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Schoolpocalypse Part 2: Please, Please, Please 

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Hi all. We had a whole second and third explainer in the works, with the background on the school committee’s role and how they are elected. But, things are kinda bad right now. We may get to it at some point, but today, we wanted to just talk to everyone. And a few people specifically. 

 

Hi guys, It’s KT this time! Anyway, Jim Dowd’s dead, which is really rude of him, as I normally would have had him help me with this. But where we are as a city, things are so bad the current management of the Clam rolled me out of the closet I was hibernating in. So I guess I’m here on my own, just one mom hyperventilating into a pillow at you. 

 

 

For us parents, It’s been a long week. It feels like Covid times again, doesn’t it? Ah, nostalgia. Is your house filled with tiny boxes of chocolate milk and those mini powdered donuts like mine is? It should be. Go to your local school and get some free food. The staff is dying to see a friendly face and give you seven different small containers of apple juice, I promise. 

Yesterday seemed so full of promise for our school situation. The daily messaging from the principals changed from the divisive tone and seemed more inclusive, more wiling to work things out, less finger-pointing. The phrase “illegal strike” didn’t even come up once, nevermind the seven thousand times I heard it last week. At least, for the moment. The no-school call came late. The teams at the bargaining table worked until nearly midnight. It seemed like we could be a community again, instead of whatever this is. 

But today’s sentiment, and releases from the teacher’s union, on the heels of what seemed like a promising day yesterday with both sides working late and hard… that sucked. And that wording was decisive. Not inclusive. It was clear we were so far from the end. 

 

And it was the breaking point for me as a parent. I lost it. In the middle of a long work day, I absolutely became the screaming cowboy in the sky. 

So many other parents I know, the ones who have always been smart and reasonable and involved, echoed the sentiment.  The patience we had is gone. The goodwill is waning. We are tired, our PTO days grow thin, our spring vacation plans fading like the photo of Marty McFly’s siblings after he kisses his mom. We work hours when we can to catch up so our bosses don’t lose their patience with us. We have family chip in. But some don’t have family. Some don’t have any options at all. 

Our children are bouncing off the walls at best, and really struggling without school at worst. 

Right now, our frustration is because this all has seemed so fruitless. The teachers feel disrespected. They feel the paras have been disrespected. Their frustration turns to agitation.

Then there’s a rally outside the house of a school committee member who isn’t home. But her young kids are. And they see their teachers, and dozens of other teachers, outside screaming at them. The people they trusted.

Then Greg Verga gives the finger. The freakin’ M A Y O R.  Sure, it was meant for a guy that has more than earned a middle finger salute with his aggressive stance on everything and I’ll go down swinging on that. But everyone saw it. It stoked the flames. There’s a rally outside the mayor’s house. People yelling at 10pm. Things have gone from bad to worse.

And then the Facebook warriors take every piece of news, every photo, every comment that’s thirdhand from a guy who used to sell cigarettes to Greg Verga’s second cousin and repeat it as gospel truth. Even when it’s nowhere close to the truth. Even when it’s taken out of context to make the other side look bad. “You weren’t at the bargaining table!” Sounds terrible until it turns out they weren’t supposed to be and someone much better suited to hammer out a particular detail was. 

Here’s the thing: When you tell people to get mad, you are responsible for what happens when they get mad. 

Right now, the kids are watching and listening. They’re watching the union obfuscate the truth if it doesn’t fit the agenda, and refuse to take responsibility for any of the downsides of a strike that they voted on after 60 days of no contract (with, according the the Globe, suspect timing). They’re watching the mayor be petty. They’re watching the school committee hire a firm to write scathing emails every night. 

 This community is made up of fantastic caring educators, and also hard working committee members and administrators who care about this city, and both sides are stuck in a vicious cycle like when eagles lock their talons and fall to the ground in a death spiral.

It’s been…bad.

The timing is awful. We just lived through a fraught election cycle, and got no room to breathe. The parents, the kids, the city did not need this. But we were thrust into it, all the same. 

And it feels like tonight we’re on the edge of the cliff, where something big and bad looms if we aren’t pulled back. Like the city is a powderkeg ready to explode. Today was the first day I felt like something really terrible could happen from this, and someone could get hurt, accidentally or otherwise. People are that upset and whipped up, a mob unable to regulate. It isn’t getting better. It’s getting worse. But it doesn’t have to.

Right now we are lucky enough to have a school committee full of people who care deeply about our community, our kids, and, most importantly, education. They are our neighbors, our friends, our coaches. They care. To turn around and treat them like this is a continuation of the election and they are the enemy is not fair. It is disingenuous. It is ugly. Who will want this job when they are done? Who is going to run to be treated like that? 

Assuming the worst of intentions from the folks on the other side, and only assuming the best on your side, is never going to end this strike. It’s damaging, especially when it’s not just assuming these intentions, it’s also announcing them publicly to make people upset. 

Having hundreds, perhaps even thousands of people who haven’t been paying attention – until everything came to a screeching halt – believing literally anything without verifying the truth or understanding the backstory or the reasoning makes the problem worse and widens the divide. 

I want the teachers to get a fair contract so they stay here instead of jumping to a district where they can get more money, and benefits that keep them educating instead of moving to private sector jobs. Our educators are amazing, and there are so many teachers who have helped my kids in the decade I’ve been a GPS parent. But I also understand where our city is financially. The school committee is only given a specific amount of money to fund the budget. We need to address that. If a contract goes through and we can’t fund what we need, our educators face steep layoffs to stay within the budget given. That’s the truth at the end of the day. The problem of school funding is systemic and can not be solved in a few weeks by a handful of elected community members. 

I promise you, all of you on either side, that no one is trying to do their worst. At the same time, we all need to be doing better. Taking stock of where we are and how we can get to the end goal of a signed contract for our educators and paras with a reasonable salary the city can pay for in line with our peer districts. How we as a city pay for what we need- because the money we have right now is not enough. 

I do not say any of this to be patronizing to either side. I say it because I have been there – I once went through a divorce where everything seemed personal and disrespectful and I would not give in on anything because of my anger. No one could convince me that the righteous anger I felt was maybe not the full story. But time healed, and I moved on, and I realized – in that moment, I was unable to see the forest for the trees. I’m thankful for that gift of time, and that once it passed, it was clear our goals were more similar than we could have let ourselves believe in the thick of it. 

Being too far in the fight, entrenched for so long has clouded the vision of those tasked with coming to an agreement. Our words and actions matter. Finger pointing and declaring your side not responsible for any of this mess does not solve the problem. Every single person involved is part of the problem, and must also seek a mutual solution. There has been progress. Focus on that and let it guide you. 

Let’s get this done, unified, as a community. Please. Find a “good enough,” a “close enough”. For all the kids struggling with no one home to help them, for all the parents who cried silently in their closet today when they learned we weren’t done, for the teachers who miss their students, for Fiesta’s sake! – take a deep breath, forgive the words said in anger by the other side, stop saying them yourself, remember to use your indoor voice, and move forward, while we still can. 

Schoolpocalypse Now! Part 1: The Damn Budget

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We’ve had a handful of folks ask for our take on the school strike and asking for us to explain what’s going on, how we got here, and how we can get out of it. And while we’re low on time (because of the kids we gotta watch all day now), we figured everyone has a point. We aren’t getting an easily digestible, truthful breakdown of our current situation. So here we are, in as factual language as possible. First we’ll start with our budget, then how our school committee functions, and finally an analysis on where both sides are. We are definitely having fun and not during this under duress, while screaming into the void. It’s fine, this is fine.  

I have insomnia. Explain how city budgets work so I can get back to sleep.

Like most businesses, the city’s budget runs on an annual basis, from July 1 to June 30. The budget process starts months in advance of that date – taking nearly a year overall from start to finish. The process kicks off with the mayor consulting with department heads on their needs to build the budget. The Mayor then submits this budget to the City Council. There are 9 City Council members, and 3 are on the Budget and Finance Committee. Budget and Finance are tasked with doing the Mayor’s proposed budget review before it is presented to the full Council for a vote, but other councilors should, and do, keep an eye on things at all times. From there, the full city council reviews the proposed budget in a series of public meetings. The city council can only amend the budget by keeping it balanced – they cannot add to a specific department’s budget without taking the same amount of cash from another department. State law requires municipalities run balanced budgets. 

 While the city council can request the mayor take a look at increasing revenue projections to bridge the gap, it’s not often prudent to overestimate as a shortfall can be extremely problematic, and the funds can’t materialize out of thin air.  The final budget is voted on and becomes effective on July 1st.

This year, the difference in what the Superintendent requested from the mayor and what was allocated in the budget was roughly $6M, due to spiraling special education costs (we will get into this later, if we can drink enough to make ourselves). The superintendent’s budget overview is here for reference.  After going back to the drawing board, using non-permanent ARPA funds, and creating a $750k special education stabilization fund, as well as cuts to other parts of the budget to bridge the shortfall, the remaining gap ended up at $2.2M out of the total $165M budget. Despite the efforts of the Budget and Finance committee, there was no way to fund the level services budget that the superintendent had requested.

The UGE is saying we have the free cash available, so why can’t we use it?

 

First off, let’s dig into the concept of “Free Cash.”  Much like a household budget, it’s the bits leftover at the end of the year, after the city has balanced their budget to account for their expected revenue. For example, if a municipality projects $1m in revenue, and has $1m in expenses, the budget is balanced like mentioned above, But, a few months in, Steve at the DPW decides to retire six months earlier than expected, and a few expected capital expenses came in at lower cost than budgeted for. You have an additional $100,000 at the beginning of the next fiscal year. Hooray, free cash! The state says, “Awesome job, you smart, good looking people of Gloucester! You can hang onto it in a special account and choose what to use it for.” A good city budget does not leave too much or too little in the free cash accounts. Some is used for stabilization funds, to cover for future budget instability.

It’s not free real estate.

 

Free cash sounds great, but there are expenses that it’s good for, like one-time purchases that avoid accumulating debt, and expenses that are a very bad idea to use free cash for. Recurring, annual, contracted salary expenses are that bad idea. It’s discretionary and not guaranteed, and each year expenses change. While we have had several years in a row of favorable beach receipts thanks to a post Covid boom and low expenses for winter storm plowing, that is not guaranteed to continue, and those are big variables in our city’s budget. The one exception to the “no deficit” rule we mentioned above is the snow budget. Communities can set a baseline prediction and then if they blow through that they can use free cash to patch it up after the fact. Next year, we could run very short and rely on that money to bridge that gap. In that case if the money’s gone to payroll, more layoffs occur. Relying solely on “free cash” to fund the shortfall as the UGE has called for isn’t sustainable when we’re talking about salaries for the most massive department in the city. However, as we mentioned above, $750k from the free cash was earmarked to stabilize the special education costs, which does alleviate some of the downward pressure on the school budget. 

Why does Free Cash impact anything if it’s leftover money? Doesn’t having extra money mean the mayor can’t budget?

First off, the city’s available free cash has a large impact on bond rating. All cities and towns in MA have interest bond rates. Ours is currently AA. We got there after 13 years of hard work on the part of several city administrations. We could do a whole other article on this topic, but one thing at a time here. 

If we have no free cash, our bond rating will fall. Having no free cash is a signal to those lending us money that we may not be able to make good on our debt obligations. In that event, it becomes more expensive to borrow for capital expenditures. We are fortunate to have a good rating because when the City Council votes to borrow money, we can do so at a lower interest rate. Think of Free Cash and a bond rating like equity and credit. If you don’t have a good credit score or a down payment to buy what you need, you’re going to end up paying much more over the course of a loan. While we’d love to pay everything in cash, it’s not feasible to do so. The city relies on borrowing funds to pay for long-range capital expenses. 

Can’t the city administration just figure out how to get the school budget paid for by finding the money? It’s their job, right?

Let’s talk about how budgets actually get made and how revenues work. The vast majority of the revenue in the city’s budget comes from property taxes, though there’s also state-supplied funding for schools, road repairs, and other areas. There’s services that are paid directly by user fees like water, sewer, and trash called “Enterprise Funds” and are reset each year. Our property taxes are set by a formula established in 1978 with the passing of Proposition 2 ½ – which basically says that the maximum tax revenue is limited to 2.5% of the total taxable property, plus any new growth revenue.

So that new 6-unit condo that went up down the street on an empty lot? That’s new growth, as is the old empty plant that was converted to a restaurant and function hall. 

The total amount of property tax you can assess is called the levy limit. And ideally, you want your community to be well under that limit if possible, in case of unforeseen needs down the road. Like a better teacher’s contract, for instance. Let’s compare to our neighbors up the line. Salem has a total levy capacity of $130,115,164. Beverly has a capacity of $130,560,261 (these are FY2025 numbers from the Mass. DOR). Gloucester’s is $105,847,014.

Now, to look at the actual amount of property tax raised, Salem’s budget projects $122,077,395 raised. Leaving approximately $8 million in excess levy capacity. Without Beverly’s FY2025 numbers, we turn to their 2024 numbers as certified by the state. In FY2024, Beverly had a maximum levy of $125,928,475. They taxed $124,470,712 – so last year they only had $1.45 million in excess capacity. Not nearly as much of a cushion.

Using FY2024 numbers, Gloucester had a total levy capacity $101,671,528. And the taxes that were assessed were $101,622,847.

That leaves us with an excess levy capacity of $48,681. That’s FORTY-EIGHT THOUSAND dollars.  We are a sensible midsized sedan away from disaster. 

When cities bump up against this limit, they have two options. They can either cut line items from department budgets to get down to that limit, or they can ask the voters for permission to raise the tax to a higher level (usually for a time), and that is called a “Prop. 2 ½ Override.” If the city government can persuade the voters that the money ask is for a good reason, a “yes” vote enables that reason to be funded. Usually overrides are asked for things like major capital expenses (new water plant, new high school building, and the like). It all depends on the community and the budget practices. Having excess capacity allows you to raise taxes more to handle these things without having to go to a vote. 

Salem can afford about $8m in increased costs before they’d have to ask for an override. Beverly can afford about $1.5m. Gloucester needs an override to pick up a few scratchies at the corner store.

We have a second, looming problem that is going to cause havoc in our budget: the 3A referendum. Tracy O’Neil garnered enough petition signatures to call the recent 3A MBTA housing initiative to a ballot referendum. Unfortunately, this move means that Gloucester is immediately out of compliance with state law, putting our access to state funds at risk. Right now, the state is not giving anyone a pass on this. Grants we banked on since the city council had approved the 3A zoning district may be pulled out from under us – take the library, for example. The City is on the hook for that project unless the library can raise the funds, which they’ve thankfully been steadily doing. (We can still help with that, and we need a library now more than ever.) 

We’re also on the hook for our secondary wastewater treatment plant. We’ve been kicking this can down the road since the early 80’s. For forty years, we’ve been on a compliance waiver because our sewage plant does not adequately treat outflow to the level requires. It’s important to note that this secondary treatment does not have anything to do with capacity, it’s entirely the type of sanitation our sewage gets. Therefore, adding new housing units is not the cause of this expenditure. 

So we’re in a real pickle on how to pay for the school budget as it is, let alone our educators’ new contract. 

 

We can’t just take funds from other departments, months ago B&F went through the budget to find anything that could be re-allocated. We still need other departments funded adequately as well. Other departments like the police and fire have union contracts too, so we can’t claw back salary we’ve already promised. And salary is the big spend – roughly 85% of the budget. We can’t save enough reams of paper to solve the problem. 

So where are we now?

The most likely outcome is that if we hammer out an agreement near what the teachers want, there will be cuts to staffing to balance the budget, unless we can find more budget.  A Prop 2 ½ override has been our only option and we have failed to do it for so long. In reality, most cities we are looking towards as the beacon of how we want our schools to be funded rely on overrides. Looking locally, Boxford has voted for six overrides in ten years, all to fund schools. Groveland, Ipswich, Manchester, Merrimac, Salisbury, Melrose, Georgetown and Rockport have all voted for one or more overrides to funds schools in the past few years.  

 

Gloucester has not put forth an override question since 1991, to fund firefighter salaries. It did not pass. 

 

 

2024 Election Clamsplainer – Antifa (the side we were on in WW2) Edition

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You know who we are (even though you haven’t seen much of us on this website for quite a while). You know how we vote. And you know how we feel about Cheeto Mussolini. The TL;DR is: vote for Democrats.

You may not believe us, but we are really getting tired of saying that. The editorial staff at the Clam ranges ideologically from “Kim Driscoll’s Get Stuff Done Wing of the Democratic Party” to “Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism,” so while none of us are particularly conservative, we do manage to have some healthy debates over how exactly we think society should be run and who is best to do that. But at the end of the day, most of us will go for the option that isn’t frequently in bed with Nazis. So…

Our pick for President: Kamala Harris

Period.

Look, we would have voted for Joe over Donald Trump. We would have voted for a houseplant over Trump, even if it was that one from Little Shop of Horrors. Biden has clearly lost his fastball and the toughest job in the world has taken a lot out of him. Just driving through Tally’s Corner from Angle Street takes a lot out of us, so we get it. A diminished Biden was still a better choice than a shambling mound of fast food, grievance, and rage that already bungled the levers of power once and who wants to literally jail his enemies (of which he has quite a few). Trump has shown us clearly that he’s incapable of leading a one-man parade, let alone the United States. This past weekend’s Trump rally – where the campaign paraded a line of supporters who went on racist tirades against Puerto Rico, Hispanic-Americans, and African-Americans, lobbed anti-Asian and misogynistic insults against Kamala Harris, and culminated with Trump’s usual inflammatory and fascist rhetoric about the “crooked, radical left machine” and “the enemy from within” – is just the latest example. Someday in the future, history will look back at this era, see the people who supported Trump – whether fervently or passively – and judge them harshly. And Hulk Hogan is dead to us now.

We were ok with hoping for another four years under Biden like the last four, ready to vote for Kamala Harris to be the successor. Biden stepping aside just moved it up a bit. Do we like Kamala Harris? Absolutely. Does she have the intellect and temperament to be President? Absolutely. Is she more likely to preserve America’s standing in the world? Absolutely. In a Harris presidency, Ukraine will be supported, NATO will be a powerful tool to neutralize Russian expansion, Taiwan will be protected from an invasion from the mainland, and we’ll continue to be the only major global economy that didn’t have a full-on recession from COVID and the aftermath. And yes – despite what your cousin yelled at you at the Labor Day barbeque – she DOES actually have her own agenda of plans to make life for Americans better. It’s all on her website and social media. Tell your cousin to loosen that MAGA hat, and go read all about it instead of embarrassing himself in front of his kids.

Joe, thanks for the memories. Kamala, let’s make some new ones. Donald, we told you to stop calling us.

We are really going to miss the “Dark Brandon” memes, though.

Our pick for US Senate: Elizabeth Warren

You don’t need us to tell you about Elizabeth Warren. Or maybe you do, if you are one of those types that thinks she is a raging socialist because she has the audacity to say that a society where all the wealth sits with a handful of people (note: this is not you and never will be) isn’t the best way to run things. She may go a bit hard for some people, but honestly, we probably need that. If you are the type who seriously doubts her bona fides, indulge yourself on one of her 13 books (the majority of which were written before she was a senator, so just cool your jets before you go off) or her sizable library of academic publications. In terms of policy, she has been on the right side of almost everything we care about: health care, child care, making sure the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, et cetera et cetera. We would probably pick Warren over a lot of people on those alone.

We’ll admit, John Deaton is doing his damndest to make himself seem electable, if for no other reason than to avoid Warren crushing him more handily than she did Geoff Diehl in 2018. Deaton has said that he’d break with his party and vote to make a woman’s right to choose the law of the land, as well as a couple of other things that are unusual to hear from a Republican who is running at the federal level. This is Massachusetts, after all. But merely not being a crazy person isn’t a particularly compelling reason to elect someone to be a US Senator. In any case, we’ve seen what happens to seemingly reasonable Republicans when they get to Washington and have to get along with the rest of their party, which has vacated any facade of a desire to govern responsibly. We don’t know if you remember Scott Brown, but we do.

How could we forget?

Scotty 2 Hotty won a special election to take Ted Kennedy’s seat in the Senate in 2010. His appearance on the scene killed any prospect that the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare) would be anything more than the landmark-though-slightly-underwhelming legislation that it ended up being. It was also quite a lift to get Brown to listen to his constituents and break ranks to vote for some sensible banking regulations after the worst Wall Street-induced financial crisis since the Great Depression. (Sensible regulations, we will note, which included the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the brainchild of a pre-Senate Elizabeth Warren.) We aren’t willing to take that gamble now that the Republican Party has flipped from “corporations are people” to “dictator on day one.” It isn’t just about good policy anymore. It isn’t even about passable policy. The woman, trans folks, people of color, and others that regularly come under attack from both elected Republicans and their base can’t take that risk. Fascism is pretty bad for the economy as well. It’s Warren all the way.

Also, a crypto bro with an endorsement from Elon Musk? Really? Nope.

Our pick for State Representative: Ann-Margaret Ferrante

Ferrante has been the state rep for Gloucester, Rockport, and Essex since 2009, with Manchester getting thrown in during redistricting to give her the full Cape Ann set since 2022. As the daughter of a fisherman who has lived in downtown Gloucester her whole life, Ferrante knows the community and the people in it. She’s also got a pretty hefty educational background: a double-major bachelor’s degree including economics, a law degree, and a master’s in public administration. She has proven to be effective and actually pretty visionary, having helped to spearhead the creation of the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute and Gloucester Biotechnology Academy, bringing science to Gloucester’s waterfront and giving students a new path to actual careers in the life sciences without needing a college degree. GMGI even named a fellowship after her in recognition of her pretty relentless support.

More than all that, Ferrante has played the State House game well. Politics is fundamentally about working with people, after all. She worked her way up, serving as chair of a number of committees and a stint in House leadership. Now she’s earned a spot as Vice Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. For those of you who had friends in high school and aren’t government nerds, the Ways and Means Committee is the last stop for every budget and piece of legislation that goes through the Massachusetts House of Representatives before it gets a vote on the floor. That means that every bill, every dollar appropriated, and every amendment filed comes across Ferrante’s desk and gives her the opportunity to press her finger on the scale in favor of her constituents (that’s us). With something like 5000 bills filed every legislative session, that’s a lot of paper.

Ann-Margaret Ferrante’s desk, probably.

It’s also a pretty big deal, if we say so ourselves. Combine that with the fact that Bruce Tarr is the minority leader in the Senate and Cape Ann gets two very big influencers at a scale that rank and file reps and senators can’t match. Year after year, they have worked together to bring the funding to Cape Ann necessary to do things like grow GMGI, vastly expand The Open Door to meet growing food insecurity, support the formalization of the Grace Center to help the unhoused, reopen the UMass Marine Station for fisheries and environmental research, and a lot more. Heck, we are such fans of the tag team that we might even tell you to make sure you vote for Bruce too, even if he is a Republican and doesn’t have an opponent this year. As Jim Dowd told his kids at every election cycle, Bruce Tarr is “The one Republican daddy votes for.” We miss that guy. 

We aren’t going to waste much time talking to you about Ferrante’s opponent, if for no other reason than the fact that he hasn’t given us much to talk about. Former Ward 3 City Councilor and City Council President Steve LeBlanc pulled papers to run as an independent. He has said in the one interview he has done as of this writing that he likes to help people and do things and that the parties don’t do enough bipartisan work. It would be a wonderful message if not for the paragraph immediately previous to this one where we talked about LITERALLY ALL THE BIPARTISANSHIP between Bruce Tarr and Ann-Margaret Ferrante. It also lacks any actual reasoning to throw out Ferrante in favor of him, which would be a pretty uphill argument anyway, given the results she produces and her position in the House. We heard that he wouldn’t even accept an invitation from the local League of Women Voters to have a debate. If you can’t manage to debate one person, how can voters be even remotely confident that you can joust with the 159 other reps who are gunning for the same resources for their districts that you are for yours? We’ve been positive on LeBlanc in the past during his tenure on the City Council, but there isn’t even a case to make here.

Our pick for Register of Deeds: Eileen Duff

Eileen Duff is a North Shore powerhouse who has served on the Governor’s Council for 12 years. Southern Essex County needs a competent leader to fill the shoes of retired Register of Deeds John L. O’Brien, Jr., who occupied that office for an impressive 48 years and worked to make the massive number of historical records in this institution accessible to all. Duff has taken up that call. A lot of people level criticisms at politicians running for offices for which they don’t seem to have any relevant experience, but nothing could be further from the truth in this case. Duff not only brings her experience with the judiciary from her time on the Governor’s Council, but also a ton of real life interactions with the registry from her time as a real estate agent. Especially in forward-facing roles like the registry, having a broad range of experience from the customer’s perspective is extremely valuable. We have no doubt Duff will use this experience to continue serving as O’Brien did while bringing her own fresh ideas and flair to the office. Come on Eileen! (Sorry, kinda.)

Now, we’re not one to get on too much of a high horse when it comes to how one dresses, but we’ve always firmly held to the idea that you should dress for the job you want. That is why half of us here at the Clam dress like elves and the other half dress like space elves. With this in mind, we aren’t quite sure what Duff’s opponent, perennial Republican candidate Jonathan Ring, thinks he is running for.

He seems to take this seriously.

The answer could be, “Basically anything.” By our count, Ring has run for Rockport School Committee, Rockport Town Clerk, Register of Deeds (the current run marks his second), and Rockport Housing Authority, the latter of which being the only office he succeeded in holding. Even that was a bit much for us, with what we know about his views on gay, trans, and women’s reproductive rights, for a start. Given the results of all those other elections, we are willing to bet that a lot of people agree with us on that. Now, what harm could those views bring with Ring in the registrar’s office? Who knows, but we aren’t willing to give him that chance. We would much rather see Duff bring her experience to bear in that office to continue moving it forward.

Our pick for Governor’s Council: Eunice Zeigler

Eileen Duff’s departure from the Governor’s Council leaves a larger-than-Eileen-Duff sized hole in the Council. Duff’s pick to be her successor is Methuen City Councilor Eunice Zeigler. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Governor’s Council, it is the body of eight elected councilors in Massachusetts that confirms judicial appointments and reviews pardons and commutations. We agree with Duff that Zeigler, a first generation Haitian-American with a master’s degree in economic and social development, seems right for the role. Her background and work in the community – giving individuals and families the help they need to be self-sufficient – has put her in contact with exactly the types of people who need the justice system to understand them the most. She has proven herself on the Methuen City Council and she’s ready to dive into this important yet not-well-known position. While we aren’t crazy about losing our friendly neighborhood Governor’s Councilor seat to the opposite end of the district, we will trust that Zeigler is a fan of the beach and that we will be seeing her often.

Zeigler’s Republican opponent, Peabody City Councilor Anne Manning-Martin, describes herself as “a strong independent voice.” Her pretty stock, right-wing opinions on the justice system indicate otherwise. Now, we think there are roles for all sides of the justice system to play in deliberations about how to get the best justice possible. We endorsed former cops Kevin Coppinger and Paul Tucker in their races for Essex County Sheriff and District Attorney, respectively, against opponents that were arguably more liberal, and we did it exactly for their experience in the field. We also sometimes think that one side of things already has pretty good representation in the system. A current corrections official running on her determination to make sure Massachusetts judges collaborate with ICE ain’t it for us. Anyway, given how Republicans at the federal level are handling the courts, we aren’t hot to give the same thing a chance to happen to Massachusetts.

Our pick for Essex County Clerk of Courts: Tom Driscoll

The various clerks and registers around Massachusetts may be the only elected offices that have even lower profiles than the Governor’s Council, other than Electors Under the Will of Oliver Smith (this is a real thing in nine municipalities in western Mass). We’re not even sure that we would remember that Register of Deeds existed if Jon Ring wasn’t running for it all the time. The Clerk of Courts is responsible for keeping the court’s records, running court sessions, and acting as a liaison between judges and lawyers. In Essex Country, our clerk of courts is Tom Driscoll, and we think it should stay that way. He’s been doing this job effectively since 2001. We don’t think a long incumbency should be anything but a benefit in a job that is almost solely administrative. We say Driscoll is a steady hand at the wheel, and we need that more than ever these days. 

Driscoll has two opponents for the first time… ever? They are two unenrolled (AKA “independent”) candidates named Todd Angilly and Doris Rodriguez. The fact that the Republicans don’t even seem to want to contest the seat should say a decent amount on its own. We are sure they are fine people (Angilly’s the guy who replaced Rene Rancourt as the Bruins’ anthem singer), but we just don’t see the logic here.

And: Ballot questions. 

Question 1: The Clam is a bit divided on this issue, though a majority of us will be voting yes. We all agree government transparency is of the utmost importance in order to uphold our democracy. What isn’t clear is if this will be successful in moving that goal forward. Currently, the Legislature is periodically audited by an outside accounting firm. If question 1 passes, the measure states that the Auditor would have the authority to audit the state legislature, something that was a significant campaign issue for current Auditor Diana DiZoglio. However, it isn’t likely to go without some pushback from the House and Senate, who say it would violate the constitutional separation of powers. We are waiting to see how this unfolds either way.

Question 2: MCAS or Nah? 

The Clam is a resounding Yes on this one. 

MCAS = teaching to the test, highlighting economic disparities among students. MA teachers and students are already stressed out enough these days without worrying about this huge test. At the same time, voting Yes doesn’t eliminate the MCAS, and that’s probably good. Standardized testing is a useful way to see where disparities lie between demographic groups and different districts. But tying graduation to a single test (or series of tests, in the case of MCAS) has never been a good idea. Let teachers teach.

Question 3: Yes. Unionize ride-share drivers, like Uber and Lyft drivers, who always seem to get the booty end of the stick thanks to their VC-backed employers. Slam dunk. 

Question 4: Yes. As we learn more about mental health care and how much we all differ as humans, why not regulate the use of psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) and other hallucinogens derived from plants as another option for treatment-resistant depression and PTSD? Responsible providers will prescribe it and monitor its effects. A commission would be formed to regulate the sale and services of psychedelics. A tax would be imposed on any psychedelic treatment facilities and sales. It would also allow anyone age 21 or older to grow, possess, and use the substances in Massachusetts. (Sauce: https://www.wcvb.com/article/question-4-legalize-psychedelics-massachusetts/62600006) This seems like the most trivial of causes and, like the recreational cannabis ballot initiative a few years ago, it’s scary to opponents. Fact is, like pot, magic mushrooms are already out there. Until the Feds set up a way to do this nationally, we might as well lead the way on regulating use and distribution. 

Question 5: Your The Clam are about an 80-20 split internally on this question about raising the minimum wage for tipped workers. We know and love so many people in the restaurant industry who are a No on this question, and that is about where we’re at, too. In theory, we’d like to protect those waitstaff who are in vulnerable positions at quieter, less expensive restaurants. The ones who know if they tell their boss to abide by the “minimum wage if tips dont add up” they’ll get taken off the schedule in retribution. However, this bill’s pooling of tips didn’t make sense and implementation was overly onerous. As consumers, we’d like to make sure our waitstaff aren’t hampered financially by people who chew and screw, or just leave no tip and rely on the rest of us to make it up. In reality, a more prevalent autograt on a tab for ALL would help even the playing field if this doesn’t pass. 

Question 6: Yes. 

Question 6 is a non-binding ballot referendum question which is only on ballots in 11 districts around the state. It is asking our opinion on whether we would like single-payer health insurance for everyone in Massachusetts. It will give our lawmakers a good idea of where we stand. More info here: https://masscare.org/ballot-question-2024/ 

 

The Jim Dowd Fund at the Gloucester Education Foundation

  By
[Guest Post by Bo Abrams-Dowd]

Jim. The Gloucester Education Foundation. Johnny.

 

What do they have in common?

Learning is their highest priority. 

And 

Two of them are dead. 

 

Johnny died the day before his own birthday. 

November 16. 

From an overdose.

That’s all I know. It sucks. 

 

I hear you now. “What the fuck Bo. You can’t tell people Jim’s younger brother Johnny died in a post for Jim’s birthday!”

 

But I can and I have to and I don’t want to wait and it’s all connected.

Besides, Jim hated his birthday.

He’d prefer we told you about hard things on this day and not spoil another perfectly good day. 

 

Johnny’d been mostly clean the last time I saw him, the week before Jim died.

Johnny was as smart and funny and charismatic as Jim. 

Jim used to say Johnny was the smarter one.

I tell you this not to compare them, but so you understand the caliber of kid Johnny was.

Johnny was clever and a lot of fun.

But he didn’t have this one thing: Support outside his family that offered not just a view to another path, but an actual mentor to help him get on or stay on the path when it could have made a difference.

 

I’m not judging addiction here.

I am judging our systems which allow so many kids to fall through the cracks. 

 

Yesterday Treely went with the Docksiders to Beeman Elementary School to give a performance.

Seeing the high school band come into his elementary school was part of what got him jazzed about music to begin with. Then it was the instrument petting zoo. Then it was getting bused to after-school lessons with friends at the middle school. When he was in middle school, it wasn’t the academics that made him want to go to school. It was getting to go into the music room or doing a science project. Playing music makes his day better.

 

When he got to high school Treely thought he’d give it up. Playing trumpet that is. Band didn’t fit in his schedule. He didn’t want to practice. He told me he wasn’t going to be a professional musician. Why bother? 

 

Of course I thought he should keep going. But, it wasn’t my voice that convinced him to stay when he was ready to quit. It wasn’t his dad. His dad had died about three months earlier. It was the voice of some other adult that made him willing to stay. I don’t remember who it was now, maybe it was you. Who cares. I’m fucking grateful. He stayed in band. He stuck it out over a hard patch. I needed that. He needed that.

 

Anyway, back to the Docksiders and driving to school.

Treely has his permit and has driven enough these days so I no longer point out insanity in the gauntlet that is driving across Gloucester. Instead I watch the people on the side of the road. 

 

I see kids waiting for the bus. I see people getting ready for work. I see homeless people leaving the shelter. After dropping him off sometimes I see the kids who missed the bus walking to school. It’s the same kids, always late. Too many times a week. 

 

I see a Johnny and Jim of the past. 

 

You know where this is going right? You know that it’s the little things that add up. 

You know one kid started missing the bus more and the other one started missing it less.

 

Jim talked a lot about all the people who mentored him along the way from the time he was about 12. It wasn’t any one person. But it was one person at time, one interest at a time, one program at a time, that helped him survive to get to the next thing. Someone to give a nudge to stick with it when something was hard. Someone to suggest a book or a program. Someone to talk about colleges or vocations or hopes and dreams. 

Johnny never had that. Jim hated that. 

 

It’s both the fact that there is a band program and the fact there was someone who wasn’t me who was there for Treely in a way I couldn’t be. It’s because of the combination of these things that Treely is thriving, not just as a musician. 

Is he gonna be a famous jazz trumpet player? Probably not, but who cares?

 

You and I can give an occasional ride. And we try to. But like I said earlier, it was a combination of rides and programs that helped Treely, and also allowed Jim to survive and eventually thrive. 

 

Which leads me to Gloucester Education Foundation. They are the reason there is a band program and a hundred other programs that make sure practically every kid has something they can connect to in school. And they’re adding more. GEF is starting a mentor program at the high school in conjunction with Wellspring. And they just helped GHS get a grant to bring in an administrator in the vocational program. They are also beginning a student advisory group so students can have a say in GEF leadership which offers a stipend, because you can’t do internships for free if you have to make money.

 

The kids and I want to help. You may remember we collected money in honor of a Jim Dowd Scholarship Fund. Because of how much GEF does to help Gloucester’s kids, we’ve decided to transfer all that scholarship money to the GEF. The Jim Dowd Fund at the Gloucester Education Foundation will support the stipend with a goal of bringing student voices to the organization that may not otherwise be heard. 

Is this gonna help all the kids? 

No.

But it might help one. 

 

So in honor of Jim’s birthday and his brother John Robert Dowd’s memory.

Please help us grow this program. 

Think about every time you would have bought Jim a beer if you had the chance. 

Or texted a funny meme. Or just cursed his being.

and donate to the GEF in both their memory 

so the Johnnys can be offered opportunities to thrive like the Jims. 

 

 

JOHN ROBERT DOWD

November 16, 1969 – November 15, 2021

May he rest in peace

May his memory be a blessing

May the wind be always at his back

DONATE HERE: The Gloucester Education Foundation

GLOUCESTER GETS TINGLED IN THE BUTT

Image

  By , , ,

Like pretty much everyone, we here at your The Clam are busy with things like stuff, life, work, and other assorted things. So, while we ARE working on a piece focusing on a serious subject, we thought that in the mean time we’d gift you with the most ‘opposite of serious’ thing that we could possibly come up with, inspired by Dr. Chuck Tingle himself.

Enjoy, and feel free to add your own. Chuck would want all his buckaroos to be in on the fun.

**Note – some of these are illustrated, some are not, because we are supposed to be working today and not dicking around with photoshopping hunks.

 

 

  • ‘THE GREASY POLE REAMED ME IN THE BUTT WHILE SHOUTING VIVA’

  • I’M HAVING A GAY AFFAIR WITH THE PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION OF A WARD 2 RECOUNT

  • ‘NOT POUNDED IN THE BUTT BY ANYTHING BECAUSE I SPENT 40 MINUTES IN LINE AT STARBUCKS’

  • ‘MY ASS IS HAUNTED BY THE GHOST OF JOHN HAYS HAMMOND, JR.’

  • ‘GOOD HARBOR BEACH FORMED A MAN OUT OF SAND AND SENSUALLY SLAMMED ME IN THE BUTT’