Marblehead Finance Committee and Select Board members have voted to favorably recommend that Town Meeting send a nearly $2.5 million general override to a town-wide vote.
The FinCom followed the Select Board in voting to recommend the override during the annual warrant hearing on April 10. Residents get their first say at Town Meeting beginning May 1. If the override passes by a two-thirds vote there, it goes to a town-wide vote in June.
The override request targets the projected structural deficit stemming from the town’s past reliance on free cash to balance its annual budget.
As a general override of Prop. 2 1/2, the new taxes would become a permanent part of the town’s revenue base, helping the town avoid similar shortfalls in future years.
Meanwhile, the proposed $112.5 million FY2024 budget also received a favorable recommendation. Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer said the spending plan reflected a requirement that the town “deliver a balanced budget with no override considered.”
“We have to do that based on the revenues that we have available,” Kezer told the meeting. “We worked with the departments ad nausea to make sure that the requests are level serviced, meaning providing the true costs of providing the services that we currently provide to this community.” He thanked “the big departments — police, fire and public works – they took 4% cuts from level services down” to meet what Kezer characterized as obligatory cuts.
“We worked with the schools on having a number based on a traditional allocation between the school and the town,” Kezer said. “They stepped up to the plate, and they hit that reduced bottom line number.”
He added, “Everyone stepped up to have a balanced budget.”
The 2023 Marblehead Town Meeting Warrant features 54 articles across 16 pages, and FinCom weighed in on nearly all of them with financial implications over a five-hour period (No recommendation means the warrant article does not have financial implications to the town). Here’s how it voted:
Article 1: Requests Town Meeting to take up articles (agenda items) on the warrant (the meeting’s agenda) in numerical order. No recommendation.
Article 2: Requests Town Meeting to allow town committees and officers to give reports on the Town Meeting floor, especially those who may not be voters to speak. No recommendation.
Article 3: Requests Town Meeting authorization for the town to accept responsibility for any damages that may occur as a result of work done by the Massachusetts Highway Department to improve, develop, maintain and protect public beaches, rivers, streams, harbors and shores. The town may need to provide a bond of indemnity to the commonwealth to cover any potential liabilities. Favorable recommendation.
Article 4: Requests Town Meeting authorization for officials to accept money from grants awarded and assets in trusts bequeathed to the town during the fiscal year. No recommendation.
Article 5: Requests Town Meeting to permit appropriate town officials to lease town-owned land, buildings or structures on the terms they decide. Favorable recommendation.
Article 6: Requests Town Meeting authorization to pay $26,787 in unpaid bills from previous fiscal years. Favorable recommendation.
Article 7: Asks if the town will allow the Select Board to make contracts that last more than three years but less than ten years if it is in the town’s best interest. No recommendation.
Article 8: Requests that Town Meeting place a cap on department revolving funds in the amount of $3.9 million. Favorable recommendation.
Article 9: Requests that Town Meeting appropriate $388,488 to purchase equipment for several departments, from an electric lawn mower for the Marblehead Recreation Department to radio replacements for the Police Department. Favorable recommendation.
Article 10: Requests Town Meeting appropriate $467,553 to lease equipment, including a backhoe and a tree chipper truck. Favorable recommendation.
Article 11: Requests Town Meeting appropriate $302,451 for capital improvements to public buildings, including replacing a cellar door at the Fire Department’s central headquarters to creating a storage yard behind the animal shelter on Tower Way. Favorable recommendation.
Article 12: Requests Town Meeting appropriate funds for Marblehead Public Schools’ capital needs. Indefinite postponement, but the town included district capital improvements for High School main entry doors and the Glover and Village Playgrounds resurfacing, both of which cumulatively total $94,500.
Article 13: Requests Town Meeting appropriate $50,000 toward seawalls and fences. Favorable recommendation.
Article 14: Requests Town Meeting appropriate $400,000 from taxation to fund storm drainage construction. Favorable recommendation.
Article 15: Requests Town Meeting appropriate $400,000 through retained earnings from water-usage fees to fund Water Department construction. The Water and Sewer Commission had yet to vote on the amount, so the amount requested could change. Favorable recommendation.
Article 16: Requests Town Meeting appropriate $400,000 through retained earnings from sewer fees to fund Sewer Department construction. The Water and Sewer Commission had yet to vote on the amount, so the amount requested could change. Favorable recommendation.
Article 17: Marblehead Water and Sewer Commission is preemptively asking Town Meeting for permission to take advantage of a zero interest loan from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority should the need for water distribution improvements arise. Favorable recommendation.
Article 18: Requests Town Meeting to authorize the Water and Sewer Commission and the Select Board to work together to settle any claims or lawsuits related to damages that may occur during the construction of the water or sewer systems, or to take any other action related to the matter. Favorable recommendation.
Article 19: Requests Town Meeting approve a 2% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for the town’s administrators. Favorable recommendation.
Article 20: Requests Town Meeting approve a 2% COLA for traffic supervisors. Favorable recommendation.
Article 21: Requests Town Meeting approve a 2% COLA for seasonal and temporary personnel. Favorable recommendation.
Article 22: Requests Town Meeting approve Town Clerk Robin Michaud’s $88,342 salary – which reflects a 2% COLA. Town Meeting must approve the salary of elected officials. Favorable recommendation.
Article 23: Requests Town Meeting approve the Marblehead Compensation Committee-sponsored reclassification of a dozen jobs. More information would be presented at Town Meeting. Favorable recommendation.
Article 24: Requests Town Meeting amend the bylaws to create a Human Resource Department. No recommendation.
Article 25: Asks Town Meeting to preemptively authorize the Conservation Commission and other proper officers of the town to apply for financial assistance from public and private sources to be expended by the Conservation Commission for the purchase of vacant land and any other purpose. Favorable recommendation.
Article 26: Requests $468,762 (about $116,000 less than last year) to cover the cumulative tuition costs for 26 Marblehead students in the Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School District. Favorable recommendation.
Article 27: This article sought to transfer funds to the Special Education Stabilization Account, which currently contains $250,000. Indefinite postponement.
Article 28: Requests Town Meeting permission to release $5,260 in fees collected from ride-sharing platforms, like Uber and Lyft, to put toward transportation-maintenance costs. Favorable recommendation.
Article 29: Passage would put $8.3 million toward offsetting the fiscal year 2024 budget proposed under Article 30. Of the $8.3 million, Marblehead Finance Director Aleesha Nunley-Benjamin and Finance Committee Chairman Alec Goolsby sourced $8 million to a projected $8.5 million in certified free cash as well as a $330,000 payment from the Marblehead Municipal Light Department. The remaining $500,000 in projected free cash would remain unappropriated, increasing Marblehead’s reserves to $1 million. Favorable recommendation.
Article 30: Requests Town Meeting appropriate $112.5 million to fund the town’s municipal budget in fiscal year 2024. Favorable recommendation.
Article 31: Requests Town Meeting permanently override Prop. 2 ½ to raise $2.5 million to close a projected deficit due to the town’s reliance on free cash. Favorable recommendation.
Article 32: Given Article 31 includes funding requests for Marblehead Public Schools, Article 32 is no longer needed. Indefinite postponement.
Article 33: Under this article, the Marblehead Retirement Board has proposed an increase in the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) calculation base for retirees and beneficiaries of the Marblehead pension system. At present, the COLA adjustment of 3% is applied to the first $12,000 of a person’s total pension, known as the “COLA base.” The Retirement Board has unanimously voted to raise the base to $14,000, citing inflation. However, the proposal still requires approval from the Town Meeting to become official. Favorable recommendation.
Article 34: Requests Town Meeting appropriate $18,625 to provide the administrative town employees with longevity bonus in lieu of sick time payments. Favorable recommendation.
Article 35: Requests to amend bylaws to specify employees who are required to get physicals as a cost savings. “Currently, any new employee we hire has to get a physical examination, no matter the position,” said Kezer. “We want to limit [the physical requirement] to only people being hired into specific positions that we think are worthy of getting a physical.” Favorable recommendation.
Article 36: Requests amendment to general bylaws that authorize use of electronic counting devices at Town Meeting, starting at the 2024 Town Meeting. Kezer said the cost could run anywhere between $10,000 and $15,000. Favorable recommendation.
Article 37: Town Clerk Robin Michaud is asking the town to accept G.L.c. 41, §110A, which would authorize the Town Clerk’s Office to remain closed and treat Saturdays as a legal holiday for the purpose of calculating the time frame for election-related filing.
Passage would affect the last day to register to vote in town elections, which is 10 business days before the election. Taking one Saturday out of the mix would back that deadline up by one day. The registration deadline for state elections would not be affected because state law requires clerks’ offices to remain open on Saturdays for voter registration as those elections approach, Michaud explained.
Michaud suggested that the availability of online voter registration should help mitigate the minimal impact of officially closing her office on Saturdays. Favorable recommendation.
Article 38: Requests Town Meeting set a date for the annual town election of town officers a week earlier, moving it to the “second Tuesday after the first Monday in June each year” instead of the third Tuesday. When the town voted back in 2019 to change the election date, voters could not foresee that the Juneteenth holiday, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, would soon gain widespread recognition, including by the federal government, Michaud explained. No recommendation.
Article 39: Requests Town Meeting adopt zoning that permits single-family homeowners to construct accessory dwelling units. No recommendation.
Article 40: Requests Town Meeting send a Proposition 2 1/2 debt exclusion that would finance a renovation of the Franklin Street Fire Station to the ballot box, but officials have decided to postpone the ask. Indefinite postponement.
Article 41: Passage would put the Marblehead Tree Department under the Highway Department. No recommendation.
Article 42: Passage would amend a bylaw to authorize the town to place public trees on private property with permission of the land owner. No recommendation.
Article 43: Passage would provide for local property tax exemptions for the surviving parents or guardians of soldiers and sailors, members of the National Guard and veterans whose proximate cause of death was related to their service. If this article is passed, these individuals would not have to pay property taxes on their homes. Favorable recommendation.
Article 44: Requests Town Meeting amend bylaws to change the current term of Select Board members from one year to three. No recommendation.
Article 45: This article proposes what the sponsor of the citizen petition called enhancements and best practices for public sector reporting of Marblehead’s annual audit. These enhancements include directing the independent auditor to include several reports in the final audit report, requiring the town finance director to post these reports on the town’s website and establishing a town audit committee with the town administrator as an ex-officio member. The proposed changes aim to increase transparency and oversight of the town audit. No recommendation.
Article 46: Requests Town Meeting amend guidelines of the Old and Historic Districts Commission in Marblehead, in order to reach the goal of using 100% carbon-free energy that was approved at the 2018 Town Meeting. No recommendation.
Article 47: Requests Town Meeting repeal the summertime leaf-blower ban that it passed in 2022. No recommendation.
Article 48: This article endeavors to strengthen the existing leaf-blower bylaw, adding enforcement provisions and penalties for noncompliance. Marblehead police and health departments and their designees would enforce the bylaw, targeting property owners upon whose land infractions occur — not landscapers or lawn care businesses. Favorable recommendation.
Article 49: Requests Town Meeting create a Marblehead Traffic Advisory Committee. No recommendation.
Article 50: Tabled this article because officials needed more information on the citizen petition. Will weigh in closer to, before or during Town Meeting.
Article 51: Requests Town Meeting amend local bylaws to require regulatory committees, commissions and boards post recordings of their meetings online. On this citizen petition, officials and sponsor Lynn Nadeau disagreed on the language and whether it went too far without proper technological infrastructure in place. Will weigh in closer to, before or during Town Meeting .
Article 52: Requests Town Meeting amend local bylaws to require regulatory committees, commissions and boards convene hybrid meetings. Tabled for the same reasons articulated under Article 51.
Article 53: Resident Jonathan Lederman is proposing that the town accept the provisions of a state law, G.L.c. 53, §9A, which would clarify that the final date for obtaining blank nomination papers for nomination to town office shall be “48 weekday hours” prior to the hour on which nomination papers are required to be submitted for certification. No recommendation.
Article 54: Requests Town Meeting recommend that Select Board, Board of Health, Harbors and Waters and Recreation and Parks Commission document processes and decision-making fundamentals in manuals. Megan Sweeny, the citizen petition’s main sponsor, said the manual would offer insights into each board’s purpose, membership, member qualifications, appointments, powers and duties, organizational structure, communication processes, recommendations for town meetings and quality assurance. Sweeney argues the initiative will enhance transparency and streamline operations.
Kris Olson contributed reporting and writing in this article.
