Dan Dunn

Boston.com headline today: Patrick Seeks Tax Freedom for Cities, Towns I read that headline and thought about Patrick’s campaign promise: “I believe a rational revenue structure, sensible tax policy and fair distribution of state resources to cities and towns — so that property taxes can be lowered and kept low — are essential elements of […]

The Globe wrote earlier this week about a Homeland Security grant to Cheshire, MA. The town wanted a new firetruck, but instead got money for salaries – $626,000, to be more specific. The Globe cites that as 26 times the annual fire department budget. To put that in perspective, that would be like Arlington getting […]

Feb 21 – 7:30PM, 2nd floor of Public Safetey building. Tentative agenda includes start of departmental budget review.

As always, Soxaholix has a finger firmly on the pulse of Red Sox Nation (the good one, not Lucky Larry’s commercial RSN doppelganger). And Eric Wilbur managed to drag up an excellent quote from one Dr. Charles Steinberg: In any baseball city, the truck’s departure for Spring Training connects with a lot of fans. In […]

Arlington’s proposed ’08 budget includes the creation of a new position in the personnel department who will do nothing but handle health insurance requests (I think the town will save money with this hire – more on this in my next FinCom post.) Why? Because of Medicare Part D and the complexity it creates. Too […]

Story 1: Tabblo got mentions in USA Today and the Boston Globe in the same week. (Niiiiiice!) Story 2: A few days ago a friend of mine sent links to a few funny images in an instant message. I smiled at them, didn’t think anything of it. Then I saw a link in a blog. […]

Two years ago Dr. James Sherley became one of the hundreds of talented MIT professors who were denied tenure and sent packing.  Unlike most, he started on a hunger strike. I postulate: If someone thinks that a hunger strike is a good way to get tenure, they’re likely not a good candidate for tenure. I’ve […]

6PM, 2nd floor of Town Hall Annex Likely agenda: Town Meeting report, next steps in needs assessment

It was announced today that Boston has extracted $2 million from Turner Broadcasting.  From the Globe: Turner Broadcasting and Interference Inc. also issued a statement accepting responsibility and acknowledging that authorities responded appropriately to the publicity campaign gone awry. Coakley and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said the settlement and statement show that police did […]

Tonight FinComm had a regular meeting. This was actually my second FinComm meeting of the week – on Saturday the subcommittee that I’m part of met to prepare for our budget reviews. Tomorrow the subcommittee meets with the treasurer, and on Thursday with the deputy town manager to talk about insurance. Four meetings in 5 […]