Mr.Gandolfo’s comments are well put.

I too agree that Mr.Demillos research and experience are important and would serve SoPo in a great capacity.  Like it or not though, it is leadership by consensus and by committee.  The “throw the bums out” approach(not saying that Mr.demillo subscribes to that method..) may work with a populous that is completely fed up, but our representative form of government is the best we have and if you go in listening to only your own point of view will surely leave you isolated.

As correct as Mr.Demillo may be on the school finances and his contempt of the school board may be warranted, he is one vote representing one district.

Mr. Dimillo:
I ran for city council last year and it was a real learning experience, very challenging and fun.  It was the first time I ran and I knew it would be a chore to get the name recognition I would need to win. I worked real hard to craft my message in a positive way so that people would understand where I was coming from, what I stood for and what I could bring to the table.  My natural personality is to be very demonstrative and passionate and I had to work real hard to channel my energy.  Plus, I was running against a pretty well-liked incumbent and it was a presidential election so voter turnout was going to be high (and well-liked incumbent always has the advantage). Even though I lost, I was honored to receive a bit over 4K votes.

Please permit me to suggest one constructive point that I think will help you as you work hard to win votes (face it, you can’t work on making changes if you don’t win).  Here goes - if you want to convince people to take a risk on you and believe in your message, resorting to negative comments about people will most certainly lose you votes in a heartbeat.  Since you have publically thrown your hat into the ring, your words and ideas will be watched and scrutinized and read that much more (as well they should be). To win, you need every vote you can get.  Stick to your message in a non-combative and non-judgemental way and you stand a better chance of people listening to what you have to say; maybe even eventually believing in your message and perhaps you might find people standing next to you at the podium and/or checking “yes” to your name on the ballot.

I watch you at council meetings and read all of your postings on this site and just when you begin to resonate with me your tone or choice of words get in the way and you lose me. 

Regards,  Mark Gandolfo

To Amy,
This will be my last response to you, as you clearly lack reading comprehension skills. No where did I say education was not valuable.  My point was that there is waste in the SP school budget and that I support good schools at the proper cost.  The state of Maine has established the EPS standards for educational costs and these standards provide for a very good education, much higher than most other states. Scarborough’s 2009 budget was $600,000 less than the EPS standard. South Portland’s 2009 budget was $7.1 million more than the EPS standard or 21% over the standard. Cape Elizabeth’s 2009 budget, while over the EPS standard was significantly less over the standard than SP. Both Scarborough high school and Cape Elizabeth high schools were recently named as two of the best high schools in the US. South Portland, which spends much more than both these schools was not named.  The fact is just because you spend more on education does not mean the education will be better.  My position is that South Portland’s school budget should be no more than 110% of the state standard.  This allows a 10% cushion, any more is wasteful spending. I believe it is the responsibility of all residents and taxpayers of South Portland to support good schools and as a minimum support funding the state EPS standard cost. My point about the fact that residents with students in the school system pay only 15% of the taxes was to point out how unfair it is that the residents with children in the school system only pay $1.1 million of the total $7.1 million of 2009 budgeted costs over the EPS standard. If you and all other residents were expected to pay all of the cost over the state standard, how many would have voted for the 2009 school budget. (That would cost you just $2,325 more for each of your children in the school system.)

to newstosp:
Would that be coffee, lemonade or just plain water (in a recycled water bottle of course) !

Amy,
Your last post to Mr. Dimillo is wild.  How long were you drinking before you posted it?

To Mr. Dimillo,

Ummm I guess for me I happen to put great value on educating our youngsters. And I do have children in the system, so I am one of those you target in your note. I also feel that we all once were children and all once were educated by this system, so I guess I disagree with you in that “most” voters don’t feel that educating our citizens is valuable (that 15% you mention). I guess I feel it is our obligaton to support and educate our kids. I was merely questioning your interests because I find you to be a source of enormous knowledge when it comes to the school budget, yet I’m confused by your message. I guess what I’m hearing from you is that you think the school department overspends on our taxes, and you seem to have spent an enormous amount of time investigating their records so much so that you have a great opinion on how, where and when that money should be spent, which lead me to wonder why you werent exactly on that board. I can also see why anyone with kids who attend schools here in SoPo wouldnt vote for you because it appears as if you are not one to be putting forth the children’s best interest when it came to education but merely attempting to not have to spend any money on getting that “value” out of the tax base. That is a conundrum that would be difficult to gain any support for I would hope. Maybe you need to inspect your message a bit more? I’m supportive of attempting to tow the line on taxes but not at the expense of a child’s education. Or is your idea that we spend less but achieve the same? And how would you attempt to do such? Do you feel that the children who are being educated in South Portland are getting a valuable education? Is it the fault of the schools? The board? The State? The teachers? Why does South Portland not get more money from the state to support education? Why is it that neighboring towns can get their high schools fully funded and South Portland cannot? Would you be one to cut any and all spending when the school budget came before you as a city councilor and why? Would there be any school programs that you would support as a councilor? Which ones? Thanks!

Concerned1…...Or should that be “Only Concerned About Myself”? I’m pleased that your services haven’t been reduced thus, in your mind, there isn’t a problem. You may be comfortable living in a community that considers these layoffs, and the method in which they were handled, acceptable. Count me in as a short sighted citizen. I will look forward to you helping us “move forward” as soon as something impacts YOUR life.

Honestly…...Your post is priceless.

Umm… to those pointing to Westbrook as an example… you do realize that they laid off NINE positions across the city back in January BEFORE the recent decision to not give pay increases to the employees that are left, right?  They lost nine positions which resulted in an immediate reduction in city services yet there’s been little to no outcry there.  Here in South Portland, five are cut with little to no direct public impact (let go of the emotion and step back and think about the true loss we’ve sustained - it’s minimal.  That is not meant as a reflection on the individuals, but, rather, an honest assessment of just what has been lost in this process).  You’d think Gailey had had them all executed in Mill Creek Park, by the outcry there’s been.

I take some comfort in the sense that SPs outcry seems to be coming mostly as a result of its poor history of dealing with personnel issues.  What other employer would ever tolerate their employees badmouthing them in the press and stirring up short-sighted citizens with half- or non- ‘truths’ from within the workplace?  I think we as a community are smarter - in general - than to be caught up in emotional, knee-jerk reactions (though, by the press, you’d think that’s all we ever do).  I use the rec center and the library and my services have not been impacted.  If they were, I’d be looking for ways to get involved in a way to move our city forward, rather than to dwell on finding ways to stall and hang on to the past.

Amy,
As a CPA with an MBA and 30 years of financial experience, I am an expert on financial matters and do have analytical skills that allow me to review the school budgets and financial statements in a way no one on the current school board can.  I also believe that government should provide good services at a reasonable cost and that no cost should be incurred without a true cost benefit analysis.  I plan to run for city council next November in district four. The city council has the authority to control school spending, so it makes more sense to be on the city council then the school board.  Also as the last election for school board showed, the majority of the voters in SP don’t know any of the school board members and decided not to vote for any candidate.  The number one vote getter was “blank”, not the two elected to the board last November.  I understand this “blank” vote.  Although I have voted every year for over 35 years, over those years many times I refused to vote for many local positions like the school board, because I did not know the candidates and their positions on the issues. Now that I am retired and no longer working 65 hours a week, I have the time to understand the issues and did vote in the last November school board election. Unfortunately, the two candidates I voted for (Jay Allen and Kendall Fassett) did not have name recognition and did not get on the board.  If I had run last year, I clearly would have lost, because the majority of those who vote for school board are those with kids in the school system and most of those voters don’t want the school budget controlled especially when they only have to pay 15% of the cost. (Residents with children in the school system pay about 15% of the property taxes in South Portland). After reading this post, I know I can count on your vote in November.

Fiscal Responsibility makes the assumption that I was suggesting frontline people be laid off. 
That would be like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and just as short-sighted as laying off the people they did.
Having everyone sacrifice by foregoing raises within the departments where cuts were made—along with reversing wasteful spending decisions—- would have saved these jobs.
Preserving jobs is so important to our consumer-driven economy. Putting people out of work—frontline or middle manager or top dogs— only helps to prolong the recession and increase the need to raise taxes to replace the money that is not coming in from other sources. 
The time for “letting things go” and “moving on” are long since passed. It’s time to stop doing business as usual. It’s time to wake up and work together on these issues. We are in a global economy, but we still have to make good, sound, local decisions.
We need people in power who are not wedded to old-school thinking. We need people without a bunker mentality. We need decisions to made in the open.

The people who want to “just move on” are the ones who are silly and short-sighted. This recession and these short-sighted decisions are providing us with an opportunity. Let’s take that opportunity to move into the 21st century and demand the same of our leaders.