Darbi/Davis Square Task Force

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

In all honesty I'm not very up to date with the local politics, but I have been trying to become more informed and more active. Can someone give me an impartial background about what this person is talking about? What DSTF and Darbi do exactly?

http://somervillenews.typepad.com/the_somerville_news/2008/09/letter-davis-sq.html

Comments

It's the somerville news...

[bd2k.livejournal.com]

nothing to see here, move along.

In all seriousness, I'm not familiar with the committee they're referring to, but Rebekah Gewirtz definitely seems like a straight shooter. I have a hard time imagining there's anything real to this...

[ron_newman]

I'll probably have more to say later, but for now click on the dstf tag to see what the Davis Square Task Force is all about. (My apologies for having gone to recent meetings without posting notes afterwards.)

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

I'll defer to Ron, who actually goes, but you should always be politely skeptical of the claims of a community activist about a politician (and vice versa) unless they involve felonies or are backed up by hard evidence. There's nothing nastier than local politics.

[ron_newman]

I like Jim Campano, but I think he's over-the-top with this letter.

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

That is why I'm just trying to get an impartial explanation of what Darbi and the Taskforce actually do. What powers do they hold, do they both report to the Mayor. Do they only make zoning decisions for local businesses? Does the Mayor have veto? That kind of stuff, I take any angry letter with a grain of salt. However I do find that people 9(me included) sometimes forget that DS is just part of Somerville.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

According to this:

http://bershad.com/gb/davis-square/DavisSq_moreinfo.html

It's a citizen's advisory committee. Basically a moderated forum for people to let their voices be heard.

[ron_newman]

DSTF has no formal power (or membership, or officers). It meets every couple of months to talk about issues important to the neighborhood. Often those issues have to do with proposed development, whether city-sponsored or private. If a developer wants to build in or around Davis Square, the city strongly encourages the developer to bring his/her proposal before DSTF before filing formal plans.

[laryu.livejournal.com]

Although Jim's letter is strongly worded, he raises a good point. I was active in community meetings for several Boston neighoborhoods before moving here and I can say that it is highly unusual for an elected city representative to chair meetings. From a governance perspective, that runs counter to the mission of a neighborhood group.

Rebekah is a fairly effective facilitator and the meetings are pretty open. Still, her policy biases do become evident in the meeting agendas. For example, at one meeting she warmly received a presentation for a "visioning" process for the neighborhood. Long story but suffice to say it got a lukewarm reception. Yet, next meeting, a large block of time was set aside for the visioning presenter to continue exploring and brainstorming with the group, with flip charts. While some in the group were interested, most it seemed to me were not. IMHO, that should not have returned to the agenda but Rebekah seemed to champion it. I've perceived several other instances where the agenda and the dialog are influenced by her personal policy biases or by the city agenda.

The DSTF would be better served to have a citizen chair. With that said, the chair should have the skills to facilitate. The first or most vocal volunteers for the job may not be right ones.

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

I think this was part of my confusion, that an elected person seemed to be running it. I'm not saying that is good or bad, just why I thought they had some sort of "official deciding" power.

[ron_newman]

Jim's issue (a legitimate one, though overstated) is that the date of a meeting was changed unilaterally by the city or by Gewirtz, without consultation from citizen attendees of the meetings.

[laryu.livejournal.com]

Ah, I didn't realize the circumstances behind the scheduling change, but it makes sense that it would add fuel to the fire. It only adds to the impression that DSTF is a city government-run group and that the scheduling and agenda are at the whim of Rebekah.

[brianbeck.livejournal.com]

http://www.darbi.org

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

It sounds like the group needs to decide if they are a 'civilian' organization made up of neighbors, or an arm of the city administration. Also, they should perhaps create goals and perhaps a long-term plan (if they hadn't already).
Actually, what's happening now is a good example of why the group should have some form of by-laws, and perhaps an elected board. That way the group could decide, for instance, how, why, and with how much notice, a meeting date could be changed, or an item added to the agenda. I think that if this problem festers it could splinter the group into 2 factions (and therefore 2 separate groups), or it will simply become 'Rebeccah's Task Force' rather than 'Davis Square Task Force'.

[ron_newman]

Except that this is something DSTF has always quite consciously not wanted to be -- a formal organization with officers and members and votes. Being a somewhat awkward hybrid of 'citizen organization' and 'arm of the city government' has served it fairly well for many years.