Though we have crossed swords at meetings and in the public prints, I had never spoken directly to Larry Fitzmorris before this evening, at the Portsmouth school Finance Subcommittee meeting, where they were reviewing the draft budget for the next school year. I will talk about the budget numbers, but also about Larry, because I hope it's germane.

In game theory, there is a classic example of non-zero-sum games (where payoffs can be shared) called the Prisoner's Dilemma. In brief: two crooks are caught and held in separate cells. If neither confesses (that is, if they cooperate with each other, even though they cannot communicate) they both go free. If one confesses and rolls on the other, they get a short sentence and the other goes up for 10 years. If both confess (that is, if they "defect" and rat out the other) they both get 5 years. You have to anticipate what the other will do and play accordingly.

In single-turn games, you always defect; pure CYA. However, if you're playing the game for a series of turns — called an "iterated" Prisoner's Dilemma — the optimum strategy is generally held to be "benevolent tit-for-tat." Start out being nice, but don't allow yourself to be taken advantage of. If the other player keeps defecting, you retaliate. But if they cooperate, you do the same, and hopefully trust will grow.

When the PCC attorney attacked SOS supporters on Monday, I came out swinging. Tonight, Larry Fitzmorris was more polite to me, personally, and to the school committee than I had any right to expect. He was tough but balanced in his questioning of the committee's numbers, and he actually extended an olive branch. Talking about the insane and unpredictable payments into the state retirement system, he said, "We have common ground here. This needs to be squared away. If the General Assembly says we owe them another 300K, we're all in real trouble."

I agree with Larry. There is common ground to be had here. Sure, we would all like lower taxes, and if instead of just cutting the levy, we could work together to apply political pressure that goosed the state funding formula, and prompted accurate payments for group home beds, we could have a win-win.

Did Larry (and his associates, Forrest Golden and Paul Kesson) pick at the numbers? Absolutely. As one would expect them to, given their constituency. But they were polite. Assertive, sure, openly hostile, no.

The numbers themselves are tough, but not hopeless. The bottom line in the draft budget (which is still pending negotiations with principals, admins, and maintenance workers, is $33,739,228, which puts it about 300K over the 5.25 Paiva Weed cap. On the revenue side, there is about $33,068,770 projected to be available. I'm not an accountant, but it seems like the cutting required by law to get under the cap is going to be an exercise that might get the budget within striking distance of the revenue side. As we heard accountants testify at trial, finding 1% should be possible, this early in the game. It's going to be tough, yes, but we knew that going in.

While I am cautiously cooperating in this round, please do not think that any slack offered to Larry extends to Jamie Heaney. With the lift tickets from his recent ski vacation dangling from his jacket, he questioned Superintendent Lusi about anticipated Little Compton tuitions.

"How is that paid," he asked.

"We bill quarterly," Lusi explained, then noted that this year, however, we had only just sent out the bill, a point discussed at the Caruolo trial.

"Why are we behind?" said Jamie, earning him the HeaneyWatch™ for the evening.

Uh, Jamie. Maybe they don't have the Sakonnet Times in Aspen, but there's this little problem of the part time finance director? It might have been mentioned at a meeting or two? I have reasons for this defection which are specific, and Jamie knows what they are. No reason to extend this strategy to the larger game.

How long will glasnost last? Let's see. Monday night, the Town Council is going to take up a petition to put before the citizens of Portsmouth a proposal to convert the Tent Meeting to all-day voting. This can be an ugly battle, or a civilized coming together to get to an answer that everyone feels good about.

Your move, Larry.