by Ken Parker

(Newton TAB opinion column, January 5, 2005)

At the beginning of 2004, I offered ten New Year’s resolutions for the City of Newton (Newton TAB, January 7, 2004). Now that a year has passed, I thought it would be interesting to see how we did at meeting the goals I proposed.

1) Get the Newton North High School project back on track– Last year, I wrote that the most cost-effective plan and the one that best meets the needs of Newton students is to build a new, state-of-the art high school, rather than attempting some combination of renovations and new construction. Working together with other City officials, I helped to secure state matching funds for the new high school. Thanks to Aldermen Lenny Gentile, Steve Linsky, Carleton Merrill, John Stewart, and Christine Samuelson for joining me in sending a letter to the state’s School Building Assistance Bureau in support of this effort.

2) Make a strong commitment to maintaining and improving infrastructure & open space– Efforts to increase the City’s capital budget to meet pressing infrastructure needs did not meet with successes. We continue to allocate far too few resources for maintenance of our buildings, streets, and parks, as well as for purchasing equipment needed to fix streets, remove snow, and provide other important City services.

3) Work with City employees more collaboratively to resolve labor disputes and to solicit new ideas– My suggestions for collaboratively working with our employees to address their concerns have yet to be adopted and tensions continue to mount.

4) Improve land use planning and enforcement– I am pleased to report that through the leadership of Alderman Mansfield, the new Land Use Committee Chair, significant reforms have been enacted to protect the public’s right to participate in our deliberative process. Our new rules are an important step in the direction, but further steps need to be taken. Now that we have a vacancy in the position of Inspectional Services Commissioner, we need to conduct a thorough search to find the best person to make sure that our zoning laws and special permit conditions are enforced and that appropriate permits are issued in a timely manner.

5) Develop a comprehensive snow clearing plan– Public Works Commissioner Bob Rooney has been generous with his time in working with Aldermen and concerned citizens to improve the City’s snow clearing efforts. Together, we worked out new rules and procedures to help keep sidewalks and intersections clear of snow, but much more work remains to be done.

6) Pass and implement the light ordinance– 2004 saw great progress made toward the passage of a comprehensive light trespass and pollution ordinance that protects all Newton residents from the disruptive effects of bright light shining into their windows. I hope to see the ordinance adopted early in the new year.

7) Reform accounting practices– Our Treasurer’s office remains significantly behind in reconciling City accounts and year-end balances were off by tens of thousands of dollars delaying certification. I continue to believe that we should take our outside auditor’s advice and reconcile all accounts on at least a monthly basis. Prompt, significant reform of the Treasurer’s office is badly needed.

8) Correlate fees to policy objectives–Last year I suggested that we eliminate school bus fees, which have the effect of encouraging students to drive or be driven, further clogging our streets; index auto excise tax rates to the pollution and road damage of a vehicle, offering discounts for low-emission, fuel efficient vehicles; make our water and sewer rate structure more progressive to encourage water conservation; and eliminate minor fees that cost more to administer than they generate. While we did not achieve any of these objectives, we did manage to prevent the implementation of field use fees for City parks. Thanks to Alderman Amy Sangiolo for co-sponsoring with me a resolution to the Mayor that he withdraw those fees from his budget plan.

9) Help the needy– Last year, I advocated that we direct our property tax relief and affordable housing efforts at the neediest amongst us. While progress has been made at targeting these programs, I believe that more work lies ahead of us in this area.

10) Acquire open space– We managed to purchase some significant parcels of open space, including Angino Farm, but we are spending our limited CPA funds without sufficient matching funds. My hope is that in 2005, we can acquire more open space in neighborhoods throughout the City by more aggressively seeking matching funds for our land acquisition efforts.

In addition to the remaining unachieved resolutions from last year, I’d like to offer two new ones for 2005:

1) Implement a citywide wireless internet access network– Offering WiFi throughout Newton will provide a valuable service to Newton residents while helping to generate badly-needed revenue for City operations.

2) Improve Newton’s financial planning– our current budget forecast projects massive deficits. We need to develop an innovative plan to address this looming crisis. While I am pleased that the Canadian drug reimportation program proposed by Alderman John Stewart and me is now being implemented (thanks in large part to the efforts of Chief Administrative Officer Mike Rourke), we will need other significant new savings and revenue to balance future budgets.

(Ken Parker is a member of the Newton Board of Aldermen and can be reached by phone at (617) 965-3723 or via email at ken@kenparker.org. For a complete copy of Ken’s 2004 resolutions, please visit www.kenparker.org.)