There are plenty of good days and many truly excellent days, but you don’t remember any of them. What you do remember are the bad days — the thunderstorm microbursts, the named blizzards, nor’easters, storms and hurricanes.
The town’s fiscal year just ended on June 30. A new hurricane season has just started.
Here is a recap of Marblehead’s town government top 10 hurricanes for the fiscal year 2024:
1. The School Committee’s failure to define “model school district” quantitatively and financially subjects students, parents, educators, administrators and taxpayers to uncertainty. Parents and students worry about the future quality of education in town. Teachers and administrators worry about receiving competitive wages to do a great job. Some taxpayers worry about the cost of providing great schools. Others worry about the impact of deteriorating schools on their real estate values. Wealthy taxpayers don’t give a damn. The cost is immense and unmeasurable.
2. Officer Gallo’s paid leave until termination cost the town approximately $190,000, starting June 16, 2021, and ending March 4, 2024. His salary was reportedly $5,400 per month, not including benefits. The cost doesn’t include legal fees and Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer’s time to prepare a whopping 550-page report and to attend numerous hearings. The Select Board, town administrator and police were complicit in their complacency to resolve this issue in a timely manner.
3. Property assessment errors cost the town $541,000 in lost tax revenue from abatements due to egregious assessment errors. It also cost good will from homeowners who should have filed abatement requests but didn’t for reasons of money, time and/or lack of process knowledge. Another $20,000 was paid to a consultant to identify the problem and fix it.
4. School Superintendent Buckey’s early termination by the School Committee cost $175,000, not including legal fees and School Committee time.
5. The Coffin School has been held hostage by the School Committee just because they can. Members think Marblehead will need another school building in the future but have no quantitative analysis. The unused school building costs the town thousands in annual maintenance and repairs, millions in a lost sale to a developer and thousands in future annual property tax assessments.
6. Town Assessor Karen Bertolino was placed on paid administrative leave in March after property tax assessment errors. The paid leave costs the town over $7,500 per month not including benefits and legal fees. The total through mid-July is nearly $31,000, and it is still not resolved.
7. The new library architect’s failure to specify and install ADA-compliant ramp delays the much-anticipated reopening for weeks.
8. The Transfer Station’s $1.6 million project has still not started after Town Meeting approval in June 2023. It appears that no general contractors want to manage the project for the town.
9. July 4, 2024 fireworks and Harbor Illumination were canceled after an early morning fire on the fireworks barge. That’s two years in a row now after the fog effectively canceled the 2023 celebration. The fire chief declared the fire “accidental.” Sorry, but I call it “negligence” by the barge operator and fireworks shooter. Some think the town should pursue financial recourse. But we aren’t very good with successfully resolving legal issues. Maybe the Fireworks Committee should call Morgan & Morgan.
10. Town Meeting and elections had only 5% of voters determine 100% of the town’s future at the 2024 Town meeting. And only 20% voted in the 2024 elections. This “hurricane” should probably be #1.
There is a new frontier for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that I think we all can support. We need to increase town meeting participation by enabling parents with school-aged children; traveling professionals; retirees and grandparents; college students; home-bound seniors; off-shore fisherman; merchant mariners and sailors; and on-call firefighters, first responders, etc. to understand the issues and vote. This would require a two-pronged effort:
●Reduce the time required to attend Town Meeting by eliminating unnecessary articles and by considering only the critical ones.
●Use technology to enable hybrid meetings to allow all voters to understand the issues and vote while protecting against “voter fraud.” Under the umbrella of DEI, our state government should pay for it.
The forecast by the National Hurricane Center for this season is not looking good. They predict an 85% chance of an above-normal season with between 17 and 25 total named storms, eight to 13 hurricanes and four to seven major hurricanes. Let’s hope the town can have a better year in FY25.
James (Seamus) Hourihan was born in Marblehead and is a MHS graduate. For 35 years, he worked in finance, marketing and executive management roles at high-tech companies. He has lived here full-time since 2009. He currently sits on the Town Charter Committee.
