Dolan - “I would like the Committee to explore the possibility of offering a rebate to qualifying seniors who live in condos, money that they could then use toward association fees.”
This guy still doesn't get it. He's going to explore ways to offer me a rebate as a senior because I'm getting shafted by having to pay tier 3 rates in a one-meter condo building? What about everybody else getting screwed if they don't happen to be a senior?
This is not brain surgery, although having a brain is required. Do away with the tiers. Everybody pays the same rate for the water they use. In one meter condos and apartments, simply divide the cubic feet by the number of units to arrive at a per unit cost. Actually, you could do that without eliminating tiers, but because they want their hands so deeply imbedded in our pockets, they won't. The only reason they are "considering" a rebate for seniors is because seniors raised such a ruckus they had to do something. From their point of view, even if they rebate seniors, they'll still be able to screw everybody else.
And what's a "qualifying" senior? Someone who makes less than $20K a year? And how much of a rebate? 5%? What am I supposed to do now, say "Thank you for screwing me less than everybody else, even though you're still screwing me."?
I think maybe I was wrong by saying he still doesn't get it. I think may he gets it perfectly. He's trying to buy off seniors with a little bitty bone. It's apparent he thinks we're all too stupid to see what he's up to, and will just roll over and accept it.
Listen, nitwit - we saw through your idiotic override scam, and we see through this horse$hit as well. Do away with the tiers.
His dictionary defines fairness as "whatever gives me the most money".
Pal: Don't you get it? Robbie really doesn't care about you. His political base is two income yuppie couples with two kids and a lab on a leash living in single family homes. The shmucks in condos and rentals are subsidizing us yuppies in the single family homes. Why don't you all register to vote for the next election and force Dolan to pay attention to your needs?
Two points:
1. I do get it. I'd have to be an idiot not to get it. I know he doesn't care about me. But I have news for you too, pal. Even though you're in his so called political base, he doesn't care about you either. He cares about Rob - period. The sooner you figure that out, the better off we're all going to be.
2. I've been a registered voter since 1968, and I voted in that last little election. You know - the one where he got his ass handed to him about some cockamamie override.
At the next Mayoral election - if no one runs against him - the blank ballots will win - then let him try to explain his lack of popularity - embarrassment will finally force him out!
It's not likely that this increasingly impotent tyrant will be running in the next election because the heat is on right now (or perhaps it's better to say the freeze) and getting worse by the week. He and his machinations are being investigated from directions he never imagined possible. If he's smart, he will bail for some other, any other position, and soon, a la Mikey F. If he continues down his path of arrogance (a virtual certainty), he will find himself confronting some politically lethal situations that will make it unlikely that he would find any safe haven with an acceptable (or any) paycheck, especially when he has to start hiring his own attorneys (he'd be an even bigger fool to count on the legal acumen of Vanny and that pack of incompetent fools). His total disbelief around the override vote against him (make no mistake that this was a very personal vote against him) points to a level of arrogance (& willful ignorance) that make it likely he will continue to hear only what he wants to hear rather than the reality. But his house of cards is being held up with the flimsiest of threads now. Morty and Margaret cannot save him. Neither can Lisa or Jen or Martha or Jess. As CT and her miserable cast of "exemplary" losers go down (which they are most certainly doing), they will make sure others pay. So while those disastrous investigations proceed, the other even more dangerous ones around city doings are quietly gaining steam. GI and Crocodile Tears and Frankie and Johnny will all be so "shocked and disappointed." Bobbie will be bumbling with silly questions. Deer in Headlights will be the new look. They'll all be racing to see who can ditch the sinking ship first, racing to rescue their own sorry a$$es, GIC, and political standing.
Melrose is full of wimps who won't step up to speak, let alone run for office, even when there is grossly obvious wrongdoing. But some things are not dependent on the courage or ethics of the voting public. Arrogance is the real undoer, and Melrose is overflowing with arrogant a$$es.
Hear No Evil, See No Evil and Speak No Evil
The BOA should have term limits. The lack of moral responsibility on the part of these elected officials (SC members, too) who refuse to acknowledge improprieties, look the other way and feign ignorance equals a "code of silence" which is the foundation of the operating culture of organized crime. Hopefully, the younger, newer members will show some leadership and actually challenge the status quo. JLB's decision not to seek another term was a loss. Holding out hope for SF, JL and MZ (but Zwirko needs to separate from GI).
Glad if anyone feels hopeful, but ultimately it seems that the old "has to get worse before it gets better" is more comforting in an odd sort of way. None of those new ones (or even JLB, for that matter) inspire confidence, based on what we've seen so far and based on their alliances (in the case of JLB, JL, MZ their political alliances with Ed Foundation otherwise known as DolanLobbyPAC and/or RD directly (or via wife's employment by RD), SF with his perpetually RD-aligned dad). The only "hopeful" thing here is that it's already so bad, that the dissolution of The Machine becomes more inevitable with each passing week and each exhumed bad act.
Yeah unicorns and rainbows are what this guy thinks he can promise us, while he also thinks we'll just suck it up and pay/reelect, pay/reelect, pay/reelect. Nope. No more. And no, rainbows and unicorns are what he can sell to his flamingo foundation, but not so much the rest of us. What a crass a$$hat to think we are all that naive and will just keep writing the checks for whatever new scheme he thinks he foist on us.
High rates is one thing. Artificially high rates, incurred because of a deliberately nfair rate structure - someone tell me how that's any different from stealing.
If the public and taxpayers saw how much manipulation of the city budget and Dolan personnel have been moved into the Water/Sewer Enterprise Fund, there would be a march on city hall. Every time we flush or take a shower, we are paying salaries and benefits that have nothing to do with water and sewer services. Unfortunately, the BOA are too cozy to reveal such.
Went to pay my water bill last night and it's not pretty. I pulled out some old bills, and it's doubled from just 4 years ago. Bob Snow must be right. The money must be going to someone other than for water. Can't trust local government any more than Beacon Hill or Washington. All they know is how to take our money.
Dolan moved employees like his Brigit (who seems to be strangely absent in her "news" postings lately....) to be paid partially out of water and sewer now (and others). His ruse goes something like, "with the new water meters, she has to spend a large part of her time contacting citizens...." or some other scam. It's inaccurate at best but more likely adulterated fraud like so many other aspects of this administration's "creative" bookkeeping.
It's interesting how all the naysayers on this site never mention how many good things Rob Dolan has done in his time as mayor. The streets are getting better, he has improved the schools including building a new middle school and being involved with many groups in the city. I don't see all of you sitting at your keyboards attending all the events in the city like Rob does throughout the year. Rob Dolan supports Melrose and I support him.
Whatever you've been smoking, I want some of it. Improved the schools? Have you had your head in the sand, or perhaps stuffed in some other location? Let me explain it to you - Rob Dolan supports Rob Dolan. Your comments indicate clearly that you have been living on another planet for the last ten years. Unbelievable.
The city is much better since Mayor Dolan took over. Before him, our children were attending a middle school falling apart. Under his stewardship, our children now attend a shinning new middle school and receive a strong education. Our streets are much improved and the value of our property has rocketed upward. He simply is one of the best mayors this city has had in my many decades in the city.
Boy, with people like you around, it's no wonder things are the way they are. Shiny (sorry, but I don't know what shinny means, unless you are referring to the way we climbed trees when I was a kid, or the old stickball game of the same name) new middle school (that's already falling apart) do not a "strong education" make, unless by "strong education" you are referring to how our kids are being taught to facilitate multiple OCR sanctions - well, they should certainly be experts in that when they graduate.
Meanwhile, to get back to the topic at hand, which is the water/sewer debacle and the way we ae being robbed (Robbed - get it?) blind by a dishonest and deceptive accounting and billing system foisted on us by dishonest untruthful administration, and ratified by a BOA with out the will or the morals to stop it. Have you been asleep all this time?
There is no possible way you could actually believe the swill you are posting, so I have to conclude you are just another Dolan shill spewing the same disingenuous propaganda.
All I am doing is pointing out the many things that Mayor Dolan has done to improve the city. If you own property, the value has rocketed under his tenure. You talk about spending money on the water, but you haven't agreed that your property is worth a lot more money since Mayor Dolan was first elected. No one can satisfy all constituents on every issue, but you need to be fair in your analysis of his work. Our students attend some incredible universities including Ivy League locations. Be honest and truly look at the city as a whole and you will have to agree that Mayor Dolan's tenure has been a prosperous one for Melrose.
Hey, airhead, you forgot to change your screen name for this string back to the original one. Are you "Melrose Girls High School Basketball Team is Playing Great" or are you "Rob Dolan Supporter"? Or are you an athletic supporter?
Could it be perhaps that this is the latest tactic from $hitty Hall? Flood the discussion threads with unrelated crap?
Hopefully Ms. Wright will take notice and put your posts where they belong, and I have my own opinion as to where they belong, because we certainly have more pressing issues than the girls basketball team. A pile of crap with a m&m on top is still a pile of crap.
I agree that "dimwit" was fun to see, haven't seen/used it for ages! (Nitwit is a good one too)
All these comments, and nobody has called Robbie on the unfairness of offering seniors discounts:
http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/imce/2013medianwealthage.png
Of course, given the innumeracy of the average citizen, it doesn't really matter.
You're basing your "suggestion" on the supposed wealth of that entire age group? That's not fair either. While a lot within that age group are wealthy to very wealthy, a lot are also existing solely on SS. I would expect there would be income limits for applicants for those discounts.
In any case, that's not the issue. That's a "partial solution" offered by hizzoner. The primary issues are 1: the tiered system which is inherently unfair to those in apartments or condos, 2: the billing and accounting practices the city has used, like retroactive rates, and 3: inflow and infiltration, which is the highest in the MWRA system.
Haven't seen any change to water rates. Same as last bill. So much for all the noise
Apparently, you don't live in a condo unit.
Hey Same Rates, why don't you contact city hall so they can send someone to fix your meter.[8-)]
Can anyone say when they're going to lower water bills back to normal levels?
An article and a letter about water rates in the free press.
Don Conn says the rates need to be defensible if challenged. The rate tiers don't pass the smell test. They make some residents pay far more to give an unfair benefit to others. I'm a senior citizen using 900 units in the lowest tier. I don't use much and I can pay for it at higher rates. If my rate should be $1 or $2 higher it's $9 or $18 for me. I can afford it. I don't want some charity subsidy by taking from large families, condos or apartments. I pay my fair share for everything else and will gladly pay my share for my water when they fix the rates.
Do you really think we seniors don't see right through that cheap senior discount stunt? Give us a little more credit than that. A senior discount to me is a drop in the bucket. What's killing me is being in a condo with a single meter for the whole building, and having to pay tier three rates as a result. The Doughboy has been sticking it up my butt for three years and in the immortal words of R. Lee Ermey, hasn't even had the courtesy to give me a reach around. Some chicken$hit senior discount doesn't cut it.
My usage doesn't even come anywhere near tier two, let alone tier three. I want to pay my fair share, but I don't want to subsidize some family of five on Larchmont Road who pay tier one or two, because that's exactly what I've been doing.
Yet this boob still can't figure out why his stupid fake override failed. Well let me spell it out for you, Mr. Mayor - we're onto you, and we're all done with your bull$hit scams. Keep your hands out of my pockets, because one of these times when you pull it out you'll find you have lost all your fingers.
You're alright Senior. You've got spunk. But I'm afraid the Mayor would react with the words of Lou Grant, "I hate spunk!"
The family of five on Larchmont Rd. is getting screwed along with you and me, just not quite as much since they would be in tier 2. It's the small households completely in tier 1 who get highly subsidized water and sewer. Rich people get the subsidy. Under the new idea rich people over 65 will get subsidized twice - once by being in the first tier and once by the tax credit because they're 65. The young families are charged to cover those subsidies.
I understand Melrose Towers, Station Crossing and Town Estates are all in tier 3. List here the other properties being gouged by the third tier. Show how many residents the mayor is punishing for not living in single family homes.
When are they deciding what the new water rates are?
Looks like only two of you bozo's went to the alderman meeting about water rates last night.
"If you watched the meeting, it's clear that everything that needed to be said was said quite eloquently by Mr. Taymor of Larchmont Rd."
AND Mr. Mroz who understands how ALL the pieces fit together, not just the limited sphere of the rates.
yup