I want to say my faith in the people of Melrose is restored. I was worried seeing all the Vote yes lawn signs which by the way are against city ordinance, and the vote yes bumper stickers. But the silent majority shined through.

All of you who voted yes and are no crying like whiney liberals do. haha

Do you actually believe that the schools were going to magically transform into wonderful education facilities then I have a beach home in Kentucky I'll sell you for cheap. The override was not going to get rid of the not so great teachers that are currently in the system nor was the money if passed, going to hire any classroom teachers or by more textbooks. A lot of it was going towards administration and secondary teachers. Nothing was going to change. What has the Superintendent done since she's been here. I have not heard anyone say anything good about the woman but she somehow got a raise of $5000 last year. The current negotiations with the teachers union for a raise for the next three years is 1% whether the override passed or not. Is this going to attract decent teachers or raise morale of current teachers? No. Nothing was going to change in the school system.

It was recently in the paper that the police department hired five new officers. They have also hired a couple of others in the past two years. This after saying they need override money to hire two more. Do you believe after all these hires that they were going to hire two more anytime soon? There isn't a whole lot of crime happening the the current number on the force cant handle.

What about the Oak Grove village apartments and the Washington St apartments? Weren't they supposed to generate more of a tax base for the city so the homeowners didn't have to carry the burden? Just another broken democrat promise? Seems to me all they have generated is more traffic.

Funny how three or four years ago everyone was saying how great Dolan was doing with the budget and how he managed to find funds for things like a new athletic field while some said that he was overspending and that eventually we were all going to be asked pay for it. So While he himself got a raise of $26,000 and other administrators got theirs and the Alderman got their lifetime insurance all the while still giving the teachers nothing, that time came and the majority stood up and said no. Enough is enough.

Proponents compared the tax rate of Melrose with similiar towns. The problem with that is for similiar price of homes, you get more in other towns. A better home for the money and more land. Why would I want to pay $5000 a year in taxes in Melrose for a 5,000 sq/ft lot when I can pay the same amount in Reading for 10000 sq feet?

So to all of you crying on the Melrose Community Facebook page that the city will now go to hell get over it. Those promising to donate money, please do so and donate what would have been my share while youre at it. I'm glad you are in a position that you will hand out without question, whatever the government asks for. Not all of us are that lucky. Most of us have seen healthcare costs increase, water and sewer rate increase, income tax increase as well as most utilities all the while seeing little or no pay increase. I have a family of five. Our combined income is 93,000. Six years ago it was 91,500. Very little increase and six years ago we were much better off. Its a struggle for many. I grew up here and wanted to raise my children but may end up leaving soon. Not only because of costly living but because as my children approach high school age the stories I hear aren't good and like I said no override was going to fix that.

Its late and Im beat so I hope you can make sense of my post. I just wanted to share my happiness over the override not passing so there will be no nightmares for me tonight.

The struggle is real

Yes - the struggle is real. It's a real struggle for me to understand how misinformed this first post really is. The proposed use of funds in the schools was based upon what the school committee and school leadership feel is necessary to move our schools forward. The new apartments did bring new tax revenue, but not enough to meet the needs of a growing and popular school system. The hope we had to move this city forward is based upon better resources. But, no worries. The override need will grow greater, and the issue will be back, and the city demographics are changing and someday one will pass.

Misinformed was anyone who did vote yes. The way that money was going to be spent was going to do nothing. If they were to talk about opening another elementary school or hiring more teachers to bring down class sizes ok but none of that was happening. Also don't give administrators raises when they are not deserved. You sound like a snob "the city demographics are changing" that's nice you want good people to leave because of financial burden so an override will pass good luck to you! Voted NO & so happy that it didn't pass!!!

It's amazing how people are still disillusioned by democrats visions and promises of grandeur. The money would've probably ended up paying for Syrian refugees to live in Oak Grove village.

I disagree. The money wouldn't have gone to any good cause.

It would have gone to large raises for department heads, school superintendent and administrators. Of course that would require raising the mayor's salary mid-term to make it 'competitive.' In an unrelated development, the aldermen would get free health insurance for life and probably a pay raise too.

Please be more gentle when speaking of Democrat emotional issues = what they have has been confirmed as a "disease". We can only hope that one day, they will find a permanent cure.

It's amazing how people are still disillusioned by democrats visions and promises of grandeur. The money would've probably ended up paying for Syrian refugees to live in Oak Grove village and their healthcare.

Yes ithe argument that his last raise was to generate more interest in the Mayors seat and attract possible candidates certainly held true didn't it? (Sarcasm)

There were lots of blank spaces and write-ins on the ballot for Mayor I hear and many who voted for him probably did so because he was the only name. It's unfortunate the people didn't have more to chose from.

You mean how they believe the rhetoric and out and out lies.

Looks like the Mayor will have to dip into his other "slush funds" again this year to give more money to the school administration for their continued maleficence for the ongoing OCR violations and more to come.

I think it says a lot when the only man running for Alderman at large who wasn't voted in is the one who is most "over"qualified and has the most political experience. People are tired of big government.

No, has nothing to do with "big govt" or a repug agenda. This was the local Melrose Dem party shunning one of their own (one of their very best and brightest, and certainly by far the most qualified) because he didn't toe the party line and vote for the override. Shame on them. They just shot themselves in the foot big time. Their foolishness will backfire continuously now. If they think for a minute that voting in their ridiculous incumbents and even more ridiculous clones was going to improve their overall credibility and stature in this community, they are even more deluded than is already obvious. It's too bad because the repugs agenda is not a path to a better Melrose. In fact party politics really shouldn't be determining the local agenda (which is why Monica continues to top the ticket, because she has the good sense and grace to keep partisan politics out of her BOA actions).

The first thing that needs to happen is the Alderman need to revisit the water ans sewer bill issue. No more retroactive billing, if necessary change the meter reading dates to prevent it from ever happening. Secondly a residential property is a residential property, some one living in an older building that doesn't allow separate metering for each unit should not be penalized. Thirdly lets revisit what happened with the residences with two meters, a homeowner should not have to pay sewer for watering the lawn. With the extra fees and costs for forced meter replacement many where forced to pay for second meters or take them out and pay the sewer charge, this was wrong.

Right on, resident. I am one of those who abandoned the second meter for lawn watering due to the added cost of having it. This is also why I voted NO to the override.

2:1 vote against the override.

Mayor gets only 70% of the vote running unopposed with relatively high voter turnout.

Melrose, are you listening? This means YOU school committee, exec office & BOA.

The people have spoken.

I literally cannot wait to see how they try to spin that! You know they'll try. He is absolutely unequipped to deal with that kind of humiliation. Remember how he reacted when his so-called police overtime audit was exposed as a sham? The cops called him out and did everything but call him a liar. Which he is, by the way.

I'm afraid, out of spite, that he will make drastic, unnecessary cuts to something. The schools, police, fire anything he can get his hands on to say this is what you get for not passing my override. All the while getting the alderman to give him another raise by promising them a pass for life to fill their gas tanks up at the city yards. I wouldn't put it past him.

I had a pretty good feeling about the NO chances yesterday when I saw a no sign on Altamont Rd.!

meant Larchmont

No - Wiilie - there was one also on Altamont Ave - and no Yes signs.

Well said, thank you (and for the signs!)

We vote "No" on an override because we don't trust the leaders in this town that the extra money will be used properly. Yet, we vote the same people back into office???

No wonder this town is messed up.

Exactly! Perfectly stated. Sad, isn't it?

Hate to admit it - but this is what happens when you have the majority of stupid people voting.

Sounds like Robbie and Jen and Lisa and Martha and Vanny and all the gang are suffering from an acute case of Sour Grapes, and from the looks of it, they are about to make matters much worse for themselves with their unchecked need for power and control.

Just a reminder that because of the new requirements of the City Charter that the mayor can no longer have any other outside business activities, he pretty much ensured that he will have no challengers. Now, with his control over the school committee where he directs his will (such as retaliatory actions taken against pro-public comment, pro transparency, pro-accountability, pro-law abiding SC members) through the SC Chair, he has discouraged positive change SC candidates from running, who witness first-hand and on MMTV what happens to SC members who challenge his failed status quo. That leaves only Dolan @ss kissers ,ex-cons and MEFers who run.

I still have a whole BUNCH of bumper stickers left from when I ran! I'll be happy to come in DEAD F'ING LAST if we can fill the ballot with lots of caring candidates for school committee.

Ed didn't win the first time he ran. Dolan didn't win the first time he ran. I'm making a promise now. If the first two NON incumbents pull papers in the next election (caveat is you cannot have any affiliation with the "Say YES to Melrose" crowd or the "Melrose Education Foundation") I promise to pay for your bumper stickers!

We need good people to step up and run. Otherwise we will continue to have Dolan and Driscoll ruining our schools.

It's strange, really - if he was half as smart as he thinks he is, he would have realized that getting himself onto the SC was going to be an albatross around his neck that could only end up hurting him. It would have been smarter for him to keep as much distance between himself and that clusterf*** as possible so he'd have "plausible deniability". Almost everything that has come back to bite him has been school related, with the exception of that stupid police overtime audit, which proved he did not know what he was talking about, and the water/sewer debacle, which you know he had to have signed off on. Now he's neck deep in the s***, chiefly because he really thinks he's smarter than everyone else, and his ego wouldn't let him leave it alone.

"Sometimes a city needs to be shaken up. I shook it up." What an absolutely astonishing comment - claiming a resounding thrashing on his cockamamie override (otherwise known as getting caught trying to get your hand into the cookie jar again) was actually some kind of moral victory.

He probably is a smart guy, but he says and does some incredibly stupid things.

The only thing the Mayor suffers from is an "inflated ego". His philosophy is "I can do anything because I am the greatest Mayor Melrose has ever had!" However, the problem he has - eventually he has to go home - and that's when his wife brings him down to earth! Take the friggin garbage out, Robbie!

I think that the mayor has it backwards. The City (62%) has shaken up Dolan. He had his "grown up conversation" with the voters and they did not agree with him. It"s time for Little Robbie to put on his big boy pants and earn his$125K by doing what the majority of voters want, not what he wants.

That is a very good point.
The Melrose voters have made a statement to the mayor & to the city in general.

Voters are talking ===> Mayor needs to be listening
Not the other way.

Very powerful that the mayor is missing the direction of the dialog. The apologists that he surrounds himself with are doing the city no favors. The definition of mayor is to Represent the People of the community.

Yup, that's how Obama was elected twice.