Action

Marilee’s action will:

• Reflect leadership guided by thoughtfulness and consideration

• Carry out the expressed desires of the majority of Bridgewater citizens

• Allow the various departments, boards and committees, supported by the BOS, to carry their established charges

• Lead the town in a beneficial direction

• Hold the BOS and other departments, boards and committees accountable

• Establish a clear plan of implementation for BOS accepted reports/recommendations

• Advocate for a clear reporting schedule by all departments and boards overseen by the BOS

Marilee will encourage the following actions:

• Fiscal responsibility.Bridgewater will benefit from Marilee’s experience as a state and federal grant-manager. She has both personnel and fiscal management experience that will allow her to take a thoughtful, disciplined approach to budgeting. She monitored and helped guide difficult funding decisions for the Commonwealth’s $32 million plus Domestic and Sexual Violence budget when she was in the governor’s office. She has assisted numerous non-profit agencies across the Commonwealth as they replaced unproductive “crisis management” with best-practice management.

While a Selectman needs to understand the details of the town budget and the needs of the departments and citizens, it is the Town Accountant, Treasurer/Collector and Town Administrator who are charged with the “heavy lifting” of budget preparation. After the creation of the town budget, the Advisory Board is charged as follows:

    Pursuant to Article III Section 4 of the Town by-laws it shall be the duty of the Committee to consider the annual estimates and expenditures as prepared by the town accountant, and add another column to his [her] prepared statement, giving the amounts which in the Committee’s opinion shall be appropriated for the ensuing year.

Marilee is a strong proponent of helping employees and volunteers do their jobs rather than taking over those jobs. Thus, she will encourage the Board of Selectmen to work closely with the AB, Town Accountant and Town Administrator to craft responsible budgets.

• Changes in town by-laws to promote better fiscal management. Marilee supports the intent of the proposed draft by-laws that are available on her web site (www.huntforunity.org) and on the Citizens for a Better Bridgewater web site (www.betterbridgewater.org). Such by-laws will bring fiscal responsibility by creating a stabilization account, free cash policy and general reserve policy.

• Research and understand the Tax Incentive Financing (TIF) and District Improvement Financing (DIF) in hopes that they may provide some helpful answers to Bridgewater’s fiscal problems. Click Here

• Implementation of the Master Plan. The Master Plan Implementation Committee has worked to encourage implementation of the Master Plan. However, there is little “ownership” of the Plan by various departments, committees and boards. As one member of the BOS, Marilee will encourage their advocacy in encouraging all town agencies to take seriously their roles in the implementation of the Master Plan.

• Completion and implementation of the Four Building Study. Funded through the Community Preservation Committee and undertaken by Newport Collaborative Architects, the Four Building Study, due in April 2008, will outline a 10 year road map for the use, preservation and restoration of the Academy, McElwain and Memorial Buildings and the Town Hall. As chair of the Community Preservation Committee, Marilee has proactively promoted this comprehensive and responsible approach to the use and preservation of municipal buildings. Implementation needs to be coordinated with both the Master Plan and any recommendations being implemented from the Government Study Committee.

• The Government Study Committee. The request for a Government Study Committee was presented to the town by a citizen’s petition at the 2007 Fall Town Meeting. The Town Meeting voted in favor of forming the Committee and the citizens of Bridgewater now await its report/recommendations on the best type and structure for our government. Marilee pledges to listen respectfully to the report/recommendations brought forward by the Committee. Her acceptance/rejection of the Committee’s report/recommendations will be based on thoughtful consideration of what is in the overall best interest of Bridgewater. Implementation must be coordinated with the Four Building Study recommendations.

• Work with Bridgewater State College (BSC) to create the most positive relationship possible for the benefit of the Town. In the past, Bridgewater has enjoyed an excellent working relationship with BSC. As the college grows and entertains hopes of attaining University status, Marilee will work to assure excellence in communication and coordination of planning. The Master Plan Implementation Committee, Community Preservation Committee, Bridgewater’s Planning and Community Development Office, and BSC are four entities that need to know and understand what each other are planning. It is also important to know what the college intends to do about fire and ambulance services. The college has, in the past, often contributed to the town during difficult times. However, we cannot ask them to “bail us out” in times of need without working to maintain a consistent, respectful, collaborative, communicative relationship. Marilee has met with BSC President Dana Mohler-Faria who states that BSC wishes to be a collaborator with and benefit to Bridgewater. It is Marilee’s conclusion that, when the BOS can be trusted to conduct itself in a consistently honest and respectful manner, relationships with the college will improve and the various resources they offer (not merely cash) will be readily available to the town.

• Conduct an efficiency study of town government departments. To begin, ask each department head the following questions:

  • 1. As the budgets have become tighter and tighter, what have you done to try to preserve services with less funds?

  • 2. What specific ideas have come about from within your department to cut costs? Would those ideas also have preserved the current level of services?

  • 3. Which of the ideas were implemented? Which weren't? If they weren't implemented, why not? (Legal impediments, feasibility, difficulty of implementation, beyond your department's or the town's control to do so, you would have to spend money to save money, or other reasons?)

  • 4. Who has been involved in the process of looking for cost savings within your department thus far?

• Hire or find from within our citizen resources a professional negotiator when negotiating union contracts. How can the town presume to successfully negotiate union contracts when the unions bring in professional negotiators and we use untrained (albeit well intentioned) paid or volunteer town staff? The old adages, “You get what you pay for” and “We’re poor; we can’t afford to buy cheap” come to mind. Bridgewater must make arrangements to negotiate on an even playing field.

• Investigation into best practices for streamlined permitting for development in hopes that it may hold some answers to help us attract businesses to Bridgewater. Click Here

• School De-regionalization Study Committee Marilee pledges to listen respectfully to the report/recommendations brought forward by the School De-regionalization Study Committee. Her acceptance/rejection of the Committee’s report/recommendations will be based on thoughtful consideration of what is in the overall best interest of Bridgewater. Marilee is committed to this being a definitive (final) study of de-regionalization for at least the next 10 years. It is neither helpful nor profitable for our citizens to continually study the same topic. The report of the current committee will be gratefully received, respectfully heard, thoroughly reviewed and then acted upon. That will remove the need for any similar studies in the near future unless the situation in the School District should change dramatically.

• Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District’s Committee to Study the Regional Agreement. This committee was assembled by the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District to study the existing agreement between Bridgewater and Raynham. The agreement has not been amended since the two systems fully merged in the 1993. Marilee agrees with the District that it is time to study the regional agreement. The situations in both Bridgewater and Raynham have changed considerably since the original agreement was written. It will be important to hear the Committee’s report and place the facts and recommendations before Bridgewater’s citizens to be accepted or rejected.

• Investigate alternatives for town employee health care. Marilee will support investigation into options that will lessen the cost for but not the benefits received by town employees’ health insurance including the following:
  • Health Savings Account (HSA
  • GIC (joining the state insurance plan)
  • Possibilities for a county-wide or other assemblage to “group buy” health insurance
• Explore ways to help Bridgewater become more “green” and energy efficient. As the world o deals with global warming and the high cost of fuel, it is necessary that Bridgewater examines “green” alternatives. http://www.environmentmassachusetts.org/preservation Ideas that deserve investigating/implementing are to:
Establish a budget planning calendar to assure scheduled, timely, annual review and construction of the town budget (e.g., Hingham: http://www.huntforunity.org/documents/combined_Hingham_documents.doc).
  • Consider a by-law to mandate a schedule for budget planning (this should not be necessary if Selectmen step to the plate and begin work on the budget in the early fall rather than waiting to “see what the state does”);
  • Conduct regular, scheduled informational meetings with the Town Accountant, Town Administrator and the Advisory Board
  • Schedule mid-fiscal year meetings with all department heads to ascertain budget status