This week, the City Council-elect will caucus to determine Council leadership for the next term. The president will likely be Councilor Susan Albright (AL2) or current president Marc Laredo (AL7). As I understand it, several people have their hats in the ring for vice-president, including current VP David Kalis (AL8), Councilor Rick Lipof (AL8), and Councilor Vicki Danberg (AL6).Ā
With a possible shift to a new president and with Councilor Greg Schwartz (AL6) having been defeated, there is likely going to be changes to the chairs of the top four committees (current chair in parentheses): Finance (Councilor Lenny Gentile (AL4)), Land Use (Councilor Schwartz), Zoning and Planning (Councilor Albright), and Public Safety and Transportation (Jay Ciccone (AL1)). Let’s hope that we get a new Finance Chair.
Take a look at this vote analysis done by a Newton resident.
The list is ranked by attendance, and Councilor Gentile is right near the very bottom, with 32 missed votes more than the median (12). More concerning, though, is his rank for voting in the minority: dead last. And, it’s not even close. He was in the minority on 18 votes man more the than Councilor with the next highest total, Councilor Lisle Baker (W7), and in the minority 32 votes more than the median (18).
How is the guy who least tracks with the Council the chair of one of the four major committees? It’s one thing to reflect some diversity of thought among the leadership. It’s quite another to choose for a top position the least representative member of the Council.Ā
Inevitably, someone will argue that, as the long-time Finance chair, Councilor Gentile has critical experience. There will come a time when Councilor Gentile is not on the Council and making him chair based on his tenure is not an option. No time like the present to find the next Finance chair.
After all, there was once a time when Councilor Gentile was a newly appointed chair.
Dead wrong on your Gentile assessment!
Who knows more about the dollars to be spent in running this city?
And who has more courage to vote against the social engineers attempting to take over the cities governance?
Indeed check his voting record.
There is already very little bravery exhibited in expressing a contradictory vote. Lenny is one who will!
If the Council becomes deadlocked in selecting a new President look for Kalis and Lipof to emerge as compromise candidates.
Wow. Let’s hear it for Councilors Albright, Crossley and Leary for never missing a vote. Impressive!
I’d like to know what kind of vitamins they take.
As I watch the city councilors vote, I truly hope all 24 officials
keep in mind the importance of a balanced power group.
What our citizens need is equality and fairness from our councilors.
We do not want a power grab. We do not need a clean sweep of
a group of zealots who wish to transform this city with out
a reasonable mandate from a broad representation of the all residential stakeholders.
Never has it been so important to the citizens of Newton to have an experienced financial “watchdog for the underdog” as Lenny Gentile! With a Mayor hellbent on spending our tax money for “visions”, “outside consultants” and a “bigger, better and more beautiful” Newton… all heading towards an override… Councilor Gentile’s brave voice is a most needed element to the “diversity” Newton liberals are always proclaiming…
@all: What is this vote analysis? I cannot imagine that I would be near the bottom in votes since I miss so few meetings?
Could someone explain what votes are in the conversation?
Thank you
Councilor Cote is correct. This āanalysisā is quite puzzling, especially because 3 councilors are missing entirely ā Brousal-Glaser, Lappin, and Rice. Some edification, or the removal of this thread, seems warranted.
No one’s come forth to claim “credit” for the analysis or even what was analyzed – full council meetings, standing committees? And who cares how often a councilor voted in the minority? We have residents who are hold hold minority opinions and they should be represented as well. Unless this “analysis” is explained more thoroughly, the post should be deleted.
Sean — Perhaps you’d like to share the other side of this card? Also perhaps you can share who paid to distribute it onto doors on the eve of the election?
Sean – Please stop. We know you don’t like Lenny because of his votes on development and direction this city is going. But he has not let any of that stand in the way of ensuring that this City is well run -that our finances are in order.
This post is bent on character assassination. Lenny has been a great Chair in questioning expenditures and in being a voice of reason and moderation. He performs a watch dog function impeccably well. I hope he continues in his role as Chair of Finance.
Sean – unless you can provide context (time period? types of votes?), complete information (missing councilors?) and the source for the information in this “analysis”, it should be removed. Immediately.
If Kim were here, you know what he would be calling you right now, don’t you?
@Sean-
Bloggers Greg Reibman and Gayle Spector
put their money where their mouths are and ran for office. They took the time, made the effort, and put themselves out there in front of voters and didnāt hide behind a blog playing Monday morning quarterback.
Rather than beta testing your ideas here, why not run for office and get a real time, real life look at whether the majority of voters approve of your ideas… and views. Is there a mandate for your ideas? Letās find out. Voters can assess your views on development, climate change and everything else you know so much about…
You are the last man standing
Time to throw your hat in the ring and stop hiding behind Village 14.
Itās way long overdue
Hmm, I don’t remember Greg Reibman running for office … maybe before my time. Maybe Ward 14
Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! How could you forget?
Iād need to see the analysis, but this looks wrong. Iāve missed some committee meetings but nothing like this implies. And certainly not full Council meetings. Does this count 3rd committees some of us are on? Does it include the charter subcommittee that was ongoing? Itās unfortunate that even at the local level, where electeds
really do have the best of intentions, they still get smeared like this. Sean, I think you have a valid opinion to share and a voice that needs to be heard, but this is not helpful.
Part of the problem here is that, as far as I understand, the city doesn’t have an easy way of collecting and sharing this information so we are working from a consistent set of facts. Votes tend to be recorded on documents that are shared as PDFs so that we do not have a way to use and analyze the information.
What we need is a better data collection system along with a city website that allows citizens to interact with it. We need to be able to see every vote and then be able to categorize them. Otherwise, we’re relying on people taking notes.
Iām not as astute in the politics as many of you….but why is āvoting in minorityā a bad thing?
Without context of each vote, itās a misleading metric to focus on.
Or is this another thinly veiled attempt at convincing voters to not sign the referendum petition?
@Matt Lai – There’s nothing wrong with voting in the minority. The last thing I’d want to see is unanimous votes of the council on the difficult questions.
How could I have forgotten!!!?!!??
I guess its because you were the one candidate that’s ever run for office in Newton that I didn’t endorse, even though you had the all important endorsements from Choo Choo Coleman and and Vinegar Ben Mizell.
I’m sorry Choo Choo and Vinegar weren’t able to make it to the V14 get together this week
It wasnāt just Choo Choo and Vinegar Ben who endorsed me it was the entire 1962 New York Mets. Plus Bob Burke and Gail Spector.
@matt I think the point of the high number of minority votes is that, as the chair of the committee, he’s out of touch with the mainstream, which makes him an odd choice.
There are politicians who would embrace that status and run on it, but I don’t get the impression that he does that.
@Chuck: Since none of this data seems to apply to any known numbers, and is highly questionable, what is the purpose of discussing minority voting numbers when they too are probably incorrect? Discussing bad data serves no purpose?
I wasn’t speaking to the veracity of the data, I was just asking Matt’s question on why minority voting would matter. I agree that we need better data.
Why is this post still up? Please take it down.
What Lisa said. Produce relevant data or take down the incomplete and perhaps misleading data produced by someone who doesn’t have the courage to own up to his/her actions. Not to mention, the screen shot is a really bad optic.
Time Person of the Year: Climate crisis activist Greta Thunberg
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/11/media/time-person-of-the-year-2019/index.html
Whatās the over/under on the number of Councilors who Tweet about this today?
Congrats Greta!
Sean should be posting to Breitbart. Take it down!
This is still posted so Greg can continue to stir the pot! It serves no purpose but to destroy reputations.
Huh? Exactly what pot am I stirring Peter? My comments on this tread have been entirely innocuous
Ignoring the screen shot, why does any particular city councilor need to have a lifetime appointment as chair of anything. Fresh blood, fresh ideas sometimes is a good thing.
Also, I think the city needs to do more of its long term construction project NOW when rates to borrow are so low. We should be rebuilding Newton for the next 30 years. Does Lenny Gentile support that?
For the record, I’m not for or against him as chair, I’d say this about anyone on both issues.
A tale out of school to the point. Brian Yates used to do some great interpretations of Lenny Gentile, but Brian knew the budgetary and financial issues of Newton almost as well as anyone and he had tremendous respect for Lenny’s grasp of financial issues and his personal and professional honesty. That’s what I’ve found in all my dealings with Lenny over the years. He grows and adapts to the times and the changes that have taken place over the years. If he seems, at times, to resist some of the new, perhaps he sees some important and precious things that are being lost in the process.
I don’t support “lifetime appointment” to anything, but I also don’t believe anyone should be ousted from any position simply because there’s a subjective feeling they they have been in that position for too long a period, are too old, or both. This was used against Nancy Pelosi at the start of the current Congressional session and thank the lord that wiser political heads prevailed on that question.
And it literally floors me when a suggestion takes hold that Lenny Gentile or any other member of the City Council should be denied a top leadership post because they are somehow part of an again subjectively determined “minority” on said body.
Why is this post still up with councilors missing and questionable numbers. Seem like fake news…
Posting on V14 now is irrelevant. Distributing this on the eve of the November election, with no opportunity for incumbents to respond or even be aware of it was, hmmm, not the best moment of the campaign. I know at least one vote it changed.
Sean — Are you not going to post the other side of this door card?
Well, it seems Sean is not sharing the other side of this election door, so here it is:
http://newtonwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/jp-voting-fake-news-front.jpg
The card’s endorsements make it clear which Ward 2 candidates it benefited and hurt.
Do the endorsed candidates stand behind the characterizations here?
In the last several weeks, this blog has gone after Greg Schwartz, David Kalis and now Lenny Gentile. These are three outstanding public servants that have served the City with honor and distinction and don’t deserve the disparaging remarks made on Village 14.
I’m certainly not connected with the pamphlet, but before folks get TOO outraged, I think that generally certain councilors missed more meetings than others. Just a back of the envelope look at the various minutes for last year told me that. Those are posted online, and it only took a few minutes for me to confirm that clearly some of our city councilors are superstars, and others are busy folks who miss some meetings.
I’ve always said that being a City Councilor is an insanely hard job and it is a thankless job. I’m sure it rankles a bit to be called out on attendance when there are SO MANY MEETINGS. And maybe some of them are voluntary, and it isn’t fair to be called out on missing those voluntary meetings. But clearly some councilors are making those meetings and doing a great job.
But lets not get too outraged. From my quick review, it does point out some trends among certain councilors. And frankly, the city should do a better job at telling us who is attending what, and voting on what. That information should matter. And it should also matter if we allow city councilors to vote by proxy, since in my mind a proxy vote should also be taken into consideration.
As for the vote with the minority section, I could care less about that. Same with abstaining. There are strategic reasons to abstain. Useless statistic.
Finally, as for Peter’s comment, Village14 is a blog made up of various posters, and now accepts guest blog posts. I think it is an oversimplication when you say Village14 has “gone after” those folks. Sean posted his opinion. Lots of folks responded to it, and lots of folks spoke up in favor of Lenny. Greg Schwartz was the news of the day, and David Kalis’s vote was challenged on the vote of the day. Do you want this blog to be a discussion or a newspaper? Because all the folks who constantly complain about the forum are missing the point of a forum like this in my view.
If you want an echo chamber, go to Echo Bridge.
Also, no one has answered whether or not Lenny G. has any control over the debt decisions of the city? Is his committee the reason why we are so conservative on debt backed projects? On the plus side, that protects on bond rating. On the negative side, now is the time to borrow money and fix our schools and buildings.
I would rather have a discussion on the merits of the position. Clearly some folks love Lenny, but I’d appreciate knowing more about that committee and his role on it.
@Fig: Are you being rhetorical when you ask whether Lenny’s committee is the reason why we are so conservative on debt-backed projects? The Mayor proposes – the City Council disposes. The City Council can docket items suggesting that the Mayor request debt financed projects but it’s all up to the Mayor to make the proposals.
Nope, Iām somewhat ignorant about what the finance committee actually does.
@all: This posting is so bogus and that pamphlet is just someone’s idea of good councilors based upon data that was obtained haphazardly.
Scenario: On Wednesday evenings, many committees meet and a lot of Councilors have overlapping issues. Therefore if one were to read that “Cote” didn’t vote, that clearly tells you I was there, and probably across the hall at another meeting. At the other meeting, not being a member, I would also not be recorded as voting. I’m a busy Councilor (soon to be “was”) and missed very few meetings, meaning whomever was tracking me didn’t understand the process.
Taking attendance in our current system is possible if you know all of these nuances. I didn’t recognize the name of the person on the flyer that @Jack provided, which seems to mean that person is not a regular. Nothing wrong with that, but certainly lacked the knowledge to put this together.
Who is Randell Ellis and why won’t he explain how he collected his data? If he won’t, why is anyone even interested in his data? If he doesn’t want his name used, then why won’t he request that this thread be removed? When he placed his name on the flyer and distributed it, he entered the public domain and should have known that.
Anyone who’s spent time at City Hall knows perfectly well that multiple meetings occur at the same time and abstaining from a vote is often the most appropriate action. It could be a councilor isn’t available for the deliberations on an issue because s/he is attending another meeting, but runs into the committee room at the time of the vote. Seen that one happen a lot. You get full credit for that, but the councilor who foregoes a vote on one committee in order to be fully present at another committee meeting doesn’t? Missing a vote doesn’t mean a councilor isn’t present at City Hall attending to city business in some capacity.
Fig – This problem with this thread has nothing to do with Lenny Gentile. It has to do with spreading what is likely to be misinformation about a number of current councilors.
Point of clarification: different councilors may approach their position differently. One may think voting is the highest priority and may make sure s/he is available at the time of a vote; another may view a deep dive into a specific issue more important than missing a vote that will not change the outcome.
If a councilor is in the midst of a robust deliberation on a controversial issue, and in another committee a more mundane issue is addressed that’s likely to end in an 8-0 vote and a 7-0 vote isn’t going to change anything, hearing as much input as possible on the more controversial issue may very well be the better decision.
Jane, good points all. I would take down the bad information and repost this thread with a focus on the committee chairs and the presidentcy of the counsel. There can be a good discussion here, and I’m interested in focusing more on what Finance does as a committee.
@BobBurke –
As usual, well said. I agree with your astute observations
Fig – Absolutely agree.