Docket Digest for the Week of October 25, 2010
A weekly summary of Board of Aldermen agendas and actions highlighting items of interest to the LWVN. Archive of previous weeks here.
Board and Committee Meeting Schedule
Extracted from full calendar. Links to full calendar and docket packet here.
Key to color coding: CPC, Planning, Environmental, CAG, Charter, Housing.
October 2010 |
|||
| Monday 25 | 7:00pm 7:45 pm 6:30 pm |
Finance Zoning & Planning School Committee |
222 202 Ed Center |
| Tuesday 26 | 7:45 pm |
Committee on Community Preservation Post Audit |
202 222 |
| Wednesday 27 | 7 pm |
Mayor's Transportation Safety Summit |
NNHS |
| Thursday 28 | 8:15 pm | Long Range Planning | Chamber |
| Monday, Nov 1 | 7 pm 7:45 pm |
Tax Classification Hearing Board of Aldermen |
Chamber |
| Tues., Nov. 2 | 7 am-8 pm | Elections | |
| Wed., Nov. 3 | 7 pm | Rt. 128 Add A Lane Presentation | 202 |
Reports:
- Committee Actions--includes:REFERRED TO PROGRAMS & SERVICES AND FINANCE COMMITTEES
#262-10 PRESIDENT LENNON AND ALDERMAN FULLER recommending that the 2010 – 2011 Rules and Orders of the Board of Aldermen be amended to establish a FINANCIAL AUDIT ADVISORY COMMITTEE. The advisory committeewill report to the Board of Aldermen through the Finance Committee. The focus of the committee’s work will be on the annual financial audit of the City and any other fiscal accountability matters, as deemed important by the Finance Committee, needing review.
APPROVED BY FINANCE 7-0
PROG & SERV HELD 6-0 (Hess-Mahan and Sangiolo not voting)REFERRED TO RULES SUBCOMMITTEE 6-0 (Hess-Mahan and Sangiolo not voting)
Agendas:
- Finance--includes: #296-10 NEWTON RETIREMENT BOARD requesting Board of Aldermen acceptance of
Chapter 131, Sections 27 and 28 of the Acts of 2010 related to local option to
supplemental pension allowance to surviving spouses of disabled employees.
REFERRED TO PROGRAMS & SERVICES AND FINANCE COMMITTEES
#230-10 HIS HONOR THE MAYOR requesting an appropriation in the amount of eight hundred twenty-one thousand six hundred sixty-four dollars ($821,664) from FY’11 Revenue for the purpose of supplementing the FY11 School Department budget. This sum represents a portion of the state aid for the City of Newton in the Commonwealth’s adopted FY’11 budget.
Programs & Services Approved 8-0 on 10/06/10 REFERRED TO PUBLIC SAF. & TRANS. AND FINANCE COMMITTEEES #263-10 HIS HONOR THE MAYOR requesting authorization to appropriate and expend the sum of forty thousand dollars ($40,000) from Parking Meter
Receipts Reserve Fund to be used as the City’s required 20% match to leverage the $160,000 awarded by the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization for the City’s Traffic Signal Retiming Project.
A) PS&T APPROVED APPROPRIATION OF $40,000 4-0 (Ald.Johnson, Freedman, Shapiro and Swiston not voting) on 10/6/10
B) PS&T APPROVED AUTHORIZATION TO EXPEND $160,000 4-0(Ald. Johnson, Freedman, Shapiro and Swiston not voting) on 10/6/10
#207-07(5) ALD. FREEDMAN AND JOHNSON proposing that the city’s Financial Management Guidelines adopted under Board Order #207-07 be amended to require that any proposed capital expenditure above a certain amount have a cost/benefit or a return-on-investment analysis performed prior to approval by the Board of Aldermen. - School Committee--includes: Public Hearing on Student Placement Policy; Continued Discussion/Vote on Facilities - Short-Term Options; Continued Discussion re: Student Placement Policy; Continued Discussion re: Systemwide Goals; Discussion of FY12 Budget Guidelines; Vote re: 2011-2012 School Calendar. All documents attached, including disucssion of space options/redistricting possibilities; goals.
- Zoning & Planning--includes: floor-area discussion; request by Needham St. business to adjust allowed uses in mixed use districts; #336-08 ALD. LAPPIN requesting a discussion re the creation of an index for the zoning ordinances. #10-06 ALD. JOHNSON, DANBERG, SANGIOLO, BAKER, & HESSMAHAN requesting the adoption of legislation to enable the establishment of neighborhood conservation districts in Newton.
- Community Preservation --#274-10 COMMUNITY PRESERVATION COMMITTEE recommending that the sum of
forty-six thousand six hundred forty dollars ($46,640) be appropriated from the
fiscal 2011 historic resources reserve of the Community Preservation Fund and
expended under the direction and control of the City Clerk, to survey all archival
collections held by the City of Newton and set broad priorities for their
preservation, as detailed in the Community Preservation Committee’s funding
recommendation to the Board of Aldermen.
REFERRED TO CMTE. ON COMM. PRESERV. AND FINANCE COMMITTEE #299-10 COMMUNITY PRESERVATION COMMITTEE requesting that budgeted FY11 revenue from state matching funds to the Community Preservation Fund be revised from $681,605 to $618,181, to reflect the final amount confirmed by the Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue to the Newton Comptroller on October 8, 2010.
- Post Audit -- #377-09 ALD. JOHNSON requesting discussion with the Executive Secretary of the
Elections Commission on the access to and quality of the Newton Voter Files.
HELD 5-0 on 03/23/10
REFERRED TO POST AUDIT & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE on 03/17/10
#66-10 ALD. CICCONE requesting information as to why the Fire Department lost twoway radio communication recently and what is being done to prevent this in the future.
PUBLIC SAFETY & TRANSPORTATION REFERRED AS AMENDED 6-0 (Ald. Freedman not voting) on 03/17/10
#174-08(4) ALD. SWISTON & SHAPIRO requesting the Traffic Engineer provide a status report on the implementation of the recent parking meter rate increases and their impact on parking. HELD 5-0 on 02/23/10 - Long Range Planning --The Long Range Planning Committee invites colleagues throughout city government, as well as interested
members of the public, to a presentation by Professor Barry Bluestone, Dean of the School of Public Policy at
Northeastern University, on Thursday, October 28th, beginning at 8:15 PM in the Aldermanic Chamber at City
Hall.
In recent years, Professor Bluestone and his colleagues have identified various state and regional trends derived from their analysis of demographic data and have presented these results in forums, including the Massachusetts Municipal Association. Those of us who have had the opportunity to attend these presentations appreciate their value for municipalities. Their reports can be viewed at: http://www.northeastern.edu/dukakiscenter/publications
As evidenced by the previous work of the Citizens Advisory Group as well as the recent five year financial forecast presented by the mayor, we confront important decisions relative to the city’s operational and capital needs in the face of particularly challenging budget years ahead. Understanding trends that may affect, or continue to affect Newton is particularly useful as we begin our respective work in setting the tax rate and budgets and addressing needs, including those relating to school enrollment and other critical areas.
Documents:
- Memo Floor Area Ratio
- 5-year financial forcast
- CIP
- Quarter 1 Revenue Report
- News Notes --includes: Follow Up on Mayor’s CIP and Budget Forecast Presentation – As we have discussed, attached
is the first set of questions we have received regarding the Mayor’s CIP and budget forecast. In our
conversation with the Mayor this morning, we will send these questions to him on a weekly basis.
He said that we will turn around responses as quickly as possible. He did inform us that Maureen Lemieux will be out of the office until 11/2 so please be patient regarding responses to the first set of two. In the Chairmen’s meeting, it was asked that we put a loose ‘deadline’ on the submission of questions. I would ask that all questions be submitted by Friday, November 19th. We will obviously keep the line of communication open with the Mayor’s Office on all matters pertaining to this information even after the ‘deadline.’ Lastly, and as the Mayor has stated, you always have the option of speaking/meeting with him directly as well, at any time. --attached are some of the early questions.