November 20, 2019 - Special Town Meeting / article 7

How did we get there and why was the change needed?

Begin 2013, two things happened: Advisory Committee created and presented town budget to Town Meeting and a by-law was amended, by town meeting vote. Existing Article III of the by-laws had a section 4 added to create the position of Town Administrator (abolish town coordinator) The budget created by Advisory had multiple errors in it that caused it to basically be off by around $500 thousand dollars. This was later dealt with in 2014 at annual town meeting. Also that town meeting, another by-law change was proposed, warrant article #20: change to the Town budget process. The Advisory recommendation stated in part, "Advisory fully supports a change to the budget process."

There was a substitute motion to to amend by-law article III, section 4, to read: 4. “It shall be duty of the Town Administrator in conjunction with the BOS to consider expenditures and develop a budget for the ensuing fiscal year of the several boards, officers and committees of the town, as prepared by them in such form and detail as prescribed by the Town Administrator.”

That is where some questions came to be; first, did Town Meeting really mean to replace the already in place section 4 with the above, or did the meeting mean to add the above to the existing section 4 or was the intent to create a section 4a? That question sent to town lawyer at the time at the request of the Advisory Committee and the answer in a nut shell was, it should go back to Town Meeting for clarification. Long story short, the board of selectmen in place at the time did not think it was needed and another legal opinion was asked for, by the Town Administrator, which stated the existing by-law section 4 not only gave the budget creation to the T/A and selectmen, but also the right to present it to Town Meeting.

That view has been a point of contention since then and much time, energy, and effort put in to debating it and taking time away from really important things, such as the budget. The other part of the equation is a state law, MGL chapter 39, section 16, which in part, states unless there is a by-law giving the authority to the selectmen to present the budget, that right belongs to Advisory Committee, even as Advisory has not presented the budget to Town Meeting since 2013. The committee, and some other town folk thought it belonged to them, while the T/A, selectmen and others felt it belonged to them, especially since the selectmen / T/A have been doing it for a number of years.

Well, along comes Jeff Bennett, who gets elected to BOS: I brought this up and pushed for the change or addition of wording, so as to once and for all, have it in writing, on paper, who does what, and it needed to go before the people for a vote. Hopefully, from here on out, there will be no more time wasted on debating who does what when it comes to the budget. The article (7) voted in, does not and cannot take away any rights, duties or obligations concerning Advisory Committee. They are still mandated by law to review all articles and make recommendations to Town Meeting and those can be as minimal or as detailed as they wish. They are still required to report to the Town, via the annual town report, what they did during the year. Advisory still has oversight of the town reserve fund (outside of town meeting) the committee still has a say in end of year financial transfers, outside of any town meeting, I have served on the board of selectmen previously, I served on Advisory from August 2015 until May, 2019 and now back on board of selectmen. I think that gives me a good perspective why the change was good for the town and was needed and it was recommended 5 to 1, with one member absent.

A pretty long post on what many may think is boring, but I thought an explanation was needed as there seemed to be some concern at the meeting, I hope this puts those concerns to rest