Tempers Flare Over Town-Wide Financial Plan Prep

An innocuous discussion of the town-wide financial plan turned testy at a Feb. 7 meeting of the Board of Selectmen.

The selectmen could not come to terms on the process by which Wellesley will prepare and present the final version of the 2011 town-wide financial plan, which will outline the town’s finances for the next five fiscal years.

According to a town bylaw, the Board of Selectmen is charged with the task of coordinating information from various boards, compiling and presenting the town-wide financial plan at Town Meeting and publishing a report with the advisory committee.

Hans Larsen, Wellesley’s executive director of general government, provided two hypothetical scenarios for the selectmen to consider: one which would involve no Proposition 2 ½ overrides thus limiting the town tax levy to the 2.5 percent annual increase each year, and another which would involve gathering information from each of the town’s boards and would be likely to include overrides. The scenarios represented the two extremes of the town-wide financial plan, which must pass through a series of unofficial checkpoints before it is ultimately presented to Annual Town Meeting March 28.

“The choice for the selectmen is where would you like to put a stake in the ground to orient the discussion going forward,” Larsen said. “You can put that stake in the ground somewhere between the two extremes of the spectrum.”

Selectman Owen Dugan sparked the debate when he referred to recent feedback from each board as their own “wish lists,” which Chair Katherine “Gig” Babson said was off the mark.

“I wouldn’t ever call it their wish list,” Babson said. “It’s what they project over the next five years.”

Selectwoman Terri Tsagaris raised the temperature by saying her concern was that a more public sharing of information is necessary before the Board of Selectmen can realistically present a plan by town meeting.

“[Boards] need to know what the assumptions are,” Tsagaris said. “They need to know what priorities we’ve determined be set for these various departments. In essence, I feel like we are putting our judgment above theirs.”

Babson wanted to hear more. 

“How do you do it? What’s the process?” she said. “How do you get to where you put a stake in the ground, and when do you do it?”

Tsagaris answered: “We’ve engaged the departments, and we continue to engage the departments…but I think by saying, ‘Here’s our plan. Thank you for your input, and now we’ve taken your input and decided you get x, y, z.’ I have an issue with that. How can they buy into something they haven’t participated in?”

Selectwoman Barbara Searle said it’s up to the Board of Selectmen to make the final decisions when it comes to determining the budget for each department.

“At some point you have to say, ‘OK, we’re going to make this assumption,’” she said. 

Tsagaris maintained her position that there would not be enough time between now and the town meeting in March, causing Searle to ask Tsagaris what she thought would be a realistic time frame.

“I couldn’t tell you that, but I’d have to say August,” Tsagaris sharply answered.

“Well, August doesn’t work,” Searle snapped back. “We have to present a town-wide financial plan under town bylaws.”

Larsen advised the board that the “feedback” model only works to a certain extent and that, at some point, it would have to make uncomfortable decisions regarding the budgeting of certain town departments. 

“I’ve never seen a successful organization take the sum of everything that people ask for, add it up and call it their plan,” he said. “I’ve never seen it work. Doesn’t work in municipal government, doesn’t work in the private sector.”

Seeking to end the discussion, Babson made a motion for the selectmen to have a plan ready for the advisory committee by Feb. 16. Searle seconded the motion, but when it came to a vote, Dugan, Searle and Babson were in favor, and Selectmen Ellen Gibbs and Tsagaris were not. Babson suggested Tsagaris and Gibbs create an alternate plan to be presented by Feb. 14 to the Board of Selectmen.

“We need something on which to move forward,” Babson said.