Citizens for A Better Longmeadow

is the name of the group led by Roger Wojcik that organized a “public” forum that was attended by an overflow crowd of ~ 65-70 people last night at Storrs Library. The meeting objective as outlined at the outset by Mr. Wojcik was to provide some factual information about the financial issues facing the town both today and into the future. This group believes that many town residents need additional information to make informed decisions at the upcoming town meetings on May 11 and May 25 as well as town elections on June 8. Mr. Wojcik asked attendees to be respectful to each other and not have a repeat of the April 12 forum.

First of all, I applaud Mr. Wojcik’s attempt to provide some factual information about town finances including both the town’s annual operating and capital budgets as well as some of the other current liabilities such as Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB). In addition to being a member of the town’s Finance Committee and a past member of the Capital Planning Committee, Mr. Wojcik has useful workplace experience in developing and managing corporate budgets. During the meeting Mr. Wojcik was criticized a number of times by some attendees, particularly about the accuracy of a $35 million OPEB future liability but he pointed to an official town analysis by Scanlon & Associates as his source. Similar objections were voiced about a report on town infrastructure problems and there were attempts by some attendees to discredit this information as well.













Other than one flamboyant outburst by a well-known town resident and regular poster on this blog, the meeting proceeded with a reasonable decorum- far better than the previous forum on April 12 (see my previous post)…. that is, until Mr. Wojcik turned the meeting from an information session into a political debate about Select Board candidates for the upcoming election and the inadvisability of electing former/ current School Committee members to the Select Board. What followed was not unexpected from my vantage point given the makeup of the audience.... the meeting turned into a similar “shouting match” situation as did the April 12 forum and the meeting ended on a very sour note….

Regarding Mr. Duquette’s latest post here on the Buzz blog…

I have listened and attended numerous Select Board/ School Committee meetings as well as official public forums on the current school/town budgets and high school building project during the past 9 months. I believe that I understand the situation quite well and have become very concerned about where we are headed.

Mr. Duquette makes the following statement in his latest Buzz post…

“The library is an operating expense, while the new high school is a capital expense. Closing the library doesn’t do anything to advance the high school project.”

He also states that Mr. Wojcik would have “earned a poor grade in my public budgeting course”. During the meeting Mr. Duquette also restated his recurring theme that “you can’t run public government like a business”.

As Mr. Wojcik tried to explain at last night’s meeting, a capital expenditure turns immediately into an line item operating expense through annual repayment of interest + principal. For the proposed high school project this operating budget line item is likely to be ~ $3.5 – 4.0 million in FY2014 (based upon estimates by Paul Pasterczyk- Town Finance Director but actual numbers are dependent upon municipal bond interest rates). (See my recent post to determine individual property tax impact.)

Mr. Duquette’s approach is similar to many new HS school building advocates who have simply decided to ignore or discount or discredit mention of the any other financial needs of the town and want to simply move forward and build the new high school. They do not want to discuss the financial ability of Longmeadow’s town residents to support such a project.

I believe that we are making a mistake if we simply choose to ignore Longmeadow’s other financial issues as we debate the decision to build a new high school. Given our difficulties in formulating the FY11 budget, it is clear that we will be making additional difficult choices in the very near future… not necessarily ones that we want to make but ones that we are forced to make. These unpopular choices may include reductions in teachers, fire dept/ police dept staff, additional curtailment of library services ……

Our town leaders need to BALANCE available financial resources to deliver both school and town services so that all segments of our town population are treated fairly. With two seats (out of 5) on the Longmeadow Select Board being decided at the June 8 election, it is important for town voters to fully understand each candidate’s position on this issue so that they can make right choices.

A Public Forum on Longmeadow's Financial Crisis

On Monday afternoon I attended a public forum at the Longmeadow Adult Center organized by a group of concerned citizens including Roger Wojcik, Jerry Nolet, Joe Ochuitti and Phil Fregeau. There were a total about 40 people in attendance representing many different constituencies in town.... including three School Committee members/ the School Building Committee co-chair, two Select Board members, a Select Board candidate, numerous senior citizens, pro-school / anti-school, former teachers, ..

The message from the forum organizers was as follows:

Longmeadow is in a Fiscal Crisis!

The cost of our Schools, Public Safety and other Town Services is becoming overwhelming.

• The School Committee is asking us to take on a $46 million mortgage for a new high school.
• Longmeadow is obligated to pay $28 million in Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) which it does not have.
• Longmeadow’s buildings, roads and water/sewer systems need over $100 million worth of repairs.
• Longmeadow’s budget for next year begins to borrow from our last remaining reserve fund.

The organizers were asking for ideas on how the town might make its way through this mine field of future expenses.

The meeting quickly evolved to a “shouting match” debate over the merits and concerns of the proposed $78 million high school building project.

From the prospective of someone who has followed this project and is reasonably knowledgeable about many of the specifics, I found that there was significant misrepresentation and inaccurate information contributed from both sides- particularly with regard to the cost of the new + renovated high school to the average taxpayer.

I have commented in past LongmeadowBuzz postings that the School Building Committee's average tax increase estimate was misleading. A recent summary of the taxpayer cost by Paul Pasterczyk- Longmeadow's Finance Director wherein the annual cost is shown for each of the 25 years of the school project bond is a much better representation. The first full year of project impact in FY14 will increase the average taxpayer's cost by $575 - $700 depending upon prevailing bond interest rates at that time. The average annual increase over 25 years is estimated to be $455 - $516.

Note: These numbers are somewhat high because the project cost to the town is now $44 million vs. the $46.2 million used for Mr. Pasterczyk's analysis.
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Here are some words to describe a large portion of the meeting.....
loud, angry, disrespectful, contentious.....,

I attended this public forum as an observer and not as a participant. I have attended numerous public forums in the past on similar subjects, listened to my fellow neighbors share their views and occasionally added my own comments. With most past forums, I have walked away feeling that the public debate was worthy of our great town….

Monday, I walked away very disappointed that our town has been much more polarized than I had thought, that the intensity of debate had risen dramatically and many of the participants were not listening to the other side. Most concerning was outright disrespect for other people’s opinions and ideas.

I can only hope that this forum is not representative of the debate that will occur between today and election day and that both sides will work together to see our way through the current financial crisis. We need compromise on both sides….. One word that did finally emerge at the end of the forum seemed to suggest what is needed for our town to successfully navigate these difficult times….

BALANCE…. I will expand what this word means in future posts.

Town Facilities Study- Public Forum

In the summer of 2007, JCJ Architecture of Hartford, Connecticut, was retained by the Town of Longmeadow to produce a “Town Wide Facilities Study” to document the existing conditions at fifteen municipal and school buildings. These are not all of the buildings the Town owns, but represents those buildings for which information or plans of action did not exist. The study was conducted in the fall of 2007 and is intended to serve as an evaluation of conditions observed at that point in time. The reports (executive summary + individual building reports) are posted online.

The results of this town buildings facilities study were presented in a public forum on April 3 organized by Robin Crosbie, Town Manager. Below are videos from this public forum which were provided through the courtesy of Longmeadow Community TV.

Presentation by JCJ Architecture

[make sure to double click to start video]

Part II- Questions/ Answers + Additional Discussion


It is requested that additional feedback and questions about this facilities review should be posted in comments on this blog.