate you into voting for them. That's because you tell them what to say by whose stories you voted for in prior elections. They PLAN to make non-commital statements and deal in platitudes rather than tackle real issues. They PLAN to make outrageous promises they don't have a clue about being able to make happen. It's called POLITICS for a reason. Otherwise it would have to be called the fine art of TRUTHING instead. You tell me the last time a politician anywhere told the absolute truth about what he thought and how he planned on making a positive difference! You can't, because those people would never be elected to any office. It applies to both democrats and republicans. I think in the case of local politics the Jack Nicholson line applies nicely - "YOU CAN"T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"

This whole story is YOUR fault. I'm not saying Mayor Flanagan is a bad guy, because I don't believe he is, and I think he'll eventually get things going in the right direction.
But there were far too many people not interested enough to heed the warnings, to do the legwork and research to figure out if he, or any of the top people in his campaign had a clue about municipal finances and how they operate, and what was really going on with the City's financial condition. Those in Fall River having a background in finance and budgeting knew the Flanagan campaign was clueless in this area. He may deny that, but he knows that what I just wrote is the truth. And nobody who followed what the City's finances were like believed a word out his mouth when it came to sewer rates and highering back all the people laid off by The Great Destroyer Correia. (And don't think Correia knew any more public finance than Flanagan...he didn't). That's just the way it was, and is.

The burden on electing good candidates is yours. The burden of finding out whether the things these candidates say is true is yours. If you are reading this blog then you have the means of putting their statements and platforms to the test. If you fail to understand the person running for office and demanding answers to specific questions, you are a fool.

Politicains begin to morph into full blown sociopaths very quickly. It's the nature of the business. They are merely adapting to the circumstance by giving you answers you WANT to hear, by appealing to the biggest concentration of like minded people they can in order to construct the most favorable picture . They follow YOUR behaviors by seeing who was elected and what they said during their successful campaigns.

You have to look at electing a politician with your vote like trying to prevent someone from stealing your financial information from the internet. Protect what you have. Question everything these people say and do not accept easy, well rehearsed and facile answers. If you think some specific candidate is handing you a line of crapola, and you get that suspicious feeling in your gut when you hear what they have to say when questioned, the person is PROBABLY feeding you a line of crapola. Take the same attitude to statements and claims made by politicians  as you would if your 15 year old son came home at 2 A.M. smelling of booze. I know you'd stay up until sunrise to get answers out of him, and you'd be right to do so. So why would you not question the claims made by people who will have a partial control over your finances in the form of tax assesments , charges and various fees? I don't get it. Smarten up Fall River!

It's too late to change your mind once the person has won the election. Reading the statements of the coalition of the miserable and feeble minded in  the comments section of the Herald News for this article, that Flanagan's already lost the next election because he "BROKE" a promise to get rid of the CSO fee is laughable. You folks wanted him more then anyone else. Your disappointment is your own fault. You didn't do your homework and gave your votes to a man who never claimed he knew how to fix the problem, only that he'd kill off what he thought was an illegal tax. A simple reading of the even more simple legal analysis would have shown you this claim was based on extremely tenuous reasoning. It was doomed before the election was finished. But you voted for him anyway.

Again, I'm not at all saying Mayor Flanagan is a bad guy - he isn't as far as I 've seen and heard. But average voters in Fall River.....look in the mirror for all the bad things these other politicians are doing to you....look hard and see if you like what you see...and if you'll get suckered ever again?

Fired Correia staffers fire back

              Bob Correia:          Jeffrey Santos,       Kathleen Edwards,
         Opps! I forgot,             Gilded                    Gilded
           Me no like!             Retirement              Retirement
                                            (NOT!)                   (NOT!)

***************
By Michael Holtzman
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Apr 09, 2010 @ 09:13 PM
***************
FALL RIVER — Two political appointees who were given jobs and three-year contracts by former Mayor Robert Correia only to be fired when Mayor Will Flanagan took over have issued a “demand letter” through their lawyer seeking compensation, ranking officials said.


“It’s the first step in a lawsuit,” said Flanagan, who on his second day in office fired Jeffrey Santos and Kathleen Edwards from their Community Development Agency jobs.
“We believe we acted fairly and justly, and we’ll defend any suit filed against us,” Flanagan said.

The two longtime Correia staffers while he was a 30-year state representative and during one term as mayor received those contracts less than two weeks before a change in administration.

Both contracts put the city on the hook to pay Santos his $85,000 salary as CDA director and Edwards her $55,000 salary as contract compliance officer/executive secretary.

The contract language included: “If for any reason, the city wishes to terminate this agreement for convenience, then employer shall pay out to employee the outstanding cash value of the remainder of the agreement plus any accrued vacation time, sick leave and/or personal days.”
The two-year city employees were each given five weeks of vacation.

“That provision is the most unconscionable I’ve seen in place in a public sector employment contract,” Corporation Counsel Steven Torres said after Flanagan announced the firings three months ago.

Torres said Friday he had received separate letters on behalf of the two fired employees from a Rhode Island lawyer he could not immediately name.

With Government Center closed Fridays for general business, he did not have the letters available.

Torres said, however, the lawyer’s demands included statements that Santos and Edwards had valid contracts and they were wrongly terminated.

As best he could recall, Torres summarized that the lawyer alleged “for political reasons they were let go from their jobs.”


Torres said the lawyer wanted to discuss a resolution of a possible lawsuit.

“I thought his arguments were without merit. I don’t recall there being a dollar amount,” Torres said.

He said they’ve traded voice messages since the demand letter was issued but they had not discussed the issue.

“Legally, the city did nothing wrong,” said Flanagan, a lawyer who worked with Torres recently when both were solicitors in Taunton.

The three-year contracts issued to Santos and Edwards were issued Dec. 23 and retroactive to Nov. 1 and Dec. 1, their respective dates appointed to the CDA jobs.

Correia and former Corporation Counsel Arthur Frank Jr. signed them.


Messages left for Santos and Edwards on Friday were not returned.
E-mail Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com.


Let's put the icing on the cake, shall we. After two years of emptying the City treasury, threatening and bullying good people into submission and firing others who didn't care for the Great Dictator Correia's jackboot heels in their sternum, the final act of infamy is being perpetrated upon Fall River by the spawn of the devil himself. They are attempting a wee bit of extorsion. What else can you call it?

Good grief, if these two had a scintilla of personal pride they would never have agreed to the original contract at the beginning of all this mess. That would have saved everyone involved this tawdry, needless farce. On this one, out of all the pending legal issues people feel ambivelent about in which Fall River is involved,  I hope the City's legal team attacks with every weapon at their disposal. What's that old saying "Millions for defense but not one penny for tribute !?"1 (You can tell if I'm actually using footnotes that I really don't care for what these hacks are trying to pull off here).

They had no right to those jobs. The provisions in the contract that guaranty Santos and Edwards three additional years, and the bloated retirements that would result, are NEVER written for anyone but the very top management in the public sector They are usually reserved for City Managers in municipalities with a strong City Manager format, and then only when a move from some other state or, within the state but long distance,  and a home sale is required. We're talking about jobs that don't grow on trees and which might take two years or more to find on the open market. What Correia did was absolutely unconscionable. HA! Just add it to the list of all the other like things he did while mayor.

Are the contracts legal? I'm not so sure  municipal law favors the plaintiffs. I think we'll be hearing phrases like "accepted, common practice" and "subject to adequate qualifications" very soon. It's not going to cost more than what we are already paying, other then the nuisance aspect of this case. And a grand nuisance it is.

We know why these contracts were granted. Pure hackery is at work here. Three much higher paying years with which to top off a career for that lifelong golden parachute known as the public sector retirement. It is very stuff that makes good citizens, the kind that trudge off to work each day, even when they are sick, even when they are upset, even when the kids might be sick, or even when loved ones are in the hospital, hate what government is doing to them everyday. It's got to stop. And it's got to stop now.

The current digusting perception held by many "teabagging" types that those who work for government are somehow lazy, talentless bums just in it for a lousy paycheck and a bunch of paid holidays are as reprehensible as the pair of Correia hacks trying to fleece Fall River. It is a calling to want to serve citizens year after year for what often amounts to not great pay and far too much disrespect whenever a citizen is having a bad day. Some poor public sector clerk or manager has to serve the needs of oft times rude and stupid people. It's what comes with the territory. You pay for your ticket and you take that ride.

It's when people like Santos and Edwards share in the belief that they are somehow entitled to a greater share of the public's money just because they follow the failed lead of their benefactor, like pilot fish attached to a whale, that makes life hard on everyone who chooses to serve in government. The greed of these two friends of Correia perpetuates a very false picture of what dedicated public servants do each day. That's a shame, and simply isn't part of the deal - EVER!

1  (The quote was made by Rep. Robert Goodloe Harper, chairman of the committee on ways and means in Congress, on June 18, 1798. President John Adams had sent representatives to France to try to keep the US from going to war with that country. French and British warships had been attacking Americans ships at sea and claimed the right to seize American vessels. Three French diplomats offered to negotiate a treaty if the US would pay a bribe (tribute) to the French foreign minister, Tallyrand. This episode became known in history as the XYZ affair because the French diplomats were referred to by these initials rather than their names. The affair generated anger in the US, which prompted Rep. Harper's famous words.)