Once again I want to thank the Patriot for the opportunity to communicate with you in this way.

During my last campaign I made a commitment to the residents of my precinct to hold precinct meetings. The first such meeting will be held at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept 7th at the Centerville Osterville Marstons Mills Fire Station. (see my website www.janetjoakim.org for more details)

In future meetings if there is an interest, I will ask others to come speak to specific areas of concern.

This first meeting will be simply for me to listen to the residents of precinct 6 and answer questions.

There have been many important issues facing the council recently. The most exciting is the consolidation of the school and municipal finance department. This has been a goal of many councilors for years. During each of my campaigns, I heard from so many residents that they were not happy with the school system’s financial accountability.

During my first campaign, that concern included the municipal finances. Our town manager and his staff worked diligently to address the issue of communicating about our finances and many people have noted that improvement.

Our town finance department has won national awards for its budget presentations for the past few years. We will now be combining that department with the school department’s business office. This will help streamline the budget and reporting process. The efforts will include getting each individual school and each school department on the same accounting system as the municipal departments. The new combined finance department will be headed by our town finance director, Mark Milne.

This is a major undertaking and all committed school and municipal staff members need to be credited for their efforts. The school committee and town councilors are also to be recognized for the level of trust needed to make this kind of commitment.

We will be adopting a MOU or memorandum of understanding at our next council meeting. The school committee has already made their commitment. This is so exciting, and I truly believe that Barnstable will once again be a model for other schools and towns.

Another issue facing us recently is that of the Hyannis downtown revitalization package.

This is a complex issue, parts of which we will address at our next meeting. I bring it up in this column because during the past few months I have been surprised at the way information can be misconstrued and misrepresented, even simply by taking it out of context.

I have a wonderful Norman Rockwell print hanging next to the telephone in my kitchen called "The Gossips." It is an illustration of a series of people whispering to each other or talking on the phone. Norman would have had fun with the way the story of proposed eminent domain area was passed along from one person to another. The issue was a small piece of the proposal, but it took on a life of its own. By the time we, as a council, decided to pull it out of the proposal, the rumors had the town spinning out of control and taking properties away from owners with little or no reason. So much of this was exaggerated and blown out of proportion that the real purpose of this revitalization package was lost.

The package is designed to make zoning changes and create a support system to help our Hyannis merchants, not drive them out. Most of the people who contacted me, angry about this package, had not even read it themselves. I encourage people to take a look at the efforts we are making by accessing our agendas before each meeting. They are available online or can be picked up at town hall the week of the scheduled meeting. Please feel free to ask your councilor any questions or to address concerns. Come to us, or to the town manager’s office, to get the facts.

There are so many issues I would like to address, but will close with the issue of the chapter 70 school funding distribution formula.

Last month a committee of our state senators, including Senator Therese Murray chair of The Senate Ways and Means Committee and Senator Rob O’Leary who both represent Barnstable, produced a bill designed to change the formula. This proposal is based on new revenues and would increase funding to Barnstable. (see details www.capeforkids.org) This was passed easily in the Senate and is now in the hands of the House of Representatives. The house will be reviewing this bill and receiving a similar report from its own committee in the fall.

These are further steps in the long journey to change an inequitable formula that has left our town and other Cape communities without the adequate funding needed to operate our schools. The bill filed this past spring by Representative Demetrius Atsalis (this can be found on www.capeforkids.org) has received a lot of attention in the house and has shed light on this issue.

The Equity in 70 committee will resume lobbying in the coming weeks and will focus on key decision makers in the House of Representatives. I have a lot of faith that we will see a change in the next couple of years, and believe we owe a lot of credit to our legislators, they have worked hard to hammer home the needs of our schools..

Unfortunalty the Governor and his administration are not convinced that we need additional funding. He made clear when he visited Barnstable High School in April.

The Governor told the audience that he was not convinced Barnstable could not find the money we need in the value of our real estate property. Of course to do this, we would need to continueally override proposition 2 ½.

IF we get the support of the House of Representatives, then we will be able to accomplish these changes regardless of the current state administration.

This issue will most likely be put on a fast track this fall, when the supreme court gives its final decision regarding the Hancock case. It is expected that the court will require the state to contribute more funding overall to its schools. The commonwealth of Massachusetts has the dubious distinction of being one of the states who give the least amount of funding to their schools. It is time for that to change.

Finally, I want to encourage residents of this town to get involved with your local government. There are many boards and committees who are, or will be, looking for applicants and we need your time and talents.

I enjoy being your town councilor and thank you for the opportunity to serve. Please contact me with any questions or concerns. My email is janetjoakim@aol.com.. Or call me and leave a message on my voicemail -- 508-420-2153 mailbox 2