Tightening the belt

You can expect more stuff like this to be coming down in the future. It might sound silly, the city charging itself fees for a zoning variance on trailers, but remember: the Dept. of Public Services is an "enterprise" entity, independent from the city's general budget.

That's why the city can borrow money from DPS to fund water/sewer systems on Plum Island. The Harbormaster dept. is also an enterprise account. Mass. laws aside, seeking revenue is probably the real reason the Harbor Commission is looking to tighten up on collecting mooring fees.

Obviously, the city is looking for money wherever it can. Thus the new water meters, new permitting fees (A required "peer review" of engineering plans submitted by developers? Oh, c'mon! - does Stephen Karp know about this?) and sticking it to DPS.

This, however, is more like a regressive tax on residents. You charge DPS, they pass it on to the ratepayers.

On the other hand, if this is just a move to stick it to Brendan O'Regan, the DPS director, for blabbing to the daily about former City Council President (and now regular ward councillor) Tom O'Brien and something about threats to the mayor around a leave of absence for his daughter (who works in the water billing dept.) - then shame on City Hall.

From April 2, 2008, Daily News:
O'Regan said O'Brien's claims stem from personnel problems in the city's water billing department, where O'Brien's daughter works.

O'Regan said O'Brien went to Mayor John Moak about a week ago telling him that if he didn't give his daughter time off as part of a union request, he would go to The Daily News with charges of mismanagement.

"(O'Brien) hasn't raised any of these questions during this whole process and now that he asked for something and the mayor tells him no, these issues are being raised," O'Regan said. "And all it does is causes our customers to have undue worry as to the bills they are getting.

I am curious if this zoning variance applies to the mobile classrooms at the Bresnahan Elementary School. The School Dept. is also separate from the general city budget.

I am also curious about any measures being taken to tighten up the collection of past due property taxes.

I hear that might need some work as well.