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Board of Selectmen 05/13/2025
(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)
Democracy takes center stage as Raynham prepares for its Annual Town Meeting on Monday, May 19th, 2025. In this pivotal session of the Board of Selectmen, officials laid groundwork for what promises to be one of the most consequential town meetings in recent memory.
At the heart of discussions was the proposed school budget override, which would increase the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District's allocation by a substantial 21.8%. Finance Director Chris meticulously outlined the financial implications: the average homeowner with a property valued at $589,581 would see their annual tax bill rise by $636.75. The Finance Committee has recommended a more modest 5.65% increase, creating the central tension that will drive debate at Town Meeting.
"Town Meeting is the legislative body, albeit a temporary one, of local government," explained Town Moderator John Donahue, who detailed comprehensive preparations for an anticipated high turnout. The auditorium seats 440 people, with overflow capabilities in the cafeteria. Electronic voting will be employed for contested articles, particularly the critical school budget override vote. Donahue emphasized maintaining the town's tradition of respectful debate: "We can disagree without being disagreeable."
Beyond the school budget, residents will consider 37 articles, including the town's response to the Massachusetts MBTA Communities Act and land transfers for a new public safety building. The moderator clarified the often-misunderstood concept of "reconsideration," which requires a two-thirds vote but could theoretically allow previously decided articles to be revisited throughout the meeting.
The Finance Committee's Chair underscored that their recommendation against the full school budget request stems from their fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers, not a reflection on educational values. Meanwhile, community members raised thoughtful questions about accessibility and representation at these crucial civic gatherings.
This meeting epitomizes grassroots democracy in action—where citizens directly shape their community's future through informed debate and collective decision-making. Whether you're concerned about education funding, municipal development, or simply want to participate in local governance, your voice matters at Town Meeting.
Join your neighbors on Monday at 7pm at Raynham Middle School. Doors open at 6pm—arrive early to secure your seat in this important civic exercise.
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I'm going to call the meeting to order of the Rainham Board of Selectmen here on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, here at Veterans Memorial Town Hall. Call the meeting to order at 7 o'clock. I just want to announce that. Thank you for joining us, whether if you're here or watching on cable. This meeting is being broadcast live on the Rainham Channel, both Comcast Channel 98 and Verizon Channel 34. It is also being recorded by Raycam for replay on the Rainham Channel. Please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance, Thank you. Our next item is the acceptance of the minutes of the regular meeting regular session of May 6, 2025, and the executive session of May 6, 2025, with the executive session when it's being withheld from public release at this time. Do we have a motion?
Speaker 1:A motion to accept as presented and a second Second. The motion has been made and seconded Any discussion Hearing none all in favor Aye Any opposed? If so, voted in. The minutes are accepted as printed. We have no department head reports here this evening. We have no appointments. We have no public hearings scheduled. Completion of old continuing business. Do you have anything, mr Pichetta?
Speaker 2:I do not, madam Chair, mr.
Speaker 1:Collins Under new business, we have discussion of our all-important annual town meeting and the warrant town meeting, and the warrants time meeting, obviously, is coming up on Monday, may 19th, and we have our Italian moderator. We have our finance director and members of our Finance Committee with us. Thank you all for joining us. Mr Barnes, will we begin with our finance? Will WE BEGIN WITH OUR FINANCE DIRECTOR GIVING US A REVIEW OF THE BUDGET, if THAT'S, ALL RIGHT SURE.
Speaker 6:GOOD EVENING, MADAM CHAIR.
Speaker 1:GOOD EVENING.
Speaker 6:GENTLEMEN, so I PROMISE NOT TO POWER POINT YOU TO DEBT THIS EVENING, powerpoint you to death this evening. So salient, or the most important points relative to the fiscal 26 budget general fund budget is it is four point two, six percent more than the fiscal 25 general fund budget. We have a total raise, an appropriate our total general fund budget of 50 million 834 865 versus 48 740 017. It represents an in a dollar increase of two million seventy eight thousand ninety three dollars. The Bridgewater Raina Regional School District has requested an additional four million five, sixty seven, seven, fourteen or twenty one, almost twenty two percent over their fiscal, over the fiscal 25 recommended school budget and I have a PowerPoint or I have a present slide for you to discuss that the Finance Committee has recommended an increase of 1 million 185 or five point six, five percent to the Bridgewater random regional school district budget. Article 8 will ask the voters to consider funding the difference between the district's request and the Finance Committee's recommendation, which will be subject to a contingency vote, override vote, if you will. In fiscal 26 the school committee certified a budget of 106 million 205 849. It represents a 17% increase over their fiscal 25 certified budget. The total budget budget allocated to random is 25 million 557 638, an increase of 21.8 percent over our fiscal 25 allocation amount. The amount included in the town's fiscal 26 proposed budget 22 million 175 227 includes 550 thousand 605 previously allocated from taxation from the Bridgewater random regional school districts capital expenditures. The amount requested in the proposition two and a half override ballot question. Three million nine thirty eight, oh seventeen, represents the difference between what the school committee is certified for their budget and the town's proposed budget, excluding the 550 605 which had been previously allocated for capital expenditures.
Speaker 6:This screen here and I apologize to everyone in advance, this was a cut and paste from the state that the division of local services website, but basically this page here, will give you an idea of what it's going to cost the average family house on sorry, average single-family homeowner whose house is valued at rough is roughly 589, and I pump 589, 580 one. It would represent a six hundred and thirty six dollar and 75 cent increase in their estimated taxes for fiscal 26 and I want to estimate, I want to emphasize, that IT WOULD REPRESENT A $636.75 INCREASE IN THEIR ESTIMATED TAXES FOR FISCAL 26. And I WANT TO ESTIMATE, I WANT TO EMPHASIZE THAT IT'S AN ESTIMATE, because WE HAVEN'T SET THE FISCAL 26 TAX RATE, so IT'S SUBJECT TO CHANGE. I WON'T BORE YOU WITH THE SORRY, with THE SLIDE, with THE SLIDE I'VE GOT, sorry with the slide. So basically, what I've done is you're going to see some pie charts here with the breakdown of the budget.
Speaker 6:Lastly, I'll get into the other significant matters. Your general stabilization fund has a balance of $7,711,469 as of April 30th. It represents approximately 15% of the recommended fiscal 25 budget Total stabilization fund balances or other total stabilization fund balances. Other total stabilization fund balances a 398 061. Also as of April 30th, 310 111 is available for union contract settlements in the collective bargaining stabilization fund. The balance of OPEB, the other post-employment benefits trust fund, was nine hundred twenty thousand eight ninety five as of as of April 30th. The total OPEB liability last measured as of June 30 2024 was sixteen point one million dollars, a decrease of six three point six million dollars from June 30 2023. That's a good thing the funding ratio.
Speaker 6:Trust fund balance divided by the OPEB liability as of June 30 was five point three an increase of one point six five percent. Your state and county assessments are pegged at or estimated. Divided by the topi liability as of June 30 was 5.3 an increase of 1.65 percent. Your state and county assessments are pegged at or estimated at right now four hundred and sixty five thousand four eighty six a minor increase of two hundred thirty seven dollars. The estimated fiscal snow and ice fiscal 25 snow and ice deficit seventy nine thousand two twenty eight, which is actually down eighty eight thousand three oh three from fiscal 24, and that's all I have for this evening. I'll take any questions that you may have not questions, but just clarifications.
Speaker 2:Chris page to each to you clarified for me a question I was going to have, but I think it might be worth clarifying it in writing. Sure, because I'm presuming this is gonna get distributed wider than what's here tonight. The third bullet, the five point six, five of income recommends that's for the school district that is for the school.
Speaker 6:Yes, it doesn't say that, okay.
Speaker 2:I think you should clarify, because when I first saw it I'm like the five, six, five here, and then the four, two, six in the first line yes sir does that, and then this is more.
Speaker 2:So just my own commentary. But I think you know we've been watching it and I think this just shows we have to continue to watch it and that's the OPEB liability. We're not even at a 10% funding rate for RATE FOR THAT AND WHILE I AGREE WITH CHRIS THAT THE $3.6 MILLION DECREASE GOES IN OUR FAVOR. We STILL HAVE MANY MILES TO WALK TO CATCH UP TO WHERE WE NEED TO BE ON THAT BECAUSE THAT WILL CERTAINLY HURT US IF WE GO OUT FOR FUTURE BOND EVALUATIONS AND CANDIDLY, I DON'T KNOW THAT WE'VE MADE ENOUGH PROGRESS ON THAT. Thank.
Speaker 1:YOU.
Speaker 3:THANK YOU, MR.
Speaker 1:PACHECO.
Speaker 3:I HAVE NO QUESTIONS, CHRIS. Thank YOU.
Speaker 1:THANK YOU FOR YOUR.
Speaker 3:EFFORT.
Speaker 1:THANK YOU, chris. You're WELCOME FINANCE COMMITTEE. Mr ALE, speak at all, or do you have any questions or comments?
Speaker 7:sure, all right then, mr moderator, you have the floor good evening so I'm not really gonna go into too much detail around the warrant talk about a couple of articles, but I really want to thank you for the opportunity first of all.
Speaker 7:I really want to talk about town meeting in general and the process in the procedures and what we're doing to prepare for what we would expect to be a heavy turnout. We are, first of all, did the art. The Warren is 36 articles, correct, 30, 37 articles, and what's unique about this article is there's really only one zoning article, which is which is light for an annual town meeting, and that's one of the articles that I'll just spend a minute on its. Article 37, which is the. The town's response to the. 36 is the town's response to the. Nope, that's not the right one. 36. 36 is the town's response to the Mass MBTA Communities Act and I would suspect or expect or suppose that somebody will make some sort of presentation on behalf of the planning board with regards to what they're trying to accomplish in order to get in line with the requirements of of the Act. It will require a two-thirds. No, will not. It would be a majority vote. Majority vote due to the fact that back in 2021, the state reduced the requirement for zoning articles that deal with affordable housing and housing stock, so this is a simple majority, but I think that there's. I don't think. I know that. There's some some information out there that may not be completely accurate with regards to the why of what the town is trying to accomplish with this and how, how they're trying to to meet the obligation of the act itself. So I you know, I'm hopeful that somebody within this building town hall addresses the reasoning behind the article to sort of maybe preempt some of the questions that will come from the floor. If we can answer them up front we'll be better for it.
Speaker 7:There's a number of articles dealing with the land transfers down at Borden Colony related to the public safety building. They're not zoning articles but they too will require a two-thirds. So they will require a two-thirds vote because it is transfer of property. And again, I'm sure somebody will explain what the town is trying to accomplish there to facilitate the building of the public safety building. And I know that there are some maps that will be on display and some black and white maps will be part of the packet that will be distributed and that can now be downloaded, of the packet that will be distributed and that can now be downloaded from the town website, I'm not mistaken. I would encourage all voters to be prepared and take some time prior to next Monday night to review the warrant. Obviously the the. I guess the main event if you lack of a better word will be the override vote and I expect that is where the majority of the increase in attendance will come from. It's pretty self-explanatory, I think you, you all, this board, has done a very good job explaining the process. Article 6 next Monday night, if it passes, will just be the first step of the process. The second night, if it passes, will just be the first step of the process. The second step, if it passes, will be this board determining whether or not to go to a townwide ballot at some point within, I think, 90 days is the requirement, and then where it would receive an up-or-down vote from the town. On the whole, I you know I don't have any particular opinions on on the article that I would share here, when I won't share my town meeting either. It's not the position of the moderator, but I would hope that we have a discussion that is factual and respectful. I guess it's probably the best way to to to talk about that town meeting itself again next Monday night, 7 pm.
Speaker 7:Rainham middle school auditorium to provide for what I anticipate is a need for for additional capacity. The auditorium sits approximately 440 people. I thought it was smaller, but that's the number I got from the district so I'm gonna go with it. We will. The town clerk's office will screen registered voters Outside the hall and allow them in, as provided they are a registered rain ham voter. Any visitors from other communities will, at least early in the night as they check in and sign in. That they do have to sign in will be held in the cafeteria where we will be streaming video of the meeting and audio. So I'm going to call it a viewing area, for lack of a better word, so that those visitors that we may not be able to fit into the main auditorium will at least be able to view the meeting. If we get to the point where we run out of room in the auditorium and we have to divert Rainham residents, rainham, if they want to address town meeting, they will have to. We'll have to appoint an assistant moderator that night. They will have to make their desire known to the system moderator and then they will have to go into the auditorium. The assistant moderator and I will be in close contact.
Speaker 7:Every opportunity will be given for all voters to to participate in town meeting and speak if they wish to. I always used to reserve the right to limit debate depending upon what it looks like Monday night. I'm inclined to say we'll give everybody at least three minutes to make their point known. If debate is light or lighter and people feel the need that they request more time, we can kind of deal with that on the spot. We have a heavy agenda and I really do want to get this done in one night if possible. I really don't want to have to come back on a second night. But we're not going to rush it. You know we want an informed vote, so we'll give everybody an opportunity to to voice their opinions.
Speaker 7:Non-residents, as we call them, visitors I'm not allowed to speak at town meeting. That's just common practice. If you don't have a vote here, you don't speak and you don't address town meeting, with the exception of elected officials or appointed officials of the town, who would be allowed to speak in the event that only they can provide pertinent information for in order to educate the voters on a specific item. So, for instance, if a voter has a question on on the budget and if Chris is the best person to address that, I would give him permission to to address town meeting, but beyond that, it's rain him voters and rain him voters only. What else can we talk about with?
Speaker 7:Regarding town meeting, you know, I think we're going to have a fair number of first-timers or very infrequent flyers, so I probably take this opportunity just to remind people that town meeting is the legislative body albeit a temporary legislative body of local government and, as such, there is a certain decorum and protocol that is expected of all participants, whether they are speaking or just in the hall observing. We can do this and we always have done this in a way that is Mr McKinnon used to like to say we can disagree, but we don't have to be disagreeable, right? So, in other words, what I'm saying is all comments should go through the moderator. We do not address each other as town meeting members. We don't call out people by name. We're not derogatory towards other comments. We have a adult discussion about the topic at hand. We have a long history in Rainham of doing just that. Very, very infrequently have we ever had to? I think only once in my in my 13-year tenure I've ever had to, you know, ask somebody on the floor to take a step back and think about the way they're approaching and discussing an article.
Speaker 7:I would hope that we don't have that. I don't think we will. I think it'll be a, a reasonable discussion. It's. It's a article six, in particular, with the override is it's a. It's a very emotional topic for people. I think back to the time when my kids were in school and just how much I would have fought for them to have the best experience possible, and sometimes it's hard to understand that there is another side to every, to every argument or debate and we just need to remember when we're there next Monday night, to be respectful of the other side. And I know we will, I think we will. I'm not I'm not overly concerned about it, but I do want to put it out there that there is this expectation in rainham that we kind of rise above that. That type of um, that type of conduct, um, we'll have. Um, we'll be using our clickers again, electronic voting. We'll be using them for article six. I've already determined that and if the zoning article, the mbta article, doesn't get a unanimous vote, we'll use it for that. We'll see how the four or five articles that deal with transfer of land there are two-thirds votes, common practices. If you don't have unanimous vote on a two-thirds vote, that you call for a counted vote, an electronic vote in this case. So they're quick. It's much easier than me coming off the stage with the clicker in my hand, and I think people are comfortable with the clickers as well, so we'll utilize that for sure if need be.
Speaker 7:Yeah, and I think that's pretty much the highlights that I wanted to hit. I would encourage people to come to participate. I know that there is an effort to provide for some form of of child care at the meeting, although I don't have the details and I know that that's not a town sponsored um service but I understand that the school district or maybe some parent groups. I don't want to, I don't want to get the wrong information out there, but I understand that there may be more information on that coming out shortly about those young parents that want to participate in the conversation, that have young kids at home and they would have to bring their kids with them if they were not able to get child care. Which does lead me to one thing that has come up a couple times over the last few days. We're going to vote on the override at Article 6. And then I would expect a lot of people in the audience. That's the business that they're there for and they may get up and think that the business is over.
Speaker 7:But there is this procedure called reconsideration and it's kind of been out there in social media about reconsideration. Can somebody really get up and say I would like to reconsider a previous vote and the answer is yes? A motion to reconsider is just that that you know new information has come forward or somebody in the audience feels that another vote on the, on the, on the article, is warranted. That can happen at any point, from the closing of article six or seven or eight, whatever article is being reconsidered, all the way to the end the dissolution of town meeting. So we could pass or not pass article six at eight o'clock pm on Monday night and at 11 pm if we're still going, somebody could make make a motion to reconsider article six and and the nice thing is in my opinion by local bylaw here in Rainham that requires a two-thirds vote.
Speaker 7:So there's a hurdle for town meeting to reconsider. So it's not quite as easy as convincing half the people in the room to reconsider the vote. Two-thirds is a bit of a higher hurdle but it's there and people need to know about it because we don't want people waking up if there was a successful motion to reconsider the vote. Two-thirds is a bit of a higher hurdle, but it's there and people need to know about it, because we don't want people waking up if there was a successful motion to reconsider and the vote changed. Although it's never happened in my tenure, who knows when it would happen. So that's, that's out there. I want to make sure that people understand what reconsideration means and and how it could be utilized if if somebody were to go in that direction at the town meeting I think I hit all my points.
Speaker 1:Answer any questions. Sure, I'll go first to the board, mr pacheco questions comments no questions.
Speaker 7:Thank you, as always, mr moderator, for being so thorough and I've been told I've been promised that um those of that attended the last couple annual time meetings in may. It's been a little stuffy in there. The air conditioner has been fixed. It was turned on today. It was confirmed it's working, so there should be a comfortable atmosphere. I would also say I'm sorry to interrupt, I know you were starting to go to questions. Please arrive early. If you intend on going.
Speaker 7:Town clerk will be there ready to sign people in at 6 pm. It does take time to get people through and checked in on the poll pads. So what we really don't want to happen is people to show up out of seven, have a line of a hundred people and delay the beginning of the meeting, because that pushes us seven not become 730 and you know finishing up at 1030 now becomes 11. So you know we would ask people to show up early, sign in, get a good seat and just relax and take a comfortable seat and we'll get started as soon as we can sorry, no questions but.
Speaker 3:I would second your comment regarding the hopefully random continues to rise above and you know we can have a healthy debate and every remains professional. But you said it is an emotional topic and you have to have empathy for the other side. But yeah. I have no reason to believe. But we won't continue to do what we've always done. But it's on the back, my mind for sure.
Speaker 1:I hope, fingers crossed if it happens to run late into the evening, is there a possibility that it would be recessed? Yeah, it could be.
Speaker 7:Yeah it could be if we get to the point where, obviously, if we lost the quorum but I don't think that's going to be an issue with kind of reconsideration hanging over, hanging over the proceedings. You know, I think once before, a few years back, when we had something on the warrant that was somewhat controversial I can't remember what article it was, but I think it got to be about 10 or 10, 15 or 10, 30 and I actually paused and said what does the meeting want to do? And you know the response was let's go, keep going. We do have a contingency plan. We would recess until the following night, tuesday night, at 7 pm, same place, same time, one night later, and we would complete our business. But again, the business from the prior night carries over to the next night. So town meetings never done until somebody motions of just motions, to dissolve the meeting and that in that motion passes thank you, mr Barnes.
Speaker 1:Do you have any questions for mr Donahue? Exhausted isa good word you must be exhausted, mr moderator, and I know you've put a lot of time and effort into this, so thank you. Thank you for being very thorough.
Speaker 7:Yeah, listen, we have no choice. People need to have confidence in the process. If we lose people's confidence in the process, I have a very easy job. My job is just to keep order and call the votes and read the warrant. Obviously, just to keep order and call the votes and read the warrant.
Speaker 7:Obviously, and the worst thing from a moderator's perspective that could happen to town meeting is for people to lose confidence in the process. So I am laser-focused on making sure that everybody in the audience understands exactly what's going on, why it's going on, and if they have any questions, they need to stop and they need to raise their hand, get to the microphone and ask a question why are you doing this? Why is it happening this way? I wasn't expecting that, because once that gavel comes down at the very end, it's over, unless there's a challenge, which we've not had. But we want people leaving that auditorium, when it's all said and done, with confidence in the system, confidence in this board, confidence in me as the moderator, confidence in your financial team, confidence in the entire structure of town government.
Speaker 1:And the town meeting. As our friend Don McKinnon used to say, it's the purest form of democracy, and not many communities have it at this point, so we're very fortunate.
Speaker 7:I think, Mr Price.
Speaker 4:I do have a question, because I was asked it today, about the obviously there are some articles that are quite long in nature and was asked are you going to read them or make a motion to Heck?
Speaker 7:no, so guidance from the Mass Moderates Association is to we use our articles as our motion, and guidance from the Mass Moderates Association is when it's feasible, you should read the entire motion. However, there are zoning articles, there are very long bylaws and the guidance that we get is as long as the people have an opportunity to review the warrant which they will because they will have it in their hand as long as the moderator makes a legitimate effort to roughly explain what people are voting on, then we can refer to the balance of the script as directed by the article. Balance of the script as directed by the article. So, no, I am not going to read three pages of script, but as long as I do a fair job, a good job of explaining what people are voting on and giving people an opportunity to ask questions, we're OK. Does that make sense? Has that been your experience in other communities?
Speaker 1:good, good excellent um, mr leachy, would you like to uh address this. Thank you, mr moderator thank you, sir.
Speaker 8:Hi, good evening. As john had mentioned, we expect that article 6 will probably take most of our time. If you had a chance to review the warrant, you'll notice that article 6 was the only article that the Finance Committee voted to not recommend, and I want to make it clear that that was based purely on financial considerations. The Finance Committee has a fiduciary responsibility to our taxpayers and to minimize the burden on them on this year's budget and on future budgets in the future. It's not a reflection on how we feel about providing a quality education to our students. The prime function of the Finance Committee is to review the individual department budgets, which we do almost on a weekly basis from January through March, and then we work on the total general fund budget with the select board, the town administrator and the finance director and we submit a balanced budget to the town, which we have done again this year. We encourage the free sharing of all of budget information between the town and the Bridgewater Rainham Regional School Committee. We worked very closely with them to achieve a nearly level services budget, the next step above just a level funded budget. This resulted in rain hams fiscal assessment increasing by five point six, five or one point two million dollars.
Speaker 8:As Chris had mentioned earlier, education is the town's largest service. It accounts for over half of our budget, fifty to fifty, 53 percent. The next largest is public safety, which comes in at 21 percent. The Education Reform Act of 1993 limits town meetings latitude in setting the school budget. But prop two and a half drives the maximum amount that can be provided with a balanced budget. For those who desire additional support for the school district and understand the impact to taxpayers this year and in the future, they can vote yes on article 6 to have an election on a proposition two and a half levy limit override. That's all I want to say. Thank you, any questions?
Speaker 2:no, no questions, I just want to, you know, take a moment to thank Gil and the Finance Committee. I think NO QUESTIONS. I JUST WANT TO TAKE A MOMENT TO THANK GIL AND THE FINANCE COMMITTEE. I THINK SOMETIMES IT GETS LOST IN TRANSLATION THAT GIL AND HIS COMMITTEE ARE VOLUNTEERS.
Speaker 8:AND.
Speaker 2:UNPAID AND PUT IN LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF HOURS A YEAR OF VOLUNTEER TIME TO ASSIST IN BUDGET PREP AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT management, and so just my appreciation.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I hope it all works out for the town very important role that you play too, even though we have, you know, very knowledgeable and excellent time administrator and finance director. The Finance Committee plays a very critical role and we appreciate it. Anybody in the audience have any questions either for our finance director? Yes, just stick it. Come to the podium and stick your name and address the audience. Have any questions either for our finance director? Moderator? Yes, just stick it.
Speaker 5:Come to the podium and stick your name and address, please name is Paul Beaulieu, 722 King Street and I suppose my question for the moderator and for the town administrators so if, if the constituency decided that doing town meeting on a weeknight radically hampers our turnout and we wanted to change that, would a citizen's petition be sufficient to bring that up and have that, ultimately, that bylaw be changed to have it be on a weekend so that maybe I don't know both parents of school-age children could attend? Things like that?
Speaker 7:I'll take that one. Okay, that's a great question and that is one way to change a town bylaw by bylaw. I probably am NOT going to be able to find it here, and it really doesn't matter. You're gonna have to take my word for this by bylaw. The Rainham annual town meeting is to be held at 7 pm. Actually we might have done away with the 7 pm, but anyway third Monday of the year of the month of May, my sorry third Monday of the month of May.
Speaker 7:You certainly a citizens petition can, can certainly change a town bylaw. That's not in question, I guess. What I would hope is that. So it has to happen by June 30th, that's for sure. We know that, and it can happen so early as to. The town's financial team wouldn't have a clear enough picture on what next year is going to look like. But I think the point of your question is could it be on a Saturday morning? Yeah, of course it could.
Speaker 5:I mean, my question anticipates not that we have any short-term impact. One obviously we know this process takes forever like any process should process takes forever, like any process should. However, the other question was we have 150 people give or take deciding everything in the town of Rainham every year, and I gladly try to become one of those 150 every year, but it's a lot bigger than a 150 person town.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I think it'll be bigger than 150 Monday night as well.
Speaker 7:But, you know, I guess what I would encourage you to do is I am agnostic to the time, place and date. That's not my role, that's the role of the Board of Selectmen, and so I would encourage you to, before you go the route of a citizen's petition, maybe coordinate with the board. There may or may not be a majority of the board that feels the same way you do about changing from a weeknight to a Saturday morning or or whatever. But short answer to your question is yes, a citizen's petition can change the local bylaw, but again, I would encourage you to work with the board.
Speaker 1:It it could be interesting too to see what type of turnout we get Monday night. Ok, anyone else have a question or comment for either the town administrator or town moderator?
Speaker 9:Leslie Cola, 121 Cardinal Circle. I'll leave my questions for you. I was on the chain of parents talking about this motion to reconsider. So if article 6 passes, let's just say it passes, and then somebody comes up and says motion to reconsider and we get a two-thirds vote not to reconsider. Can you make another motion to reconsider later on in the night.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's a good question.
Speaker 9:On the same question.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's a good question and that would be so. There's nothing in parliamentary procedure that prevents that. That would have to be a local bylaw, and I do know that there are towns that have a local bylaw that say only once you get one bite at that apple of reconsideration. We don't have that. So the answer to your question is no. You could motion to reconsider continually all night long if you wanted to. So yeah, sorry, I know.
Speaker 7:I so the short way to do it is just to deny the motion. That's why they have the two-thirds hurdle to make it difficult to pass. So if there's a motion to reconsider and it does not pass, you'll know what the feeling of the crowd is. I don't want to say never, never, say never. But I don't know that bringing it up again is going to have a different outcome.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 9:Another one. So you said about speaking for, like you, for one of the zoning you're hoping that somebody would come up for, like the MBTA, somebody would come up and kind of set the background. Does somebody do that for Article 6? Do you just read Article 6 and then it's public comment and people just go back and forth, or is there any other kind of education or those facts? Because I'm concerned that the people who come up to talk there'll be a little fact there'll be a lot of heart. Where do the facts come from?
Speaker 7:so the process is once the, once a motion, it's typically a motion to approve the article. Once that's on the floor, then we can open public debate and I will go to the audience for debate. In a perfect world, the first person to speak is somebody of authority from the, from the town that's providing factual information. That's, that was what I was referring to with the MBTA Communities Act. Now, in this scenario, article 6.
Speaker 7:In a perfect world, if there is somebody that is going to go up, get up and give a presentation about the facts of the budget I'm assume you're you're talking about then that would that, should be, or would be somebody from the school district, either superintendent or the school committee. It's their budget, so they should be the ones that give a factual account of what they're asking for. Absent that, I'm not gonna put the Fincom or the or the our finance team on on the spot here, but they would be appropriate as well to get up. I think what you're asking is who sets the table right? The best way to set the table is for the people that are proposing the articles to get up and give a factual account of the what's, the why's and the how's. I don't know if that's going to happen with Article 6. Nobody has reached out to me and said that there's going to be a presentation or but.
Speaker 9:I can't ask you about that, though I'm sorry If you are. If there is anyone that's planning on doing that you don't, do you know? Are you allowed to answer that? Are you allowed to engage in?
Speaker 1:That's, I did ask Superintendent Powers today. He said he wasn't planning to do a presentation presentation, but he will be there to answer any questions or provide any information, so maybe check with him okay thank you any closing comments mr moderator we're good, mr Pacheco no, thank you mr.
Speaker 3:Collins good, thank you we're good, dot Greg.
Speaker 1:Okay, so moving on with our agenda. Then Next we have discussion and vote on advertising alternate member of planning board. We did mention this last week and basically what I think we're looking for at this time is just a vote to advertise the position of alternate member of the planning board. Usually, when we advertise a position that's an appointment to a board or a committee, we advertise on the website for two weeks. The PLANNING BOARD. Usually, when WE ADVERTISE A POSITION, that's AN APPOINTMENT TO A BOARD OR A COMMITTEE, we ADVERTISE ON THE WEBSITE FOR TWO WEEKS. So IF WE HAD A MOTION TO, maybe OUR TOWN MODERATOR COULD PUT THAT ON THE WEBSITE TOMORROW AND WE'LL TAKE APPLICATIONS. If ANYONE IS INTERESTED, send A LETTER OF INTEREST AND A RESUME TO THE BOARD AND WE'LL SHARE THAT WITH THE PLANNING BOARD.
Speaker 2:YES, I HAVE A MOTION TO APPROVE CONSISTENT WITH BEST PRACTICE.
Speaker 3:THANK YOU.
Speaker 1:ANY DISCUSSION HEARING NONE. All IN FAVOR AYE. Any OPPOSED. It IS SO VOTED. Thank, so voted. Thank you. Next we have discussion and vote on our summer meeting schedule. As you know, during the summer we meet every other week instead of every week. So according to the schedule, we always work it around 4th, july, 29th, august 12th, august 26th and summer's over already. Do we have a motion?
Speaker 2:Yeah, motion to approve and a second.
Speaker 1:Second, any discussion Hearing, none all in favor, aye Any opposed, so voted. We also have a request for a one-day special permit from the Rainham Lions Club for a clam boil on June 8th, and I do think we do have a notification from the Rainham Park and Recreation Commission that they have approved that. So do we have a motion.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Motion to approve Second.
Speaker 1:Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion Hearing. None all in favor, aye, any opposed, so voted. We have discussion and vote on hiring Michael Walsh Jr for the position of part-time administrative clerk, and I will ask Mr Barnes can you give us some information about this? This was a position that was advertised.
Speaker 7:What are you looking for, Greg?
Speaker 4:What are you looking for? Oh, I was looking for a speaker. Oh, you're doing a little.
Speaker 9:I was looking for a speaker. That's a camera, that's a camera. Is it under his papers?
Speaker 5:No.
Speaker 4:So, as you know, we lost the administrative assistant for the veterans, pat Montagano, who unfortunately is no longer with us. She did not only a lot of work for the veterans but also for the select board. We reconfigured the position a little, so acknowledging the fact that she did quite a lot for the board and and myself. So we are hiring this individual. We think he's very well qualified. He has an impressive background in terms of experience in management and in other areas and, additionally, he is a veteran, so he has a lot of knowledge of veterans and I've already seen he can commiserate with, with with veterans. So I want to stress, this is a 12-hour position, no benefits, so we're lucky to have someone like this and we'll put him to good use. We have a lot of projects we could use someone with his expertise on.
Speaker 1:Thank you, mr Barnes, and, as you said, he has an impressive resume and he is a 24-year veteran of the United States Naval Reserves. He has a master's degree, bachelor's degree in business administration, and I believe you, Mr Pacheco, were on the screening committee that interviewed all of the applicants. We had, I think, several applicants.
Speaker 2:We had a number of highly qualified applicants and it's certainly a challenging decision, but, as Greg said, I think Mike rose above. One of the things that stood out was he was a veteran as well highly organized administrative experience, office experience and very proficient with technology, which will be helpful toENT WITH TECHNOLOGY, which WILL BE HELPFUL TO US IN OUR OFFICE. So, yeah, with THAT, I WOULD MOTION TO APPROVE.
Speaker 1:EXCELLENT SECOND. Do WE HAVE ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION HEARING NONE? All IN FAVOR. Aye ANY OPPOSED, SO VOTED.
Speaker 2:CHAIR GIVEN THE CONTINGENCY PLANNING WE'VE PUT IN PLACE FOR TOWN MEETING, I WOULD PROPOSE THAT WE DO NOT HAVE A MEETING NEXT TUESDAY, may 20TH. We MOVE OUR MEETING TO 6 PM MAY 19TH, prior TO THE TOWN MEETING. In THE EVENT THAT WE NEED TO HAVE A SECOND NIGHT OF TOWN MEETING, our MEETING WOULD NOT CONFL, so I would make a motion to that effect for 6 pm in our meeting room on May 19th.
Speaker 1:On Monday night. Monday night, okay, any further discussion Hearing. None all in favor, aye Any opposed, so voted. Town Administrators Report, mr Barnes.
Speaker 4:Well, you took away my first item so we don't need to talk about that. But at this point we're looking at having a meeting on Monday at 6. It would be here. We're hoping to have perhaps a union settlement. There's an article on the warrant to address that, should we get that settlement. I should also stress we are now entering into negotiating negotiations with the fire union. So we're we're currently in negotiations with highway police and and fire thank you, mr Barnes.
Speaker 1:Any questions for mr Barnes, mr Pacheco, mr Collins? Selectmen's report mr.
Speaker 2:Not a report just a couple notes, as we had last week. There's additional information up on the MBTA Communities Act on our website, including a Q&A that many of us worked on. Greg, I know we still have to get those additional grant documents up and I also just want to flag that we still have to get up the financial stuff related to the override on the website. Hopefully sooner rather than later, and that's all I have.
Speaker 1:We'll HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF FINANCIAL STUFF RELATED TO THE OVERRIDE ON THE WEBSITE. Hopefully, sooner RATHER THAN LATER AND THAT'S ALL I HAVE, madam CHAIR. Thank YOU, mr PACHECO, mr COLLINS, I JUST WANT TO SAY THAT IT'S A REALLY IMPORTANT WEEK COMING UP. We HAVE THE ANNUAL RAINEYAM MEMORIAL DAY PARADE, so, hopefully, everybody PLANS FOR THAT. It WILL KICK OFF FROM THE MARYLAND, the LIBERTY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AT 10 AM. We HAVE FIVE UNITS MARCHING VANS, floats, all KINDS OF GREAT PEOPLE FROM RAINEYAM, our POLICE, our FIRE, our HIGHWAY. Everybody's going to be either watching or involved. So hopefully, mark your calendar. It'll be the same route that we've used always used down pleasant street through the four corner is intersection along south main street, right by town hall here, turning right onto king phillips street and then concluding with a really nice memorial day ceremony at the gazebo. So hopefully you can all join us for that and just want to thank everybody that's been helping put that together.
Speaker 1:And Correspondence we have no correspondence Press time. Do we have anyone from the press here that would like to speak to us? Any emergency business, mr Ditchie, mr Collins and Citizen and community input. Does anyone have any further comments for the board COLLINS? Citizen AND COMMUNITY INPUT. Does ANYONE HAVE ANY FURTHER COMMENTS FOR THE BOARD SEEING NONE PERFORMANCE OF ADMINISTRATIVE DUTIES.
Speaker 1:Just TO REPORT THAT I'VE REVIEWED AND ASSIGNED THE TOWN OF RAYNE AN INVOICE AND PAYOR WARRANTS STATED MAY 13, 2025. And WITH THAT I AM LOOKING FOR A MOTION. I am looking for a motion to move into executive session in accordance with Mass General Laws, chapter 30A, section 21A3, to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the Chair so declares, specifically the Highway Union, and we will recess and come back to open sessions for the sole purpose of adjourning, with no additional business to be conducted. We have a motion, union, AND WE WILL RECESS AND COME BACK TO OPEN SESSIONS FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF ADJOURNING, with NO ADDITIONAL BUSINESS TO BE CONDUCTED. We.
Speaker 8:HAVE A MOTION. So MOVED, mr PACHECO.
Speaker 1:AYE, mr COLLINS. Chair VOTES AYE. We ARE GOING INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION, but WE THANK YOU ALL FOR.