$4 million override vote set for May; will fund Grafton schools, fire, municipal needs

The magic number is $4 million and the ballot question is set for May 19 — that’s the final cost for Grafton’s second override vote in five years.

The $4 million, spread out over five years, will address the Grafton schools’ looming financial crisis, add funding for additional municipal personnel, and bring in the town’s first full-time fire chief and two fire officials.

The outcome of Thursday night’s joint session of the Select Board, School Committee and Finance Committee did not go exactly as Town Administrator Tim McInerney had planned. A memo sent to Tri-Comm members Wednesday laid out plans for a $3.2 million override vote in October, well after the July 1, 2020 start of Fiscal Year 2021.

The two-and-a-half hour meeting, which crammed the three boards and a large audience into Conference Room A, had some dramatic turns of events.

Marijuana Moments

Finance Committee Chairman Mathew Often expressed the FinCom’s concern about McInerney’s projection of $300,000 in marijuana-related revenue. Only one proposed business has passed the Planning Board and still needs state licensing; others are still jumping through municipal hoops.

“We’re concerned this is not a balanced budget… we don’t have a realistic expectation that we are going to see those revenues coming in,” Often said.

Finance Committee member Mark Haddad, who is also administrator of the town of Groton, agreed.

“By year five, you are going to have a $300,000 problem,” he said, examining the budget projections. “If the override doesn’t pass, you’re going to have a $300,000 problem anyway.”

“But we do have confidence,” protested Select Board Chairperson Jennifer Thomas.

Select Board member Peter Carlson said not everyone has confidence, recalling money the town was going to receive from a UPS facility that never came to fruition in FY2020.

“We can’t count on whatever that amount is going to be,” Carlson said, suggesting that any marijuana revenue would be better spent on one-time expenses. “If we get it, great. Let’s knock something off the capital list.”

“It’s silly for us, when we’re talking about an override for $3.2 million to be focusing on $300,000,” Select Board member Donna Stock said.

“I have confidence, too, that the staff can manage $300,000 (if it needs to be cut from the municipal budget)”, Select Board member Doreen DeFazuio added. I don’t see any need to remove it.”

Haddad objected. “That makes it sound like there’s fat in the budget if we can immediately find $300,000 to cut if the money doesn’t come through.”

Sounding the fire alarm

Fire Department Study Committee member Ray Mead made an impassioned plea for immediate funding of the fire department positions. While the town has applied for a grant to fund the fire chief, the two fire captain positions, under McInerney’s plan, would not be filled until FY2022 and FY2023.

Grafton’s entire fire department — including Fire Chief Mickey Gauthier — is made up of on-call firefighters. But the numbers are dwindling, command staff are reaching the mandatory retirement age of 65, and the town needs to plan for its future.

“We are one of the only departments around that doesn’t have a full-time chief,” Mead said, noting that Gauthier balances a full-time job with his chief duties. “You can’t run a fire department without a full-time command staff.”

“We have more trucks than people to put on them,” Mead added. “This is serious. We need to add $418,000 to an override, to the budget, not in 2023 but now.”

The proposed override then grew from $3.2 million to an even $4 million.

Timing matters

The joint decision by McInerney, Superintendent of Schools Jay Cummings, and the School Committee, Finance Committee and Select Board chairpersons to opt for an override vote at the October Town Meeting rather than May came as a surprise to many on the Tri-Comm.

“We looked at Oct. 27 as our recommendation, based on the best thinking of the three chairs and staff,” McInerney said. By October, he said, the town will know if the fire chief grant comes through and have a better estimate on marijuana revenue.

But an October vote would also bring the immediate layoff of two staffers at Grafton High School at the end of the school year. While some officials argued that an October vote would give more time to educate the public on the needs, others argued that the 2014 override campaign unfolded over an almost identical spring timeline — and passed.

“If you’re going to do an override, do it. Don’t wait,” Mead advised.

“You set the operating budget in May. People are used to it,” Haddad said. “You don’t set the operating budget in October, you adjust it.”

But Stock, who served on the School Committee during a time when the town shot down school project before building the Millbury Street Elementary School, adding modular classrooms to the former Grafton Middle School and approving the new Grafton High School, advocated for October.

“We had 18 years where we were advocating for school space… the public was educated,” Stock said. “I think that’s why we got the first override done in such a short amount of time.”

TL;DR

An override request for $4 million will be on the ballot for the May 19 town election.

The override funds would be spread out over five years between the school and municipal budgets, funds for capital expanses, and immediate funding for the three full-time fire positions.

The slideshow above details various budget scenarios; Scenario 2A is the closest match. Also above is the memo outlining the initial plans.