Citizens of Lawrence, Haverhill and Methuen on Tuesday elected their mayors, the people most responsible for running their communities.
In Andover, residents don't directly pick the town's most powerful office holders, the town manager and superintendent of schools. They elect only the selectmen and School Committee volunteers who, in turn, actually decide who will lead the $130 million town and its $60 million education system. Evaluating and selecting the town manager is the most important thing selectmen do. Evaluating and selecting the superintendent is the top job of the School Committee.
Each group, therefore, is in the midst of an important year. Decisions they make will have great effect on each resident, each schoolchild for years.
On the school side, Superintendent Claudia Bach has resigned and could leave the helm before the end of this school year if she finds another position that suits her. The next superintendent and this School Committee are in a rare position to make significant positive change in Andover because there is so much energetic new blood and opportunity in the Andover schools. Since January 2008, seven of Andover's 10 schools have welcomed new principals. The town is looking at building a new school, which will replace Bancroft Elementary and could also accommodate some of the students at antiquated Shawsheen School, a magnet K-2 school. The right superintendent armed with the right plan will create positive new directions in concert with the new leadership team hired by Bach.
On the town side, Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski has said he would like to enter a third decade as the town's leader. Over the years, Stapczynski has amassed a pile of positive joint reviews from selectmen - when they have chosen to evaluate him - but one area where he has struggled has been in his ability to negotiate timely and reasonable union contracts. Stapczynski needs to show, and selectmen need to determine, that he can do so, especially given the economic times. Employee salaries and benefits make up the bulk of the Andover's budget. As a positive sign, several town unions this year have made significant concessions including a recent agreement by a plant and facilities workers union, AFSCME, which agreed to take eight days of furlough to prevent layoffs. Andover needs such strong leadership to keep its financial ship from running aground.
Inoculate against defensive medicine
Amidst the angry debate on health reform in Washington, there appears to be an increasing determination on all sides to address the malpractice maelstrom that has contributed so significantly to the cost of treatment, driven good doctors out of the system, and discouraged some from seeking careers in medicine.
The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that medical costs could be reduced by $54 billion over 10 years by placing reasonable limits on the filing of malpractice suits and the amount of damages that can be awarded.
Such limits have long been advocated by health providers, but President Obama hinted he also favors reform during his recent address to Congress on health care.
For too long this field has been a gold mine for ambitious litigators. We've all seen their TV ads. Not only have these costly suits increased the amount doctors must pay to insure themselves against malpractice claims, they also encourage the practice of "defensive medicine" - the authorization of expensive, but unnecessary, tests in an attempt to demonstrate everything possible has been done to make him or her better.
These costs are ultimately reflected in the insurance premiums we pay - as well as what the government pays to cover care for the elderly and poor.
Reform will not work without a serious effort to reduce costs. Recent moves to replace lawsuits with arbitration and limit malpractice awards, are a step in the right direction.
