As Financial Impact Analysis Team (FIAT) colleagues, we strongly support Bill Johnson for Planning Board. Bill offers a very strong track record, and his qualifications, experience, work ethic, and accomplishments are unsurpassed. FIAT examined our town’s structural deficit and developed a plan with actionable solutions. He demonstrated exceptional team leadership to engage us to examine the problem at hand, dissect the issues into manageable bites, and then agree on a plan that was actually implemented, not just filed.
His leadership, his encouragement of debate, and his willingness to be creative to find common ground among a group with conflicting views was key. He motivated us to listen to each other and to community stakeholders such as the schools, town departments, boards, and committees. The actionable results speak for themselves. After years of cutbacks, FIAT’s systemic recommendations made possible an increased level of services in town and in the schools without requiring overrides. The recommendations included:
- Innovative budgeting approaches that reward efficiency by creating room for new activities (something missing in the schools for many years)
- Promoting the use of grant funding
- Promoting the appropriate regionalization of community services where quality can improve and costs can be saved
- Promoting outsourcing of certain town functions to increase productivity and reduce costs
- Promoting interdepartment budget collaboration to share resources, increase services and reduce costs
Other key actions included a clear explanation of our structural deficit; its relationship to commercial development; and the opportunity offered by responsible growth in the commercial district.
His collaborative nature, good cheer, and friendly approach was highly motivating, attracted volunteers and engaged a team with diverse views on analyzing a complex set of detailed financial data. It allowed us to integrate a wide swath of stakeholder input and actually reach consensus. We need more planners like this, and thus, we encourage you to speak with Bill, look beyond the rhetoric, examine his record, and vote for Bill.
Bruce A. Leicher, Warren Avenue
Bonnie Heudorfer, Stow Road
Rick Maiore, Old Littleton Road
Steve Rowse, Woodchuck Hill Road
