Natick’s 2026 Fall Annual Town Meeting, slated to begin on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 7:30pm at Kennedy Middle School Auditorium, features 17 articles covering topics ranging from the budget to bylaw updates to citizen petitions on snow removal and embracing diversity.

The articles are collected in a warrant that has been published, and each article will have one or more motions under it that elected Town Meeting members will vote on (while article language is filled with “whereas” and “thereon” gibberish, motion language makes clearer what the articles are really about).

Town Meeting serves as Natick’s legislative branch and includes up to 180 members, with up to 18 from each of 10 precincts. For those who don’t track town government closely, note that Natick has many “town meetings” throughout the year, from Select Board to Planning Board sessions, official “Town Meeting” takes place in the spring and fall, and an occasional “Special Town Meeting” can be sprinkled in as needed.

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The first batch of articles this fall are all financial-related, and will be getting a full vetting from Natick’s appointed Finance Committee ahead of Town Meeting. This includes the omnibus budget, unpaid bills, and stabilization funds, the latter of which has become the subject of increased discussion in recent years. The capital equipment funding article, #6, can be of some extra interest, with show-and-tell photos often included of cool gear the town may be purchasing.

New this time around, with Article 5, is a proposal to establish a revolving fund to “utilize monies from low income community shared solar projects to subsidize the electricity costs of income-eligible customers through the Town’s municipal aggregation program.”

Sustainability is also the theme for Article 7, which seeks funding for “feasibility study and schematic design costs related to a heat pump conversion project at Lilja Elementary School.”

Article 8 marks the second round of Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding requests—this stash comes from a 1% property tax surcharge, plus some matching state contributions. Requests this fall include $1,243,50 to fund construction of South Natick Park renovations along the Charles River where the spillway is being removed. The town tried to get this funding from the state, but failed in that bid, so had a CPA funding request as its backup plan. Other CPA requests pertain to digitizing and preserving historic photos ($37,500), a Cochituate Rail Trail connector from the Modera housing development and establishment of a native garden ($42,375), and Murphy Park improvement planning ($150,000).

Articles 9 through 13 are about cleaning up or revising town and zoning bylaws, including one that has to do with “indecent or profane language” and another regarding permitted non-residential uses within residential mixed-use developments.

Town Meeting members will also have a chance to hear updates from the Hybrid Town Meeting Committee exploring ways to modernize Town Meeting and from the Natural and Synthetic Turf Field Study Group.

The warrant wraps up with citizen petitions—those filed by individuals rather than town bodies—on sidewalk snow removal and recognizing diversity/promoting harmony.

While only Town Meeting members can vote at Fall Annual Town Meeting, anyone can attend.

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The Natick Select Board discussed possible Fall Annual Town Meeting articles during a tidy 24-plus-minute meeting on Aug. 11 (well technically the meeting went longer, but in executive session not open to the public to cover sensitive legal issues).

One article would address Article 50 Section 13 under Police Regulations, which is titled “Indecent or Profane Language” and that reads: “No person shall use any indecent or profane language in any public place in the Town or near any dwelling house or other building thereon.”

Board Chair Kathryn Coughlin explained that this rule is unconstitutional. “The Board will be moving to have Section 13 struck from the Police Regulations,” she said, adding that the police chief has confirmed this rule is unenforceable.

Not to say civility isn’t appreciated…

The Select Board has been looking at bylaw cleanups, and the same applies to Article 54 on Sex Offenders. Outdated language and citations no longer consistent with current law are included in this bylaw, so need to be addressed.

On a completely different topic, there’s a move to prep an article for Select Board sponsorship regarding establishment of a revolving fund that would support a sustainable electricity program for income-qualified individuals.

The board is also looking at an article for Town Meeting to hear the final report from the Natural and Synthetic Turf Field Study Group.

Articles for Fall Annual Town Meeting, slated to start on Oct. 20, must be submitted by Aug. 20. Some will come from town bodies, while others could come from individuals.

Also at the Select Board meeting, the body voted in favor of Natick joining with Walpole and other communities that are banding together to try to get a better solid waste disposal contract. Joining the group, which includes some much larger communities, doesn’t bind Natick to take part in such a contract, but does give Walpole and its counsel support for negotiating. This would fit into Natick’s broader evaluation of its trash and recycling program (see our recent RATS update)

During its consent agenda, the Select Board accepted resignations of two Natick Cultural Council members. So the council is looking for new blood.

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Natick Spring Annual Town Meeting on April 30 was dissolved after just two sessions, compared to five nights each of the past few years. But the town’s legislative body still got plenty of work done, including on operating and capital budgets as well as police uniform and contract matters.

You can review the nearly 3-hour finale in full via Natick Pegasus’s recording and voting scorecard, or trust us to summarize the action for you here. We recapped the first session earlier (See “Natick Spring Annual Town Meeting night #1: $212m budget OK’d; plus history lessons”).

Town Meeting picked up on Thursday where it left off on Tuesday, discussing and voting on budget appropriations under motions that generally cruised through.

Under Article 9, Deputy Town Administrator Jon Marshall did the honors of presenting capital requests, more of which will be coming in the fall. For Spring Annual Town Meeting, the town asked for $7.5m in funding to pay for 25 items, including cool-sounding vehicles like a vactor truck (shoots water and vaccums) and swaploader (handles containers), plus $225k to enable possible eligibility for a state grant to be used for the riverfront parks project, which could cost more than $2m. The town plans to use cash (aka, pay as you go), borrowing, and hopefully grants to cover costs for its capital projects.

Earlier remaining motions under Article 3 (omnibus budget) mainly cruised through. There were a few questions about conditions of the town’s Sassamon Trace Golf course and a few more regarding an appropriation under Motion D for $120k to be spent on updating police badges and uniforms to do away with those bearing the old town seal—Town Meeting approved a new seal in 2023 to replace one that proponents said was outdated.

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Police log

The town has gradually been replacing images displaying the old seal on town vehicles with Natick’s newish branding logo. The intention is that the new police badges/patches/uniforms will not bear the seal at all. Town leadership had indicated at the time the new seal was being approved that there would be an eventual cost to replacing the image of it in some places. While Town Meeting approved Motion D under Article 3 by a 90-18-3 vote, an argument was made to wait on this and maybe get a smaller bill next time around as some officers replace uniforms in the meantime using the uniform allowance baked into union contracts.

This wouldn’t be the only police drama during the night, as Articles 12 and 13 focused on giving the town the ability to extend the contracts of Chief James Hicks and Deputy Chief Brian Lauzon past their mandatory retirement ages of 65 early next year (their pensions would remain frozen at age 65). Select Board Chair Bruce Evans told Town Meeting that “the essence of this is to provide the flexibility that the town needs to either recruit someone new or to proceed with the chief and deputy chief as we have.”

Discussion on these articles consumed about a third of the meeting on Thursday.

Town Meeting approved motions under the articles for each police leader, and now the state legislature will need to do the same to finish the deal. The Select Board brought forth the articles, making a case that the town isn’t in a position yet to hire successors for Hicks and Lauzon and still has some work in progress—department accreditation and a new joint dispatch center with Framingham and Wayland—that would benefit from the incumbent police leaders’ experience. The Select Board has indicated it would hold check-ins to ensure that the chief and deputy hit milestones on issues such as staffing transitions and joint dispatch progress.

The fact that Natick is even in this position is seen by some as an indication that the police department or town planned poorly. Though Town Meeting member Richard Sidney, until recently a Select Board member, said the department had a succession strategy in place that was undone by potential successors opting out.

Numerous Town Meeting members shared support for the current chief and deputy based on working with them in various capacities over the years, and some advocated for the current chief getting some time to onboard his successor.

Also, Town Meeting members asked questions about what sort of timeline the town has in mind for hiring a new chief and deputy, encouraging the administration to get going on that sooner than later, regardless of how long it takes the state to rule on Town Meeting’s decisions. Town Administrator Jamie Errickson said hiring a chief can take six to 12 months and the process must adhere to bylaws, while hiring a deputy chief involves a less complicated process. He added that there could be something to be said for hiring a chief and having that person have a say in the hiring of a deputy.

Hybrid meeting and town field reports

Town Meeting voted to hear reports from the Hybrid Town Meeting Committee and Natural and Synthetic Turf Field Study Group, both of which asked for and received extensions to complete their work.

Grace Keeney of the Hybrid Town Meeting Committee said the appointed body has been doing lots of research since it formed in December on the matter of possibly bringing hybrid Town Meeting to Natick, but could use six more months. Currently, you need to show up in person for Town Meeting, but some back a hybrid model to encourage more people to participate, albeit there’s the possibility of downsides to people not interacting in person (there’d also be the matter of needing to go through the bylaw change process).

Keeney said the group has held 20 meetings, has met with reps from other communities that have adopted or explored hybrid Town Meeting as well as with town officials and technology vendors. The group also conducted a public survey that nearly 360 people took.

The group now needs to ready its report and hold public forums for feedback, with plans to present a final report at Fall Annual Town Meeting.

Note: Natick Town Meeting can consist of up to 180 members, though the member list posted on the town website indicates there are 14 vacancies. Night #2 at Town Meeting saw a high vote number of 111 for motions under Articles 3 and 12. The high vote total on the first night of Spring Annual Town Meeting was 127. So yeah, dozens of Town Meeting members didn’t vote during the latest sessions.

For the Natural and Synthetic Turf Field Study Group, Julie McDonough presented an update. For background, she noted that Town Meeting in fall of 2024 approved $200k for design of an artificial turf field at the current Natick High practice field, and that a non-binding advisory moratorium on installation of synthetic turf fields was approved by Town Meeting last fall. Following the latter, the study group was formed and concurrently, the schematic design process for the practice field went ahead.

The study group has been looking into research on artificial turf fields and is reviewing considerations for installing natural grass vs. artificial turf. Among those sharing information on the topic has been the town’s Sustainability Department, which wrote in a response to study group questions that “Overall, we found greater uncertainty and potential risks associated with synthetic turf,” based on research it reviewed (McDonough said a link to this will be added to the study group’s web page).

The study group has met eight times and later this year plans to share a final report with the Select Board, School Committee, and Fall Annual Town Meeting. The group won’t make recommendations, but will provide info that Town Meeting and other bodies in town can use when making decisions about field construction.

Several Town Meeting members supportive of natural grass fields rose to comment and ask questions.

It’s a wrap

Moderator Jeff Alderson toward the end of the second session thanked the many people who made Town Meeting possible this spring.

As for the town’s legislative body concluding its work in just two nights, Alderson said: “If I knew when I started this position as town moderator that all I had to do was sing my requests for a shorter meeting that it would happen, I will do that every Town Meeting.” (He went all Broadway on night #1, crooning “Two Nights, Two Nights, let’s do it in two nights…” while posing the question “Two Nights?” to the members to test their electronic voting devices.)

Town Meeting member Simone Poliandri wasn’t going to let Alderson off that easy though. Toward the end of the meeting, Poliandri said that he and fellow members would be expecting “a one nighter” come Fall Annual Town Meeting.

From there, things…slowed…down…quite… a… bit.

(See Natick Pegasus recording of the 3-hour session as well as the voting scorecard)

Town Meeting member Josh Ostroff made a motion to shift Article 18 (a citizen petition submitted by him on  a “Resolution to honor the 1776 Natick Resolve for Independence and to uphold the United States Constitution in 2026”) to next in line, as resolutions are typically handled at the start of Town Meeting. One reason for proposing this change in order is that Natick Historical Society Director Niki Lefebvre was available on Tuesday to speak to the motion under the article, but not on Thursday when Town Meeting resumes (Lefebvre was also on hand to display the recently conserved 1775 muster roll of Captain James Mann’s company). Lefebvre briefly told of the Natick Resolve for Independence, which slightly predated the Declaration of Independence.

Town Meeting approved a motion to move up the article, and from there Ostroff explained that the purpose of the article was to honor Natick colonists and Native Americans who fought for independence, to better understand our complex history in a contemporary context, and to voice support for our Constitutional rights. “Town Meeting was well within its authority to debate and pass the Resolve 250 years ago and I believe we are well within our authority to defend the Constitution today…,” he said.

(Earlier in the meeting Moderator Jeff Alderson read a statement in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution that we recently posted.)

Town Meeting debated the article for more than an hour, during which impassioned history lessons were shared, along with seemingly countless “points of order,” a procedural mechanism used by members to alert the moderator to possible violations of protocol or needed corrections.

Early in the discussion, member Jeanne Ostroff, Josh’s wife, proposed an amendment to specify women’s rights in the main motion language, and Town Meeting supported this.

Town Meeting member Frank Foss proposed replacing the entire motion with a rewritten version that put additional emphasis on the current Constitution. “The Constitution should be held just as high as the resolution that was passed by this body [in 1776], the Declaration of Independence, all of the federation writings, all of the documentation and all of the acts of our government…”

Among those arguing against the amendment was David Margil, who said he supported the original motion’s wording. “What I want our children, and grandchildren, and great-great children to look back on when they see what we did in this Town Meeting is to understand that we did have historical awareness, and 250 years on from having voted on the original resolve we understood the difference between what we were doing then and what we learned in the subsequent years…things like the fact we were displacing people from their land, things like the fact we were enslaving people while we sought to be free, things like the fact that have our population wasn’t allowed to vote…”

The proposed amendment failed to pass, debate continued on the previously amended main motion under Article 18, and it passed 102-9-6.

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This interlude sponsored by the Net Zero Committee

Before Town Meeting moved onto the night’s grand finale, the omnibus budget, Net Zero Committee Chair Kate Mora shared the body’s annual report. No mentions of Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, or other historic luminaries name dropped during the previous motion discussion. There were zero net zero references in the Natick Resolve of 1776.

Mora focused on the town’s progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Natick’s plan focuses on energy sources, how homes and businesses are powered, and how people get around.

Natick has seen big improvements in cleaner electricity sources, and is on track to offer customers 100% clean electricity by 2030, Mora said. At home, people are using less gas, and they’re doing so on the roads, too, with more opting for hybrid/plug-in or all-electric vehicles (up from 8% of registered vehicles in 2019 to 44% in 2025). Other wins for Natick on the green front have been getting accepted into the state’s Climate Leader program that makes the town eligible for big grants to help pay for sustainability projects.

The Net Zero Committee by year end plans to update its 2021 Net Zero Action Plan, and will be looking for public feedback on that in months to come.

Omnibus budget approved

Under Article 3, Motion A, Natick brought forth its proposed $212m FY27 omnibus (town and schools) budget, up about 5% from the one a year ago. This budget was less complicated than last year’s edition, which was prepped as the town was deciding on a proposed $7m operating budget override.

Deputy Town Administrator/Finance Director Ari Sky shared a brief presentation on the budget, which has been making its way through various public meetings in past months as it rounded into shape.

The bulk of the town’s revenue comes from property taxes, supplemented by state aid, local receipts (like excise taxes), and other sources, such as free cash. Most expenses come from salaries, with the schools at $100.6m in total expenses accounting for about 45% of overall Natick spending, not to mention their slice of shared services pie that typically amounts to between 50% and 60% (healthcare, IT, facilities, etc.).

The school budget for FY27 is up 5.4%, though according to the Natick Public Schools team is considered a level services budget (with limited reallocations to support new initiatives and increased fees to offset some costs). Superintendent Dr. Melissa Spash said NPS has been working to reduce expenses, citing for example that instructional salary increases fell from 7.4% last year to 5.4% for FY27 (“That’s part of the mix of our staff that continues to change…,” she said. “It takes time, we’re kind of moving a big ship…”). Town Meeting also heard from Keefe Regional Technical School leadership on this alternate education option that 62 Natick students take advantage of.

Sky said that despite economic uncertainty “Natick is uniquely well positioned compared to many other jurisdictions based on the strength of its commercial tax base and economic activity.” It’s also on a path to having its pension costs fully funded, he said.

Though the town, like others, is not insulated from broad economic and political changes, including increased energy prices. Sky said these uncertainties help to explain decisions such as doubling the general fund budget reserve to $400k. The town is also seeing increases in its water & sewer enterprise fund budget largely do to addressing the PFAS (aka, forever chemicals) situation in Natick’s drinking water.

Town Meeting members asked about issues such as forecasted rising deficits—in the millions of dollars and up since forecasts shared during budget override discussions. Town Meeting member Foss sounded the alarm about needing to get out in front of taking a closer look at not just expenses, but revenue assumptions. David Coffey said he was “dubious” of the town’s projections holding up given rising energy and other costs and uncertainty on the revenue side as well.

Town Administrator Jamie Errickson said the latest forecast includes new assumptions, such as how new growth revenue (from construction, etc.) is factored in and how expected increases in school expenses are reflected. With the additional override funds, the town is also able to rethink how much free cash it uses, looking to make that less of a relied upon funding source.

Motion A passed by an 87-2-3 vote.

Note: Natick Town Meeting can consist of up to 180 members, though the member list posted on the town website indicates there are 14 vacancies. Night #1 at Town Meeting saw a high vote number of 127 for the motion under Article 18, but only 92 votes on the budget motion, the last one of the night…

Four motions remain under Article 3, including those focused on enterprise funds (water/sewer, golf course), supplemental funding to the FY26 budget voted last spring, and what could be fun one: $120k from free cash to replace police badges and uniforms (stems from Natick’s replacement of its town seal in 2023). Natick has phased in the seal on its vehicles, etc., but when it comes to police uniforms, well, they need to be uniform, so need to be replaced all at once.

Spring Annual Town Meeting resumes on Thursday, 7:30pm at Kennedy Middle School, with motions under articles 3, 9, 12, 13, 16, and 17 remaining. The public is welcome to attend.