Williams ‘Wins’ Concessions, Withdrawing Petitions at Town Meeting

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Photo: Jim Williams (left)

He’s been an elected officials for just about two months, but in that time, Selectman Jim Williams has sent Belmont’s thinking on town finances all topsy-turvy.

With his surprise election in April – the four-year resident defeated incumbent Andy Rojas by nearly 500 votes – Williams has used his time before and after his election seeking greater “transparency” on a number of financial issues facing Belmont’s future, specifically how the town views and manages long-term expenses related to pensions and other post-employment benefits (know as OPEB).

And it was likely that this month, the town’s legislative body – the nearly 290 member Town Meeting – would have encountered Williams’ goal of bringing those issues into the public forum as the Glenn Road resident filed four citizen petitions with the common goal of “opening the books” of town governance, Williams told the Belmontonian.

But Town Meeting members who were looking forward to several hours of debate and votes on the petitions will be disappointed to learn that Williams will withdraw his articles during the second night of June’s Town Meeting as town officials and members of the Warrant Committee – the financial watchdog for Town Meeting – have agreed to follow through with, at least, reporting on the ideas behind three of the four petitions.

“The selectmen [chair Sami Baghdady and Mark Paolillo] agreed to do the last three [petitions],” Williams told the Belmontonian on Monday, June 1 before Town Meeting reconvened.

The trio of petitions the selectmen agreed to be:

  • sending a quarterly report on the status of free cash to Town Meeting members,
  • the creation work sessions on the development and use of a 20-year financial forecast model for the town, and
  • the establishment of an in-house risk management policy which will make a lot easier because you can anticipate problems.

(The fourth petition would have required all reporting bodies – the selectmen and the warrant and capital budget committees – to provide in writing 48 hours before Town Meeting why they held either a favorable or unfavorable position on articles before the legislative body. It was decided that each body would have to decide on its own how to report this information.)

The other two selectmen’s deferring to William’s petition is somewhat of a surprise as both the Warrant Committee and the selectmen had or prepared to vote an “unfavorable recommendation” on each of the petitions. In the case of the Warrant Committee, the votes on the quartet of articles were nearly all unanimous.

Why the change of heart?

Williams said once he made his presentation to the selectmen, “they decided it was the right thing to do.” The former Wall Street banker said that all he has been asking the town for is “the same transparency any financial body is expected to provide. I don’t see how this is so revolutionary.”

Williams hopes that new information and vigorous debate will lead to what has been his clarion call of tackling the town’s fiscal obligations sooner than later.

As the selectmen are preparing to take a look at areas of debt, the Warrant Committee will take on a “summer project,” according to committee member Adam Dash, to review the town’s current pension payment plan with an attempt to mitigate the cost to town taxpayers.

For Baghdady, the purpose of the new long-range forecast committee “to look at our existing policy and see if there is anything more that can be done. We have a big obligation on paper [approximately $174 million] currently so the first question will be what more can we do as a fiscally-responsible community.”

Baghdady hopes that the efforts by the selectmen and the Warrant Committee on long-range debt “will come together as they really do go hand-in-hand” although pensions payments follow state policy while OPEB debt has not dictated.

While Williams believes the outcome of this new era of fiscal “glasnost” will lead to paying down OPEB debt early, Baghdady said that “it is possible that after the report is complete, it might tell us to ‘stay the course’.”

The current policy is for Belmont’s pension obligations to be paid down steadily – at an ever increasing amount annually – until 2027 and then focus on OPEB. Until that time, a token amount – this year about $366,000 in the next fiscal year – will be transferred into an OPEB stabilization fund.

Town Treasurer Floyd Carman has stated while small, the annual payment is seen by the bond rating agencies as a proactive step in facing its debt obligations, ultimately resulting in the town being one of only 30 or so communities with a stellar AAA bond rating.

“But I think we do owe it to ourselves to go through the process and the analysis,” Baghdady told the Belmontonian.

 

 

Last-Second Fiddling Reverts Belmont Center ‘Green’ Back to an Island

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Photo: The “access” road in front on Belmont Savings Bank.

The planning took four year to finalize, the blueprints were drawn, the contractors hired and the work underway.

And for those who worked to bring the Belmont Center Reconstruction project to fruition, it appeared that all that was left was for a ribbon cutting late in the year to celebrate the upgrade to the roadway, new sidewalks and other amenities that is expected to last for the next half century.

But being Belmont, the final word is never the last say. 

Despite a half decade of public meetings led by the Belmont Traffic Advisory Committee and with workers tearing up curbing and cutting trees beginning last week, the Belmont Board of Selectmen called a special meeting for Thursday, May 28 at the Beech Street Center to hear from some of the apparently 200 residents who decided the last second was an appropriate time to be heard about the entire project.

Led by 96-year-old Lydia Phippen Ogilby of Washington Street who took pencil to paper to call for the meeting to hear from the signatories – many who are north of Belmont’s median age of 42 – who felt passed over on the opportunity to express their concerns on the finished design, submitted their own “Plan B” revision. 

Saying the reconstruction will be with the town for more than a half century, Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady said aspects of the project “raised so much concern” that despite the lateness of the challenge, the meeting was warranted in an effort to find a “revenue neutral way” to find a compromise.

In fact, the opponents were apparently perturbed with just a pair of the design’s details; the removal of about 10 diagonal parking spaces located in front of the Belmont Savings Bank headquarters at 2 Leonard St., and the related one-way “access” road – actually the currently parking area – connecting Moore Street with Concord Avenue.

Under the TAC design plans approved by d the Board of Selectmen and reviewed by a Special Town Meeting in November when it approved a funding package, the parking spaces and road were removed to create a “Town Green” in front of the bank, with benches and a flag pole that would attract residents and visitors to a central landmark Belmont Center. 

“It provides Belmont a ‘green’ which many towns have but we have been lacking,” Glenn Clancy – as director of the Community Development Office is overseeing the project for the town – told the Belmontonian before the meeting. 

In the current plan, known as Plan A at the meeting, there would be three parking spaces next to the existing exit from the bank’s covered parking garage with additional parking spaces created near by along Concord Avenue near Town Hall. 

While the meeting was established to hear from critics, most speakers expressing opinions were supportive of the current design.

“It would be a big mistake to change the new design,” said former State Rep. and Selectman Anne Paulsen, saying the “town green” concept would make the site “a friendlier space” while keeping parking and the access road will result in the space that “only a few people” would want to spend time.

Paul Rickter of Cross Street approved eliminating the cut-through from Moore to Concord as it would make the center “a little more pedestrian-friendly.”

While supporters were , the tardy opponents were not satisfied with the design as it would effect how they conduct business especially at Belmont Savings’ main branch. 

The second design – supported by the petitioners – would revert the Green back to a tear-shaped island surrounded by traffic and parking while keeping the “short cut” from Moore to Concord, which several residents note is a convenience so not having to enter onto Leonard Street to turn right onto Concord. 

Joel Semuels of Bellevue Road, who is on the board for the town’s Council on Aging, said reduction of parking spaces would be a detriment to the “25 percent of residents over 60” (Editor’s note: the 2010 US Census data indicated that 16 percent of Belmont residents are 65 years old and older) seeking to do business at the bank. Semuels approved of four parallel spaces situated before the bank’s garage exit in the Plan B scheme.

Scott Tellier, who with his father owns commercial property in Belmont Center, said preserving parking spaces – even three or four that will be “lost” in the entire project – was paramount for stores and restaurants to retain customers seeking to shop in the commercial hub.

“We want to see parking,” said Tellier.

Bob Mahoney, the president and CEO of Belmont Savings, said he could support the changes begin proposed although he did want to promote the green space adjacent the bank. He noted even under Plan B, the green will increase by approximately 40 percent from its present footprint.

The dilatory nature of the opponent’s complaints, as well as their insistence their concerns were not incorporated into the reconstruction’s plans, did not sit well with Linda Nickens, TAC chair who pointedly told the few opponents in attendance the committee didn’t sit “in a dark room” developing the project, which, she added, was viewed favorably by the selectmen and the business community last year.

“They did like it,” said Nickens.

With numerous public meeting TAC set aside to hear from all sides of the measure, the opponents “never came to complain” or be part of the process, said Nickens, calling the belated campaign to alter the plans “disappointing.”

As a supporter of the current plan, Rickter said his objection with the meeting is that “this change was made at the eleventh hour with no clear notice that the Selectmen would be making such a substantial change to the design.”

“We don’t know if they are representative of the town as a whole or merely a very vocal minority; the process never allowed us to find that out,” he told the Belmontonian.

Given the last say, Ogilby – whose family first ventured into what is now Belmont in the 1600s – expressed her feelings in a labyrinthine statement, in which she complimented Clancy, talked about the news about town, how she likes the traffic roundabout in front of her house at the corner of Grove and Washington, and all the “nice” residents near her 19th-century farm house for signing the “papers.” 

In the end, the selectmen unanimously voted to support Plan B which the opponents championed. Baghdady, who earlier called the changes “tweaking” he current plan, hailed the changes as “part of the democratic process.” Even Nickens agreed that “the people have spoken” on the matter. 

Belmont Town Meeting, Section B; Monday, June 1

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Photo: Belmont Town Meeting

7:08 p.m.: Mike Widmer, town moderator, has gaveled Section B of the annual Town Meeting into session.

It’s the beginning of all things budgetary including what to do with the rest of the override funds. That’s $1.6 million.

7:16 p.m.: A proclamation for Bruce Davidson, a long-time chair and member of the Warrant Committee and Town Meeting member, who recently died. He was also a long-time financial editor and columnist for the Boston Globe.

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7:19 p.m.: Kevin Cunningham, Pct. 4, is seeking to change the order of the articles to place Article 12 to go before Article 13. Widmer believe that keeping it in the current order because if Town Meeting does not allocate the remaining $1.6 million of the override amount, then you would want Article 12 coming afterwards. If not, Town Meeting would need to have countless articles. Cunningham’s wishes are defeated.

7:29 p.m.: Sami Baghdady, Selectmen chair, is making the Board’s update. Here are some highlights around town: Belmont Center Recreation . 

And some real news: the Belmont Center commuter rail bridge will be power washed this summer. “How nice it will be for the gateway to our community” to be brought back to its stone glory.

The Underwood Pool is on schedule.

Belmont Uplands project: 298 units/60 affordable units. The building foundations are in the ground. Look on the bright side: 60 units of affordable units but will be give credit for all 298 units s there will be 696 affordable units or 6.7 percent.

Cushing Village: The last two weeks, the new partnership has received the OK for construction financing so maybe something will be built there this summer. Maybe.

Woodfall Road: There is now a P&S agreement and a sale will be done in 90 days. 

Pavement Management Program: The most money that can be used in one year.

Community Path Implementation: It’s on track.

Belmont Public Library: A new project feasibility study will get underway soon.

Solar Net Metering: A modified stage II within 60 days – looking for a compromise between solar advocates and Belmont Light. 

Belmont remains a great place to live so let’s keep moving forward, said Baghdady.

7:42 p.m.: State Rep Dave Rogers is addressing the gathering. House passed its budget – $38 million, a small increase. The new budget does not draw on the stabilization fund. Good news for Belmont is a five percent increase to education and 4 percent for general government. And $350,000 increase in roads and sidewalks. Also fully fund sped circuit breakers and METCO will see a 5 percent increase. Rogers priorities includes funding for homeless families, DEP funding, and funding for Legal Aid. He introduced 26 bills with a focus on legal issues including criminal justice reform (solitary confinement for those 21 and under.)

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In local projects, Alewife rotary reconstruction at routes 2 and 16 (public meeting on June 16, at 6 p.m. at 60 Acorn Park in Cambridge.) 

7:54 p.m.: Back to business. Article 10 is up, the salaries of elected officials. It’s approved after Bonnie Friedman, Pct. 3, asked why the town doesn’t pay something to the school committee. Widmer recalled a vigorous debate on paying school committee members several years ago. It was defeated then and it has never come back up. 

8 p.m.: Mike Libenson, chair of the Warrant Committee, is going over the entire budget. Fun facts:

  • The budget is $100,293,295; nine figures!
  • The total budget increased by 5.3 percent while the $84.5 million operating budget (other then pension, debt, the other stuff you don’t spend) increased by more than 6 percent.
  • Fixed costs are $15.8 million with pensions is $6.5 million with debt at $4.4 million. Road spending is going up with debt is falling.
  • Schools take up the most of the operating budget (58 percent) with public safety (15.2 percent) followed by public services (12 percent) then general government (5 percent).
  • Municipal departments funded at level service or better.
  • Healthcare costs is again flat, saving money.
  • School have been saved from significant cuts, adding 16 full-time equivalent personal.
  • Free cash: Belmont spent a lot: It started with $7.5 million in July last year, spending $1.3 million on Belmont Center, and fiscal 16 allocation at $1.75 million and OPED and snow and ice ending at $3.3 million, which is within the guideline of having at least 3 percent of the total budget.

There are four stabilization funds – SpEd, a new “general” fund (where to put the override funds), OPEB and capital/debt (for four projects). 

Long-term trends: as a Town of Homes, growth can only be between 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent annually. Employee pay is 70 percent of the budget, school costs shooting up, lot of needs in capital and maintenance and infrastructure and pension and health care obligations. 

Did you know that there is a different between pensions and other post employment benefits (OPEB)? Yes, there is. Pensions are being paid off by 2027 and OPEB has a $171 million unfunded liability (which is $21 million lower than what was predicted.)

8:23 p.m.: OK, up now is Article 13, the general stabilization fund to be funded with a transfer of $1,674,069. There are two amendments, both by Cunningham. He said he doesn’t care how members vote on the amendment, his objective is to start a conversation on “process.”

But before he could come to a point, Robert McGaw, Pct. 1, calls point of order, that Cunningham has gone beyond the amendment’s scope. Moderator Widmer said he would give Cunningham some “poetic license” on his comments. But Cunningham continues to make it a debate on process, which causes Widmer to ask him to get to the point.

After completing his presentation, Cunningham then removes his amendments after getting his point across.

During the debate, Adam Dash, Warrant Committee and Pct. 1; Jack Weis, Pct. 1; Ellen Schreiber, Pct.  and Paul Roberts; Pct. 8, make the same point: allow the will of the voters who passed the override to be upheld even if members don’t like the idea that these funds are not targeted towards specific needs. Joe White, Pct. 4, said the voters would not have voted for the override if they knew there would be funds remaining. 

The vote has been called and after a false start, the article passes easily, 214 to 32. 

9:15 p.m.: Now is the real money, Article 12, the town’s budget, will be debated and voted. 

Early on in the process, there is an amendment that will request the Warrant Committee to produce an update report on the town’s current pension funding schedule, which is $6 million in fiscal 2016 and will increase by seven percent annually until 2027. Sponsored by Julie Crockett, Pct. 5, the report will see if there are alternative schedules that are not “unsustainable” as the current plan.

The amendment passes 137 to 85. 

9:55 p.m.: The school budget is up. At $49,660,070, it’s big. And it passes, unanimously, like most budget appropriations. 

10:35 p.m.: Finally, all the department budgets have been approved. 

10:36 p.m.: Just one more article, said Widmer. Groans. Article 17 is the OPEB (Other Post Employment Benefits) Stabilization fund at $366,738. Town Treasurer Floyd Carman is masterful in explaining why this little amount of money is seen large by the credit rating agencies which allows the town to keep its AAA rating, a rare occurrence. 

Baghdady said the Selectmen will create a similar committee to the Warrant Committee’s pension review committee to take a look at the town’s OPEB payments. Article 17 passes easily. 

10:45 p.m.: Finally, the gavel comes down and the first night of the reconvened Town Meeting has ended. See you on Wednesday for the Capital Budget portion.

 

Reconvened Town Meeting To Determine What To Do With Override Funds

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Photo: Belmont Town Meeting.

As the annual legislative meeting reconvenes on Monday, June 1, at 7 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School to debate and vote on the town’s finances, the nearly 300 member will be asked to decided where to place the remainder of the $4.5 million raised after voters approved the Proposition 2 1/2 override at April’s Town Election.

With the focus of the night on the town’s operating budget, the one article that is capturing a great deal of interest is Article 12, transferring $1,674,069 of the override amount into a general stabilization fund. If approved, the funds will remain there until Town Meeting, by a two-thirds margin, approves any transfer of funds.

The key word is “if” because there is a possibility that Town Meeting might not approve the transfer of the funds in the first place. There have been rumblings by some override opponents to vote against Article 12. Since the $1.6 million would not be appropriated, that amount would not be levied in taxes in fiscal 2016, effectively providing ratepayers a small “rebate” on what they had been anticipating in taxes beginning July 1.

Warrant Committee member Adam Dash’s amendment to the fiscal 2016 budget appropriations article will be brought before Town Meeting if Article 13 fails. It would raise the $1.6 million from somewhere in the budget and place the funds into the Warrant Committee Reserve Account. The committee would sit on the amount for the entire year and allow it to become part of the town’s “free cash” amount. So at next year’s Town Meeting, those funds would be placed in the General Stabilization Fund.

“This would preserve the will of the voters by levying the full amount of override funds,” said Dash. If Article 13 passes, Dash will drop his amendment.

But before Dash’s amendment moves forward, there are a pair of amendments sponsored by former School Committee member Kevin Cunningham, on the Article 13. The two amendment would, in their way, take $250,000 of the amount and place it into the Special Education Stabilization Fund, thus providing $1,424,069 into the general fund.

According to Cunningham, the quarter million dollars being directed to the Sped Stabilization account simply replenishes the line item after it was drained by that same amount in April to help close a $500,000 deficit in this school year’s budget.

Since there is “the highest likelihood” the Sped Stabilization will be needed in fiscal ’16, Cunningham targeted fund to an area where the need will be greatest.

It doesn’t appear the amendment will find much support from the Board of Selectmen or the Warrant Committee since, as Board of Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady said last month, “we made a promise to the voters that every dollar would be set aside for the purposes stated on the ballot” which included school deficit, capital budget bonding and streets and sidewalks.

While it doesn’t appear that Town Meeting will take up five hot-button articles – four citizen petitions and a request to reconsider the “solar” article – being brought to the assembly by newly-elected Selectman Jim Williams until the third night of the June agenda, his presence will be felt with a second amendment to Article 12 sponsored by a slew of Town Meeting members.

Dubbed by Dash as the “Warrant Committee’s summer project,” the amendment directs the Warrant Committee to produce an update report on the town’s current pension funding schedule, which targets $6 million in fiscal 2016 and increased by seven percent annually until 2027.

The Warrant Committee will take a look at different strategies to mitigate the impact the pension has on the town’s annual expenditures.

“[Williams] is the imputes for this project. And it’s something that should be done as being part of good fiscal management,” said Dash two weeks ago.

Selectmen, Minus One, Unwilling to Replay Solar Fight at Town Meeting

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Photo: Jim Williams (left) and Mark Paolillo.

Telling their new colleague revisiting a contentious Solar Amendment at the reconvened Town Meeting on Monday, June 1 is “not a good use of Town Meeting’s time,” the Belmont Board of Selectmen voted 2-1 to recommend unfavorable action on a motion to reconsider to bring the amendment back before the town’s legislative body.

During the debate, held at the Board’s meeting on Thursday, May 28, at the Beech Street Center, Selectman Jim Williams – who will bring the motion before Town Meeting next week – contend that the vote by Town Meeting on May 4 to “postponed indefinitely” the amendment was an example of “tantrum management” where personal attacks were launched to stifle a debate opponents didn’t want.

Yet for the two selectmen opposing the motion, a Solar Amendment “reboot” would be the wrong message to bring to resolving the issue of net metering in Belmont.

“We want to focus on the future, not the past,” said Selectman Mark Paolillo, who with Chair Sami Baghdady, voted to recommend not rehearing the debate.

Saying that he is committed to reaching the “right measure” on solar power pricing by committing to a relatively short public process to determine a long-term policy by October, Baghdady added that the reconsider motion “only creates perfect division in town.”

Paolillo restated an argument made by several Town Meeting members earlier in May that the amendment, requiring the town to approve a yet-to-be created state legislation on net metering, as “completely flawed to begin with.”

Paolillo called for an independent review of any future policy “to find middle ground” to defray the cost of installing and using solar power by revisiting earlier plans adopted by the town. He said this could be done within 60 days after Town Meeting adjourns.

Williams said he would be willing to remove the motion if those who brought the solar power measure  to Town Meeting – known as Article 9 – would support a more formalized review period suggested by Baghdady and Paolillo, “because then I have the confidence that the opposing position will be heard.” 

But Phil Thayer, Precinct 6 and a supporter of the article, said he didn’t have any comment on the proposal. 

 

Selectmen OK Woodfall Road Purchase And Sale, $1.75M Price Tag

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Photo: Woodfall Road site.

The Belmont Board of Selectmen approved a purchase and sale agreement for the purchase of town-owned property at the end of Woodfall Road to a Lexington developer for $1,750,000.

Dani Chedid of Lexington’s Phoenix Construction Group will now begin the formal process of purchasing the 5.25 acre parcel adjacent to the Belmont Country Club and in the Hillcrest neighborhood on the west side of Belmont Hill, said Sami Baghdady, chair of the Selectmen at its meeting Thursday, May 28.

Chedid, the lead of a three-person group, outbid Northland Residential of Burlington (which constructed the The Woodlands at Belmont Hill) by nearly $1.5 million in December 2013 to begin working with the town on a final price tag for the property that will be home to four luxury single-family homes. 

Seventeen months ago, Chedid offered $2.2 million of the site. Since then, the town – through Town Administrator David Kale’s office – and contractor have been negotiating a final price for the land after a long due diligence process that included environmental assessments, soil testing, monitoring wetland requirements and, at one point, discussions with the country club on the likelihood of golf balls flying onto the new homes, said Baghdady.

“Woodfall Road is a different site since the request for proposal,” said Baghdady, referring to the nearly half-a-million dollar reduction in the original offer. 

“Yet even now, it’s a much better award than the $750,000 [Northland] offered,” he said.

The P&S now requires the town to present a “clean” title and for a state environmental test to be conducted. In addition, Chedid will go before the Belmont Conservation Commission to request a “side” order to allow some relief to build on one of the four lots due to wetland concerns.

A final purchase of the land, which has been on the market for more than a decade, should occur in the next two to three months, said Baghdady.

Confidence: Rec Dept. Selling (Reduced) Summer Pool Passes

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Photo: No swimming just yet.

The new Underwood Pool is not yet completed – in fact, there’s not much water in the one pool that has been finished – but the Belmont Recreation Department is confident enough that the two pool facility that’s being built over the former historic pool will be open for part of the summer, it is selling season passes for resident’s swimming enjoyment.  

Starting now and lasting until June 30, the Rec Dept. will be selling pool passes for $100.

“At this time we are planning for an Aug. 10 opening of the Underwood Pool. Until that time, we will offer public swimming six days a week, limited hours at the Higginbottom Pool at Belmont High School,” read a press release from the town. 

The pass will also be valid for the Underwood Pool the moment it opens until Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 7.

Residents can find out more about the public swimming schedule at the Higginbottom Pool this summer on the Recreation Department calendar online. 

Budget Could Take Backseat to Funding Gap When Town Meeting Resumes

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Photo: Jim Williams.

The fiscal 2016 budget was suppose to be in the spotlight at the Belmont League of Women Voters’ Warrant Briefing at the Beech Street Center on Monday, May 18.

While the night’s agenda was an opportunity to ask questions aout financial and budget articles facing Town Meeting members when the annual Town Meeting reconvenes on June 1, the most interest and talk Monday revolved around four citizen petitions submitted when the majority of this winter’s record snowfall was being shoveled from driveways and sidewalks. 

With each petition related to the unfunded pension and retiree benefits on the town’s ledger was submitted by then Town Meeting member Jim Williams, it appears the now-Selectman is ready to push what he believes is an unsustainable financial future for the town’s taxpayers to the forefront of Town Meeting debate which will occur in less than a fortnight.

“We would be nuts not to start discussing this … when the budget is being discussed,” said Williams after the meeting.

It was Williams’ laser-like focus on more than 70 years of the town’s failure to fund its petitions and the effect it will have on town finances (in addition to groups as diverse as solar power supporters and liberal-leaning individuals) which propelled him onto the Board of Selectmen with a surprising 500-vote victory over incumbent Andy Rojas in April’s Town Meeting. 

The four petitions – read them here – is an attempt, Williams told the Belmontonian, “to increase transparency for Town Meeting [members]” as he and his supporters ramp up their effort to discuss the “growing” impact of unfunded pension obligations – including Other Postemployment Benefits (or OPEB) liabilities. 

The most significant of the petitions, if successfully adopted by Town Meeting, would require the town to produce a 20-year budget projection model with specific line items that would show the funding gap when calculating the standard difference of revenue and expenses.

But the petition would go further, identifying the gap between the revenue/expenses and the amortized unfunded petition and also the gap if the petition was kept at a fixed rate. And that’s just half of the calculations and analysis the petition calls for. 

In addition to the projection model, a second petition would require the town to establish a risk management function, which the town would evaluate “risk” it faces including “financial, operational, reporting, compliance, governance, strategic, reputational, etc.” 

The other two – a quarterly report on the town’s free cash account and requiring the Board of Selectmen, the Capital Budget and Warrant committees to provide Town Meeting 48-hour notice to explain why it takes a certain position on articles – rounds out Williams’ quest for clarity to the Town Meeting process. 

(The first petition article, on giving 48-hour notice, came under criticism by the Warrant Committee’s Bob McLaughlin, who said he would wait for Wednesday’s Warrant Committee meeting to battle Williams on what McLaughlin calls “busy work.”)

While Williams has supporters for his effort, he will in all likelihood be facing a formidable opposing viewpoint in the form of “Your Town Treasurer,” Floyd Carman. 

While the few times Williams and Carman – both men come into the debate after working decades in corporate finance – exchanged views Monday were always cordial (it appeared neither wished to show their hands to the other pre-Town Meeting), there was ample evidence how both will defend their positions.

When Williams noted that as of June 30, the town will owe $100 million to the OPEB account, he asked why the town was setting aside “arguably a token” amount of $366,000 into the account.

“Why not put $5 million” against the liability? queried Williams.

Carman responded that “our approach” has been to follow the Governmental Accounting Standards Board’s method of paying pension in a “pay as you go” basis which the bond-rating agencies, such as Moody’s, has enthusiastically backed.

“And it’s why we have kept our Triple A rating,” said Carman.

Carman noted that 351 other towns in Massachusetts are using the same modus operandi of paying down the remaining town pensions in 2028 before funding the OPEB debt. 

Yet by 2028, the town’s unfunded liability will reach $300 million, said Williams. “I consider this the major risk we face in the future.” 

Carman responded that the town can only move forward on tackling the unfunded pensions and post employment benefits by consulting the town’s 8,253 taxpayers, “our customers.” 

Carman has said in the past that paying off the OPEB debt early via a large debt exclusion would make it impossible for Belmont to finance the big-ticket items before the town – a new High School, a Police station, a Department of Public Works building – as the new debt would take the town’s bonding capacity to near zero for more than a decade. 

And it’s uncertain exactly what the OPEB amount will be by mid-2020. Michael Libenson, chair of the Warrant Committee (which co-hosted the night’s event) said just days ago, the actuary estimate of the town’s OPEB liability for this year fell from $195 million to $171 million, a $24 million reduction due to no growth in health care costs this past year.

Libenson said OPEB costs have been pegged by actuaries with health care costs increasing at 8 percent annually. While no one is predicting zero percent growth over the next few years, if expenses are cut by 3 percent over the next five years, the liability will be reduced from $195 million to $90 million. 

“That’s the trick, what is the growth of health care,” he said.

A Friendly Reminder: Residents Holding Yard Sales Need a (Free) Permit

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Photo: It’s the season for yard sales.
Ah, warm weather; in Belmont that means gardening, barbecues and yard sales. It’s not usual to find a dozen tag, rummage or moving sales around town from spring through fall.
So, it’s well worth remembering that Belmont passed a general private sales bylaw last year requiring a permit for all sales held in town.
The permit is free and can be accessed through the Belmont Town Clerk’s web page. According to Ellen Cushman, the town clerk, the process takes less than one minute to obtain the permit once you know the date and hours of your intended sale. Other required fields are name, address, phone and email address where the permit will be emailed.
If the person running the sale doesn’t use email, the permit can be obtained with assistance of the Town Clerk’s staff at 617-993-2600. The address and hours of your sale are the only fields that will be viewable by the public and potential customers.
 
The advantage for people who obtain a permit is that the sales time and address is placed on the  Town Clerk’s website and placed on a map.
 
To access the permit, read the bylaw and/or view upcoming private sales with permits on the Town Clerk’s web page.

Belmont’s New Underwood Pool Set To Open August 1

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Photo: The “deep” pool of the new Underwood Pool under construction. 

Despite a last-minute financial monkey wrench that nearly stopped the project last September and this winter’s record snowfall, it appears that summer swimming is in the cards for Belmont residents as the team building the new Underwood Pool expects to have the twin pools open to the public by the first week in August. 

While anyone going by the site at the corner of Concord Avenue and Cottage Street will not mistake it for anything but a construction site, “it will definitely look like a swimming pool in August when the water pours in,” said Henry Sarkis, owner of New England Builders, the general contractor, during a recent tour of the project.

Workers in waders are directing streams of cement into wooden frames that will become the pool closest to Cottage Street while power tools and nail guns are heard inside the partially completed pool and pump houses.

While the project was pushed back due to the 100-plus inches of snow that was deposited on the site over two months from January to March, “we feel we are on schedule,” Sarkis said.

The $4.6 million construction project began in November with the demolition of he original pool which was built in 1912 and was the oldest municipal outdoor pool in the US.

After a successful debt exclusion and funding from Town Meeting earlier in 2014, the project appeared dead in the water in September when an original low bidder of the project withdrew his proposal leaving the Underwood Pool Building Committee facing a deficit of approximately $400,000.

That figure was quickly erased with a $200,000 grant from the Belmont Savings Bank Foundation and a community fundraising effort that raised more than $210,000 in small and large contributions by October.

Today, construction is in full swing. The so-called “deep” pool, which includes the diving area and lap swimming, is completed and cement is being poured this week into the shallow “kids” pool, said Sarkis.

Stainless-steel gutters will be installed by specialists from out-of-state beginning on Monday, May 11 and will take two weeks to complete the larger, deep pool nearest the Belmont Public Library. They then will return to finish the shallow pool by the end of May.

The filtration system has been delivered and is being installed to run the two pools. Sarkis said the three buildings are framed and have all the plumbing and electrical systems installed, and the grounds around the pool is being expanded with new trees soon to be planted along Concord Avenue.

According to Anne Paulsen, chairman of the Underwood Pool Building Committee, while the late date for the opening means the potential 2015 swimming season will be cut in half, the Belmont Recreation Department will be selling reduced memberships to residents so they can enjoy some time by or in the new pool.