Governance Committee Meets with Town Administrator

Holliston Reporter

Approaching the end of a series of meetings with Boards, Committees, and Finance Officers, the Governance Committee (GC) met Thursday afternoon with Travis Ahern, Town Administrator, to review its progress.  Chair Sam Tyler called the remote meeting to order at 4:06 PM, and the group got right to work.

The purpose of the Governance Committee, established by the Select Board on March 2020, was “to assist in the development of town-wide policies that relate to governance and recommend changes to the form of government if needed.” (from Town of Holliston, Governance Committee website) Members include five residents, (Tyler, Paul LeBeau, Scott McKechnie, Christina Lingham, and Len Engel) with diverse backgrounds and experience in Holliston’s town government.

During its August 2020 meeting, the GC voted that a new Town By-Law outlining the budget development process in Holliston should be its first initiative. Its examination of the town’s Fiscal Budget Preparation process and a comparison of that to comparable surrounding towns began in earnest.

After numerous meetings and much investigation into the budgeting process of other towns, the group developed a draft By-Law Article Recommendation for Holliston.  The draft By-Law required modifications of four other Town By-Law Articles.

The GC’s document, “Draft By-Law Article Recommendations,” completed on February 16, 2021, and posted on the Town website (https://www.townofholliston.us/governance) contains introductory material, highlights, (*see below.) drafts, and full and annotated versions of each section of the By-Laws affected by the Draft Article Recommendation.  Annotated versions are color-coded for readers to follow the original, (black) inserted (blue), and deleted (red) sections of each Article.  It is this draft document that the GC sent to the Select Board, the Finance Committee, the School Committee, the Finance Officers, and the Town Administrator prior to meeting with each.  Only a meeting with the School Committee remains. Meetings have provided an opportunity to talk about the report before the GC finalizes its recommendations.

This meeting of the GC adjourned at 5:26 PM.  The GC will meet with the School Committee, on March 18, 2021, at 7 PM.  They will meet again on Tuesday, March 23 to finalize their recommendation and plan a public hearing.  The GC will submit its final recommendation to the Select Board for consideration at the May 2021 Annual Town Meeting.

*Below a highlight (or two) has been excerpted directly from the GC’s document from among several pertaining to each Article.

Draft Budget Development Article:

  • Proposes a budget process that involves a more active role for the Town Administrator along with the Select Board, with the Finance Committee focused on its objective budget analysis and recommendations. Role of the School Committee remains the same.
  • Establishes a seven-member Capital Planning Committee to assist in the development of the proposed capital budget for the ensuing year and the five-year capital improvement program. Work of Committee would assist the Town Administrator in finalizing the capital budget for the next year and the five-year capital program. Both documents separately would be submitted to the Select Board for approval and after which to the Finance Committee for its review

Draft Revisions to Article I, Town Meetings:

  • Holliston will hold two regularly scheduled Annual Town Meetings, both of which shall have the powers deemed to be those of an Annual Town Meeting for the purposes of the General Laws.

Draft Revisions to Article IV, Finance Committee:

  • Section 4 – A new Section 4 with an enhanced explanation of the responsibilities of the Finance Committee replaces the current section. Responsibilities do not change but are more thoroughly described.

Draft Revisions to Article III, Select Board:

  • #15 Establishes a new section that would establish an electronic Talent Bank on the Town’s website to provide relevant information about opportunities to serve the Town and identify registered voters who are interested in serving on a town committee, board or commission. This provision is included in the Select Board Article since the Board generally makes the appointments.

Article XXXIII Capital Improvement Program:

  • Delete because it is replaced by the creation of the Capital Planning Committee in the budget development Article.

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One thought on “Governance Committee Meets with Town Administrator

  1. Fellow Residents: Please pay attention to this. The Governance Committee proposal will have significant impacts on Holliston’s long-term financial strength and taxes and I highly recommend that everyone pay attention to the by-law change recommendations being made. While the GC has indicated that it will be making some potentially positive changes to their initial draft recommendations based on feedback that they have received, there are some significant issues that remain. THERE WILL BE A PUBLIC HEARING ON THEIR FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS LATER THIS MONTH (DATE/TIME TBD). I STRONGLY urge anyone interested in Holliston’s finances to attend this hearing and ensure they understand what is being recommended and ask questions and then that they attend Town Meeting on May 10th to vote on it.

    As currently written (and what doesn’t seem likely to change) is that the Town Administrator and Select Board will be given significantly greater authority over the budget process for the entire town. From setting the annual budget guideline to setting revenue expectation assumptions. This work is currently done by the Finance Committee working with the assistance of the Town Administrator. The issue with giving the Town Administrator/Select Board this authority is that it means that a group that spends a significant amount of the Town’s budget will be in charge of setting assumptions for revenue and spending.

    Under the current process, the Finance Committee (the independently elected oversight board in town) which has no spending interests, sets these assumptions, working with the Town Administrator as dictated by the TA Special Act of 1994. Given that the Fincom has no financial interest, it has no incentive to change assumptions to meet spending desires and also ensures the fair treatment of all departments in Town that do not report to the Select Board (Schools, Library, Assessors, Planning Board, Parks, etc).

    I personally believe that we, the Fincom, have done a very good job using the current process and that it has served the town well by ensuring the spending is properly vetted and accounted for. While there can always be room for improvements (the Capital Committee recommendation is a solid suggestion), the drastic complete realignment proposed by the Governance Committee to the budget process is difficult to justify. I believe that it will lead to less accountability and oversight and greater spending on initiatives and projects that receive less financial vetting to ensure that the best interests of the taxpayers are kept in mind.

    Important questions that I still have are as follows:
    1) Why is this proposed budget process better than the process Holliston currently follows? If the GC simply thinks we need to codify the budget process in a budget by-law, why not simply codify the current process (which essentially goes off the TA establishment Special Act of 1994) and ensure the TA is heavily involved in the process?
    2) Why, of all the potential areas in the by-laws to change, was it the budget process that was chosen first? Are the town’s finances really the area in town that needs the most improvement?
    3) Given that the GC heavily relied on what other towns do for their budget processes, does the GC have any evidence that what other towns do works better and provides better results? Otherwise, how can the town be assured that the proposal actually makes things better? Perhaps other towns should be emulating what Holliston does.
    4) With the TA/Select Board controlling the entire budget process, how can we ensure fair or at least independent treatment of other independent budgets in town, especially the Schools? For example, the Select Board could choose to change revenue assumptions late in the process once it is evident that under the initial assumptions there will not be enough money to meet their own spending initiatives.

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