[Editor’s note: This spring, Southborough voters will be able to choose among two candidates for one seat on the Select Board. To help you make that decision, each candidate is invited to submit one letter to readers promoting their campaign.
As in past years, you may use comments to endorse the candidate. No mudslinging allowed here.]
To the Editor:
My name is Joe Palmer, and I’m running for the Select Board. I will be at the transfer station May 11th from 8:30am – 9:30am and 2pm – 5pm, for anyone who would like to meet me. I need the middle of the day for a youth soccer game, too much fun to miss.
I have lived in town since 2015. I grew up mainly in Massachusetts, and have an undergraduate and MBA degree from Babson College. My professional experiences range in sales, marketing and management across the industrial and publishing fields and as a profession investor. I am also a published author (fiction), and have many years of experience in non-profit volunteerism. Though I have traveled in over 45 states, 4 continents, 10 countries, and lived in 2 other states, I have always returned to Massachusetts and felt at home here. Most of the last decade I’ve spent as an at home parent, volunteering in the schools, sport leagues, and in Town Government. I am currently on the Capital Improvement and Planning Committee (CIPC), and have served on the ARPA Committee and 21 Highland Committee.
I promise to advocate for process changes, fiscal responsibility, transparency, and Community involvement. We are facing LARGE and dynamic issues. How we deal with them will have permanent ramifications on the way we live. Whether we are talking about the Hopkinton water project, MBTA act, Police regional dispatch, the new school discussion, community center conversion, budget and tax inflation, lead contamination at the old water tower off Atwood, Breakneck clean up, road repair and tree work schedules, etc. etc. How much do you know ? How might they affect you ? Did the town inform you ? Have you had to learn it from elsewhere ?
I have been told by many elected officials and board members over the years that people are apathetic and don’t take the time to pay attention. Yet when I talk with people they are passionate when impacted or informed about issues. The friends who asked me to run and have supported my candidacy, told me they wanted someone on the board they could trust. I was honored, daunted, and sad. The patterns and events over the past decade seem to be repeating. The Select Board continues to operate in a bubble of sorts, believing the majority supports all they do, and assuming you don’t want or need to know what is happening in real time because you are not attending all the meetings. So, those interested are left to comb the town website, MySouthborough.com, try and catch Select Board Members at the transfer station, or watch hours of meetings to find out the bare minimum. So you know what questions to ask, if you don’t know the issue at hand ? Did you know you could be sent Board agendas and information ? I have been on capital for 5 years, and I didn’t know you could sign up to be automatically be sent information on all kinds from committees and some topic information til this campaigning and a Select Board member guided me too it. Hopefully you’ll want to know too ! Has anyone asked for your email, text number, sent a flyer ? The Select Board needs to commit to systematic changes to make sure it is guided by an informed and participating public, and acknowledge the basic premise that an informed and participating voting public is the most important concept to keeping our neighborhoods in tact , and our Town democratic process healthy. We need a communication plan and Town Meeting process that works for us. One which makes it easier for citizens to know and be engaged in the discussion of issues in a timely fashion, and a convenient process to vote upon them. A one day “All or Nothing” town meeting voting system IS NOT WORKING FOR PEOPLE, and not what is best for this town.
The Select Board has adopted a policy of limiting choices at Town Meeting to avoid debate, please small voting blocks, make their lives easier, and in the hope that the shortened meetings will be good to encourage future attendance. I don’t mind losing votes at Town Meeting on issues I care about, but I do mind having only one option presented, which cannot be substantially changed (creating the potential for conceptual mistakes), and losing votes with only 3% of the town in attendance voting. The excuses of efficiency and expediency will not solve the underlying lack of participation and enthusiasm by the public; it compounds one philosophy mistake with another. An active and interactive communication system, streamlined messaging method, and tailored news delivery system are needed year round to inform our citizens. Archaic State laws and codes are at the heart of our Town Meeting structural problem. We will have to be creative in the short term while we start the process to accomplish the larger restructuring goal as it requires multi level/body legislative support. Quiet compliance to current laws is not going to get it done, and advocacy by our Select Board is ESSENTIAL to garnering attention from state officials! BTW if there is a 50 Million dollar difference between Neary school proposals, is it more important that we save an hour, or 50 Million dollars. At the moment we might have to have another town meeting if we kill a proposal, because there is no second choice or way to significantly amend them. Smart management ?
I do have strong opinions on many issues, but they are not more important than yours! If elected, I will try to carry out my duties like a neighbor and advocate, because I don’t believe anyone in this town votes for the Select Board to rule over them. I believe that local governance at its core, should be done from the citizens perspective, and honoring the public trust. At the end of my term, I don’t want to have to tell you what I’ve done to call my term a success, because with a successful communication plan, and participation in the community, you will know all along. That is a zero failure model.
I’ll finish with these thoughts. Please, always remember to thank community volunteers, board volunteers, town employees, and elected officials who put in so many hours to help make our community great. Whether we agree or disagree with any policy or action taken, everyone is performing a service and wants what is best for our town from their perspective. And because good governance/service cannot be done in a vacuum, we need to communicate so problems can be understood, and the best solutions are found and achieved ! And LETS GIVE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE for MYSOUTHBOROUGH.COM for being a great institution keeping the town informed (And how I learned about lead contamination problems at the old water tower site off Atwood. How did you learn about it ?).
Thank you for your time. Please VOTE May 14th.
Joe Palmer
158 Parkerville Road
PS If you have a little more time, please read on. Below are some views and conversations I believe we all need to have. I don’t claim to know everything, friendly differences of opinion are welcomed, and check facts for yourself and feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. I’m not the Board. But, I believe listening and learning from others is a vital part of being a good leader and hones wise perspective.
- I am against the MBTA Act in its current form, and believe we can do better if we develop multiple resistance/fighting strategies immediately, beyond working on a toxic zoning map. We are over 30% owned by the state who contributes little in support. We do not have the infrastructure to support high density housing. We are in discussions for a new school, where we cannot be entirely sure of the population outcome with potentially 300 40B units and the by right zoning for 750 units the act requires (we are currently ~ 3800 households). In the past, we have gotten little or nothing from most of the grant programs they are threatening to take away. We could be forced to bear costs for developers and state requirements. Neighborhoods are turned into developers monopoly boards, homes can be turned into boarding houses, by zoned right, by these same developers to try and devalue the houses around them for future purpose. They have changed the punitive measures upon towns several times because the act was so toxic towns started resisting, still the state did adjusted the requirements for other communities, why not us ? Any control you are told we have is illusionary once you seed authority to the state, who makes all laws and has been untrustworthy through this process. Our state senator and representative are no where in sight, because they know no majority of voters would have voted for this. If we don’t stand up and contest it while there are other towns and partners to do so, we could end up alone, and completely powerless at the end of this process, with no opportunity to negotiate better terms. Does anyone wonder with Southborough, Hopkinton, and Ashland all with land within the Station development zone, what will really happen in that area on the current trajectory set by the MBTA ? The traffic ? Parking ? Park areas ? Busing ? Markets and commercial needs? Sewer needs ? With the increased water we are supplying, and the Hopkinton sewer system (and/or expansion of it), what might be possible.
- I think the Police dispatch center decision should be at town meeting, and not one proposal fits all. The subsidies for consolidation run out in 3 years. We will have little or no control over the situation after we join a call center, and cannot reverse course afterward without considerable cost. Is sacrificing local policing the right decision? There may be no one to greet you at police station except a phone and panic room. Let’s be clear about what the full vision will be before rushing into a decision. I was told through my childhood a police station is a place of safety; what will you tell your children ? . . . And what could it mean for space use in our Public safety building, and the equipment ? We are losing Police and public employees at a rapid rate, we need a new plan for retention and morale.
- I wish the Select Board had involved the other Boards and more citizens in the final stages of the Hopkinton water project before a Town Meeting vote, and in the municipal contract discussions after. My understanding is a municipal agreement sits in Hopkinton for approval. In the Capital Committee, we did not see a final version of either the project or the final municipal agreement sent to Hopkinton. The project could benefit the water system by reducing future capital costs by millions, however if something goes wrong, it could do substantial harm to a crucial public infrastructure, and do physical and financial damage to the town. This venture is also a significant business model expansion over the limited agreement with Ashland. Once you turn the water on, there will be no turning it off, so I hope they got it right. The Board pushed this project to help our neighbor, but in doing so, it stripped the public of the right to due diligence and a vote on a completed project plan and municipal agreement. That was unnecessary. Hopkinton survives, and they have still not broken ground on the project at the time of this letter. Once they do, will it spawn another development wave in Hopkinton, and will it affect us ?
- The more we spend on a new school (or Neary rehab) will dramatically affect our tax rate increases moving forward, and the town’s financial capability to handle other concerns (like sidewalks etc.). Every 10M we bond will increase a household tax bill by approximately $130 plus interest per year ($10 Million/20yr bond/3800 households + interest). A new school could be 100M+, a rehab 30-60M (depending upon the plan), with the MSBA paying possibly 20% or less of the total bill. No plan is set, but options are under discussion. They would like citizen involvement, but I was told no one showed up. I know people care when I talk to them, so I know there is a communication disconnect. Also influencing my thoughts are a lack of control over 40B and possible MBTA zoned units, which makes accurate student projections more difficult. Additionally, the proposed property consolidation plan to go with a new school project in the space needs study, now projects Finn to be retired to be a community center. How much will that cost to convert ? Does the community around Finn want to keep their local school; the only school on the south side of rt. 9 their kids can walk to, because the state refuses to make it possible to get safely from one side of our town to the other ? It also pushes the 21 Highland and Cordaville Hall properties to be empty and thereby disposable. Is that in the best interest of the community they serve to dispose of them ? Do seniors really want to move from the Hall, and what else could be done with those spaces if they are vacant ? Could they be rented for revenue to sustain them ?
- It is time for the people of Southborough to STOP thinking about the CPA/CPC Community Preservation Act as free money. The State is only adding 20% matching funds to the CPA fund, and that has been declining for years. Southborough currently charges a 1% surcharge on your tax bill (there are proponents who would like to expand that up to the 3% maximum). So 80 cents of every dollar comes directly out of your pocket. Most spending is bonded, because it is continually spent and cannot accumulate. 3M dollars has been spent on private property you have no right to step on over the last 8 years (Burnett House and St. Marks Church). Both the Select Board and Advisory showed little and no support to change to the CPC voting approval policy at the last town meeting, to increase the passing vote threshold on private land to a 2/3 majority for historical projects, leaving the CPC vulnerable to continued looting by private interest groups. I believe CPC funds should be used for town properties first, and preserved, so they can offset our tax rate increases.
- I’ve been asked multiple times in the last day about the story on MySouthborough about the gym that moved to Westborough because they couldn’t find a landlord or proper space to stay in Southborough. A simple zoning change won’t miraculously change the infrastructure, landlord, and availability issues. Otherwise changing the zoning on Main Street (as happened years ago) could have yielded the type of space the gym needed since it was passed. We can talk about : zoning reform, proactive micro-zone planning, public capital, hybrid capital funding sources for a community development corporation, business clustering, building for customers, project pre-approvals, customer driven solutions, industry/stakeholder boards, business incubation plan, etc. I am sure many of these efforts have been tried in the past, and can be even harder to develop on a small scale while dealing with large and/or out of state real estate interests in the mix. But clearly we need to focus space development for small/mid size businesses over larger tennant style buildings, which will resist modification and division, finding ways to entice and coerce property owners to participate. I do not claim to have the golden answer as this will take change and creativity at many levels to solve, both public and private. . . . . . . But for our community on this topic, understand the truth, if you do want any scaleable infrastructure through the town of any sort, we will only have negotiating capital if we fight our absent and complacent State Rep and Senator, AND using opportunities like fighting the MBTA act, to draw attention to the State’s ignoring of Southborough and the burden they place on our citizenry, while using so much of our soil for the MWRA pipeline, reservoir system, rt. 9, rt. 495, Mass Pike, and Train system. Causing us to bear the costs and inconveniences. The State has a bill to pay for making reasonable progress impossible and not paying its fair share.
YOUR OPINION MATTERS!!! Setting a direction well ahead of time makes the future clearer. The Select Board, and 3-5% of the town, have been routinely making choices for the majority. Thats not good enough for me, and we should change the system to serve the populace, not continually blame the populace for “Apathy”, for what is just as much a system problem. People showed up in mass for the Public Safety meeting vote, and downtown zoning changes, etc. both were widely publicized and talked about before hand. It shows that knowledge, education, and publicizing of issues does attract more voters. As does Ballot votes, which attract much greater numbers, provides time flexibility, and what I would petition the state to allow for Town Meetings ! If you want a 100+ million dollar school to pay for, selling of neighborhood properties, millions in town building realignment costs, limited choices, MBTA zoning bombing our town and neighborhoods, developer and development endorsements by the Board, and enjoy their silent ruling over you, then you should be overjoyed to vote for them. I have done my part by putting my name forward, and in return have felt the warm embrace of so many of my friends and neighbors, you made the effort a pleasure. Thank you, you are the reason I love this town.
