Natick Spring Annual Town Meeting night #2 recap: Unpaid bills; Stabilization; Capital spending

In the wake of the override vote and discussion, Natick Town Meeting members are looking more closely at every penny being spent, as was evident on May 1, night #2 of Spring Annual Town Meeting. Members dug into possible administrative spending by the Community Preservation Committee, unpaid bills by the town, and capital spending requests.

Here’s our recap of the latest session (view the Natick Pegasus recording of the May 1 session if you want to see the whole shebang).

Community Preservation Committee

Property owners in Natick have been getting hit with a 1% surcharge on their ever rising property taxes since mid-2023 after Town Meeting and voters approved adoption of the Community Preservation Act in 2022. We’ve heard many questions in the time since from people who assumed the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) was putting those dollars to work already, but we’re still at the preparation stage.

The first order of business on May 1 was Article 15, which had to do with appropriating 5% of the CPC fund for administrative expenses. The money would go in part to fund a position in the Community & Economic Development office who would work on CPC affairs, plus possibly attorney, consulting, and other expenses . The CPC has raised about $2.5M to date.

Town Meeting members raised a handful of questions about how the administrative funds would be used and whether this would affect other budgets within town. The Article passed by a 107-11 vote.

The real action on CPC will probably take place at Fall Annual Town Meeting. The CPC hopes to have recommendations for projects by the time that meeting rolls around. The CPC money can be used for investment in historic preservation, open space, recreation, and affordable housing.

Unpaid bills

Town Meeting then bounced back to Article 5, which mainly has to do with taking care of unpaid bills that might result from any number of reasons on the town or vendor side. The total in unpaid bills exceeded $41K, as initially presented, though the motion was amended after it was learned a $15K bill from the Blue Hills ski mountain (for ski team costs) had already been paid by the School Department, and that a duplicate bill had been submitted to the department, which it did not have to pay.

The School Department had the most unpaid bills listed under this motion, by the way. Overall, 18 unpaid bills were listed under the initial motion, and Town Meeting member Frank Foss said in debate that such a large number does call into question the town’s bookkeeping. “I think the Select Board and School Committee or maybe the Finance Committee should really look into this and call for an audit of what’s going on with these things…,” he said. Another speaker later sought—and got—reassurance from the town that it has a system in place to ensure it doesn’t pay double bills.

Town Meeting member Rich Sidney, also a Select Board member and chair of the Board’s audit advisory committee, rose to say that “the fact we’re seeing all these unpaid bills is actually a really good thing.” He went on to explain that a number of changes on the finance front have happened in town over the past few years, including the hiring of a new schools finance director and new auditors. “The administration has made significant progress on correcting some of the issues found in the annual audit management report and in the issues identified in the [Division of Local Services] report that the administration commissioned. All these things have led to cleaning up our books considerably…”

The motion passed 106-11-1.

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Stabilization

We got a hint during opening night of Town Meeting that stabilization funds might be the subject of some discussion later on, and indeed that was the case on night #2 when it was time to mull Article 7. The motion under this article was to seek approval for almost $3.2M to bolster the capital and other post-employment benefits stabilization funds.

One member confirmed that capitalization funds can only be used for capital projects (like buying fire engines, etc.) and not to address a catastrophic event, and was told this was the case. Though another member confirmed that while there are a couple of truly restricted stabilization funds, other funds are eligible for other uses with Town Meeting approval.

Town Meeting approved the motion under Article 7 by a 114-2 vote. Stabilization funds will be back up for discussion when Article 25, a citizen petition, hits the floor.

Capital spending

Deputy Town Administrator John Marshall stated upfront, in speaking about Article 11 (capital equipment and improvement) that this was a leaner than usual capital request for spring, largely in light of the recent override discussions. The town didn’t want to plan for a bunch of capital projects only to have them possibly scrapped if the override vote failed.

Having said that, the town did request under Motion A some $550K for a new ambulance, and as with much of the public safety equipment these days, you need to put your orders in well before you actually need the gear. Another $544K was requested for other vehicle replacements, building upgrades, and more under Motion B. Some mind-numbing though valid discussion took place to clarify Motion B under Article 11, and both of these motions passed easily.

Marshall also said the town pushed $12.2M in capital requests to the fall, and that those requests would cover a handful of things, including window replacement, playground fixes, and more.

More capital equipment talk will kick off night #3 on May 6.

Rail trail completion

One Town Meeting member asked a couple of times about the town’s plans to complete the rail trail in Natick, which currently includes a gap between the Navy Yard section and Natick Center train station. He had picked up on a mention of spending of up to $75K on rail trail maintenance and enhancement in Article 6, regarding revolving funds.

Town officials said there were no appropriation requests in motions at this Town Meeting on that subject, nor any plans for such a capital request at Fall Annual Town Meeting. The moderator found the member’s questions on the subject to be out of order on a couple of occasions.

The member’s persistence paid off though. Fellow Town Meeting member Josh Ostroff, who has been instrumental in the rail trail’s creation and now works for the MBTA, took the floor out of compassion during discussion of Article 11 on capital investments and shared an update on rail trail completion plans. “I want to not have my fellow Town Meeting member have to wait until the fall to find out that the town will not be asked to fund an extension of the rail trail to Natick Center, because it’s going to be completed as part of the MBTA station project,” he said.

Ostroff drew laughter when he squeezed the comment into the scope of Article 11 by noting that the rail trail bridges are designed to support ambulances such as the one for which an appropriation was sought under one of the article’s motions.

Depending on your level of faith in the MBTA to get the Natick Center station project done relatively soon, we could be looking at completion of the trail sooner than later.

This job can age you

The moderator’s test question at the start of the session to make sure the electronic voting devices were working was: Will the Town Moderator’s hair color remain unchanged (meaning not turn completely grey) at the end of his first term?

The vote: 40-47-24

More:

• Natick Spring Annual Town Meeting opening night recap: Un-stabilization; A Happy Fuss over Foss; Override-infused budget
• Natick Spring Annual Town Meeting night #2 recap: Unpaid bills; Stabilization; Capital spending
• Natick Spring Annual Town Meeting night #3: Zoning articles on floodplain maps, body art, ADUs & indoor rec