A new website breaking down Marblehead’s finances has emerged ahead of the town’s override vote, offering a mix of charts, data analysis and interactive tools built almost entirely with artificial intelligence.
The site, Marblehead Budget Data (marbleheadbudgetdata.com) was created by resident, homeowner and parent Andrew Baber, who said the project began as a personal effort to better understand the town’s finances and the arguments surrounding the override before expanding into a broader public resource.
“I want this site to be a valuable tool for anyone coming to it,” Baber said. “Whether you’re a hard yes, hard no … or somewhere in the middle.”
The website examines various facets of the override debate, including school staffing levels, insurance trends, peer town comparisons and cost calculators, and was developed from idea to launch almost instantaneously with the use of AI.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do this in the time that I did it or the quality that I did it or the rigor that I did it without AI, like just full stop,” he said.
A software engineer by profession, Baber said the site came together in a matter of days, driven by his familiarity with AI agents.
His approach evolved through increasingly specific prompts, beginning with requests to locate data and build static charts, and later expanding to include interactive visualizations and anonymous community polling.
The project unfolded over roughly five days, during which Baber said he worked with AI in a continuous loop of prompting, reviewing and at times challenging outputs, transforming the site from a text-heavy, hard-to-navigate format into a more accessible and consumable platform.
Over that period, the site logged more than 700 code updates and over 500 feature changes, amounting to tens of thousands of lines of code, with updates at times being made every few minutes.
That pace, he said, was made possible by relying entirely on AI to generate the underlying code, while he directed the work and reviewed outputs.
“I would say maybe not 100%, but certainly north of 99%,” he said, describing the division of work. “I have not written a single line of code.”
Baber said he relied on Claude Code, a system developed by Anthropic, after finding it more reliable than other tools he tested.
“I found Claude just to be far and away the best … it’s not even close,” he said, citing its performance on complex engineering tasks and iteration.
To move quickly, Baber built the site using a simple structure of HTML, CSS and JavaScript and drew from a range of public sources, including Massachusetts state data, town materials and meeting minutes. He also incorporated published material from local papers, clearly labeling them as non-official sources.
However, he acknowledged that not every data point has been independently verified.
“If you ask me if I have inspected every data point all the way through to the source data … that’s absolutely not the case,” Baber said. “I trust Claude to pull the data, parse it, and then turn it into charts.”
To reduce errors, he built multiple layers of review into the workflow and runs repeated audits of the site.
“I want you to look for bias, I want you to look for errors, I want you to look for discrepancies,” he said, describing instructions he gives the system.
The site also includes a “bias audit” and is designed to present multiple ways of interpreting the same data, rather than directing users toward a single conclusion.
Baber said he has been careful not to take a formal position on the override within the site itself but has used the project to engage directly with residents on both ends of the debate, from those strongly opposed to the override to members of the pro-override group For Marblehead.
“It was incredibly productive,” he said, describing a recent discussion with a vocal critic of the override. “I came away with five or six things that I wanted to change or dig into.”
Those interactions have influenced updates to the site, which Baber described as an evolving project rather than a finished product.
“It’s definitely still just kind of getting started,” he said. “I absolutely will continue to make … significant changes to the site and the flows and the features.”
Looking ahead, Baber said he is exploring ways to expand the platform, including a deeper review of town meeting minutes to better document how Marblehead’s finances reached their current state.
He said he expects the site to continue evolving even after the override vote.
“This site will not hopefully go away when the override is either passed or not passed,” he said.
“Now we need to make systemic change either way.”
Ultimately, he said, he wants what’s best for the town.
“At the end of the day, what I really care about is that Marblehead is in a good spot and it’s in a good spot for a long time,” Baber added. “And … if I can put a couple hours a month into resources that help folks in the town decide … how we can actually get this done and do it well, I’m fully into that.”
The Current has not independently verified the site’s analysis. The site is available at marbleheaddata.org.
