Several dozen attendees passed eight articles in less than 30 minutes at Tuesday’s June 13 Special Town Meeting.
The voting cards were lime green, the air in the Bromfield School’s Cronin Auditorium was stifling, and the 79 voters who checked in seemed disinclined to debate any of the measures placed before them. All but two were approved by unanimous vote, and only one provoked a request for further information. Many had expected that a report by the School Building Committee on its decision to recommend the building of a new elementary school would dominate the proceedings, but when Eubank asked for questions and comments following a 10-minute presentation, none were forthcoming. (For details on the vote, see “School Building Committee opts for new construction.”)
Janet Vellante’s retirement was short lived. (Photo by Lisa Aciucewicz)
The only article to draw a request for more information was the first, which asked that $6,400 be transferred from fiscal 2016 free cash to the town’s Stabilization Fund to bring its balance to the required 5 percent of this year’s operating budget. Paul Green of Old Littleton Road wanted to know why the free cash number of $1.67 million was so large. “It sounds as though we underspent our budget,” he said. Finance Director David Nalchajian said there had been a number of “turnbacks”—unspent sums—when the books were closed on June 30, 2016. These included unspent amounts in departmental budgets, a large unspent amount in the fiscal 2016 Reserve Fund, a health bill paid in the wrong fiscal year, and local receipts that were “substantially higher than expected.”
For a summary of results, see below. Eubank called the meeting to order promptly at 7 p.m. “I’ll be the one melting up here,” he told the audience, acknowledging the warmth in the auditorium. The meeting was the first he had ever moderated, he quipped, in which town committee members outnumbered attendees (a slight exaggeration). He thanked interim Town Clerk Janet Vellante for returning from retirement to manage meeting preparations and to keep the minutes, calling her “the pinchhitter of the year.” (See “Town begins search for new town clerk.”) As he adjourned the meeting at 7:30 p.m., Eubank thanked attendees for their participation. “This is the hard core, the people who really show up,” he said.
The votes of June 13, 2017, Special Town Meeting
Following is a summary of the nine articles considered by this week’s Special Town Meeting and the vote on each.
Article 1: Use free cash to top off the Stabilization Fund. Passed by unanimous vote.
Article 2: Use free cash to add money to the fiscal 2017 Reserve Fund to cover higher than expected snow and ice expenses. Passed by unanimous vote.
Article 3: Use free cash to pay for the reporting of other public employee benefits (OPEB) required in fiscal 2017 by two new Government Accounting Standards Board rules. Passed by unanimous vote.
Article 4: Transfer remaining $1.4 million of fiscal 2016 free cash to the Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund. Passed by unanimous vote.
Article 5: Amend the fiscal 2018 budget approved at 2017 Annual Town Meeting to add dollars to four line items. Passed by unanimous vote.
Article 6: Change source of money for the restoration of town fire ponds over the next two years from a borrowing of $100,000 to a transfer from the Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund. Passed by unanimous vote.
Article 7: Amend capital planning and investment bylaw to allow free cash to be transferred to the Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund by a majority vote of Town Meeting rather than the present two-thirds vote. Passed by majority vote (a smattering of nay votes).
Article 8: Passed over at the request of the Planning Board. Request approved by unanimous vote.
Article 9: Hear a report from the School Building Committee on its decision to recommend that a new school be built to replace the Hildreth Elementary School. Passed by majority vote (a smattering of nay votes).
— John Osborn
