By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The Select Board is in the process of studying the current $5 million Proposition 2 ½ override proposal to cover school and municipal government operating expenses.
After Town Administrator Rob Dolan gave an overview of the proposed $5 million override of Proposition 2 ½, the budget strains that caused the $4 million shortfall and the upcoming informational meeting schedule during a March 20 meeting (see separate stories), Select Board Chair Dick Dalton thanked him for giving an “excellent presentation.”
“Whether people like what they heard, you certainly presented all of the issues in a very fair and comprehensive manner,” said Dalton.
Select Board Vice Chair Phil Crawford said the FY26 operating budget is the “most challenging” budget he has seen in the 12 years he has served on the Select Board and the five years he previously served on the Finance Committee.
“About a dozen years ago, we didn’t have MarketStreet and we didn’t have capital budgets,” said Crawford. “We had about $100,000 to spend on capital. We have been benefitting from MarketStreet and we benefitted financially from COVID believe it or not. We are now at the end of that wave, and we are looking for the best solution here. There is obviously a need for an override this year, and there is no way around it.”
While Crawford said he supports the override, he is “still doing my due diligence and still trying to connect some of the numbers that I have with what information I have.” He recently asked Superintendent Tom Geary to answer a variety of questions about the School Department’s proposed operating and capital budgets.
Crawford said the Select Board and the Finance Committee will be holding the annual joint public hearing on the proposed operating and capital budgets for FY26 on Monday, March 31, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Al Merritt Center.
“I think at the public hearing I will be a little more vocal on how I feel about some of the pieces,” said Crawford. “I am certainly going to have a lot more information between now and then.”
Select Board member Alexis Leahy recalled that department heads have presented their respective departments’ spending plans to the Select Board over the past couple of months. She said residents can watch the budget presentations that were given to the Select Board on the town’s Vimeo page at https://vimeo.com/user36270762.
“If people have specific questions about the department requests and how the departments made their budgets, those are all online,” said Leahy. “Feel free to reach out with any questions about that. The recommendations really reflect some thoughtfulness about what each of the departments need versus what they are going to get. (Dolan) did a really good job balancing that and making sure that the entire town is reflected.”
Leahy also encouraged residents to attend the open sessions that Dolan will be holding.
“I want to encourage people to go to all of these open sessions because there will be a lot of chances to get questions answered,” said Leahy.
Leahy said the proposed override seeks to “keep an eye toward the future” by “ensuring that we are planning appropriately.”
“If you have any additional questions about what has gone into this recommendation, please reach out,” said Leahy.
Dalton said the Select Board will be spending this week “continuing our due diligence on this issue so that we are well-versed and comfortable with any recommendation we have to make.”
In response to a question from Finance Committee member Sarah Kelley, Dalton said the Select Board will be “very actively drilling down” into the proposed spending plans for the town and the School Department.
“As part of that, I am going to be asking the chair of the School Committee to have a joint executive session with the Select Board so we can review items that can’t be discussed publicly,” said Dalton. “That is specifically labor negotiations. We are going to go through that process. There will be questions not only for the school district, but every one of the departments if need be.”
Kelley asked if the Select Board will be voting on recommending the $5 million Proposition 2 ½ override on March 31.
“Our intention would be to vote after the public hearing,” said Dalton. “We would never as a matter of practice vote prior to a public hearing. We need that input before we can make a decision.”
Leahy recalled that each Select Board member asked the department heads different questions about their respective budgets during previous meetings. While she said some of the questions were answered during those meetings, Leahy said some were not.
“We still have some outstanding questions,” said Leahy.
Kelley said the community is “interested in hearing what those questions are and hearing the answers.”
“We are also interested in hearing what the community has to say,” said Dalton in response.