Newton TAB Blog

Coletti had floor for 42 percent of alderman meeting

Posted on July 24, 2008 by Greg Reibman
Filed Under Aldermen, budget blues | 2 Comments

Although there were 20 aldermen present at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, Alderman Paul Coletti had the floor for about 42 percent of the meeting.

Coletti spoke for approximately 35 minutes and 48 seconds of the 1 hour and 25 minute meeting.

As chairman of the Finance Committee, Coletti should be expected to speak more than most of his colleagues

However, his comments were not just limited to serving as a moderator.

He generally offered commentary, lectures and rebuttal to every comment made by his colleagues. At times, he interrupted them as well.

Coletti’s tendency to out-gab his colleagues Monday was similar to his approach during the budget talks in June.

Monday’s meeting was designed to resume debate on a series of budget initiatives proposed by aldermen (other than Coletti) after he used a procedural move known as a charter which prevented the board from a chance to vote on the mayor’s budget.

Thanks to TAB intern Alex Dietz for going back over the meeting tapes with a stop watch. Thanks also to NewTV for providing a copy of the proceedings. Finally, congratulations to Kayla, winner of this blog’s first reader contest. Kayla guessed 41 percent.

Watch this space for results of our TCM* contest

Posted on July 24, 2008 by Greg Reibman
Filed Under General | Leave a Comment

Deadline was 5 p.m. today. Details here.

*Total Coletti Minutes

Heroic Fire Rescue

Posted on July 24, 2008 by Francis Ma
Filed Under Fire Department | 1 Comment

Got word the other day that Newton’s firefighters battled an early Thursday morning blaze last week (didn’t clarify in original post, sorry about that) and saved at least one life in the process.

All we know right now is that it occured at 1 a.m. at a Wyman Street apartment complex and that someone was trapped on the second floor. I’ll post more when we get more info.

Danberg hosting shindig for Parker

Posted on July 24, 2008 by Greg Reibman
Filed Under Mayor's race | 2 Comments

Details are here.

Look who’s on the cover of the Brookline TAB…

Posted on July 24, 2008 by Greg Reibman
Filed Under General | Leave a Comment

Recognize the fellow in the photo on the bottom of Read more

Cheesecake River!

Posted on July 24, 2008 by Jim Walker
Filed Under General | 9 Comments

The unending showers of the past few weeks, and especially last night and this morning, have filled Cheesecake Brook to the brim. I’ve never seen this little run-off brook as raging as it was this morning. At the bridge along Eddy Street, where the new park has been created, it was flowing so fast and heavy that there were actually white caps on the water. And the sound of the rushing water was louder than the passing traffic.

And downstream near Albemarle Field, the water had spilled over the banks. If you see more flooding around the city, let us know, or better yet snap a photo and send it along (jewalker@cnc.com). Stay dry and be careful out!

Into the wild at Newton’s Outdoor Adventure Camp

Posted on July 24, 2008 by Jim Walker
Filed Under General, Life in Newton, environment | Leave a Comment

TAB staff photographer Sarah Gatzke got to hang out for a day last week at Newton Park and Recreation’s Outdoor Adventure Camp at Nahanton. It wasn’t the toughest day on the job for Sarah, since she got to go fishing, go for a canoe ride along the Charles, hike in the woods and just plain old goof around.

For a taste of the fun, check out Sarah’s slideshow:
SLIDESHOW: Outdoor Adventure Camp

If you think it may be just be the thing for your son or daughter, a new session starts on Monday. To see if there’s any spaces left, call the parks department at (617) 796-1500 or visit them online here.

Introducing the first ever TAB blog reader contest

Posted on July 23, 2008 by Greg Reibman
Filed Under Aldermen, The TAB | 34 Comments

Monday night’s Committee of the Whole meeting on the budget lasted one hour and 25 minutes. One of our hard-working interns just watched a tape of the proceedings while holding a stop watch. We asked him to find out how many of those 85 minutes Finance Committee Chairman Paul Coletti spent talking.

We will let you know what he found out tomorrow afternoon.

But first, it’s your turn to guess: The person who gets closest to the guessing the percent of time Coletti had the floor during the meeting will win a vintage Community Newspaper Company coffee mug.

To enter, just post your guess in the comment section on this thread. One entry per person please. Deadline to enter is 5 p.m. Thursday July 24. Decision of the judge (me) is final.

What would you like to ask Tim Cahill?

Posted on July 23, 2008 by Greg Reibman
Filed Under Schools | 41 Comments

State Treasurer Tim Cahill is coming to our office later this week to meet with staff and editors from the Newton TAB and other surrounding communities about the state’s School Building Authority.

What do you think we should ask him?

2009 School Committee race begins early

Posted on July 23, 2008 by Greg Reibman
Filed Under City Hall, Election, Schools | 27 Comments

Now on Wicked Local Newton: Although the election is more than one year away, two candidates have already emerged in a race for an open seat on the School Committee. PTO council Co-President Sue Flicop and activist Matt Hills, who served on the Newton North High School Citizens’ Task Force and the PTO of the Ward School, both expect to be candidates for the seat currently held by Marc Laredo.

This week’s cartoon

Posted on July 22, 2008 by Greg Reibman
Filed Under Aldermen, Cohen being Cohen, Marderosian | 13 Comments

Click on image to enlarge

Sharing my frustration

Posted on July 22, 2008 by Gail Spector
Filed Under Mayor's office | Leave a Comment

You’ve all heard this before, but both your tax dollars and mine are paying for this nonsense, so I’m going to share this story:

Our intern Joe is working on a news story where he needed confirmation on something from the city. Easy information, easy story. Nothing that has any bearing on the Cohen administration whatsoever. Nothing that we should have to go through Jeremy Solomon for, but the policy is that we are to go to him for everything, so that’s what we do.

So, on Thursday, Joe calls Jeremy, asks his question and Jeremy assures Joe he’ll get back to him. The day goes by, Joe needs to leave soon, so he tries Jeremy again. This time, Jeremy brushes him off, and tells him he should just wait for his call. Bear in mind there’s nobody else who will give Joe the information if he identifies himself as a TAB reporter.

Joe’s deadline is quickly approaching. Thursday ends without a call from Jeremy, not even a ’sorry, but I couldn’t get the information.’ Friday comes, and what does Jeremy do? He sends the following email at 3:58 p.m. Friday.

Dear Colleagues,

Both Mayor Cohen and I will be out on Monday, so there is no press conference.
I will be on vacation the duration of next week, returning Monday July 28th. In my absense, please refer your inquiries to Ben Plotkin, the summer intern in the Executive Office. Ben can be reached at 617-796-1100. He will take down your questions and email responses that can be attributed to Mayor Cohen.

Thank you and good weekend to all,
Jeremy

How thoughtful of the director of communications to inform the press at 3:58 p.m. on Friday that he will be taking vacation the following week. No, he never answered Joe’s question.

I’m disabling comments on this post because my intent is not to start another round of Jeremy-bashing. But people need to know about how things operate — or don’t operate — inside the executive office.

If you’d like to comment to me directly about this, email me at gspector@cnc.com.

Tomorrow’s TAB today

Posted on July 22, 2008 by Gail Spector
Filed Under General | 3 Comments

Here’s what we were able to produce…without Chrissie!

Here’s the memo from the law department

Posted on July 22, 2008 by Greg Reibman
Filed Under General | 50 Comments

Here’s the memo from the administration’s lawyer regarding a state law which some aldermen believe might allow the board to by-pass city rules which state that only the mayor can appropriate funds.

I miss Keith Olbermann

Posted on July 22, 2008 by Greg Reibman
Filed Under Life in Newton, Presidential election | 24 Comments

I didn’t originally write about this on this blog because Comcast’s decision to drop MSNBC and a few other channels from it’s analog lineup is not directly related to Newton. But we do watch cable TV in Newton and there’s been some interesting discussion here.

keep looking »