Dan Dunn

I take notes during Town Meeting. They are not official in any way. As I listen to people speak, I type notes. I’m sure that, at times, I mishear or misunderstand the speaker, but my notes represent what I hear at the time. I then publish the notes every night after the meeting. I do […]

Black text is mostly objective, red text is mostly subjective in nature. Chairman Allan Tosti opened the meeting and ran through the agenda. Article 5 – GIC Special Legislation – Deputy Town Manager Adam Chapdelaine explained that significant progress had been made on the GIC negotiations with the unions. He thinks the GIC legislation envisioned in the […]

Black text is mostly objective, red text is mostly subjective in nature. I’m in a hurry tonight, and these notes are more “raw” than usual.  Please ask questions in the comments, and I’ll go into more details. Note that we did not finish our business tonight, and we will meet again on Wednesday at 7:30 in […]

Black text is mostly objective, red text is mostly subjective in nature. Every year at this time FinComm holds an organizational meeting.  They’re generally short and light on content.  This year was much more full as the first topic was the school budget overrun.  I arrived about 5 minutes late, and it had already started. […]

Black text is mostly objective, red text is mostly subjective in nature. Our meeting for 2/10 was canceled by the snow-storm-that-missed-us.  Today was mostly about the Town Meeting warrant articles, with a few extras. Our first hearing was the Vision 2020 (Jane Howard et al) and the DPW (Teresa DeBenedictis) asking for $15,000 for treatment […]

Black text is mostly objective, red text is mostly subjective in nature. Monday was the Arlington Budget and Revenue Task Force meeting; tonight was the first Finance Committee of the year. I have a notes from both here. At Monday’s meeting, it started with better-than-usual news that the Governor’s proposed budget had more money for […]

For the last several years I’ve been pushing to change the way budgeting is done in Arlington. I’d like to explain my proposal, argue why it is a better process than the one we have today, and make some points about why now is a very good time to make the change.  (This is only […]

Black text is mostly objective, red text is mostly subjective in nature. Tonight was the annual organizational meeting of the Finance Committee.  It’s often an interesting meeting because you get to hear updates on everything that has happened since Town Meeting – a digest of the last 4 or 5 months. Town Manager Brian Sullivan […]

Black text is mostly objective, red text is mostly subjective in nature.  We’ve had five FinCom meetings this year so far.  I missed two (out sick).  I only put up notes on some FinCom meetings, partly because of my time constraints, party because some of the stuff is just too dry to get excited writing about. […]

We met at 7:30 before Town Meeting, as usual. We had business tonight. First up was the Deputy Town Manager Nancy Galkowski, who provided updated recommendations for collective bargaining. The town had reached agreements with all but the police unions. Approved unanimously. Dick Fanning took over to chair the meeting. The minutes of 5/12, 5/19, […]