Annual Town Meeting: Saturday, March 23 (Updated)

Above: The Town’s legislature, comprised of any registered Southborough voters who show up, will act in two weeks. (image from SAM 2019 video)

The Town’s legislative branch, Town Meeting, will convene two weeks from tomorrow to approve spending, possibly increase budgets, amend local bylaws, and “advise” officials.

I’ll be digging into some of the Warrant Articles leading up to Annual Town Meeting. For now, I’m providing a general overview, including the hot topics on the Warrant most likely to spark debate.

The meeting is scheduled to open on Saturday, March 23rd at 10:00 am, at Trottier Middle School.

[Editor’s Note: That’s an hour before Kindergroup’s annual Easter Egg Hunt for the community opens down the hill at Neary School. Officials are openly hoping that Kindergroup reconsiders moving it (or that rain forces the event to be pushed to the following weekend.)]

This year, there won’t be a recess for a lunch break. However, there will be food sold by the Girl Scouts in the cafeteria, where monitors will stream the meeting. (To vote or comment, voters will have to return to the main hall in the auditorium.)

The official Warrant for the Meeting was just posted this morning to a page on the Town website this morning. That is also where handouts and other materials will be posted between now and the event.

It’s worth noting that the numbering of many Articles has changed multiple times since prior public discussions. Scroll down for the full list.

There are 47 Articles, but the many of those will be consolidated into a “Consent Agenda” vote.*

It’s hard to know which Articles will generate the most discussion/debate, but here are the topics that stand out to me on this year’s Warrant. (I’ll be shooting to provide more detail on each before the meeting.):

• Next year’s operating budget and capital expenses that are projected to result in a 3.99% increase to the average homeowner’s tax bill.
  • That projection is only based on an increased gap between costs and projected revenues. It assumes there won’t be another significant real estate value shift, like we’ve seen in the past few years, that increases the burden on residential property owners.
• Adding to the budget by hiring additional dispatchers to beef up the Public Safety communications system. (If approved along with other budgets and spending articles, that would up the projected tax increase to 4.81%.) The Select Board made the unusual decision to move two Citizen’s Petitions on the request into the Board’s section of the Warrant, immediately following the Budget Article. The intent is to include it as part of the budget discussion and potentially have more voters weigh in than may still be in attendance by the end of the meeting.
• This will also be followed by another petition Article co-sponsored by Phaneuf and John Butler, reiterating the vote last year that the Select Board shouldn’t enter a legal agreement to join a Regional Dispatch “without first presenting the principal terms” to Town Meeting voters. This time they also adding a condition of research they want the Town to do on the feasibility of creating a “virtual dispatch” system to back up dispatch staff in Southborough’s Public Safety Building.
• The Library Trustees are taking the next step in exploring a potential state grant for a project to expand the Library. As part of that they would also be required to look at alternate locations for a new building. To get state support, Town Meeting would need to agree to fund up to $150K for “assessment, planning, feasibility, and/or design”.
• Recreation is seeking to use money leftover from a previous Feasibility Study to apply to construction of a dog park at Lundblad Field.
• School stabilization funds: Each of the three school committees are seeking to form stabilization funds to avoid spikes in year over year funding of specific expenses.
  • The Southborough School Committee is seeking to smooth out impacts of the unpredictable fluctuations in Special Education expenses.
  • Both the Northborough-Southborough Regional School Committee and the Assabet Valley Regional Vocational Technical School Committee are looking for a fund to help cover capital maintenance and improvements.
• Three articles will request funding by Community Preservation Act funds to help pay for restoration and digitization of “Historic Town Records”, the second phase of the Peninsula Trail Extension, and the an improved irrigation system for the Southborough Golf Club course.
• Two Articles are aimed at replacing the Public Works Planning Board with a new Public Works Advisory Committee (with a different composition, appointment process, and charge) and to change how the Tree Warden positions is handled. (This would require approval by the state legislature to amend a prior act.)***
• Amending the zoning laws to define special permits as only good for one year without a new hearing, and with restricted potential extension for one year.
• Three Citizen Petition Articles (with differing details) seek to commit the Town not to sell 21 Highland Street for periods of time ranging 4-10 years.
• Another Petition Article seeks to change the voting threshold for a CPA “project, asset, or service on private land, or for private benefit” from a simple majority to 2/3 vote. According to Town Counsel, the Attorney General’s office confirmed that this would conflict with state law. Petitioner Joe Palmer still intends to move forward with it, to at the very least advise officials on Town Meeting’s opinion and “set a precedent”.

Articles that were pulled from earlier versions of the Warrant include the MBTA Communities Zoning overlay districts and pursuit of using a parcel on Atwood Street for an affordable housing project.

Below is the full list of Articles. (I italicized the Articles that are annual, standard authorizations that are usually included in the Consent Agenda.)*

I. Acceptance of Monies from Contributors
2. Borrowing Authorization
3. Authorize Select Board and Supt. of Schools/Three Year Contracts
4. Amend the Personnel Salary Administration Plan
5. Fiscal Year 2025 Budget
6. Citizen Petition – Appropriate funds for additional Police Dispatchers
7. Citizen Petition – Appropriate funds for additional Police Dispatcher benefits
8. Citizen Petition – Regional Dispatch
9. Fiscal Year 2025 Water Budget
10. Transfer from Water Retained Earnings for FY2024 Water Enterprise Fund Budget
11. General Government Capital Items (non-borrowing) [$273K for Road repairs plus over $71K for a mower attachment and defibrillators to be covered by taxes. In addition, $150K for police cruisers to be covered by the Ambulance or other non-tax funds.]
12. Appropriation for Engineering and Design for Library Construction Grant [$150K]
13. General Government Capital Items (borrowing) [$2.2M] for a Fire Truck, Ambulance, Trash Trailer, and sidewalk plowing tractor]
14. General Government Capital Items (Leases) [$121K for continuing lease payments on DPW and public safety vehicles]
15. Authorize funds from 9-11 Field Maintenance Revolving Fund for bond payments [Explanation provided: “The loan term was shorter than anticipated and this will allow the Town to have this paid by the 9-11 Fund as intended.”]
16. General Government Capital Items (Hiring Consultants) [$30K]
17. Annual Appropriation for OPEB Trust Fund [$250K]
18. Insurance Deductible Account [$10K]
19. Reauthorize Lundblad Field Engineering Funds for Construction of Dog Park [$46K]
20. Facilities Maintenance Fund [$150K]
21. Recreation Facility Maintenance Fund [$25K]
22. Annual Authorization of Revolving Fund Amounts
23. Accept MGL for Use of Southborough School District Rental Funds
24. Establish Southborough School District Special Education Stabilization Fund
25. Lease and Power Purchase Agreement for Trottier School
26. Establish Regional School Capital Stabilization Fund
27. Appropriation from CPA Funds – Administrative [Note: The format has changed this year to include the annual debt service payments that were obligated by prior Town Meeting votes, rather then separating those out as individual Articles.]
28. Appropriation from CPA Funds – FY2024 State Match Adjustment
29. Appropriation from CPA Funds – Restoration of Historic Town Records
30. Appropriation from CPA Funds – Peninsula Trail Extension
31. Appropriation from CPA Funds – Southborough Golf Club Irrigation System
32. Appropriation from Free Cash for Substance Abuse Abatement Activities
33. Authorize Select Board to Petition Legislature to Amend Special Acts of 1991
34. Amend Town Code – Public Works Advisory Committee
35. Amend Town Code – Capital Improvement & Planning Committee (reducing membership from 5 to 7)
36. Amend Town Code – Zoning – Downtown District
37. Amend Town Code – Zoning – Expiration of Special Permits
38. Amend Town Code – Virtual meetings on Election Day
39. Accept MGL for Town Clerk Certification Stipend
40. Amend Town Code – Minutes
41. Authorize Select Board to Petition Legislature – Pension Obligation Bonds
42. Appropriation for Tricentennial Committee ($30K)
43. Establish Stabilization Fund for Assabet Valley Regional Vocational Technical School
44. Citizen’s Petition – Prohibit sale of 21 Highland St. Property until 1/1/2028
45. Citizen’s Petition – Prohibit sale of 21 Highland St. Property until 2033
46. Citizen’s Petition – Prohibit sale of 21 Highland St. Property until 1/1/2030
47. Citizen’s Petition – 2/3 Vote Threshold for Non-Municipal CPC Projects

*The “Consent Agenda” list of Articles to be voted in as one bundle is proposed by the Moderator (who may choose a slightly different list than the one the Select Board supported). Any single voter can call to hold any or all Articles to be presented and discussed. That list hasn’t yet been determined.

**One caveat — Even if approved by voters, some of the Articles (especially zoning changes) need to be vetted by the Attorney General’s office before they can be put into effect. They rarely reject the Articles outright, but sometimes require changes to wording or strike sections deemed to be at odds with the state law/constitution.

Updated (3/8/24 2:05 pm): While the headline had the correct date, I initially had it wrong in the text of the story.

***Updated (3/8/24 4:19 pm): I fixed the incorrectly listed Articles 32-34. (I was missing one and accidentally included one from last year that isn’t on the Warrant.) I also revised the section on the Public Works Planning Board articles based on feedback from the Article’s Author (Tim Litt). He explained that the Special Act of 1991 needs to be amended, not repealed. And he clarified the Tree Warden wouldn’t necessarily be an employee:

It would re-establish “the office of tree warden”, and make the tree warden a select board appointment.  The article is silent on whether it is to be filled by an employee, or by other means.  (Including but not limited to a contract with a vendor, a shared resource with other municipalities, …)  How it is filled may change over time.  The initial choice is under discussion.

Updated (3/11/24 8:55 am): My original excerpt describing the post accidentally included a reference from last year’s post about intro-to-Town Meeting sessions that were promoted. Those aren’t planned for this year. (Or, at least, I haven’t heard of any yet.)