By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Spring Town Meeting overwhelmingly approved the fiscal year 2024 operating and capital budgets on Monday night.
While Town Moderator Joe Markey was going through the $65,049,217.48 municipal operating budget for FY24 that appeared as Article 6 on the warrant, Patrice Lane resident Patricia Campbell made an amendment to reduce Town Administrator Rob Dolan’s salary from $212,500 to $196,824. She called the raise Dolan received earlier this year “excessive.”
“He knew what he was making when he came here,” said Campbell.
Select Board member Phil Crawford recalled that the board unanimously approved Dolan’s raise earlier this year. He said the Finance Committee endorsed the raise as well.
“As chair last year, I looked at his salary and his contract’s structure before it came up for renewal,” said Crawford. “I looked at 15 towns that are comparable to the town of Lynnfield. We found that he was significantly underpaid compared to his counterparts. Town Administrator Dolan is one of the finest in the commonwealth, and we felt it should be done not only because of his position, but because it is well deserved. When we looked at the comparable towns, the range was between $210,000 and $225,000. Even with the increase, he is still on the lower end. He was happy with that and we were happy with that.”
Townsend Road resident Steven Connolly said he was “surprised” by Campbell’s amendment.
“Our town administrator does a fantastic job,” said Connolly. “The revised $196,842 salary would mean no increase for FY24. We would be advocating for no raise for one of the better town administrators in the state during a period of significant inflation. That doesn’t sound right to me.”
Select Board member Dick Dalton agreed.
“There is a market rate for town administrators,” said Dalton. “We have one of the very best, and he was not being paid at the top of scale. Whether it’s a town administrator, fire chief, police chief or DPW director, you have to pay people in order to attract quality people.”
After the discussion, Spring Town Meeting overwhelmingly rejected Campbell’s motion to reduce Dolan’s salary by a 118-43 margin.
Campbell criticized the town for appropriating $5,074 for the Personnel Board even though there are no members serving on the panel.
“The Personnel Board is in our Charter,” said Campbell. “The Personnel Board is supposed to help with negotiations and labor law. That is a great thing, but they don’t use it. I would like to see more expertise on negotiations and labor law. Why don’t we have a Personnel Board?”
Assistant Town Administrator Bob Curtin said the Personnel Board informed late Town Administrator Bill Gustus during his tenure that the board did not want to participate in contract negotiations with unions anymore.
“They weren’t prepared to do so because they didn’t work in town and were not familiar with what other communities were paying,” said Curtin. “Since that time, it has been done by the town administrator with my assistance and the assistance of department heads.”
Curtin said the $5,074 could be used for arbitration purposes with a union or a town employee if the need arises.
Campbell also criticized the town for only budgeting $25,000 for sidewalk repairs in the DPW budget. She also criticized the DPW for paving side streets as opposed to the town’s main roadways.
“The main roads are terrible,” said Campbell.
In response to a question from Chatham Way resident Jordan Hegedus, Dolan said the town will be appropriating $1.2 million for road construction for the second straight year. He said the DPW’s road improvement program is funded by $550,000 in the capital budget, Chapter 90 funds from the state and grants.
“The roads are evaluated by an independent company every three years to ensure we are addressing the roads in the worst condition,” said Dolan.
Similar to past Town Meetings, Campbell criticized the School Department once again. She took issue with the number of buses the DPW is using for the schools, which she said is “adding to greenhouse gases, causing pollution and contributing to climate change.” She also claimed most students don’t ride the bus, and said school transportation costs should be moved from the DPW budget to the School Department’s spending plan.
Campbell also said the School Department did not give her a copy of the line item budget that she had requested. She noted that the Finance Committee’s budget book only contained three lines for education spending instead of each line item that occurs for other town departments.
“The total for the schools far exceeds half of our budget,” said Campbell. “We have crossed a very serious bridge this year because the schools are no longer providing our Select Board, our Finance Committee and citizens like me with the line item budget. I can’t collect it this year because they are claiming they don’t have one. How did our Select Board and Finance Committee make a recommendation for the school budget when they don’t know what went into the bottom line? This is a very serious problem.”
Dolan addressed Campbell’s school budget concerns because Superintendent Kristen Vogel was out of town and no member of the School Committee got up to discuss the matter. He noted that school budgets typically represent the overwhelming majority of a community’s budget.
“Lynnfield has some of the top schools in the commonwealth,” said Dolan. “I have never seen a more transparent and open budget that is voted on in the most democratic way possible in the form of New England Town Meeting. I would never advocate for a lack of transparency with the town’s largest budget. Our schools spend the money in a way that is purposeful for direct services for students.”
After the discussion, Town Meeting approved the FY24 operating budget by a 149-23 vote.
Before Town Meeting voted to adjourn, Durham Drive resident Ellen Crawford urged the School Committee to include the entire line item budget in the FinCom’s budget book going forward. She was given a round of applause.
Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Tom Geary informed the Villager on Tuesday that Campbell was given a copy of the School Department’s budget book, which contains a narrative summary of the district’s spending plan along with line items for personnel salaries, non-personnel spending and revenue offsets as well as special education information. The school system’s budget book does not include the salaries for each individual School Department employee.
Capital budget OK’d
Spring Town Meeting also approved the town’s FY24 capital budget, totaling $2,880,929.
“This is a very robust capital budget,” said Dolan.
Connolly inquired if the capital budget includes any funds for field improvements.
While Select Board member Phil Crawford said no, he noted that the money included in the Fields Maintenance Fund is used field maintenance. He also said the Lynnfield High School tennis courts project will be going out to bid next week.
Canterbury Road resident Stephanie Slate inquired if any of the vehicles that the town is looking to purchase will be diesel, gas, electric or hybrid.
Dolan said the vehicles that will be purchased will run on diesel and gasoline, but said the town will look into purchasing electric and/or hybrid vehicles in the future.
Police Chief Nick Secatore added that the town could purchase electric or hybrid police cruisers down the road, but he said they are more expensive. He also said the town needs to figure out a way to charge those vehicles before they are purchased.
Village Row resident Andrew Maresco asked why the FY24 capital budget includes $48,000 for a Pillings Pond dredging feasibility study.
Conservation Commission Chair Don Gentile said Pillings Pond “has some serious issues.”
“Half of Pillings Pond was dredged in the 1990s,” said Gentile. “That work was stopped. The northern part by Bellevue Island was never dredged. Because of that, Pillings Pond has some severe water quality issues. That side of the pond is also filling in because sedimentation is piling up. Some portions of that area of the pond are extremely shallow. Eventually, that half of Pillings Pond will fill in and will become a meadow.”
Gentile said Waltham-based ESS Group, Inc. recommended that a feasibility study be conducted to “assess the current state of the pond” and what should be the town’s next steps.
“The major question is whether it would be viable to dredge that side of the pond or portions of the pond in order to improve the health of the pond,” said Gentile. “We are far from proposing that we dredge the pond. We are asking for $48,000 to have an engineering firm undertake this analysis to determine how do we solve the problems that we have.”
Chatham Way resident Antonio Carangelo inquired why $250,000 for school technology expenses was included in the capital budget and not the operating budget. He also asked why revenue from the state’s millionaire’s tax and gambling revenue were not included in either spending plan for the town.
Dolan explained that revenue from the millionaire’s tax and gambling goes to the state.
“We don’t see that money directly,” said Dolan. “That goes to the state’s general fund, and the Legislature uses a formula to appropriate the money to cities and towns.”
Geary said the $250,000 technology request is used to purchase equipment as well as maintain the district’s infrastructure.
After the discussion, Town Meeting approved the FY24 capital budget 152-20.