​Being Prepared, Is The Secret To Good Government

Being prepared, being ready for an emergency is the secret to good government in Braintree.

The Fire Station HQ is in horrendous condition, mold, asbestos, flooding in the basement, holes in the walls, no doors on bathroom stalls, leaking roofs, a crumbling fire tower, with bricks and walls buckling, and exhaust systems dumping air into enclosed attics.

No one, let alone our front-line fire fighters, should have to put up with such conditions. Worse still, an alarm system wasn’t working correctly for weeks, potentially slowing the dispatch process for emergencies.

Being prepared, being ready for an emergency is the secret to good government.

Last fall, a period of dry weather, and no rainfall for several weeks created conditions for a series of wildfires. Despite the earlier rains of the year, a few weeks of no rain created the conditions for those wildfires. The earlier rain might have also created more fuel, which when it dried out in the fall, was ready tinder for the wildfires.

As we think ahead to 2025, we’ll need to watch vegetation growth rates and make sure we are removing underbrush ahead of time. Town departments will have to work in tandem with the fire department to make sure we are prepared for the fall of 2025. We might be lucky and receive rain in the fall, or we might not.

Being prepared, being ready for an emergency is the secret to good government.

During the override process, many people said “the government is doesn't spend out money well, what did they do with all the money we sent them in taxes. We shouldn’t vote yes to the override because we’ve already sent them a lot of money. And there’s a lot of spare cash around”.

I think one of my best arguments to this refrain was this:

Our political leaders, instead of spending all of our money, had been listening carefully to citizens, and not spending any money. They have been arguing that instead of raising taxes, we need to prioritize “people over buildings”. Rather than spending your money, they didn’t. They didn’t take your money and use it because they never took it in the first place.

We can see how this is true. We had the boilers not work in high school, and two roofs fell off schools. All in 2018. That happened because we didn’t maintain the boilers, maintain the roofs. And we didn’t replace the boilers or replace the roofs. As a result, our insurance costs went up, and we had to pay extra in emergency costs. Instead of having to replace those roofs gradually, and in a planned way, we had to do it in a day or so. Then, we had to raise even more money to replace more roofs because those roofs were in danger of falling off as well. By doing what the voices of thrift suggest we ended up having to pay more money, and all at once. Probably making our budget crunch even worse. “people over buildings” just means we put off what needs to be done, and then we have to do it anyway, and we have to pay more, all at once.

Being prepared, being ready for an emergency is the secret to good government.

If you want to argue we don’t have enough money, and so we need to make tough decisions, I’m going to listen to you. But if you argue “people over buildings” then I think you are a snake oil salesman, or a secondhand car salesman trying to tell me our decision to not raise revenue is a good thing, it’s the right decision. Rather than telling me the truth, we shouldn’t really be doing this, but we must.

Being prepared, being ready for an emergency is the secret to good government.

In early 2024 Braintree faced a budget squeeze, there weren’t enough taxes raised to cover expenses. The reason for the budget squeeze was a combination of reasons, inflation had increased costs requiring expenses to go up, and the rate at which revenue was increasing wasn’t growing as quickly. And because we had accumulated so many problems with the town buildings, chickens came home to roost all at the same time. We had to spend millions of dollars all at once on town buildings.

Being prepared, being ready for an emergency is the secret to good government.

We are still in danger, a pipe could burst, the roof on highlands, the old slate roof could fail in parts, we replaced only part of the roof and left the old slate roof alone. Old slates are at this moment falling off the roof onto the new roof. In 2024 an elementary school basement flooded. And in the fire house HQ, the dispatch system could completely fail, it hasn’t been working correctly for weeks. Things are bad, and they will continue to be bad for a while, and it’s going to be tough getting out of this mess. It took decades to get here. It will take years to get out of this.

I’ve heard voices say, “the override will not be the end of it, they are going to ask for money”. Well yes, and that’s because for decades the volume of cutting expenses, and not spending money, was never ending. We have piled up problems, decade after decade, year after year. One year isn’t going to be enough. The fire is still burning.

Being prepared, being ready for an emergency is the secret to good government.

The next fire is the Fire House HQ, it’s in such a bad condition, our political leaders have been listening, and working hard so well, they don’t spend any money on cleaning in the fire house. They don’t patch holes in the roof. When a roof leaks and creates mold in a roof, instead of repairing the problem, the room is taped off and unusable. Our political leaders have done an amazing job of not spending any money on the fire house. Your taxes didn’t go up, no money was spent on the firehouse beyond the money that had to be spent on it. Where things broke down, and nothing else could be done, money was spent. But beyond that nothing was spent. The result is a Fire House HQ that is in horrendous condition. Our brave firefighters who risk their lives every day, fighting fires, fighting wildfires in the fall of 2024, aren’t supported and I would imagine don’t feel supported by the town because we haven’t stepped up.

Being prepared, being ready for an emergency is the secret to good government.

Don’t kick out the people in power, instead, speak up, persuade them to focus on raising revenue not cutting expenses, and focus them on telling us how terrible things are.

A few years ago, I worried that if I started talking about raising revenue, raising taxes I’d be lambasted, but the reason I really go all out on the message, almost comically so, is because I realized few people were willing to speak up about this. The mindset of cutting expenses, “people over building” has become so ingrained that people have lost sight of what’s happening. They aren’t seeing the problems and the consequences. First the school buildings did this for me, and even I was becoming complacent about the problems. But when I walked through the Fire House HQ last fall, I realized we have just completely lost sight of how we should be organizing and paying for government. I was energized both to raise the issue of the fire house but also go back and talk about the we don’t talk about our problems enough in the school committee. How could we have let things get so bad. Even if there isn’t the money, at the very least, folks need to speak up and say the right thing.

I see it as a civic duty to speak up, and if there’s anything I do, if it encourages you my fellow citizens to speak up, then I’ve succeeded. So, to be prepared, educate yourself on what’s happening, go and visit the Fire House HQ, understand the extent of the problems. How little we are supporting our fire fighters, maybe take them some treats when you drop by, at the very least show them the people of Braintree do care and do support them. And next reach out to the council and tell them to focus on raising revenue not cutting expenses, and if they cannot raise money, tell us how bad things are. No more this idea of “people over buildings” because the consequences of that refrain, is a fire house HQ and school buildings in horrendous state.

Being prepared, being ready for an emergency is the secret to good government in Braintree, Massachusetts.