Maybe It Is the Journey

Growing up in the Sixties I often heard 'It's the journey, not the destination.' Admittedly, that was mostly when Dad got lost on the way to one place or another (in my case, as my family knows, the apple did not fall far from the tree). 

When it happened, Mom used to say we were taking the scenic route. They made quite a team and it was only much later I more fully appreciated that. But as for that particular turn of phrase, 'the scenic route,' I think this may be what everyone was supposed to be talking about. 

Makes you sort of sorry this has ended for today, right? At least sort of.
-bill kenny 

That Many Dollars Should Buy a Lot of Sense

I usually write about the goings-on, albeit somewhat obliquely, in the town where I live on Wednesdays because that's the day of the week the local newspaper, The Bulletin, publishes my rambling as a column within its pages. I/They have been doing that for over a decade (I admit it feels longer if you're been reading them). 

This past week was a busy one in court for folks formerly associated with our public utilities which is NOT a private corporation like Eversource or United Illuminating but rather, community-owned, the Norwich Public Utilities. 

Drew Rankin, James Sullivan, and John Bilda demonstrated the dangers when a public trust is treated like a private trough, and have been punished with prison terms and large amounts of public scorn. I'm not sure where justice ends and vengeance begins but the behavior they were accused of and for which they were found guilty puts the E in egregious and while for some there will never be enough punishment for others it's better a horrible ending than horrors without end.

All of that was going on while, as is true across our state, Norwich's City Council was struggling to finalize a municipal budget that, no matter its final shape, will make large portions of my neighbors unhappy because it will spend too much/too little (pick one or the other, or both in some cases) on matters closest to our hearts while allowing other line items to either be extravagantly funded or fiscally starved. 

Lots of potential for acrimony and animus, most of it short-lived (we have memories like goldfish it's always seemed to me at this time of year), fueled slightly by a report in The Bulletin, based on publicly available information that in 2022, with a total budget of $145.6 Million, city employees were paid $69.8 Million. 

More than one hundred municipal employees earned in excess of one hundred thousand dollars with the highest paid being a member of the police department, though, not the police chief, who received over two hundred and thirteen thousand dollars. Pretty impressive for what I think of as a small town where most of us know the rest of us, although it's a little less starry-eyed when described by the US Census Bureau. 

We're slightly less glamorous as viewed by these folks. 

In all honesty, I'm hard-pressed to figure out how we manage to afford the payroll we currently have, to say nothing about the pension obligations we are accruing by maintaining this level of compensation as deserved as I'm sure it is. 

The role of and compensation for public service positions is long overdue for a careful and thoughtful analysis and examination as we slowly reach the tipping point where all we're doing is turning over our wealth to the people who are working for us. This may be an ideal moment to start that conversation. Everyone deserves to earn a fair wage, no less and certainly no more.
-bill kenny     

Jesus, Take the Wheel

Or in this case, I'm guessing more like "Rex." 

Of course, if God is your co-pilot and you're a dyslexic, what else could we expect. Did I just hear someone say 'a dateline from somewhere in Florida'? Fair point. 

As is whatever happened to their follow-up album?
-bill kenny

I'm Union and I'm Proud

I was surprised to read the other day that the percentage of Americans represented by a labor union is a hir (or skosh) above 10%, at 10.1% as of 2022 which is when the Bureau of Labor Statistics last counted noses. 

I know, 'we had covid, and precautions from lockdowns and the impact of all of that on the economy' yadda, yadda, blah, blah. We also had, and continue to have unparalleled levels of greed at the personal and corporate wealth level and there's data to suggest a majority of us think declining membership in unions is BAD, not that we seem to be in a hurry to join ourselves.  

But both the total number of union members and overall interest in unions, well, some unions, may be about to get a decent-sized bump if not grind as well.

Proving again there are some things AI and teleworking just can't do. Yet.
-bill kenny

Vote (and Other Four Letter Words)

Do you remember those insurance commercials on TV where getting coverage was "so easy even a caveman can do it?" In the ensuing years, it's gotten even easier I guess which is why perhaps these days a cousin to a Salamander is now the company's spokes amphibian. 

I always think of that lizard and caveman when we get to talking about the city budget and municipal governance in general. There's an old saying, 'Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it,' and for many of us that captures our perspective perfectly. 

Admittedly I'm being too sensitive and perhaps I'm only half-listening to the points (not) being made, but the sense of the city I'm getting on social media and radio call-in shows is the people in charge don't have a clue about what "we" really "need" (= want). 

Oddly enough, it doesn't seem to matter who is in charge; it can be a different cast but the movie remains the same. And perhaps over-simplified, our thoughts and desires on the current, and/or ANY city budget approved by whatever configuration of the City Council we have can always be characterized as 'everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die."  

I bring all of this up, not because I'm offering to throw my hat into a political ring but because next Wednesday we're voting to fill a City Council vacancy we've had since January. Perhaps you've seen the lawn signs? Yep, next Wednesday's vote is what that's all about. 

Would I have liked to have seen/heard/read interviews and conversations with both of the candidates seeking to fill that vacancy and learn what they view as the challenges as well as opportunities Norwich is facing, or what they see as their priorities should they be elected next Wednesday?  Yeah, and ideally, so, too should you. But, as my mom used to say, 'If you don't ask, you don't get.' So I guess, we asked for lawn signs.

Except, the lawn signs I'm most concerned about are the For Sale signs, on houses, apartments, small businesses, you name it. And I confess to being frustrated that we spend so much time around here talking about the past and the good old days. I don't know why so many of us like to look back; that's not the direction we should be heading in. 

I could fib and tell you that I don't care for whom you vote, but that's not true. I'm very passionate in my support for one of the candidates but I don't want to poison your well with my unsolicited opinion but rather want to encourage you as strongly as I can to make sure if you are eligible to vote that you cast a ballot. 

A very wise man, Gene Nathan, once observed, "Bad officials are elected by good citizens who choose to not vote." I have a slightly abrasive attitude on all of that: if you don't vote, shut up. You had your chance. Next Wednesday you can make your voice heard or you can shrug your shoulders and say it doesn't matter. And if you do that, you'll be correct, but we'll be poorer for your inaction.

You cannot possibly have anything better to do than exercise your right to vote next Wednesday. Norwich, our home, is too important, for you to not find the time to be counted. As we've proven over and over around here, talk is cheap.
But good news! Voting is free and effective. 

Go to the polls next Wednesday and prove it.
-bill kenny

Here's to the Peck & Snyder No. 1

As the bald spot on my head inexorably grows larger (I used to refer to it as a solar panel designed to power my brain but folks quickly saw through the farce of that explanation), I've developed a fondness for wearing ballcaps.

Not necessarily baseball caps, but when I do wear one of those it's for the Yankees. In recent weeks I've been mostly wearing my VoteVets cap or a soft, nearly denim-blue colored cap that says "I'm old, but I'm like, cool old." 

I have a collection that's much larger than I first thought and which Sigrid, my wife, has brilliantly organized and includes caps from Backstreets magazine, HBO's The Newsroom, a Legalize Voting ballcap I like to wear around election time, one in support of James McMurtry even though he never comes anywhere near my house so I can see him live (HINT), one or more Beatles ballcaps, as well as one from FC Bayern Munich, and one from Rhein-Main Air Base (spellcheck sticks a dash in there though there isn't actually one supposed to be there).

This makes more sense once you read the article

A recurring favorite is a soft brown ballcap, exclusive of ornamentation as we used to say in the Air Force, from a company called Lift-down (that does have a dash, go figure) and it was that ball cap that led me to this collection of thoughts and words on ballcaps. 

And, not so coincidentally, that article is why I love the Internet. You wander down a rabbit hole and take one or more side excursions and the next time you look up from your screen it's three days later and all the plants in your living room have died because you didn't water them. But, damn! That ball cap looks sweet!
-bill kenny

Actually, It Swears

Across Connecticut, towns, and municipalities are practicing their ability to walk on eggs while holding their breath, knocking on wood, and keeping their fingers crossed (mine already are-you can tell by my typing). 

Despite the calendar which starts in January and ends in December, the fiscal year starts on 1 July--meanwhile, the Federal government starts its fiscal year on 1 October. You can't tell the budgets without a calendar.....get yer red hot calendars...

Cities and towns whose sole power to tax is restricted to property are busy measuring three (or more times) and cutting once all across the state as many, like Norwich, have requirements to have an approved budget for the next fiscal year by a date rapidly approaching in the upcoming month.

They should be nervous-a great deal of their budget depends on allocations from the state of Connecticut. And, let's face it, no matter the state and no matter the town, if the choice comes down to a program or position in the Capital or one someplace in the 'boondocks', guess who's going to win? Color me surprised only as long as we can afford crayons.

We go through this to varying degrees, every year. And every year we all get a case of the heebie-jeebies and vow to 'fix' this 'broken system' and then suffer amnesia when the crisis passes. As a matter of fact, since it's so familiar and recurs so often, I'm not sure if 'crisis' is even an appropriate word to describe it.

It's not must-see TV by any means, but for a few weeks, all of us Nutmeggers watch the evening news a bit closer, open our local daily newspapers to the "Capital Doings" section before we hit the sports page, but after the comics (there has to be a constant in the universe), and generally muddle through with a stoic smile as if we were under siege.

Better a horrible end, than horrors without end, I suppose, but this annual dance could end with very little effort if we could all sit together and work it out. After all, money talks. And some days you can't get a word in edgewise.
-bill kenny