Thursday, May 28th meeting of the Select Board began exactly at 7:00 pm. Town Accountant, Sharon Emerick, helped the Board determine the correct figures to be added to the Town’s 1/12 budget submission.
1/12 Budget Reviews: The Board approved the following 1/12 budgets:
- Health – $13,378.00
- Assessors – $19,413.33
- Economic Development – $1,172.25
FY21 Budget and 1/12 Budgets: The Board approved the following budgets:
- Select Board:
- FY 21 – $351,855
- 1/12 – $29,321
- The Board approved a motion to advise the Finance Committee that the FY 21 Select Board budget should hold up to $50,000 for salary negotiations with the new Town Administrator.
- Liability:
- FY 21 – $275,572
- 1/12 – $275,572 (single annual premium payment in July)
- Public Buildings:
- FY21 – $282,600
- 1/12 – $23,550
- Solid Waste:
- FY21 – $1,287,851 (Corrected thanks to Ken Campbell)
- 1/12 – $107,321
- Wastewater Treatment Center:
- FY 21 – $91,790
- 1/12 – $7,649.17
- Veterans’ Services: Holliston is part of four town district – the town is assessed for its membership by the district
- FY 21 – $93,803.29
- 1/12 – $7,817.00
The Board will review a rollup of all the approved 1/12 budgets at their June 1, 2020 meeting.
Capital Request Policy Recommendations:
The School Committee is awaiting input from its legal counsel. This conversation is pended until that opinion is rendered.
Open Meeting Law Violation:
Town Counsel, Jay Talerman joined the Board to discuss the relative merits of filing an Open Meeting Law Violation Complaint related to the May 5, 2020 Finance Committee. Mr. Talerman’s guidance was that the Finance Committee did have a robust discussion about actions taken by the Select Board, the discussion was not in clear violation of the Open Meeting Law. Mr. Cronin’s investigation recently discovered that the FinCom had a May 1st draft of the 2020 Annual Meeting Warrant which was tangentially the genesis of the Committee’s heated remarks. After a presentation of documents by Mr. Cronin, the Board declined to proceed with the Open Meeting Law Complaint. Finance Committee member, Dan Alfred responded to Mr. Cronin’s points with his views on the May 5th meeting and the meeting currently being held by the Select Board. Ben Sparrell, also from the Finance Committee, shared his desire to move on past the acrimony and do the Town’s business.
Board Business:
- Parade Permit: The Board approved an HHS Senior Car Parade at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 7, 2020. The Parade will assemble at the Woodland Street schools and proceed through town ending at the High School approximately 1 hour later.
- Town Meeting Warrant: No action taken at this meeting.
- Year-end / Reserve Fund Transfers: None at this time.
Other Business: None
The meeting adjourned at 9:11 pm.
Very disappointed in the Holliston Select Board for the way they conducted themselves at this meeting over the discussion of a purported violation by the Finance Committee of the open meeting law. It became clear very quickly that their own Town Counsel did not believe that there was a violation and that members of the Select Board knew this prior to the meeting. Yet, they decided to conduct an almost hour long conversation about it as well as a lengthy diatribe by Mr. Cronin in an attempt by him to defend the boards actions. From the whole debate, it became clear to me that this was nothing but a personal motivated attack on the fincom by the Board as retaliation for the finance committee daring to publicly disagree with the board on previous issues. While members of the fincom may have made harsh statements that members of the select board took offense to, what the board did last night was deplorable and not at all appropriate From elected officials. The board should be ashamed and I, personally, look forward to their upcoming reelections starting with Mr. Cronins. Ramble on !!!
Seems to be a misplaced decimal point in the solid waste calculation. If $107,321.00 is 1/12 of the total. The total for 12 months would be $1,287,852.00, which is a lot more than shown.
Ken – Your eagle eyes caught my typo. Correct the total budget on which the 1/12 was calculated was $1,287,851.00
Thanks, Chris
What is the route of the Senior Parade?