Saturday, June 2, 2012

An end to the spring political season

The end of May marks the end of the political season in Burlington. This November, we not only have a national election but we have a new candidate, Walter Zenkin, running for state representative on the Republican ticket. Republicans have growing support in our area - 3 years ago this town supported Scott Brown for the Senate and Charlie Baker for the Governors seat. Zenkin, a a two-term Selectman and a popular candidate, has moved forward many stalled projects over his tenure. He’s running against Charlie Murphy, who has not been contested in years. I’m supporting Walter Zenkin.

The May Town Meeting, with our new larger format of 126 members, has completed. I would like to thank TM for their “no” vote on the Canyon rezoning. Many who spoke on the matter had good things to say about the Gutierrez company but felt this approach to fix the traffic issue was a stretch. The traffic in that area will be a problem until our state rep can get some attention from the speaker and the Department of Transportation to mitigate the traffic. Burlington is doing its share to keep our local economy moving and we should get some consideration from the state.

I would have supported the treasure position to be an appointment rather than elected office. The treasure collector is likely the most powerful elected position in town. That person oversees $110 million in cash as well as an $83 million payroll. Because the position is an elected position and not an appointment, that person may sit on other boards, oversee committees, and hire as they wish for their department. That person is the trustee of the $11 million heath insurance budget and may hire consultants as needed. They also bid out most of the towns other non-health insurance - for example, the $600 thousand stop-loss insurance for our self funded health insurance program as well as our liability coverage. The town would do better with the executive branch overseeing this position the same way it oversees the police chief, fire chief, and the town administrator, all extremely important positions in a healthy and financially viable community. Thank you again for allowing me to serve you as your Selectman for the last three years.