Overview of April 7th Annual Town Meeting

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

The Town’s legislative branch, Town Meeting, will convene a week from Monday 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.

Reminder: The April 7th the meeting is not to vote on the Neary Building Project. (That dedicated Special Town Meeting is on Saturday, May 10th, 9:00 am at Algonquin Regional High School.) 

Logistics

The meeting is scheduled to open on Monday, April 7th at 6:30 pm, at Trottier Middle School. (If you haven’t registered to vote, the deadline for this meeting is this Friday, March 28th.)

As usual, extra handicap spaces will be setup near the front doors.

The Town will again invite families with children to participate through a busy room setup in the cafeteria. The A/V setup will allow parents to see and hear what’s happening in the main hall (the auditorium), plus make comments and vote.

There will be food and beverage sold by the Girl Scouts in the hallway. But food is not allowed in the auditorium.

Based on the last Town Meeting, it’s likely the caf will be reserved solely for families with kids (unless there is an overflow capacity issue). So other voters should plan to eat dinner before they come to Trottier.

There are 36 Articles, but many of those will be consolidated into a “Consent Agenda” vote.* I’m guessing only about 16 of the Articles will be individually discussed, and far fewer will be debated. And, hopefully, the remote clickers will work this time — allowing quicker counting for any close votes.

What Voters Will be Deciding

The Annual Town Meeting will include the Town’s annual spending and authorization articles (mainly focused on the upcoming fiscal year) and a couple of zoning amendments. There is also one non-binding Citizen’s Petition Article.

It’s hard to know which Articles will generate the most debate. But here are the topics that stand out to me as likely to at least raise the most questions. (I’ll try to provide more detail on each before the meeting.):

• Article 6 — Next year’s operating budgets and capital expenses are projected to result in a 7.5% increase to the average homeowner’s tax bill (slightly less than I initially wrote about yesterday). That includes other Articles in the Warrant, but it’s the increases for public safety budgets are especially expected to raise questions from voters. Read more about that here.
• Article 12 — Pay & Classification Study for Non-Union Employees. This is only $25K, but it is three years sooner than normally scheduled. The Personnel Board was unhappy with the work of a prior vendor in 2022. Under Article 12, the board proposes contracting a new study to identify appropriate salary ranges for Town employee positions on a sooner than usual time frame. There was some concern discussed that this could fix problems with some employees but cause new problems with others.
• Community Preservation Act Projects:
  • Article 26 — Town Common Fence Rails — This requests $121K from the CPA fund to restore and preserve the iron railings and granite fence posts around the area of the Town Common. 
  • Article 27 — Transfer to Affordable Housing Trust — This request is to move $532K from the CPA fund into the Town’s Affordable Housing Trust fund. Instead of requiring Town Meeting voters to approve a CPA project, the Trust’s board would be empowered to spend the money more quickly to support affordable housing projects. (There would still be legal restrictions around the board’s use of the CPA funds.)
• Zoning Revisions:¹
  • Articles 28 & 29 — ADU Zoning — The Planning Board is seeking to revise Town bylaws to remove conflicts with (and set local rules around) the state’s recently passed ADU law allowing some by-right permitting for Accessory Dwelling Units.
  • Article 30 — Shared Parking Zoning — This proposed amendment changes to the bylaws around businesses’ or mixed use projects’ required parking spaces. It would allow more flexibility for neighboring uses that have differing schedules for peak parking demand. 
• Article 37 — Citizen Petition asking to fund an Investigation — Carl Guyer’s Article will ask voters to approve spending up to $165K to hire independent counsel, if authorized by the Select Board. The purpose would be to investigate “the existence of any criminal, civil or unethical activity responsible for creation, purchase, delay or denial of the illegal dump on the Town of Southborough’s Breakneck Hill Conservation property”. Read more about that here. (If voters approve this Article, and the Select Board follows through, I’ve calculated that  would raise back up the FY26 tax impact of Town Meeting to an over 7.7% increase.)²

Below is the full list of Articles in the Warrant. (I used gray font for the Articles that seem likely to be included in the Consent Agenda.)³ I bolded the Articles that I’m guessing will be individually explained (even if briefly and undebated) prior to a vote.

1. Acceptance of Monies from Contributors*
2. Borrowing Authorization*
3. Authorize Select Board and Supt. of Schools/Three Year Contracts (allows them to sign contracts with terms up to 7 years)*
4. Amend the Personnel Salary Administration Plan (Updates to position grades, salary schedule and stipends)
5. Collective Bargaining Agreements
6. Fiscal Year 2026 Budget
7. Fiscal Year 2026 Water Budget
8. Annual Appropriation for OPEB Trust Fund
9. Rescind Unused but Authorized Debt for Breakneck Hill Farm cleanup
10. General Government Capital Items (non-borrowing) (Funding $400K for Road repairs, $55K to replace Trottier Middle School’s curtains & rigging and over $80K for a new police cruiser. Plus additional items to be funded for Facilities, Fire, the DPW and schools but paid using “Free Cash”⁴ or the Ambulance Fund.)
11. Schematic Design for Trottier Middle School Roof ($100K for a Feasibility Study and Schematic Design for the roof replacement)
12. Pay & Classification Study for Non-Union Employees ($25K)
13. Authorize Borrowing from MWRA Loan Program for Lynbrook Road water main replacement ($1.5M 0% interest loan)
14. General Government Capital Items (borrowing) ($4M for replacing a failing culvert and fixing problems related to sinkholes)
    
15. General Government Capital Items (New Leases) (Over $74K for 1st year of lease for DPW equipment to replace a Loader and Dump Truck)
16. General Government Capital Items (Existing Lease payments) (Over $120K for continuing annual payments on items previously approved to leased)
17. General Government Capital Items (Hiring Consultants) ($10K)*
18. Insurance Deductible Account ($10K)*
19. Payment to Retirees for Accrued Leave Time ($35K)*
20. Appraisal Services for Cyclical Inspections ($14K)*
21. Facilities Maintenance Fund ($100K)*
22. Recreation Facility Maintenance Fund ($25K)*
23. Annual Authorization of Revolving Fund Amounts*
24. Appropriation from CPA Funds – Administrative (Designating amounts in funding buckets)
25. Appropriation from CPA Funds – Adjustments
26. Appropriation from CPA Funds – Town Common Fence Rails
27. Appropriation from CPA Funds – Transfer to Affordable Housing Trust
28. Amend Town Code – Zoning – Accessory Dwelling Units
29. Amend Town Code – Zoning – Unprotected Accessory Dwelling Units
30. Amend Town Code – Zoning – Parking and Loading Regulations
31. Award Contract for Valuation Services in Excess of Three Years (This allows the Board of Assessors the ability to sign an up to 5 year contract for this specific purpose)*
32. Accept MGL for Assessor Certification Stipend
33. Allowance for Substitution Labor for Senior Tax Work-Off Program (Would allow senior residents who qualify to participate in the program to designate a volunteer to do the work on their behalf)
34. Accept MGL to Reauthorize Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) Fund (This is a recommended administrative action to adopt the state’s updated language around the fund that the Town already established years ago)*
35. Accept MGL for Treasurer-Collector Certification Stipend
36. Accept MGL for Investment of Trust Funds
37. Citizen’s Petition – Appropriation for Counsel for Breakneck Hill Farm cleanup

You can view the official Warrant here and look for details and more handouts to be posted to the Town’s dedicated website page here.

1. Even if approved by voters, the language would need to be vetted by the Attorney General’s office before changes can be put into effect. They rarely reject the Town’s Articles outright, but sometimes require changes to wording or strike sections deemed to be at odds with the state law/constitution.
2. The calculation is based on the Finance team’s figures shown in preliminary budget as estimating that every $1M added to the budget equals a projected 1.87% increase to the average residential tax bill.
3. *The “Consent Agenda” list of Articles is prepared by the Town Moderator to expedite the meeting. If the hall agrees, they are voted on as one bundle near the start of the Meeting. (He has yet to announce his recommended list for this year. Those that I have marked as likely are based on observing lists in past years.) Any single voter can call to pull any (or all) Articles from the Moderator’s list before the Consent Agenda vote. If that happens, those Articles are later presented and discussed in the order originally numbered in the Warrant.
4. Free Cash is “The amount of the Unreserved Fund Balance (Surplus Revenue) account over and above uncollected taxes of prior years”