Milford Board of Selectmen

Thursday, February 25, 2010

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CANDIDATES

Name: John Cass Sr.

Address: 19 Alder St.

Years of residency: 38

Age: 61

Education: Keene State College, 1970, bachelor’s degree with a major in history and a minor in coaching.

Employment: Melanson Roofing, Bow.

Political history: Second run for political office, active in the Young Republicans at Keene State.

Affiliations: Cubmaster of Pack 4, Scoutmaster Troop 4 BSA, still active with BSA Scouting for Food program. Various jobs in MCAA.

Name: Tim Finan

Age: 49

Address: 29 Berkeley Place.

Years of residency: 16

Education: Bachelor’s degree in mathematics. University of New Hampshire, 1982. Master’s degree in computer science, Northeastern University, 1989.

Employment: Cisco Systems, Software Engineer.

Political history: Selectman, 2007-present (chair 2009). Budget Advisory Committee, 2005-06. PEG Access Advisory Committee, 2003-07 (chair 2006). Recreation Commission, 2003-06 (chair 2006). Local Education Improvement Plan committee, 2003.

Affiliations: MCAA Board member, coach, umpire.

Family: Married, wife Jeryl. Four children, aged 23, 21, 15 and 14.

John Cass Sr. is challenging incumbent Tim Finan for a three-year seat on the Board of Selectmen.

How should the town deal with today’s financial realities - the expectation of lower revenue and rising expenses?

Tim Finan:

In difficult economic times, we cannot forget that the taxpayers are hurting. Asking the taxpayer to make up revenue shortfalls should be the last option. We must start with the premise of a flat operating budget; if we could get by last year on X, then we should be able to get by this year on X.

The challenges come with cost increases that are essentially out of our control, such as benefits, insurance, etc. To cover these increases, we must be creative. We should treat these challenges as opportunities to encourage savings that can be maintained even after we emerge from the downturn. We should concentrate on increased efficiency and productivity within town operations. We should be smarter about how we do our jobs, combining similar tasks performed by multiple departments. We should also examine recurring costs such as employee benefits which often contain outdated practices that lead to unnecessary costs. When the current board revamped the sick time policy to remove the practice of buying back unused sick time, the town saved tens of thousands of dollars. We should also be planning future expenditures around the retirement of existing debt, thus minimizing the impact to the taxpayers.

John Cass Sr.: (No photo provided)

With the economy in bad shape, we should not cut any of the social programs, but certainly we don’t need to have as a priority improvements to the rail trail or be buying up taxable property when we already own a site to build an ambulance facility, what happens if the stone bridge suddenly becomes unusable, what does this do to response time to the north side of town. Let’s not forget that a 2 percent or 3 percent increase in the budget doesn’t seem like much and very clearly employees aren’t getting huge raises but if your property lost a modest 10 percent then the budget increase is in the 12 percent to 13 percent range.

If you don’t believe your property lost value then why was that a selling point for buying the properties this year. In our house we deal with what would be nice to have and then settle for what we can realistically afford, the town needs to do the same. If elected I will return my yearly stipend.