The Rochester Select Board and Finance Committee closed the 33-article warrant for the May 18 Annual Town Meeting on April 22 after debating its finer points and learning an important equipment donation intended for the event will not be used that night.
In response to the recent announcement that the town has received an anonymous, $1,800 grant of 400 remote, electronic voting clickers for Town Meeting voters, Finance Committee member and Town Moderator David Arancio said the devices will not be utilized this year.
“I’ve decided not to use the clickers that were so generously donated to the town,” Arancio announced as the meeting was concluding. “This equipment will require training and testing. This is not the place to use this equipment as a training ground.” Residents and officials who were gathered in the meeting room for the warrant review voiced a collective sigh of relief, obviously agreeing this was a good decision.
Attendees were equally attentive as the two boards reviewed warrant revisions. First, the Select Board members agreed to revise Article 17, which would transfer $10,000 from free cash for the maintenance, repair, and replacement of existing kitchen equipment at the Council on Aging Senior Center, by adding the language that its expenditures be subject to approval by a joint meeting of the Select Board and the Council on Aging board. The Select Board and the Finance Committee then both recommended the article for the warrant.
Next, the two panels revisited Article 19, which would transfer $250,000 from free cash to supplement the public school system’s Special Education out-of-district tuitions, a cost that has risen dramatically this year to $1,100,000. Last week, residents argued that because the town is expecting a state earmark of $250,000 to reimburse this cost, the town should weigh in how all this money be spent should the expected amount be received. This week, Town Administrator Cameron Durant, attending the meeting remotely on Zoom, advised that Town Counsel has recommended no such change to the article’s language. The schools have legal right to spend in their own way all that they receive. The Select Board approved placing the article on the warrant as is, and the FinCom voted to support it.
Then came their review of Article 20, which would transfer from free cash $100,000 to establish a Special Education Fund that could be used for this type of future expense. Before this vote, Select Board Chair Adam Murphy suggested the $100,000 that in Article 21 proposes funding unemployment compensation expenses with free cash, should instead be applied to the school deficit that will be laying off four Rochester Memorial School teachers in this next fiscal year because of the Special Education deficit. “This could supplement teachers for the classroom instead of their unemployment,” he said.
Rochester Memorial School Committee Chair Katherine Duggan agreed with Murphy. These teachers will know their positions are potentially for one year only, she said, and would know to start job hunting. It would negate the need for the unemployment expense.
This suggestion, however, failed to be endorsed. Durant argued the money would fund the positions for one year unless other funds become available next year. It relies on one-time funds. Select Board member Paul Ciaburri noted the unemployment funds will be for layoffs townwide, not just the schools. The two panels agreed to place this article on the warrant as is.
The two boards then swiftly endorsed the other article they had slated to further review, Article 21, which proposes transferring $100,000 from free cash to fund unemployment compensation expenses.
The Annual Town Meeting is scheduled for May 18 starting at 7:00 pm at Rochester Memorial School, 16 Pine Street.
Rochester Select Board/Finance Committee
By Michael J. DeCicco