Last Minute Withdrawal Of Citizen Petitions Sideswipes Annual Town Meeting Lineup

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Photo: Belmont Select Board (from left) Taylor Yates, Matt Taylor, Carol Berberian.

Mere minutes before the Belmont Select Board was to review and vote Friday, April 17, on the 38 articles in the annual Town Meeting Warrant, they – along with the Town Clerk and Town Moderator – received a briefly worded e-mail from Paul Joy (Precinct 7), who authored six citizen petitions on the warrant.

“I am ready to officially inform you and town meeting members of my intention to withdraw the following citizens petitions. Article 9, Article 10, Article 12, Article 13, and Article 14,” said Joy, with no further explanation. 

Joy did not explain his decision to the email’s recipients or the Belmontonian. 

Coming less than three weeks from the May 4 start of the town’s legislative body, it would appear Joy’s action would be received with a sigh of relief, as removing five likely time-consuming articles would cut one or two of the eight nights scheduled to debate and vote on the historic number of articles.

But in reality, Joy’s last-minute retreat had pulled the rug from under the town’s preparation after spending nearly a month carefully constructing the meeting’s schedule. With the citizen petitions being some of the first of the articles brought before the 288-member assembly, their removal so close to the opening night has thrown the meeting’s agenda way out of whack.

According to the town, simply moving up the articles in a “next man up” approach will not work.

Select Board Chair Matt Taylor said the placement of the citizen’s petitions was based on the detailed arguments and communication and documents from the petitioners, where “we made plans to accommodate and support every resident’s right to submit a petition article.”

The board purposely scheduled the citizens petitions – which are traditionally more contentious articles that take time to explain and debate – in early May, which would allow town committees and boards still working on important budgetary and bylaw articles the additional time to allow the necessary work to “get their things done,” said Taylor.

“We’re doing what we can with the information you have, but I can’t move anything up that’s not ready. We could do the [town] budget right now, but the Warrant Committee – Town Meeting’s financial “watchdog” – is not ready, and that’s based on where the petitions are,” said Town Administrator Patrice Garvin. 

Adding to the disarray, “[w]e’re going into a school vacation week where some people are unavailable or have made other plans,” further contracting the time [the town and boards] can commit to the articles,” said Taylor.

“We spent a considerable amount of time on the articles with the Town Council. We had two meetings [with the Town Moderator Adam Dash] to discuss order,” said Garvin. “It’s just the amount of work that’s just been committed to the meeting that’s in two weeks.

“I’ve said repeatedly over the years that citizen petitions are not just these simple things that come before us. It’s hours of work involved, hours of work that aren’t even focused on other things [in the administrator’s office],” said Garvin.

“Now it’s completely blown apart,” she said, adding that she doesn’t know how the town and she can meet the pace.

Joy’s act has the town scrambling, forcing an extraordinary meeting with the Town Moderator, Select Board, and Town Administrator on Patriots’ Day Monday holiday to undo the damage.

Joy introduced his citizen petitions as an attempt to increase transparency and citizen empowerment.

  • Article 14: Home Rule Petition to Elect the Planning Board 
  • Article 9: Annual ‘State of the Town’ Report and Public Forum.
  • Article 12 Resolution Urging Increased State Aid to Municipalities. 
  • Article 10: Mandatory Independent Audit and Public Presentation
  • Article 13: Full Disclosure of Revolving Funds

In Friday’s email, Joy said he is standing by Article 11, which would require a fiscal impact statement and public hearings for zoning articles. Joy added he anticipates two friendly amendments in the following days to accompany the measure but would not reveal who those authors are or what the . 

What Joy did reveal at Monday’s meeting was the article is being backed by an ad hoc residents group that failed in its effort to defeat the Belmont Center Overlay District article at a Special Town Meeting in March.

“I will say that the residents that were a part of For Better Belmont Zoning were quite supportive of this given proposal, and they also felt that it was incredibly important, especially as it related to future potential zoning articles and proposals that would come before Town Meeting,” Joy told the board.

The Belmont Center Overlay District was approved 172 in favor, 82 opposed, with 7 abstentions.

While Joy did not give an explanation for the withdrawal when contacted by the Belmontonian over the weekend, an encounter on Monday, April 13, was a likely catalyst for the removal of five of his six articles. Joy appeared before the board Monday to present each article in what was seen as an informational overview.

Paul Joy (Precinct 7) at the 2025 annual Town Meeting

“Why am I proposing these changes?” said Joy, addressing the board. “Too many residents feel unheard. Public comment is limited to 15 minutes. Meetings start at 5:30 p.m., when families are rushing home from work or after-school activities, and for more than a year, residents have really been unable to comment on the vast majority of public agenda items at this board.” Joy said his petitions are “the embodiment of citizen empowerment. They are our way as citizens [that] it’s time to separate people from issues and the challenges of the assumptions that I feel are holding us back.”

Joy proceeded to give an account for each article. An elected Planning Board, which the majority of Massachusetts municipalities employ, which “creates competition [seemingly referring to neighboring communities] which we desperately need in this town”; a yearly town summary requiring a “clear” report on finances that will be live streamed so residents can ask questions; a non-binding resolution that urges the state to “raise municipal aid to 30 percent”; the full disclosure of revolving funds that mandates annual and/or quarterly reports showing every fund’s purpose, its balance, its revenue, its expenditure, and its vendors for more than $5,000. As an example, Joy pointed to the field maintenance revolving fund, which included $11,500 for goose control.

“I found myself asking, who do you pay $11,500 for goose control? I don’t know the answer. And if I don’t know, then how is an ordinary resident supposed to know?” queried Joy. 

But rather than simply being a passive listening post, the board took on the persona of Prof. Kingsfield grilling a first-year Harvard Law student. Under an unexpectedly severe cross-examination, the board’s probing questions left Joy at times struggling to defend his proposals. 

The board and Garvin pointed out a State of the Town report would simply be duplicating existing facts and statements while forcing the already thinly staffed administrative office to produce a very labor-intensive report with little new being presented.

“There’s tons of data. It’s how it’s organized or not organized. Curating that data is a full-time job,” said Taylor, as Garvin said since more than 60 percent of the town’s budget is under the School Committee’s purview, it would be very difficult to create without its “buy-in.”

After the board and Garvin dismantled Joy’s overture for an extensive disclosure of the town’s revolving funds, Yates bluntly said, “I don’t really understand the particular interest in revolving funds. This feels like a fishing expedition, and I’m not sure what it’s for.”

“A lot of the revolving funds are quite small. So I guess the question is, what problem are you trying to solve?” said Garvin.

“Maybe if there’s a problem you’re trying to solve, maybe start with the Warrant Committee or the Town Accountant,” said Yates.

The night also included Joy’s article that remains in the Warrant, requiring a fiscal impact analysis and public hearings for new zoning articles. Joy attempted to bring up Ira Morganstern (Precinct 7) to present the article as a “co-sponsor,” only to be rebuffed by Taylor, who said, “We’re working with you, the official submitter.”

“Don’t we want to get to the right answers?” said Morganstern. The answer to his query was simple and matter-of-fact: ‘no.’ “We’re not taking public comment,” said Taylor.

Joy said the article would require the town administrator and finance director to create a report that would estimate short-term (1 to 3 years) and long-term (5 to 10 years) effects on town revenue, costs to the town, and their net fiscal impact. The Planning Board would be required to hold a public meeting dedicated to the report.

It did not take long for the board and Garvin to begin to disassemble Joy’s argument, pointing out the proposed report’s nebulous framework to determine a currently unclear verdict.

“How would you measure the impact of zoning by law in a one-to-three-year time frame? Asked Taylor. After Joy gave a non-specific answer, Taylor zeroed in on the real issue with the article.

“How would you measure that? Or who in town is qualified to make that assessment?” he asked Joy.

“It’s not for me [to find the] department, said Joy, although he did believe the Office of Planning and Building or the Town Administrator, in his opinion, would be acceptable.

“So you think the town administrator is the qualified person to do this?” asked Taylor, as Garvin non-verbally expressed her doubt Joy’s answer was what Taylor and the board were seeking.

Taylor then exercised the article, using real-world examples to pinpoint the difficulty of reaching a comprehensive result.

“We have trouble projecting our budgets out five years, given the variance and stuff. Zoning is quite tricky, because we’re in a competition with all of our neighboring towns,” said Taylor, referring to Joy’s resolve for an elected Planning Board.

“I guess if we view it as a competition with other towns, what kinds of zoning changes would make us more competitive with other towns in your assessment? Reduction of parking requirements? What about taller buildings?”

Vice Chair Taylor Yates asked Joy how he would determine the fiscal impact of altering a setback, which typically is the minimum distance – usually just a matter of feet – between a building and a property line. 

“Who has the final say on the fiscal impact analysis? There are a bunch of different ways to do it. You have a set of assumptions. I have a set of assumptions. Matt has a set of assumptions. Carol [Berberian, Belmont’s newly elected board member] has a set of assumptions. Ira has a set of assumptions. Whose set of assumptions fulfills this requirement?” Yates asked Joy.

Garvin, who will be doing most of the heavy lifting in creating the report, said an unintended consequence of the article would require financial analysis on major structural zoning articles in this year’s warrant, including Site Plan Review and Construction Management.

“How would I go about doing a financial impact study on Site Plan Review?” asked Garvin.

When Joy said the report would determine any major increase in school-age children or revenue loss to the town, Garvin countered that she could “make a financial argument for anything you want.” While Joy was talking about zoning that leads to development, Garvin saw it impacting “the process of how the town works.”

Yet it was not all critical reflection of Joy’s arguments. Berberian, who is a former Planning Board member, asked if the board and town can “build off what we have in place.” 

“Could we improve on the financial modeling? Probably, if we look at it in a slightly different direction. I think that there’s always the opportunity to improve some of what I had heard about this, the viability of our zoning in terms of the financial impact. I do think there is some relevancy to that,” said Berberian.

After approximately an hour-long grilling, the writing was on the wall as the citizen petitions had scant support from the executive branch.

And in a final ironic moment, the Select Board reached out to Joy to prevent what he would do five days later.

Because of the high level of work required of town staff, “we ask residents to please work with us, work with the staff, because there may be an answer to what you’re trying to accomplish that already exists,” said Taylor. 

“Please have a conversation with us, because we’re juggling a lot. We’re trying to do a lot with a little. And this is a case where I think if you had coordinated with town staff, we could have addressed this without a petition and without the additional reports from Town Council.”

Berberian said she appreciated the intent behind a lot of what Joy brought forward, “and I do think that we can do a lot with collaboration with you.”

“The door’s always open,” she said.

Belmont High Girls’ Tennis Jumps To 5-2 Start; Set To Face Three Unbeaten Squads This Week

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Photo: Belmont High’s first year Isha Appadewedula

While Belmont High Head Girls’ Tennis Coach Eileen White said she and her team were eager for spring’s arrival as they were getting ready to make another run in the MIAA tournament.

What White – in her 21st year leading the Marauders – and the team had also hoped for was for some early spring-like weather to prep for the season.

“It doesn’t help when it’s in the 40s and windy for the first month,” said White, who led Belmont to an 11-8 record in 2025 and a first-round home match in the Division 1 tourney.

“I think that’s been a little bit of a transition from training indoors to be like, ‘Oh my, there’s wind, there’s sun, there’s noise’ and things like that. I think everybody, even the girls who have played in the past season and you’ve played inside all winter, it’s an adjustment.”

Despite playing through a frigid early spring weather and enduring twisted ankles that threw the projected lineups over the side, Belmont has compiled a 5-2 record, winning its first three matches by identical 4-1 margins while dropping what White “annoyingly tight” 2-3 encounter to Arlington in blustery, cold conditions.

And just warmer temperatures have arrived, so Belmont will playing three undefeated teams in Westford (4-0), Lexington (5-0), and Winchester (5-0). [Belmont were swept by non-league opponent Westford Ghosts, 5-0, on Monday.]

Heading one of the most cosmopolitan teams at Belmont High – the players speak 13 languages and come from a diverse array of cultures and countries – White has every expectation the team will be playing extra matches after the end of the regular season.

“We’re competing as always. We expect to be hopefully in the state tournament and we expect to be challenging for the Middlesex League,” she said. And that confidence starts with the

“I’m confident our singles, we’ve got great singles,” she said.

The three singles that took the court against Wakefield were two first years and a senior who established themselves as starters. First-year Isha Appadewedula has taken hold of first singles.

“Isha has been amazing, winning all her matches so far this year,” said White. Whether Appadewedula stays at one or moves to two depending on how she does in the Challenge Matches, “she’s a great addition no matter what,” said White.

Senior Giselle Fond did not play her usual second singles place after rolling her ankle in a early season practice. She finally returned to the court in first doubles with the only returning varsity doubles player, senior Avery Cal. “This might be a nice way for Fond to ease in playing a little doubles. Don’t have to run around so much in doubles,” said White.

Malina Lorentan is Belmont’s second first year to crack into the varsity squad.

“I gave her a chance [on singles] and she’s jumped all over it,” White said of the native of Switzerland, After losing a tight one against the SpyPonders, Lorentan impressived White with her ability to step up against Wakefield.

While having established a solid three in singles, White said she’s “still struggling a little bit to find the right combination” to send out for doubles. “We were spoiled in the past few seasons. We had really good doubles players. Last year we just got so many points from them,” said White.

“We lost three out of the four players of our starting doubles so that’s where we’re trying to recalibrate a little bit,” said White.

Senior Cal, who had the same partner for the previous two seasons, has been in the process of feeling out a new partner “so that’s been like the experiment.” Against Wakefield, White teamed her up with fellow senior Fond while Grace Harrington and Eve Whitmer were in at second doubles.

While it will be challenging to repeat as a top 16 team in the power rankings, White said “we’re excited just to get a few good practices in and a few games here and there to get a solid squad out there in each match.”

Belmont Town Election: Dash Sprints Past Incumbent Crowley In Moderator Race

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Photo: Adam Dash at Town Hall on Tuesday

In the course of his campaign for Town Moderator, Adam Dash knocked nonstop on the doors of 3,000 homes in blizzards, rain, and cold resulting in frosebitten fingers. He also slipped on the ice slicing off the tip of a non-frostbitten finger, was bitten on the knee by a dog, and once a wild turkey attacked him.

And on Election Day, Tuesday, April 7, Dash was drenched in the early spring snow shower and resulting rain forcing him to twice change his outfits. That was likely the reason the normally dapper Dash showed up Tuesday night at Belmont Town Hall to hear the election results in rather casual attire – an oversized scarf with a bold graphic design, ‘dad’ slim jeans, and a black unstructured jacket – topped by a knit cap replacing his trademark fedora.

In the end, Dash’s Odysseus-like journey through Belmont’s eight precincts ultimately resulted in electoral success as the former two-term member of the Select Board won the only contested town-wide race on the ballot, defeating one-term incumbent Michael Crowley, 2,090 to 1,770, for the moderator’s post.

Official results are located here.

In a hard fought contest, Dash took home 53.9 percent of the 3,989 voters who cast a ballot while Crowley received 45.8 percent, a closer delta than many anticipated.

“Running against an incumbent is always a big deal. I didn’t take that lightly,” said Dash in a crowded second floor of Town Hall where Belmont Media Center set up a live broadcast location. Looking back at the campaign, Dash said his election advantage was “people understand who I am. I’m not somebody who’s unknown. People have been complimentary to me during my run” of his long previous service in town, specifically serving six successful years on the Select Board.

“Voters saw that I will bring a great deal of experience from the executive side to the administrative side of town government,” he said. “That meant a great deal for many residents.”

“It makes me happy to work with the people again. I really like going out and meeting people one-on-one and just talking to people day after day, hour after hour, up the stairs, down the stairs. But I do enjoy it. I like hearing from people. And sometimes people would say, ‘Oh, have you ever thought about this?’ And I pulled my phone and type it in? No, I hadn’t, but I will now, and so I got a whole long list of ideas from people that I’m gonna have to start sifting through tomorrow and deciding what to do with them.”

Also attending the results reading at Town Hall was Carol Berberian, who became a Belmont Select Board Member when the polls officially closed at 8 p.m. as she ran unopposed to replace Elizabeth Dionne on the board.

“I am very excited about tonight. It’s been an interesting journey being in an uncontested race. I was very fortunate to have a lot of support from many different people in the community early on and that has really inspired me to connect with other people.”

Berberian said her connections as a life-long resident and her experience with the town’s zoning bylaws – as a member of the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals – will be useful in crafting regulations that will “make it easier to open businesses in town and continue to have our existing businesses to thrive, while welcoming new development that preserved the character of the community and bring some much needed additional revenue.”

Both Amy Zuccarello and Jung Yueh were re-elected unopposed to the School Committee.

Town Meeting Election Results

Only three of Belmont’s eight precincts had contested races, with more than 12 candidates. The most interesting outcome came from Precinct 2 where five new members were elected on Tuesday. These include former Belmont Police Chief Richard McLaughlin, long-time Belmont High hockey coach Dante ‘Muzzy’ Muzzioli, Linda Nickens, Laurie Schenkel and Alice Kaanta. And only one vote prevented half the precinct being flipped as incumbent Peter Magni’s 254 votes just beat out Amy Trotsky’s 253 for the final seat. Incumbent David Zipkin finished 14th.

Running opposite to 2, Precinct 6 re-elected the 12 incumbents with a pair of non-incumbent candidates missing out, including the former Planning Board chair and ZBA member Jeffrey Birenbaum.

Precinct 8 candidate Meenal Bagla, known for her involvement in PTA leadership positions, impressed by placing second with 354 votes, only topped by Angus Abercrombie (409 votes) in Precinct 8.

Topping the vote tally throughout town was Dash (Precinct 1) with 419 votes followed by Precinct 6 Elizabeth Gibson (415 votes) and Abercrombie.

On the other end of the ballot counting spectrum, both Scott Brinker and Deepak Garg needed just 10 write-in votes to secure three-year terms on Town Meeting representing Precinct 7.

Former Warrant Committee Chair Lubien Hired As Belmont’s New CFO

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Photo: Geoff Lubien

Geoff Lubien, the former chair of the Warrant Committee, has been hired to be Belmont’s new Chief Financial Officer, according to Town Administrator Patrice Garvin.

The announcement, made at the start of the Monday, April 6 Select Board meeting, comes after the town spent seven months filling the post held by Jennifer Hewitt, the town’s financial director and assistant town administrator, who left in September. 

The CFO office is a new position in the town’s administrative office. 

“While we poached him from the private sector, [Lubien] has been … instrumental in the past 10 years of municipal finance in the town, while his private sector experience truly made him the outstanding candidate,” said Garvin.

Lubien will start Monday, April 27, just before the start of the annual Belmont Town Meeting. 

Garvin said the process started with 30 applicants, which was then pared down to six.

“We had a lot of good, strong applicants, which is very nice, considering there were some years that we saw the applicant pool decrease a little bit,” said Garvin.

Assisted by the town’s Human Resources Director Kelli King, and with the help of current members of the Warrant Committee, the Board of Trustees for the Library, and a former member of the Select Board, the finalists were interviewed, and three finalists were chosen from whom Lubien was selected.

Lubien comes to the job from his position as a marketing analyst with Bedford-based iRobot. His experience in town government includes serving on the Warrant Committee, the Financial Task Force, and his current post on the Senior Tax Relief Working Group. 

Select Board members were overwhelmingly positive about Lubien’s hiring.

“[Lubien] is the kind of the person who knows Belmont and municipal government really well, [while] also having the background in analytic experience. I’m thrilled,” said Select Board Chair Matt Taylor.

“Geoff’s awesome. I’ve worked with him for 10 years. Nobody knows the talent, finances, and budget better than [Lubien]” said member Elizabeth Dionne.

Speaking to the Belmontonian while working the polls at the Belmont Public Library on Tuesday, April 7, Lubien said taking his talents to the municipal government “is something I’ve been thinking about for a while.”

“I actually talked with Jennifer Hewitt about getting into the municipal government side about a year ago, and started to do some research. And then this opportunity came up.” He reached out to Garvin who encouraged him to apply.

“I’m looking forward to bringing my background with statistics and econometrics to the position. I really like the idea of a job that actually contributes to the greater good and uses everything I’ve learned on the job and works with the town,” he said.

While well versed in the town’s finances, “there’s a learning curve as there are details that I was never privy to because the town folks were working on that. There’s going to be a lot of learning, and I recognize that, and it’s exciting too,” said Lubien.

Lubien already knows there’s one big change with the new job. “Like many people, I’ve worked from home for a while, so I’ll be in the office every day of the week, which is good because I’m ready to get out of the house.”

And it also means a trip to the shops. “I don’t have any work clothes that fit anymore,” Lubien said.

Belmont Town Election Tuesday, April 7: A Return To The Library

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Photo: Go out and vote Tuesday

Belmont’s annual Town Election is Tuesday, April 7!

Registered voters may cast their ballots in person only on Election Day; polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the following polling locations: 

A list of the candidates for town-wide office and Town Meeting can be found in the Belmont League of Women Voters guide.

And on Tuesday, Precinct 1 voters will have both a new and old polling place as the town “returns” to the recently opened Belmont Public Library at 336 Concord Ave. After the old library building was taken down in March 2024, voting took place at Beth El Temple Center.

The precinct locations are:

  • Precinct One: Belmont Public Library, 336 Concord Ave.
  • Precinct Two: Belmont Town Hall, Select Board Room, 455 Concord Ave.
  • Precinct Three: Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.
  • Precinct Four: Daniel Butler School Gym, 90 White St.
  • Precinct Five: Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.
  • Precinct Six: Belmont Fire Headquarters,  299 Trapelo Rd.
  • Precinct Seven: Burbank School Gym, 266 School St.
  • Precinct Eight: Winn Brook School Gym, 97 Waterhouse Rd., enter from Cross Street.

If you are wondering if you are a registered voter and your voting precinct, go to the Town Clerk’s web page or phone the Town Clerk’s office at 617-993-2600.

Election results for town wide and Town Meeting races will be announced at Belmont Town Hall after the polls close and on the Town Clerk’s website early Wednesday morning.

Belmont High Southpaw Pair No-Hits Everett In ‘Home’ Opener, First No-No In 26 Seasons

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Photo: A happy Belmont High baseball team celebrates with pitchers Craig Deane and Kyle Ksander who combined for the Marauders first no-hitter since 2000.

As far back as November, Belmont High School’s long time baseball manager Jim Brown was talking highly – in his iconic dead pan manner – of the pitching staff he would be sending out to the mound in the spring.

“They’ve been prepping really well in the off-season. Yeah, four who I think are going to impress,” said “Brownie.”

It only took the first game of the campaign to prove Brown’s forecast right as a pair of those arms went out and put up a marker for the rest of the season as senior southpaws Craig Deane and Kyle Ksander combined to no hit Everett, 6-0, in the season opener on Friday, April 3.

Pitching under the lights, Ksander – a 6 foot, 175 lb. returning varsity lefty whose fast ball tops out at 85 mph – struck out eight in four innings while the multi-positional Deane K’d seven in his three innings of action to share Belmont’s first no-hitter in 26 years.

The season’s “home” opener was played at Watertown High School’s turf field due to the soggy conditions at Brendan Grant Field.

The no-hit shutout is a promising start for Belmont coming off a 9-11 ’25 campaign where it got pushed around against “mehe” opposition to miss the MIAA tourney.

After being on the road against Melrose (Monday) and Reading (Wednesday), Belmont will be at the Grant on Friday, April 10 vs Watertown. First pitch is at 4:15 p.m.

School Committee OKs Three Year Superintendent Contract; ‘Interim’ Dropped From Student Services Director’s Title

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Photo: Belmont Schools Superinterndent Dr. Jill Geiser

It was smooth sailing for Schools Superintendent Dr. Jill Geiser as the Belmont School Committee voted unanimously to support a second employment agreement with Geiser to continue as the district’s leader for an additional three-year term.

“I want to acknowledge Dr. Geiser leadership and the work underway across the district that she has been spearheading,” said School Committee Chair Meg Moriarty, who noted the contract will run from July 1 through June 30, 2030, with a possible one-year extension. 

“The agreement that we’ve come to reflects that the school committee wishes to support the continuation of that work and your very strong district leadership. I think the contract provides important continuity for the Belmont public schools through June 2030, with a standard one-year extension,” said Moriarty.

Details of Gieser’s contract, including her salary and compensation which is being adjusted in year one, allowing her to be compensated at an equivilent level found in other districts, were not provided by Moriarty. Those changes are based on a third-year superintendent with a doctorate in education, followed by modest, predictable increases that reflect both other contract conditions in the district and the fiscal responsibility expected of the school committee.

After the vote, Geiser called out the committee’s “confidence in my work as a superintendent. I also convey that to the leadership team. It is the people on our team that really make things happen, and I want to extend appreciation in that direction as well.”

Geiser pointed out the experience of being a superintendent in a community where she lives “is really pretty incredible.”

“I get comments like, ‘Is that hard [working in Belmont]?’ I was like, ‘Actually, it’s good.’ It’s because I feel that I have much more investment in it, and it’s not hard to get out to certain events and things like that and see what’s going on,” she said.

“I appreciate very much the opportunity to do that here in Belmont, and I am looking forward to continuing on with the work,” said Geiser.

Libby Given the Full Time Job

The transitional title ‘interim’ was a prefix to Jonathan Libby’s title up until Tuesday, when the School Committee approved Libby’s appointment to be the district’s next full-time Director of Student Services through the coming three years.

The Department of Student Services encompasses guidance, nursing, and special education services from preschool through high school.

“I think that the school committee feels that the agreement supports the continuity and leadership in the Student Services Department, which is critical for many of our students and families,” said Moriarty.

After Self Insuring Employees For A Decade, Belmont Seeks Move To Join State Health Plan

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Photo: Logo for the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission (GIC)

Belmont Town officials have long said a move from a self-insured health plan for town employees and retirees into the state-run insurance program was a matter of “when, not if.”

Well, that “when” is apparently now, as the Select Board voted Monday, March 23, to join the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission (GIC) plan, as the headwinds of skyrocketing health costs facing smaller schemes have become too precarious to chance sailing into it alone.

Select Board Member Elizabeth Dionne said joining the GIC was never a “dogmatic decision, but it would always be a pragmatic one: it would come down to the numbers.”

“I think the math makes it quite clear, and the timing quite urgent, and the comparison similarities of the plans appear to be aligned enough that I don’t think we’re going to find a better window where we can wait to move to the GIC,” said Select Board Chair Matt Taylor as the board made its formal notification of an intent to engage in the process to change health insurance benefits for more than 1,200 Belmont employees under state law Chapter 30, 2b, Sections 21 through 23. 

The town will negotiate with a group comprised of union reps representing school and town employees.

Belmont employees and retirees are currently under a health insurance trust fund, which is a self-insurance mechanism that pays employee health claims directly rather than paying premiums to insurance companies. And Belmont’s self-insured plan has held over the past decade an advantage on premiums and costs over the GIC. 

But that one-time advantage has been stood on its head as the plan underwent a sudden and steep rise in premiums that was extensively previewed at a February public meeting. While Belmont has been able to offset the cost using the plan’s reserve fund, a small municipal plan has more exposure to cost fluctuations, which forces the plan to increasingly dip into the plan’s reserve account to manage the swings in claim expenses from year to year.

“Healthcare costs are affecting everybody,” said Taylor. Many municipalities are referencing it in their budget or override requests, noted Taylor, pointing to neighboring Lexington, where their health care costs have created a significant budget shortfall that is leading them to leave open positions unfulfilled and lay off up to 14 municipal workers. 

And Belmont is not immune to the cost shock. “It’s a real budget driver for fiscal years ’26, ’27, and a surprising one for fiscal year ’25 [as it] showed up mid-year,” said Taylor. Claims have increased from $13 million in fiscal ’21 to a projected $20 million in fiscal ’27, led by a huge jump in prescriptions of GLP-1s like Ozempic, reaching $850,000 in fiscal ’25, and specialty drugs that can cost $700,000 per case. There are also higher costs for technology and administrative positions and the aging population saddled onto plans.

The impact: claims for fiscal ’25 are trending 20 percent higher than the nine percent forecasted, with a corresponding reduction in the Health Trust balance and subsequent higher premiums in the coming fiscal year. 

As dark clouds increasingly hang over Belmont and other small plans, there is increasing pressure to move under the large state-run umbrella. GIC is the state-run insurance program for public employees employed by the state and municipalities, including school districts.

The biggest advantage of the state plan is its bulk. The GIC has approximately 460,000 members, including 100,000 municipal members from more than 50 cities, towns, and regional school districts, including Ashland, Brookline, and Woburn. This larger employee pool gives the plan a greater ability to negotiate for multiple plan options from major carriers.

And the future costs show a clear advantage in joining the GIC. The current town plan will see a 24 percent increase in fiscal year ’27 vs. a nine percent increase under the GIC plan. In the first six months (Jan. 1 to June 30, 2027), while an individual’s monthly premium under both plans will increase by $50 to $258, a family premium under the town plan would increase by $135 to $699, while under GIC, that family premium will jump by $77 to $641.

A transfer will bring savings in total town costs. The projected fiscal ’27 annual increase (starting on Jan. 1, 2027) in the town plan will surge by $3 million, totaling $18.1 million, while under GIC the projected increase will be $2 million to $17.1 million.

“There’s the basic economics of the GIC, which is, insurance generally, the more you pool, the better it works. We have found that there have been some idiosyncrasies in Belmont that made it not work for us historically, but we may have turned a page on that,” said Taylor. 

One of the big advantages this year is the state’s actually throwing in more money to help GIC balance its books as a standalone, self-insuring entity. “We do not have access to that. So at this point, it’s not free money, because it all comes from us. But I’d like to reaccess that money,” said Dionne.

Taylor said this is an ideal time to switch plans, as there are plans that are almost comparable. “As a self-ensuring entity, we’ve not been able to provide the same range of options, so I believe there are now eight plans that employees will be able to choose from.”

“A larger pool is a more stable, secure environment for a series of idiosyncratic reasons,” said Dionne. “Every year we’ve either formally or informally revisited this, and every year the numbers dictate against joining GIC. As recently as this last summer, we thought that was still the case. And then it not only changed, it changed quickly, and it changed for everybody across the Commonwealth.”

“The math works out … in favor of moving to the group insurance commission,” said Taylor, ultimately giving greater financial stability to the town.

Town officials are now preparing to move forward with the negotiations with the knowledge that they will need to convince employees that they will receive a better deal with the state-run plan.

“I think change comes with some understandable uncertainty and questions from our employees about what this means for me,” said Taylor. “There are plans that are remarkably similar to what the town offers for an HMO and a PPO, and then there are six additional choices. They’re not identical, but they’re pretty close, and I think at no point will it ever be perfectly identical.”

And the town will attempt to make those changes comprehensible.

“We’ve talked about education sessions, we’ve talked about material, and we’ve talked about creating a Web page for employees so they can just be a couple of clicks from getting to the information that they need,” he said. “We hope to have additional support for [Human Resources], as we recognize this is a transition. We are committed to making sure that the employees have all the information.”

Shane Smith Signs Three Year Contract Becoming Belmont Police Chief

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Photo: Shane Smith during his February interview with the Belmont Select Board

The Belmont Select Board unanimously ratified a three-year contract with Shane Smith to be the town’s next Police Chief at its Monday, March 23 meeting.

According to Kelly King, Belmont’s HR director, Smith’s starting salary is $210,000. The contract also requires Smith to establish residency within 15 miles of Belmont by the end of next summer.

Smith starts his new job on May 4, said King. 

“This is great news for Belmont,” said Select Board Chair Matt Taylor. “We got an outstanding new police chief. It’s been great discussing this with our new police chief … [and] we’re really excited to get started.”

The Select Board unanimously selected Smith from two other finalists at a special meeting on Feb. 20.

Smith was recently the deputy chief in Salem, NH, having spent his entire 24-year law enforcement career on the Salem Police Department. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts Lowell with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and psychology, Smith attended the prestigious FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va, in 2024.

Smith replaces James MacIsaac, who left in August to become director of Campus Safety and Security at the Middlesex School in Concord, Mass. Assistant Belmont Police Chief Mark Hurley has been the department’s interim head for the past seven months.

Speaking to the Belmontonian after the ratification vote, Smith said his “initial feel for the town, meeting the Select Board, dealing with the town administrator, and HR, has been fantastic. They’re just so welcoming.” 

While waiting for the meeting to start, Smith said he ran into an officer in Belmont Center.

“Today, I went and got a coffee downtown, and I saw an officer there and spoke to the patrolman. He was educated, he was well-spoken, he was genuine, everything I would look for in a patrolman,” said Smith.

Smith said coming from the outside, he will first need to take an inventory of what the police department is, who the people are, and what their culture is, “so there’s not going to be any major changes initially.” 

“I have to figure out what they’re doing right, and then I’m sure there are some areas that we can improve on. But I have to take that inventory first, and then I’m going to meet with every single person within the police department as well as the Select Board and stakeholders within the community and find out what direction that they want to go,” Smith said.

“My plan is to develop a strategic plan so everyone will know the direction the department is going, and I will set some goals of what we intend to do,” he said. 

“What I’m hearing about this police department is that it’s a great group of officers. Also, something that drew me to the job is that the assistant chief and the captain both will be here for a couple of years to help with my transition. So I’m looking forward to making a relationship with them and learning just how the town operates and how the Police Department operates.”

“I know people might be apprehensive [coming from outside the department], so I hope that they give him the opportunity to build that relationship, because that’s where trust comes from—by building relationships first,” said Smith.

League Of Women Voters Remote Candidates’ Night This Wednesday, March 25

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Photo: Candidates’ night is Wednesday

The League of Women Voters of Belmont is holding its annual Candidates’ Night on Wednesday, March 25 at 7 p.m. The event will be remote.

The night will start with a video “parade” by precinct of Town Meeting candidates, followed by short speeches and a Q&A with the town-wide candidates.

And just remember: Town Election Day is Tuesday, April 7.

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