Welcome to another - actually this was last - class in City School. This week we had a tour of NCTV. (Dear Reader, please note that this tour actually took place last Spring, but only now am I documenting it.)
What is NCTV?
NCTV Studio
NCTV is Nothampton Community Television. Our so-called public-access cable TV service. In fact, it is at times one of the big reasons my family is willing to pay for cable TV. NCTV provides two channels, Channel 12 and Channel 15, which air local programming. Often it will be something like a School Committee meeting or a City Council meeting. Sometimes it might be a video from the Media Education Foundation, which is also located here in Northampton, Mass. and produces interesting documentaries. And, admittedly, sometimes you see what an Archie Bunker type might call "some whacko". It's all relative. In Manhattan, they are likely to have totally weird stuff on their Community Television. Things are not so weird here. Things on NCTV are usually community-oriented. According to their 2010 Annual Report, NCTV has 120 active members and produces a great deal of programming.
As we learned during our tour of the NCTV studio, they provide training and equipment. They provide educational programs for Northampton High School. And it is pretty easy to get involved and get started creating your own TV programming. This is what community TV is all about.
Where is NCTV?
NCTV Studio
NCTV has a studio housed in the rear lower-level of Northampton High School (NHS). When NHS was rennovated a few years ago, they made room for the studio. When the City of Northampton, negotiates with Comcast they make sure to include some funding for NCTV. This is a federal mandate which is often in danger, since cable companies would rather not have any responsibilities besides counting their money. To maintain things like NCTV, we have to pay attention to what the FCC and congress are up to. Otherwise the funding or the requirement to actually carry the signals to your home could disappear overnight. And I'll leave it to you to figure out which side has the high paid lobbyists and what the powers-that-be would prefer.
What is on NCTV?
NCTV Video Feeds
When they broadcast events live, usually it is from NHS, the City Council, or JFK Middle school. In the latter two cases, they use old wire that was laid long ago by Comcast. And if you missed some of these programs, NCTV offers recorded video online available here. See their Program Guide to tell what is on their two channels.
Now I know after looking at their annual report and their program guide or watched one of their channels late at night, you are gonna ask the obvious question. "What's the deal with 'Fish Time'?" Fish Time is one of those shows where a camera is pointed at a fish tank and not much happens and probably nobody is around. It does exists for a purpose; it provides live local programming. NCTV has to make use of their channels for such a purpose for a certain number of hours in order to qualify for access to a third channel, so Fish Time it is. From the 2010 Annual Report:
NCTV and the City of Northampton have applied for a 3rd PEG channel on the
Comcast system. We believe we have met all terms of the agreement between the City of
Northampton and Comcast required to acquire this channel. The acquisition of this
channel will require upgrading some of the equipment in NCTV Master Control.
What's next?
Regarding other future plans, as part of the Comcast contract Northampton was recently able to get their city buildings connected using Fiber Optic. NCTV will use this to replace the junky cabling they currently use. From the 2010 Annual Report:
NCTV will utilize dark fiber in the city’s new I-Net to move its current live
transmission system from the old copper Comcast system to this new, more reliable,
higher quality transport mechanism. We will encode video at locations like City Council
Chambers and JFK Middle School and transport it to the NCTV facility where it will be
decoded and distributed via our present system.
NCTV Editing Station
If you have been reading my previous entries about City School, then you will know that I am of the well-informed opinion that all the parts of this City really make do with what resources they have. The few people who manage NCTV really impress me with what they do and what they have accomplished. You can join them or, like me, just sit at home on the couch and watch it on the tube.
I hope you enjoyed this tour. If so, please forward the link to your buddies or leave some feedback.
I have been really remiss in not updating the last few weeks of City School. [Note, I wrote most of this months ago.] So here goes with a quick dump. Less thorough, but since I'm not paid to do this, you get a less complete product.
Perhaps I'll revisit this entry and edit it when I get a chance.
Last week, we visited Dispatch (also known as 9-1-1) as well as the Fire Department. This week we had a tour of the Northampton Water Treatment plant. This plant filters and treats clean water - mainly surface water - from reservoirs in Williamsburg where the City of Northampton owns land. The plant is quite new and only opened a few years ago. Here is some information on Northampton water. It is shiny clean a wonderful. I could picture a concert within the facilities. Perhaps some Water Music by Handel?
Since we had a tour, you will of course get a tour from me.
Northampton has a lot of fresh water flowing around. Below is a map of the Northampton water system. Many of the pipes are ancient - some are a century old.
The Water Filtration Plant is modern. Things are controlled remotely. There are rarely people turning big valves, even though there are many big valves in the plant. Most of it is run by relays and sensors. They opened the cabinet where they live. Each circuit board is one or more relays, sensors, or controls for valves. This cabinet is about 8 feet tall.
Once you have modern automation, then you can view, monitor, and manage things using a computer and software. The plant runs off of software that shows flow rates. Remember, this is a filtration plant, so there are various steps to the process. Also there are two main reservoirs, so they can decide how much water to draw from each.
They have spiffy labs. I'm sure that those jars of colored water are decorative.
Believe it or not, each of these faucets has water from a different source or stage of filtration. All are running all the time. I think you want to drink the stuff on the right.
Vats of chemicals. Remember this plant not only cleans water. It also adds chlorine. I have heard that there are folks around town who don't believe in adding floride to water. I don't know if this is true, but because of that we purchase floride pills for our kid to chew on nightly. I think I'm about to get on my soap box. Here I go. OK, it's quite a shame that we have to have a water filtration plant to clean water which came out of a reservoir. It's a shame there is not much clean potable water left. It's also a shame that they are required to add chlorine to the water. But there are stringent standards and that's what we are stuck with. If you think there is too much chlorine, you are probably right, but the standards require that there are certain levels in all the pipes all over town. This stuff eventually comes out of the water as a gas, so you need fairly fresh water in your area or you have low amounts of clorine. So just like a building with too much heat for everyone else because Apt 4J complained that it was too cold, the town has to over-chlorinate to make sure that a neighborhood which doesn't have many people in it and doesn't use much water has the right levels.
This sign seems silly, but there really is a 4 Million gallon tank outside the water filtration plant. That way if they shut things down, we'll have water for a while.
Everything labeled.
They kindly cleaned the carbon filters for us. Lots of brown stuff bubbled up. They sort-of reverse the flow of the water and then the stuff that was filtered out ends up being dumped outside the plant.
Everything in the plant is labeled like it was the Bat Cave. It adds to the atmosphere of orderly and cleanliness. The carbon filter for the plant is supposed to need replacing every year or two. It costs many thousands of dollars. It's like having thousands and thousands of Brita water filters like you have at home.
Things are sometimes broken down by biological activity, so they need to move things like air around within the water. Here the air goes to the left. Duh.
This would be the backup generator for the plant. The plant runs on electricity and if the power was out, it would still be important to run the equipment and get water flowing. In fact, at the time of this photo, this generator was broken.
As I said, electricity is important, so they rented a emergency generator and parked it outside the plant. A backup, backup.
When they flush the system, some it bubbles up outside.
The bad stuff ends up here. It's the stuff they filter out. Once one lagoon is full of sediment, they use the other. They take the solid stuff and haul it to the landfill. In principle, this stuff is not so bad, since it came out of a reservoir, but there you go.
After the tour we were told about Public Works. I took some notes, which I hope I transcribe sometime soon.
Well you've had your tour. Satisfied? If so, leave a comment.
Built into the side of Bare Mountain in Amherst, Massachusetts before I was born.
It was built for the Cold War, and housed a communications center for Strategic Air Command. Reportedly it had something to do with the Cuban Missile Crisis, an event near and dear to my heart. Really.
And now it is owned by Amherst College. It houses archives and old books from the Five Colleges.
Inside it is tidy, and there are no windows.
There are a few artifacts here and there. Like this clipping from a German newspaper. This article is about how the former Cold-War bunker now houses the DEFA collection of former East-German films. DEFA kindly arranged the tour.
There were many shelves like these. They are taller than they look and see those tracks on the floor. These shelves can move.
East-German films.
Many, many of them.
One part of The Bunker contained their old 'computer' room which was probably cleaned out in 1971. I think that the room housed communications equipment. Here's the door.
Here's what is left of the elevated floor.
The room overlooks a large room which had 'the big board' - the command center.
I grew some grass for our cat Chance at work. She's a complete indoor cat, so doesn't see the real stuff too often unless I grow some. She sometimes makes a mess of my houseplants by chewing on them. My co-worker and friend Susan joined in to grow a pot for her cat Bettie. I had some seed packets which were meant for cats, so reading the contents I improvised a seed mix of rye grass (regular lawn seed), oat berries, wheat berries, and spelt berries. The latter three were from the pantry. Most of it sprouted just fine and within a week and a half I had this cat treat.
Chance took to it right away.
Yum! That was last night. This morning I found some puked up grass and foamy cat stuff on the floor. I think they are supposed to like doing that. I hope.
AT&T has been airing commercials during American Idol promoting their wireless coverage.
They feature the world being enveloped in golden cloth, not unlike - OK, exactly like, the works of artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. They are famous for environmental installations in huge proportions, where they wrap many things including land and architecture. (Jeane-Claude died last year.) Notably, in 2005, they installed The Gates in Central Park (picturedat right). I have a swatch of the fabric right here on my desk (they handed them out). But the duo did much more than that.
AT&T has now "covered" them in their commercial and now includes a disclaimer. Bad move AT&T. Unfortunately, your commercial looks more like what BP is doing to "cover" the Gulf.
Welcome. By this point, you have been following my exploits in City School. Congratulations, you've made it to one of the best classes yet. If you check out last week's class (or any other for that matter) right near the beginning, you will see that I explain what Northampton City School is all about. So let's dig in.
This week's class covers the Northampton Fire Department and Dispatch. I've separated this week into two parts. You will learn that the Fire Department does more than putting out fires and getting cats out of trees (they don't actually do that). You'll also learn that Dispatch, the people who answer our local 9-1-1, do more than that. Oh, and today's class ends with some fun.
Dispatch
Melissa Nazzaro has been at Northampton Dispatch since 2000, and its Director since 2006. She told our class more than you could even guess about Dispatch. If you look at the website for Dispatch, there isn't much there, and this makes perfect sense. If you have an emergency, you can call 9-1-1. And you can call it from anywhere. There isn't too much more to know. If you have a non-emergency here in Northampton, but are still kinda urgent about something, you can call the local number 413-587-1100. You will get the same people, but a different phone system and slightly different protocol.
Northampton has a civilian dispatch center. This means it is run by people who are not Police or Fire officials. This is a good thing. Those people should be fighting crime and putting out fires (and whatever else they do.) There are 12 people working at Dispatch and always 2 on duty. There were 4 on on December 27, 2009, the night of The Arsons. It used to be that if you called the Police, you got a police officer. But now you get a specially trained person who can dispatch one. If you have a fire, you'll get someone trained to tell you to get out of your house, so you can meet the fire truck when it arrives. Or if you are drastically ill, the person might talk you through how to deal with the emergency while you are waiting for the EMTs. If the next shift doesn't show up for some reason, the Dispatchers cannot leave. If there are extreme events (e.g. weather conditions) more Dispatchers might be called in to work.
Dispatch is located on the second floor of the new fire station on King Street. Their office has its own ventilation system and bullet-proof windows. (Hey, it's a new building and they have an important job, so what the heck.) If you call 9-1-1 from your cell phone, you'll get a different Dispatch over at the State Police barracks on North King Street. They serve all of Western Massachusetts. If your emergency is in Northampton, they will transfer you to the local one.
Training
Our Dispatch has Secure Communications Accreditation. This means the facility and the people who work there meet high standards. Prospective Dispatchers are interviewed and have a hearing test. Any employee has at least 12 weeks of training and they usually get more. They also get refresher training and of course learn new things as they go.
Here, I quote from my copious notes: 16 hours 9-1-1 training, 8 hours incident training (NIMS/ICS), 40 hours training in basic telcom. They receive 64 hours in Emergency Dispatching training. That's EMD/EFD/EPD where M=medical, F=fire, and P=police. (Here's one link for illustration purposes. It is not the actual link to the people who actually do the training our people). Some of this training is in using something like a flip-chart to talk you through, for example, doing CPR on your baby.
There's more. 32 hours of training in suicide, domestic violence, stress identification and management, active shooter. Can you picture that there are specific trainings for civilians in this stuff? Now, where was I? 36 hours of ride-alongs (with emergency responders) and court observations. 250 hours with a trainer going over our city protocols (our specific procedures) and equipment. Unlike other training, they get scored and have to do well and it must be documented. Additionally, they learn about the Computer Aided Dispatch program and how to use the radios.
Crazy Stuff
So perhaps you think that Dispatchers just answer the phone and then radio the Fire Department, eh?
Let me remind you here, that 9-1-1 Dispatchers are the people who talk the proverbial child through helping her mother deliver her new baby sibling. Just search the news headlines, and you will see this stuff happens all the time. It is not folklore.
Now imagine any of these scenarios: I'm going to kill myself. He's got a gun. I can't talk. I don't know where I am. Send help. The house is on fire. I smell smoke. And so on. And each on it's own phone call. Now imagine that you answer the phone and someone just had a car accident. You deal with it and hang up. It rings immediately and it's someone else who has a pain in their chest. Again you deal with it and hang up. Now it's someone is shouting, almost incoherently, and on a cell phone and will not say where they are. And so on. Every day. And Dispatch still must be polite and calm and quickly free the phone line for the next caller. And all this while on the radio with Police and Fire. And as soon as the EMTs arrive, the remote CPR instruction from Dispatch ends. For Dispatch, this event might be over, but they don't know how it ends. And so, the phone rings again. A nightmare.
To be fair, many people call 9-1-1 for non-emergency reasons and several emergency situations are resolved by Dispatch on the phone. But in our class we were told that whether they are answering the Business line or 9-1-1 it's equally likely to be a serious call or not. Dispatch must always suspect that something is wrong. Some people call, but are not clear even in what is wrong. I have a headache. Can you breathe? Oh, and sometimes the caller cannot speak English. And sometimes they cannot speak at all.
The Calls
9-1-1 started with the first call placed in Alabama on February 16, 1968. Now about 240M calls are made to 9-1-1 every year. About one-third are wireless calls, and here in Massachusetts more than half are. Massachusetts makes about 3.3M 9-1-1 calls a year which are answered by one of the 272 Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). Most recently, our state government has been talking about consolidating these to save money to spend on the war/banks. This might make sense, unless you want the Dispatcher answering the phone to have an intimate knowledge of your town and be aware that there is both a Bridge Road and a Bridge Street when they send the ambulance.
Dealing with cell calls can be challenging, because Dispatch cannot identify the precise location of a mobile caller. This might vary in detail from within phone-shot of a cell tower to longitude and latitude. Such calls may not matter as much if the neighborhood has no side streets. Of course, there's also the chance that the caller may be in a moving car.
Last year in Northampton, there were 34,000 "events" with about 10 calls per event. An event might be a traffic accident. 10 people on average will make a call. If it's one of the drivers, they will get some assistance. If it is the fifth report, they will be told thank you we know. Dispatch also get Police-initiated calls. Most calls are medical-related. 834 events last year were fire alarms. Fire dispatches are far fewer, but those incidents take much more work and take longer to resolve.
If needed, Dispatch has scripts to read which are transliterations of 14 languages. They can also route calls through a real-time translation service. They even have protocols for directing people who are unable to speak (perhaps they are mute, choking or too scared) to respond by hitting touch-tones®.
Additionally, Northampton Dispatch receives off-hour DPW calls for the city. They have procedures which might specify what to do if you are locked out of the Water Treatment plant. Dispatch will know who to call or tell you whether to find the key under the mat. (For the record, I made up that scenario.)
What else?
Melissa Nazarro told us she has learned the ability to track two conversations at once, which she says comes in very handy at cocktail parties. She played a few old recorded 9-1-1 calls for us and described the handling of these calls.
Here is a FAQ about 9-1-1 for you in case want more information. But really what you mainly need to know is to dial 9-1-1 and to identify your location.
Welcome to a new class at Northampton City School. Last week, we learned about Planning and Development. This week in City School we learn about the Northampton Police department.
Hopefully, for your sake, I have learned my lesson and will finally err on the side of brevity. Since Police is a topic many of us think we know about, I may be able to skip some information. You will soon find out that our Police here in Northampton are not the same ones you grew up with.
Police Department
Police Chief Russ Sienkewiecz led the talk. He was joined by some of his senior staff, and later we had a tour of some Police vehicles. Sienkewiecz has been Chief of the Northampton Police Department since 1994. In the Police Department, hierarchy is clear, and it was clear during our class (the uniforms are also a bit of a give-away) as everyone called him Chief (he actually was not in uniform.) He answers to the Mayor, but government has only control over budget and appointment authority. The Police are otherwise independent. The Northampton Police must enforce the Massachusetts Constitution and State and local laws, and they must keep up to date on new laws and case law. Our Police Department was established when Northampton incorporated as a City in 1884.
Budget and Staffing
The Northampton Police Department had a budget of $15K in 1911. It now has a $4.6M budget. This is down $200K from 2009. The last proposition 2 1/2 tax override saved 9 positions. 92% of the costs are for personnel. The Northampton Police have 62 Officers and 5 civilian employees. Like many other city departments, they make do with what they have and are creative with planning and grants, but their demands are far higher than their funding and staffing. They have about 2.1 officers per 1,000 residents which we were told was a reasonable number in general. Unfortunately since we have a busy town with a lot of transient traffic, this number is not necessarily adequate. For example, in 81% of local auto crashes one of the drivers is from out of town; in 52% of crashes both drivers are. 43% of arrests are for non-residents and 19% are of homeless. As you know we have a busy night life here. We have parades and events, many local colleges and one in town, a VA, a hospital, also we have Route 91 and traffic to and from there, and so on.
For perspective, but not necessarily a fair comparison, let's contrast the Northampton Police with the New York City Police - the country's largest and oldest and 'finest' Police department. Founded: NYC 1840, Northampton 1884. Budget: NYC $4 Billion, Northampton $4.6 Million. Number of Officers per 1,000 residents: NYC 5, Northampton 2.1. Budget divided by officers: NYC $100K, Northampton $75K.
Social Service
The Northampton police are also a Social Service agency (just as we will learn next week, that the Fire Department, is a medical service agency.) They are available at all hours. Last year, they assisted in 572 suicidal mental health commitments (escorts to hospital), received 11 requests to take elementary school kids to school (I think I got that right). There were 60 unattended deaths a year which means they have to be investigated. There were 381 domestic violence calls; 7,066 motor vehicle citations, 34,000 9-1-1 calls, 3,900 serious felonies. They supervise 11 part-time school crossing guards and issue local firearms permits. They also host the Civilian Police Academy every year, which a 10 week course and is what Northampton City School is based on.
The Elusive Goal
One day there will be a new Police headquarters. Our class was meeting at the new Firehouse on King Street, because there is no room to meet at the current Police facility which was built 45 years ago. That building is 9K square feet and in disrepair (repairs are on hold because of the budget and because a new building is always around the corner.) The current building doesn't have a real lockup, that is at the Jail. To meet its current needs, it really should be four times its present size. There were quite recent plans and money almost allocated to build a new facility, but plans were stopped due to the war economy. The plans are available and a project is 'shovel-ready' and waiting, (hint, hint, Mr. Obama) but alas there is no stimulus money for this type of development.
To become a Northampton Cop
Captain Scott Sovino led the talk about what goes into being a Northampton cop. We also heard from Captain Joe Koncas about administration. Sovino has been at the job for 24 years. 10 as an officer, 10 as a sergeant, and he has been a Captain since January. He is head of Operations. Our police department is MPAC accredited. This allowed our force to be eligible for educational benefits. Unfortunately this state benefit was cut last year. Our Police could accept anyone with a high school degree, but part of accreditation is to meet higher standards. As such, our police are harder to hire and there is more to their training. The result is that they are better at what they do. To hire a policeman here, they must have an associate degree (AS) or sometimes be MPTC (state Police Academy) trained. They must go through a process, so there are often as many as four empty positions. A dozen have been lost to federal agencies (one them was an officer who was the main subject of the book home town by local author Tracy Kidder.)
To become a Northampton cop you have to take an exam which is offered every 2 years, then pass medical, psychological, and physical tests. Only one in 10 pass. After that they get 21 weeks of training (currently this is in Springfield, but the location moves around.) Then they have 15 weeks of field training (on the job) and evaluation. 1 in 3 drop out in training. After that, they are on probation for the first year. They learn about the law, CPR, defensive tactics, firearms, and equipment. They eventually become familiar with 600 documented policies (these and more were compiled as part of the MPAC accreditation) and all the street names in town. All of them have to live within 15 miles of the Northampton City border. All of them have tried pepper spray on themselves.
Who's On?
Our Police rotate over three shifts: 7am to 3pm, 3 to 11pm, and 11pm to 7am. There is always at least senior Sergeant in charge. A shift usually consists of 1 patrol lieutenant, 1 sergeant, 7 patrol officers (1 on foot, 5 in cruisers, 1 at the station), and 1 to 2 detectives. 6 officers do bike patrol (3 day and 3 evening.) Additionally, they transport cruisers (they don't call them Police cars and I suppose nobody else is allowed to drive them), do administrative activities like paperwork, and testifying in court. They answer calls, investigate crimes, and pursue "self-initiated activities". Here's a list of what they do.
Eventually an officer will take on multiple duties. There is a highway safety officer who does accident reconstruction and Crime Scene Services which do an off-broadway version of CSI. There are 8 field training officers, a forensic artist, a firearms instructor. There are detectives who are on call, but usually doing day or night shifts. Believe it or not until 1996, if you called 9-1-1, the phone was answered by Police, but now there is a civilian dispatch center which we will visit and hear more about next week. One officer is actually assigned to the public schools. Funding for that specific position was cut, but they decided to keep Officer St. Onge (DARE since 1995) in the elementary and middle schools. He plays an important role which allows early intervention with our youth. Additionally, there are the civilian staff who will do quality assurance on the paperwork and do other things like bill for alarms, leaving the Police with more time to police.
The Gear
After all that, we still had not seen a police car or the Crime Scene Vehicle. Our class eagerly went outside to get a tour from a Police Training Officer and the Crime Scene Sergeant.
Police cars are always running. This might be because Police Officers need to keep their feet warm in winter, cool in summer, but mainly because they need to be ready at a moment's notice, and mostly it's because they need to charge their car batteries. They have lots of gadgets. There are radios, both local and regional. Lights on top that flash and spots. And their lights are bright. There are sirens and horns. Radar detectors - front, rear, and hand-held. There is a mounted laptop with a data connection. There is a video camera that automatically turns on at a stop. On their person, they have another radio and an audio recorder. There were a few other things that I may have missed, but you get the idea. The back seat of a cruiser is now hard-plastic and the windows are protected from being 'kicked out' by a metal grille. In the trunk, there is a big gun locked up (if you know me by now, you know I don't know my weaponry, so I won't elaborate.) There are blankets (to cover unsightly stuff) and gloves and tools and such, and, for a child in need, there's a teddy bear.
The Northampton Police have a fairly new Crime Scene vehicle. It was purchased and then custom outfitted. They are proud of it. It has a power inverter and equipment to sample DNA and fingerprints. It has a pop-up canopy that you might take camping and was used during that rainy night of the recent arsons. It also has a fingerprint camera that can be used with special powder to find prints in real time. It has gadgets that scan for clues using different light spectrum. They all take training and come in big plastic crates that buckle close. Some of the equipment is occasionally borrowed by other local Police departments. (I do not have many other notes on the gear. It was cold and dark out, the class was a little later than usual, and I don't watch CSI.)
December 27, 2009
The arsons in Ward 3 made for a watershed moment for Northampton. It tested the Police Department, the Fire Department and Dispatch (we'll hear about the latter 2 next week.) It tested the Police Officers. It tested the Crime Scene vehicle, the many backup plans, and the book of 600 documented policies. The consensus is that they passed. They are competent, always ready and able.
Next Week
Hey. This week was fun. Wasn't it? If you agree or have some feedback, please leave a comment.
Just wait until we get to the next two weeks of City School. Next week, we hear about Fire and Dispatch. The week after it's Public Works. I promise you will be interested and surprised. Remember, it is the 21st century and this is Northampton.
Yin and yang. Long term, short term. Planning and zoning. Development and preservation. Building and economic development. Keep, take, and give.
This week in City School we hear from the town planner and the head of economic development. This class was our most relaxed one yet, because we only heard from two people and only two departments, and because this class was more like a discussion. Whew!
City School is a program here in Northampton where a lowly citizen like me can get a regular glimpse into the very guts of municipal government in the form of a class. Last time, we heard about City Finance. Together with 16 other people, I am meeting for ten weeks with representatives of different City of Northampton departments to hear how sausage is made. We gaze into the headlights of mighty powers and ask the most humbling of questions.
OK, by now you've got the point. Northampton, Massachusetts has a population of about 29,000. This has not changed for 60 years, but many other things have changed as we will learn during today's class. It's a city, a county seat, the home of courts, homeless shelters, regional social services, a VA. It has a well known college, the oldest county fair, farms, a major highway, a lively downtown, and a 350 year history. Something has to keep this together and a big aspect has to do with planning and development. Planning keeps development from getting out of control and development maintains our tax base. Oh, I wish it were so simple.
Planning and Development
Wayne Feiden is the director of Planning and Development. Just like the bird watchers who can tell an American Woodcock by its plumage, call, and habitat, he can tell you who owns which property, what considerations must be taken when developing property, and when to act to appropriate land. He makes maps and plans and bides his time, giving sage advice on his vision on how to arrange the pieces of our toy train set of a town.
Feiden has been working for Northampton for 21 years. Northampton develops an open space plan every seven years, so many recent developments have his fingerprints on them. He works with the 6 boards that issue permits including the Planning Board and is often seen at town meetings (on our public access TV.) Feiden is grateful that unlike some municipalities our boards get along well. Most recently, Planning was in the spot light regarding the city acquisition of Bean Farm. A little more on that later.
By state law Northampton must take a census once a year (I just received my form last week) just as the country must do it every ten (I received this too, be sure to send yours in.) It turns out that people generally tend to stay in Northampton, but younger people do leave. Apparently there is a cohort from age 22 to 35 which is missing from town (Now, this is not scientific, but this happens to be the age of all my neighbor's children who no longer live here.) Then after age 35, people move in again (this happens to be my age group.)
Northampton now has 2.14 people per house. Back in 1950, there were fewer houses and about the same number of people. At the time there were also two mental institutions housing 3,000 people. Now Northampton has protected 2,000 acres of land, but has less open space. Life expectancy is up. Family size is about half what it once was, so the number of kids is down. Houses are larger, but not nearly as large as the national average, and there are more of them, but fewer people in them. You see, the population is about the same, main street too, but not much else.
Most cities make most money (in taxes) off industrial, commercial, and office development. Houses generally cost the city money. Chiefly this is because of the services (schools, police, fire, water, sewage, etc.) that the city must provide to people. It might do OK (think tax revenue) when expensive houses are built, and people have no children (no school expenses). It might make sense for the City to purchase land that would cost more if it was developed (think of a new development for familes with school age children on a far edge of town requiring utilities and services.) All of this is in balance and probably would not matter as much if the city was flush with cash, but unfortunately it's not.
Cities can make plans, but the way they can do their will over land is through zoning, regulations, and buying land or development rights. They can also use eminent domain to appropriate (or take) land against the will of the owner (while compensating them). For instance, eminent domain was used to create the industrial park some 30 years ago. Zoning now prevents new development near wetlands, but regulations allow expansion of existing buildings. This is the case of development in the Meadows near the Oxbow and in the industrial park. This is all a trade-off which is one of the themes of planning, if you have not guessed by now.
Oh, in case you were wondering, the city does not just go out and buy land. It uses Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds to do so. They are collected based on a 3% surcharge on property tax.The CPA has different missions and committees which make these decisions: Preservation, Affordable housing, Recreation, and Agricultural. They recently decided to purchase the Bean and Allard farms in Florence for $990K. Eventually 24 acres of the Bean farm will be used for recreation. The farmland will be preserved for farming purposes, and there will probably be some community gardens.
Community and Economic development
We also heard from Teri Anderson who is director of community and economic development. CED is funded mostly by federal grants. It gets $750K per year from HUD. $360K goes to debt on the Northampton Senior Center and $150K to development. There are many other, usually project-based, grants which must be applied for and administrated.
Chiefly, CED provides support to and participates in city committees. They provide support to city staff. They work on regional projects and with regional groups like Next Step Collaborative, the Chamber of Commerce, or the Passenger Rail Advisory Committee (which as you should know recently received $70M in stimulus bank bailout funding to get Amtrak running through town and shaving 45 minutes off my trip to New York (look for this to actually happen within the next two years.) CED also works on housing and economic development projects including the Fairgrounds and building at the old State Hospital.
James House Learning Center
As an example of development, Anderson told us about the James House. Originally a Bank, then Juvenile court on Gothic Street, the James House Learning Center would be a long term educational space mostly aimed at adults. The city council said it should self-sustainable (not subsidized). Including the Center for New Americans, classroom with Child care. For renovations, unions have provided volunteer labor and local businesses have provided discounted materials. Unfortunately, due to the war budget cuts, the actual staff to run programming (i.e. classes) has been laid off. In the works for James House: provide transitional assistance through the regional Welfare office which currently is located in Holyoke.
Next Week
Whew! Pat yourself on the back. You made it through another week.
Next week, we'll be visiting the Police Department. Cops, robbers. That should be easy. As usual, please tell me what you think by leaving a comment.
We recently had some good chicken at a local Chinese restaurant, and I was wondering what was in it. This restaurant is unusual in that it has a separate 'good' menu where you can order their Hong Kong style food.
The chicken tasted like it had Five-Spice Powder in it. I know this because we have some at home. Now what are those 5 spices? When I got home, I went to our spice cabinet, took out the bottle of Five-Spice Powder and looked at the ingredients which were both in English and Chinese and it read "Spice", so no help there.
I was still curious, so I looked on the web. As I was typing the letters into a Google search, it filled in the top popular useful searches. I entered the characters "five-" and it suggested "five - seven = negative two".
Huh? I studied math in school, and I already knew that 5-7 = -2. Now why would Google suggest that? Why would that be a top search? And what is in Five-Spice Powder anyway?
Here are the answers:
Many many people are searching for a nasty pistol called a "Five-Seven". They go to Google to find it and enter their search text. Google tries to show off and do the math for them and provides links underneath the result. Five-Spice Powder is the third choice on their suggestion list when they type the first few characters: "Five-".
Here's what's in Five-Spice Powder: star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, and ground fennel seeds. And here's a recipe if you want to make it yourself, and this is a similar chicken recipe to the one I had at the Chinese restaurant.
Here's a link to information about the Five-Seven pistol, and some information about cheap bullets.
If you didn't know, Google will also do other math tricks like unit conversions for you. For example, try entering "8 gallons in cubic centimeters" into a Google search.
Lastly, I suggest you prepare the chicken according to the recipe and tell me how it came out; you can even shoot the chicken yourself with your Five-Seven and serve it with some Gunpowder tea.
Apologies, I'm back from a small hiatus. I did not go anywhere, but I've been remiss in my bloggerly duties regarding City Schools. Northampton City Schools, if you haven't learned by now, is where regular citizens learn about the workings of our small city. Last time we heard about the schools. Previously, we learned about things like the Health Department and many other facets of our city government. I'm a few weeks behind in relaying what I have learned from you, so you have yet to hear about today's subject of City Finance or even about Community, Economic and Land Development, or our Police Department. But I've taken pretty good notes, and I hope to synthesize some of what I've learned.
Finance
This week we finally met the Mayor - our subject was city finance. Once again, let me summarize that we are quite lucky that we have so many competent people working for us - and willing to share information about what they do. We started off with Mayor Higgins describing the budget, where money goes and where it comes from. Karen Bellavance-Grace, the Mayor's assistant, who is organizing City School had given us a municipal finance crossword puzzle to work on for homework. It was quite hard, though the words aren't that difficult to recognize now that we have the answers e.g. bond, tax rate, levy, audit. Karen also often sends us some links to city departments so we can either learn or look into the subject of a City School class ahead of time. Most of the city websites are not polished, but they are quite full of information. (I am often pasting such links into this blog because they will be useful for you for further study - not just because it's fun to link to odd stuff.)
Proposition 2 1/2
Basically, almost everything in the Northampton City Budget depends upon Property Tax. Mayor Higgins gave us her Power-Point printout that illustrates the budget. We learned about Proposition 2 1/2 and we found out that 2 1/2 is a magic awful number. This all started with the tax revolt in California (they passed the aptly named Proposition 13 in 1978) and voter referendums. Massachusetts version is proposition 2 1/2. It basically limits property tax increases to 2.5%, but there's more to it. To give you an idea, before 2 1/2 arrived, taxes brought in $12M. When it kicked in back in 1982, taxes were reset to $10M. It wasn't until 1987 that taxes got back to their 1981 level. The city must vote for a tax override to go beyond a 2.5% increase. The city has only done this to fund school building projects and the new fire station. It wasn't until last year that the city voted for a general override. This is something that neighboring towns like Amherst have just voted to do (tonight). 2 1/2 sounds simple, but it isn't quite. It is also notorious for binding the hands of government. Basically if the city comes up short, they must cut services and/or lay off people because they cannot simply raise taxes.
City Revenue
Because revenue is limited, everything goes back to 2 1/2.
To figure out the income for the city of Northampton, you add the following:
$36M - last year's levy
$1.1M - personal property tax
$900K - the 2.5% increase
$300K - an estimate for new growth (new buildings or additions)
$1.2M - exclusion overrides for the school project and fire station debt
$2M more - last year local voters passed the general override required by 2 1/2
That adds up to $41.5 million for taxes.
There are other revenues:
$6.3M - Smith Vocational School tuition for out of city residents
$2M - auto and boat excise taxes
$900K - fines and forfeits (mainly parking tickets)
$400K in other income
$377K in hotel taxes
$300K interest on tax titles and Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT)
$8.5M - state school aid
$1M - school choice income
$3M - school construction aid
$4.3M - general government aid including lottery and state PILOT
$400K federal reimbursements for things like Medicaid services
$3M - revenue from providing services to enterprise funds like sewer, water, and sold waste which are all run as a self-sufficient enterprises
$165K - money from the local cable company
$25K - CPA funds and fees that pay city salaries.
This adds up to around $91M.
Unfortunately, due to the lousy economy new building is down, interest is down, probably fewer expensive new cars are being purchased - so auto excise tax is down. You probably have an idea that costs are only going up and so on. (Figures here are approximate. I hope they add up correctly.)
Thus the budget is born. $91,000,000. 71% of revenue comes from local sources - people like me, 24% from the state, and 0.6% Federal. More detailed Northampton finance information can be found here.
City Budget
Like the revenue, most of the expenditures are fixed. The state was doing better 20 years ago, but now things are always tight. Costs are climbing every year, there are cuts, cuts, and more cuts. So spending for the most part is non-discretionary. Not much waste here.
In broad strokes, here's the budget:
73% - salaries and benefits
18% - maintenance
8% - debt
The money goes to, and roughly close but not quite the same percentage of employees work in each of, these areas:
61% - education
19% - public safety
8% - public works
8% - government
3% - culture and recreation
1% - human services
As you may surmise, most of these expenses are simply things that can't be cut very easily. In fact they are areas that have been cut over and over, so it's difficult to cut some more. I could tell you all about how your tax money is going to pay the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but you probably don't want to hear that. I could tell you about how the city can't simply raise taxes when they need them, but I did that already. We are currently stuck with the lot we have and we are lucky that we have smart people running things.
Tonight's Parade
Our city finance director Chris Pile organized our most efficient class yet. Tonight's class was about City Finance and that's what we got plenty of. I'm not going to give each player a fair amount of time here. I'll mostly introduce some of the roles in city fiance. The Mayor led our parade, since she produces the budget which must be approved by City Council.
Assessor
We heard from Joe Cross who along with the City Assessor assesses the value of residential, business, industrial, and personal property taxes. Assessment is done using standard rules and the last full year of sales data among other things. Northampton has 12,000 parcels of land and is worth $32 Billion! The average assessment is $303K. The average tax bill is $4K. Our tax rate is $12.64. The tax rate fluctuates from year to year to match the tax increases and the change in property values.
Now if the town is really worth $32 Billion why would anyone complain about the measly little $41 Million tax bill.
Tax Collector
The City of Northampton has a Tax Collector who basically bills everybody for just about everything. We heard from the collector Melissa Lampron. She sends out 25,000 excise tax bills for all our cars (22,000) and our boats. The collector collects any bills. This is one of the various separation of powers required by the Massachusetts State Department of Revenue. They bill car dealers for licenses; they collect Smith Vocational High School tuition from other school districts, Water and Sewer bills, Tax bills; you name it.
Additionally, the collector fulfills the role of a collection agency that you might fear if you do not pay a bill. She will issue a Municipal Lien certificate and bill for outstanding parking fines and tell DMV to mark or lock your license renewals or release them if you are now up to date and paid up. (By the way, if you are an out-of-stater you can get away without paying your bill, but if you live in certain states like New York, then you cannot. Also, do not park your junk heap in our town if you can't bother to put a quarter in the parking meter. Hey! And also the usual parking ticket is $10 and not your out-of-town city slicker price. How dare you not pay! Aren't you ashamed now? Not paying for parking while on your big expensive vacation in our sweet little story-book city where they even forgive your first ticket - or so I heard - but maybe just for residents.)
In 2009, the collector collected $36M in revenue and had about $257K uncollected. The city collects taxes on 10,000 residential parcels.
Auditor
Joyce Karpinski is the Northampton City Auditor. She spoke with us about what her department does. From The Auditor's website:
The Auditor's office provides payroll, accounts payable, purchasing and accounting services for all of the city's departments. They keep a complete and accurate set of general ledger and budgetary accounts. Additionally, accounts are maintained in nine separate funds including enterprise funds, capital projects funds and special revenue funds.
The auditor reconciles with the Treasurer and Collector, does city payroll which comes in the form of warrants that are signed by the finance director or mayor and given to the Treasurer to release. She does W-2s. She pays 500 invoices a week (fortunately, their present software won't let her pay more than that.) She arranges an annual outside audit and makes sure that bids and contracts follow proper procedures. There are many other auditor duties.
Treasurer
George Zimmerman is the Northampton City Treasurer. He said that he basically runs the city checkbook. The Treasurer makes no budget decisions.
The Treasurer moves money around. He wheels and deals with bank accounts and invests money. (I meant to ask, but I assume the money invested is in short and long term funds for good reason, like our rainy day funds, as opposed to simply trying to strike it rich for the city.) Unfortunately interest rates went down over the past 5 years from 5% to about 1%. The Treasurer also disburses money and borrows money when told to do so. He controls 32 accounts and 150 sub-accounts at 8 banks.
About $100M will come into the city this year or about $2M a week (if it could only be thus.)
The City of Northampton has an A+ bond rating. To me this is good and sounds appropriate. (Of course, the USA has a higher rating despite the state of the current economy, and the ratings agencies themselves rated highly many of those banks and finanical companies that got bailed out. I don't rate the rating agencies highly one bit. Who can trust people who came up with a scale that goes from AAA to A to BBB to B to CCC to C and down to D not to mention all the combinations in-between?)
Break Time
At City School we took a break (actually a little earlier, but you deserve one now). We were meeting at Smith Voc in their restaurant. The little bakers (students) were kind enough to leave us cookies and coffee that they prepared. We were meeting at 6pm, so they were not around. The Oliver Smith Restaurant is open Tuesdays, Thursdays, and fridays for lunch (10:45 to 12:15pm). Call if you need information 413-587-1414 ext. 3522.
Soothing break below. Sand drawing, what could be more soothing?
OK, the break is over! Back to Class!
Northampton Public School Finance
Now that we are almost worn out, I will rush through some of the important stuff, namely the school budget. It is prepared by the Northampton Public Schools Business Manager. Her name is Susan Wright, and together with the Superintendent (and others) she prepares the budget. She handed out a 40 page budget to us for fiscal year 2010 and went through some highlights. I am not going to do that with you. I'm just going to give you a link to it. As you have learned before, the city council appropriates, but the school committee allocates. The city is assuming a level services budget - same level of service. (Unfortunately, your country and state have other priorities more important that the education of our young and are likely to cut something.)
The budget is about $28M plus about $10M in (school building) debt and health insurance and city services. We spend about $10K per student here in Northampton, while Amherst spends about $13K.
One thing I learned (and as always there is a highlight even when looking at the budget) is that just like the PTO does fund raisers and sells cookies to fund a class trip, city agencies are continually writing and managing grants to pay for things. They simply do not get all the money they need. They expect to receive $1.7M in grants in FY10 (fiscal year 2010). This means that they have to apply for the grants, win the grants, and administer the grants. This means that someone must be employed to hand all this. In some cases for city agencies, they share people who do this or allocate a 1/2 an employee. But it happens here and elsewhere. My daughter's teacher sometimes writes her own grants and has been awarded NEF money in the past. Fortunately there is less paperwork for her, but also less money at stake.
Smith Voc Business Manager
Our host (we were eating her school's cookies after all) Nancy Roberts is the Smith Voc. Business Manager. She spoke to us about the budget. Smith Vocational High School, as you learned here, is another school district within Northampton. It has a budget of $7.5M, $4.5M of which comes from tuition to cover students from other school districts. There are 450 students and 45 "sending districts". The Business Manager handles various revolving accounts (like the monies taken in by the restaurant) and school finances. Smith Voc. needs to equip their shops with modern equipment, so their students have up-to-date skills so they can get jobs after they graduate. They have a grant writer (see I told you.) They also have 2.7 clerks (we puzzled over that one.) and a Bursar.
It costs about $17K per student to educate their kids annually. They bill other districts four times a year for tuition which is about $14K. They have small class size (partially due to safety reasons) and expensive teaching equipment (thingy to straighten the frame of your car and a shop to paint a car.) They provide special school buses which are only allowed to drive students to job sites. They share a social worker (4o%) and project and contract bidding with Northampton Public Schools.
Their budget goes to 76% Instruction, 14% Maintenance, 2% Student services, 1% Other. (Sorry these numbers don't quite add up to 100%.) They own land can can sell it, but the money would only go into their stabilization fund. The city covers capital costs.
We learned that at Smith Voc on the day of our class that a goat had triplets, they had a new calf named Kipper and a new lamb named Norman.
Finance Director
Chris Pile is the finance director. He is the Mayor's right-hand-man (although he might be left-handed, you never know) and the senior finance resource for the city and a fount of budget knowledge. I've seen him on public access cable at a city council meeting answering budget questions. (I found a recent story featuring him that paints a picture about city finance at a city council meeting.) He spoke about about general municipal finance and most importantly was very good at organizing the class tonight.
Next Week
I sound like a broken record CD, but I'll say it again. These people are all quite knowlegable, competent, and are on our side. They are even looking for suggestions and help (and possibly a fictional generous billionaire to move into town and solve our problems, but I wouldn't count on that happening anytime soon.)
Sorry to cut this so short (kidding). Next week we will all learn about Development and Planning. Then the Police Department, the week after that.
Thanks for joining me in City School. Please grade this week's paper and leave your comments here on this blog. Thank you.
