My purpose in discussing the topic immediately below this introductory paragraph is to, hopefully, pique your interest in Town Meeting, the budget and the budgeting process. There are a lot of clowns out there who will “debate” you by telling you what you don’t know, instead of discussing the issues head on with reason and facts. They are Charlatans pretending to be voices of wisdom. In fact, many of them are incapable of practicing what they preach in terms of self-reliance and personal responsibility with respect to paying their fair share. Hopefully, Jeff’s article, which does present many facts, will give you the insight and the weaponry to expose these foolish people for what they are should you encounter them. They are easy to recongnize: they are never wrong, they have an excuse for everything, except for allowing you to have one as well and they avoid facts at all costs. When called out to face facts in opposition to their “lofty” positions, they run and hide calling you childish and spineless all the way back home with their ball.

A fellow blogger in Billerica, Jeff Parenti, who is also a town meeting representative (TMR), put up an interesting article in the Billerica Minuteman on July 23, 2010. It’s taken me a bit to get to this topic due to other priorities, but here we are!

In the article, Jeff provides great insight into how the budget process works from formulating the budget through department head requests, a strategic meeting between our Town Manager (TM) and the Finance Committee (FINCOM), comprised of 11 taxpaying citizens, to adjust the requested amounts into a livable and hopefully, realistic budget that FINCOM and TM agree on.

Once that process is concluded, the Town Moderator, each May, recites every individual line item in the budget to the 240 TMR (or those who show up), a chance to “hold” the line. Once an item is “held” that TMR, or anyone else who has an interest in the specific line item, can ask questions to determine the need or lack of need for spending on that item.

With a simple majority vote, Town Meeting can cut the cost of the line item. Remember, those who comprise Town Meeting are you direct representatives and they speak with your voice! You can read the rest at the Billerica Minuteman by clicking on the link above or by going through Jeff Parenti’s blog (or Blob as he calls it), “Can’t Get There From Here”.

Most, in fact, are phony individuals who don’t practice what they preach – you know the type; kind of similar to John Kerry, who wants everyone but him to pay their fair share of taxes and fees. They will tell you that they are looking out for the “little guy”, when in fact, they classify themselves as the “little guy” – the impoverished, the unemployed who make little to no effort to get off the dole and back into the production line, or town employees who serve to protect, what in their view is theirs, and not the interests of the general taxpayer. This group is strengthened by Selectmen such as Bob Correnti, Mike Rosa and even Marc Lombardo, who lack the political guts to vote what they know is right and proper on hard issues, such as the need to raise fees and rates just to break even; let alone to fund maintenance, future growth and expansion. Please, keep all of this in mind the next time you hear someone blame FINCOM for the woes of Billerica. In the words of the immortal, John Stossel, “Give me a break”!

Hence, the purpose of my post!

My purpose in blogging on this topic today, has more to do with the Town Meeting Representatives majority vote to not fund water meter replacements; meters that we know are at least 5 years beyond their life-cycle, and which comprise, in large part, a system known to already have leaks. In Jeff’s article, above, he mentions that replacing the water meters now could have saved us $2,000,000.00 a year; meaning that the $6,000,000.00 investment necessary to fund a town-wide replacement campaign would be paid for in just over 3 years (includes interest and other generally hidden costs). The source of the savings is those individuals and corporations who have not been paying their fair share because of meter failures or faults.

TMR Ralph McKenna stated that he knows his meter is, in fact, broken and doesn’t want it fixed because it is saving him a lot of money! Who do you suppose is paying for that shortfall? It’s me and you, stupid! We pay for the shortfalls through our property taxes, just as we are now paying for maintenance, pumping, sanitizing, distribution and recycling waste water through the very same mechanisms because our TMRs and BOS members lack guts, ethics, and the will to do the right thing out of fear of political reprisals.

Perhaps, some of you have read about the $101,000 water bill a single mother of three received from the town of Brockton, MA this month. It seems that Brockton also suffers from faulty meters and systemic leaks. As a consequence, it is doing “retroactive” billing for water use by some undisclosed formula that fairly compensates for leaks and improper distribution. Ask Ayanna Yancy Cato; she’s the woman who received a water bill for 12 years of back payments (which have yet to be substantiated) that was higher than WalMart’s bill (which was recently and substantially cut upon further review); again, no accounting methodology was disclosed as to how the reduction arrived at was proper and accurate.

After reading this, I thought, immediately, about our dear TMR Ralph McKenna. He is a man, now fully and squarely on the record as admitting to underpaying his water bill. He may claim later that it was a joke; but the reality for now is that he didn’t make such a claim at the time and no one is laughing at his remarks. In Mr. McKenna’s case, one can only hope justice for the honest rate-payers will prevail, and that ultimately, he will get the water bill he truly deserves.

So, my fellow Billerican, what do you think? Should we insist that the water meter replacement be revisited or do we simply wait, as the citizens of Brockton did, for back dated water bills that may, in fact, represent water owed by others and not yourself? I want my meter replaced. I’m willing to pay to have it replaced. However, I am not willing to pay any back dated water bills for the period of time the Town of Billerica was not doing its job and acting prudently when it comes to preserving and protecting the safe and accurate operation of town infrastructure; especially, after the consequences and costs have already been pointed out.

One last point for thought: Let’s say that you buy into the statement that we can’t afford to spend $6,000,000.00 now (even though today’s money is less costly, always, than tomorrow’s money). On a $123.6 million dollar budget, $6,000,000.00 represents 4.85% of the budget. Are we to believe that Billerica departments could not cut 5% percent from the total budget?

Apparently we are to believe all of this and more because we keep putting the same people back into seats they’ve proven over and over again that they do not deserve.