Photo: Warrant Committee Chair Michael Libenson.
A warrant briefing on the Special Town Meeting to determine if Belmont will withdraw from the Minuteman School District will be held tonight, Monday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m. in the Chenery Middle School auditorium, 95 Washington St.
The briefing, co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Warrant Committee – Town Meeting’s financial watchdog – will include town officials and department heads providing information and answer citizen inquire concerning the article.
In May, Town Meeting voted by a little more than a 2/3 margin to approve leaving the Minuteman School District due to an ongoing dispute with the administration on the size and scale of a new $145 million building.
In September, Belmont was the only member community to vote against the project in a special district-wide election.
Warrant Committee Chair Michael Libenson will moderate the event.
I will in fact be moderating tonight as the new chair of the Warrant Committee.
Hi,
Town Meeting Members have been placed in the unenviable
position, once again, of having to cast a vote on Oct. 19, 2016
either in favor or in opposition to the Town remaining as a
Member Town of the Minuteman Regional Vocational/Tech
School District. It will require a 2/3 majority opposition vote
by Town Meeting in order to allow Belmont to withdraw from
the District.
The 2 linked Articles in the above Belmontonian Article point
out the outcome of the last two previous votes taken by Town
Meeting and by Belmont Voters concerning this issue as
follows:
(1) In May, 2016, “by a little more than a 2/3 margin,” “Belmont
Town Meeting Rejects $144 Million Minuteman Funding Project,”
with a final vote count of 141 Town Meeting Members opposed
and 81 Town Meeting Members in favor. At this meeting, it
should be noted that the Board of Selectmen (unanimously)
recommended “unfavorable action” for the passage of the
Article.
(2) On September 20, 2016, “Belmont Voters Reject Minuteman
Funding As District Passes New School Plan.” ” It wasn’t even
close. Belmont voters rejected by a near three-to-one margin a
$100 million-plus funding plan for the construction of a new
$145 million Minuteman Tech Regional School” which would have
involved a 30 year debt exclusion. “According to Town Clerk Ellen
Cushman, Belmont residents voted down the funding measure
2,327 to 901, 72 percent to 28 percent.”
Since both, a prior Town Meeting and the Electorate, voted
overwhelmingly not to fund a new Minuteman Tech via a 30 year
debt exclusion, how exactly would the Town go about paying for a
new Minuteman Tech along with the associated higher tuition costs
that Member Towns are assessed, if this Town Meeting votes to stay in
the District?
Towards the end of the televised ” Facts and Future,” sponsored by
the Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical School District at the
Beech Street Center, a Town Meeting Member, I believe, did mention
that a repeat debt exclusion vote would be required if Town Meeting
voted to stay in the District.
Who actually believes that the residents of Belmont would change
their vote in a second debt exclusion for the same issue? Who
believes that the residents would vote for another Proposition 2 1/2
override? Where then, would the money come from? Would the
Town have to cut services, or lay off employees? What would happen
to the School Department’s Budget, since it is their budget that pays
all Minuteman costs and tuition? What would happen to our upcoming
new Belmont High School 30 year debt exclusion vote that we
desperately need to pass?
I believe that Town Meeting has a fiduciary responsibility to Belmont
to only vote in favor of this issue if there is money to pay for it.
Otherwise, their vote in favor of staying in the District, against
the stated will of the town’s people, will lock our town into 30 years of
debt that the Electorate has already rejected.
Town Meeting does not have the authority to call for a debt exclusion
vote, only a majority vote of the Selectmen, as the “local appropriating
body” has the authority to place a Proposition 2 1/2 or debt exclusion
question on the election ballot. Therefore, a Town Meeting vote
in favor of remaining in the District would basically force our Selectmen,
who are against us remaining in the District, to place a 30 year debt
exclusion question on a ballot in the future, despite the fact that they
would already know that there would be very little likelihood that it
would pass.
As was discussed prior to the September 20th Town wide vote, the
School Department will continue to completely support the
Vocational/Technical aspirations of our Belmont Students.
If our town had a larger tax base, more free cash, fewer existing debts
and not so many future town buildings and town departments that
need to be replaced or renovated, it would be a completely different
story with perhaps a completely different outcome.
In the mean time, I believe that it is the responsibility of our Town
Meeting Members to question where the money will come from to
pay for this very expensive Project. If there is no viable, long term way
for the town to fund this on-going debt, then I believe Town Meeting
Members must vote to leave the District.
Even beyond that, I truly believe that Town Meeting Members should,
in a Democracy, honor the previous town-wide majority vote by the
people of this town who voted that they would not fund a 30 year
debt exclusion, by casting their vote to withdraw from the District so that
the necessary 2/3 vote to leave the District can be achieved at Town Meeting.