Maintaining traditions can be important. And nothing is more traditional in Lincoln than attending the annual Town Meeting. Last year I jocularly suggested that residents could skip the Saturday event and still oppose the override at the polls on Monday. To which resident Chris Klem (now chair of the CPA Committee) took me to task. This year I’m urging everyone to attend, if only to vote against the CPA.

Town Meeting is one of those rare and unusual events that can be both boring and fascinating at the same time. Debates can drone on long after the discourse has served any persuasive purpose.  And there are times, I admit, when I’d like to throw myself at the next speaker who, upon receiving the wireless microphone, starts to speak, stops, then looks curiously at the mike, taps it and asks, "is this on?" a few times. Just eliminating that confusion could knock an hour off the agenda.

Key articles are strewn throughout this year’s warrant. Saturday morning promises debate on the town and school budgets, and two competing tax relief proposals. Early afternoon should see discussion of the Community Preservation/Condo Purchase Act (CP/CPA), as well as the plans for renovating Bemis Hall and the Codman Pool. Later in the day, or more likely on Tuesday evening, Town Meeting will take up a number of zoning bylaw changes. However, the Planning Board has withdrawn its most potentially controversial proposal, which would have significantly altered parking regulations in the South Lincoln business district.

When you go to vote on Monday, don’t look for me standing outside freezing my buns off all day, even though I’m on the ballot. That’s a tradition for the six candidates running in the two contested races to follow. They and their supporters will form a gauntlet through which we’ll have to pass before entering town clerk Nancy Zuelke’s voting emporium. Once inside the Brooks Gym, here’s how I’m going to vote:

Override - I’ve never voted for one yet, so why break with my tradition? Actually, tight economic times have forced a real tightening of the budget, causing the elimination of kooky money-wasters like hydrant fees, so if ever there was an override I could consider supporting, this is it. Kudos to the finance committee and selectmen.

CPA Act - I’ve shouted my protests about this proposal from the rooftops. Not that the law is a bad idea, it’s just that so far there isn’t a town project worth spending money on, and I don’t believe in taxing myself for no reason. You’ll hear plenty about the threat of 40B developers from those who would like to scare you into supporting the CPA, but take those concerns with a grain, or perhaps a pillar, of salt.

School Committee - This is a tough one. Patty Mostue is my favorite school committee member, and I’d vote for her over any of the other current members, if that was the race. She’s proven herself to be both knowledgeable and skeptical, an excellent combination. But I can’t help but think it’s time for a change on that committee. That’s why I’m voting for Ashton Peery and Jan Nyquist.

Both Peery and Nyquist hold Harvard MBAs (usually a disqualifier in my book) and both have strong fiscal management backgrounds, a needed commodity on that beleaguered committee. Most importantly, they represent a new beginning, and will hopefully bring an infusion of new energy.

Planning Board - What’s a voter to do when the most potentially qualified candidate is dead wrong on the most important issues? Ken Hurd is an architect, a current member of the Historic District Commission and a former member of the Article 7 and South Lincoln Area Planning (SLAP) committees. In his latter role, Hurd has wholeheartedly supported the full-blown development of the South Lincoln business district. And, at a recent coffee, he actually advocated allowing businesses in residential neighborhoods (like Millbrook Farms and Stonegate) to expand a little, even if it violated the zoning bylaw. The planning board already has enough of that misguided thinking.

Both Barbara Peskin and Keith Gilbert are in favor of a slower, more cautious approach to potential South Lincoln over-development. Gilbert is a sharp businessman who would make a fine addition to that all-male club. But Peskin is the person who has been attending the meetings over the past year, who is familiar with the issues and who has shown the desire and effort to do the research required to learn the ins and outs of the issues. She has a passion for protection and will surely keep the building inspector and her colleagues on their toes. That’s why I’m voting for Barbara Peskin, and I hope you do too.

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Board of Selectmen - And thus begins the one-year tenure of Sara Mattes as chairperson of this board. She kept her lips zipped during her first year (the final year of Roz Delori’s reign) and only began to step into the limelight this past year, with mixed results. She’s shifted the town’s Hanscom focus from more technical matters to seeking a political solution. And she was influential in steering the CP/CPA through Town Meeting. But she took an unnecessary political hit last year when local trash haulers blamed her for spearheading efforts to raise their tipping fees at the dump.

Having been elected in an uncontested race, Gary Taylor enters office with a virtually clean slate, except for the Sunnyside Lane issue. Residents of that North Lincoln street questioned Taylor closely during a recent selectmen’s meeting about the housing commission’s plans for a handful of one-acre lots at the end of their street. The state wants to sell the lots back to the town and it appears the housing commission would like to put some affordable housing on ’em. After listening to his answers, some residents are considering hiring a lawyer.

Will Mattes and Taylor, along with Penny Billings (the first all-baby-boom-generation board) just survive or thrive in the post-John Kerr era? Only time will tell.

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It’s a good thing I don’t have a cynical bone in my body. Because, if I did, it would certainly force me to look askance at the recent Sunnyside Lane dust-up and wonder: Does the town have a double standard when it comes to land use?

Let’s face it, North Lincoln residents don’t have it easy. They live on a thin slice of land bordered by three major roads, with gazillions of cars zooming around them. Their neighborhood abuts an airport that Massport wants to morph into O’Hare-East. They live the furthest from police, fire and EMT equipment, yet closest to the former town dump, that round mound of grassland next to the transfer station with the methane vents sticking out of it. Surveys of real estate transactions indicate that most North Lincoln homes are invariably assessed at or above fair-market value, while many mansionized homes across Rt. 2 are too frequently way under-assessed. And, as if all of this weren’t enough, many North Lincoln residents still suffer from a certain cultural deprivation: their houses have never been wired for cable.

With all these forces stacked against this put-upon side of town, it would seem that our representatives might take special care to protect and nurture this fragile neighborhood. But housing commission efforts to build multi-unit affordable housing on Sunnyside Lane, which have recently come to light, would make the eyebrows rise on even the least cynical of us.

Over the past two or three years, the Rural Land Foundation, at the town’s behest, has aggressively sought to acquire and preserve land in the center of town. This is a noble cause, for which the RLF is owed credit. The Hunsacker property on Weston Road, the Drane property at the end of Todd Pond Road, and the center-of-town properties comprising the "Lincoln Fields" project have all been worthy acquisitions that preserved significant portions of these important parcels as conservation land. These properties contribute to the town’s rural ambiance, and the conservation trails that course through these properties are available for all to use…even North Lincolnites.

Now take the property at the end of Sunnyside Lane. It’s a perfect example of a peculiar Lincoln-style double standard. Comprising five acres, this parcel abuts the Minuteman National Park; much of the vacant parcel is wetlands, though there is an existing conservation trail running through a corner of the land.

This land was acquired by the state when it was thinking of realigning Rt. 2. For well over a year the town has been aware that the state was considering selling it back to the town. But did the town ever consider acquiring the property for conservation purposes? Were the neighbors clued in and asked to donate toward the land’s preservation, as was done in South Lincoln? Were the neighbors advised last year at all about the land’s pending availability, after the state first approached the town? No, no and definitely not.

The housing commission, not the conservation commission, was the first town board to be notified of this property’s potential availability. Did it inform the neighbors? Not for almost a year. And by the time Sunnyside Lane residents were finally contacted, the moderate-income housing project was presented, according to some who attended that informal meeting, as practically a fait accompli.

The difference in approach between the center-of-town conservation land deals and the Sunnyside Lane property is like night and day. In one case there is inclusion and open communication, in the other exclusion and what appears to have been premeditated silence. One would have to be an utter cynic to think that the town’s plan is to preserve all that open space you-know-where, while still being able to reach its state-mandated goal of ten percent affordable housing by building more units you-know-where-else?

Just call me Mr. Cynical.

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9. Joe Greeson - If knowledge is power, then Joe, by attending as many meetings as he does, has earned a spot on this list. Since joining the Zoning Board of Appeals, he’s studied the issues facing that board in the context of his strong understanding of the ways of town government. He’s become an effective behind-the-scenes influence for the preservation and protection of residential neighborhoods and the South Lincoln business district. Just ask any RLF trustee. After me, Greeson could be number two on their ‘deep doo-doo list.’

8. Jan Nyquist - She’s an RLF and a DeCordova trustee, and now she’s joined the School Committee. All she needs is an appointment to a Hanscom advisory board to be certified as a professional GFP (Glutton for Punishment). Can she shake up the school committee? She already has, just by being elected. Rumors were flying before the election that her soon-to-be colleagues were open to Ashton Peery’s election, but that they were strongly opposed to Nyquist. Too bad. She won.

7,6 & 5. The Selectmen - This is the first time that all three have been grouped together on this list, but that’s only because, unlike most years, none of them has yet to assume a dominant role. This year, will it be the chairperson (Sarah Mattes), the prosecutor (Penny Billings) or the rookie (Gary Taylor)?

So far, Mattes seems off to an unsure start. Her suggestion to implement a new restriction regarding audience participation at the selectmen’s weekly meetings was rejected by her colleagues. Dubbed the ‘Peskin Rule’ (by me), it would have required audience members wishing to make a point or ask a question to hold those thoughts until the end of the entire meeting, no matter when that issue came up in their agenda.

4. Roz Delori - It’s been over a year since she stepped down as selectman but apparently she’s still running the show when it comes to the town’s response to the never-ending Rt. 2 project. She led last week’s public hearing on the topic, while selectman chairperson Mattes stood to the side, taking notes. As the town’s unappointed ambassador to the Mass. Highway Department, she continues to ‘represent’ the town as she promotes her controversial plan to take part of Mrs. Wang’s Bedford Road property.

3. Dennis Picker - It’ll be a breathless year with Picker as the newly-elected chairman of the Planning Board. In his first meeting in that role last week, he routinely cut off long-winded audience members once he thought they’d made their point, and even stifled his own colleagues as he tried to keep the committee on schedule.

2. Mary Lincoln/Peter Conrad - Former long-time Conscom chairman Tom Walker’s shoes will be tough to fill, but with Peter Conrad by her side, Mary should have no problem running this influential and important committee. It was Peter’s low-key, humorous approach that turned Town Meeting around on spending money to demolish the decrepit wash house on Lexington Road.

1. Philip DeNormandie - This prominent Lincoln family scion and Boston real estate developer doesn’t hold town office. Heck, he doesn’t even live in Lincoln, but that doesn’t keep his specter from casting a dark shadow over our town. When town officials tried to scare Town Meeting with fears that "40b Developers" were waiting to pounce on the town with humongous, multi-unit affordable housing projects, this is the guy they were thinking of. He owns a large parcel on the North Lincoln side of Rt. 2, just behind Juniper Ridge. It’s the one with the ‘For Sale’ sign on it. If only he could gain access to it, the theory goes, he’d put up a gazillion units and offer one to his erstwhile Weston Road property co-owner, Charley Fitts.

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Let’s face it, when it comes to making decisions about the transfer station (aka - "The Dump"), the town frequently appears snakebit. Take the NESWC agreement, which looked so good when the town entered into it last century. It now forces us to pay at least twice as much as other communities to get rid of our trash. And, last year’s decision by the selectmen to start charging local commercial haulers to use the facility generated a wave of protest.

More recently, town administrator Tim Higgins presented the selectmen with a fool-proof plan to trim the town’s operating budget: close the dump on weekdays. By doing so, Higgins assured the selectmen, the town could eliminate the position of "full-time Transfer Station Attendant," and save $60,000. Since then, this plan had to be modified to accommodate weekday institutional users.

Of course, even though this plan had been under consideration for many months, nobody bothered to say anything to the person Higgins had targeted for elimination: long-time DPW employee, Paul "Dirtball" Harvey. Sure, he’d heard the whispered rumors that he was being singled out, but nobody had told him anything officially. That is, until April 5th, when he was called into Town Offices. Paul and co-worker Rob Maker (the new shop steward for the union representing the DPW workers) met that day with Higgins, assistant town administrator Chris Coleman and DPW superintendent Vinnie DeAmicis. Higgins sat Paul down and delivered the bad news verbally. When Paul asked for an official letter outlining their conversation, he was told to come back later.

That letter, written only after Paul requested it, acknowledges his "nearly 25 years" of service to the town. It explains that the town faces serious financial challenges and concludes by offering to review with him "the benefits that will be available to you upon your separation from the town." That’s right, Paul’s not being fired. Nor is he being laid-off, terminated or axed. He’s being ‘separated’ from the town. Separated. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

There’s only one little, itsy-bitsy, teenie-weenie problem. Paul doesn’t want to go gently into that good night. Rather than be separated from us, he wants to keep working for the town. And why not? After all, where else is he going to earn what his 25 years of seniority brings? No place, that’s where. The job market might be strong for younger, college-educated town administrators, but it’s not so robust for less-educated, semi-toothless, 65-year-old laborers. "Separating" Paul is like sentencing him to an involuntary 100% pay cut.

Lucky for Paul, he’s a member of Local 1703 of the American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME). It says right there in Article 15, Section 3 of its labor agreement with the town that "seniority shall prevail in the event of layoffs, provided that the senior or remaining employees are qualified, capable of performing the jobs or work left without further training."

Now, you may be wondering how a bright administrator like Higgins could have forgotten about a little detail like union seniority. Rest assured, he didn’t. You see, as a regular DPW crew member, Paul enjoys mega-seniority. But, under Higgins’ unofficially imposed designation as the aforementioned "Transfer Station Attendant," Paul has become a department of one. Soon to be a department of none.

Unfortunately, Paul was unaware that Higgins had a special designation for him. He thought he was just another DPW guy with union protection. To Paul, the only difference between him and the rest of the DPW crew is that he works Tuesday through Saturday, rather than the more traditional Monday through Friday. He does that so the town doesn’t have to incur any overtime costs for running the transfer station on Saturdays.

The irony is, there’s no way the town is going to save $60,000 by "separating" Paul. Overtime costs for covering Paul’s Saturday shift will eat into any promised savings, and the revised plan to keep the place open on Wednesdays means a further expense and a loss of DPW productivity. At this point, Paul has notified his union and is waiting for a meeting between its regional representative and Higgins to take place. He’s hoping this can be resolved, but he’s also been advised to talk to a lawyer about filing an age discrimination lawsuit against the town. I can see the court docket now: Dirtball v. Town of Lincoln…

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