Council Gets the Memo

A late day Friday communique from Town Administrator, Jamie Hellen, to members of the Town Council sets up next week's Wednesday evening Town Council meeting to be fractious and long.

Although Hellen writes in his memo that the cuts were neither dictated nor requested by the Superintendent or the School Committee, the "sit ins," phone calls, emails, sign holding and even demands to broaden the voter franchise may have had some impact inside the Municipal Building.

The content of the original document is presented, below, verbatim.

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June 21, 2024

To: Town Council

From: Jamie Hellen, Town Administrator

Amy Frigulietti, Deputy Town Administrator

Re: FY25 Budget Adjustment

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The Town Council will consider a proposed FY25 Budget adjustment to cut from municipal services in an effort to restore some of the School cuts that have been proposed due to the failed townwide override vote on June 11, 2024.

We are proposing municipal budget adjustments before the Council for consideration this evening due to the overwhelming amount of public feedback from school parents, educators and stakeholders in the wake of the failed override vote. While we do not take these cuts lightly, we feel they are necessary to try to preserve some of the School cuts. With that said, we want to be clear that his is not a request that has been made by the Superintendent or School Committee. The decision to further trim from the municipal budget was examined, in response to public feedback, with the intention of presenting the next level of discussion and engagement on the town budget prior to the fiscal year beginning.

At the meeting on Wednesday, June 26th, we will present a brief slideshow outlining proposed cuts line item by line item and will have handouts. We are still working with out finance team on the slideshow, lists of cuts, communicating them, and revising the voting document for the Town Council to consider. Once finalized, we will publish these materials and will have all the information to the Town Council and the Community as soon as possible.

As we have mentioned many times before, the amount of work requested of our staff far exceeds the actual staff capacity. We all have so much going on right now, general administration of these types of items is very challenging to do.

The first round of proposed cuts focuses on areas that generate little to no revenue. When the town considers cuts, we also have to be cognizant of the offsetting revenues various departments bring in and potential cost increases associated with cuts, such as overtime, that may accompany a final decision.

Please let us know if you have any questions and more materials will be available next week.