Belmont’s Property Tax Rate Drops But Average Yearly Bill Will Jump $900

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Photo: Belmont property owners will see an increase in next fiscal year’s tax bill

Property owners would see Belmont’s property tax rate decrease as the Board of Assessors presented a series of recommendations at a public meeting before the Belmont Select Board at its Dec. 5 meeting.

The Assessors propose a property tax rate for fiscal year 2023 of $11.25 per $1,000 of assessed value, a drop from the current rate of $11.56 per $1,000, according to Robert Reardon, long-time chair of the Board of Assessors. The Select Board voted unanimously to adopt the new rate.

But due to a hot residential real estate market that resulted in escalating home values, the average property tax bill for households will increase. According to the Assessors, the average value of a single family house in Belmont rose to $1,463,000, up a robust $116,800 from $1,346,300 in fiscal year 2022. The average value of a single family house statewide is $525,788.

With the Proposition 2 1/2 increase of the tax levy and the impact on the tax rate of nine debt exclusions – which includes the Senior Center, the Wellington Elementary School and three segments of the new Middle and High School – which makes up 12 percent of the total tax rate, the expected property tax increase on an average house will be approximately $900 for this coming fiscal year, according to Reardon. Without that additional debt, the tax rate would be $9.90 per $1,000.

In addition, the Assessors are recommending the town not create a split tax classification where commercial property would be taxed at a higher rate than residential homes., Reardon said since commercial real estate makes up just five percent of Belmont’s property base, a split rate would not raise any more in taxes while businesses would be hit with a significant rate increase while homeowners would see a very small reduction. The Select Board supported the recommendation.

Belmont, SEIU Come To Agreement; Three Unions Remain in Negotiations

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Photo: A successful agreement was signed Monday between the town and one of the municipal union (Twitter, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Belmont Select Board approved a collective bargaining agreement with the union representing town staff and library assistants at its Aug. 29 meeting.

Belmont’s Human Resources Director Shawna Healey said the three-year contract with SEIU Local 888 is retroactive to July 1, 2020 and will continue to June 30, 2023. The contract includes a cost of living adjustment in each fiscal year of two percent and language changes from the previous contract such as changing the holiday in October from Columbus Day to Indiginous People’s Day while also adopting the BRAVE Act – paid time off for days spent on military orders – for its employees.

The union members will also receive a one-time payment to recognize employees that worked through the Covid-19 epidemic from March 2020 to March 2021 with those mostly working “on-site” will get $1,000 and those working hybrid will take home $500.

Three union contracts continue to be negotiated, said Healey. Both the firefighters and the patrol officers have been working under contracts that ended on June 30, 2020 while the Belmont Library Association’s contract expired on June 30, 2022.

Belmont’s HR Director Proves Thomas Wolfe Wrong By Taking Same Post In Hometown Of Woburn

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Photo: Shawna Healey

For Shawna Healey, there were 500 reasons Belmont’s Human Resources Director will be leaving for the same position in Woburn.

The 500 is the distance in feet she’ll be traveling from the end of her driveway to the Woburn Town Hall when she begins her new job as its HR director in mid-October.

And with a 10-month-old son and an opportunity to work where she’s lived most her life, “it’s a life balance decision,” Healey told the Select Board at its Aug. 29 meeting. Healey’s final day will be Oct. 7.

“I’m fortune enough to have the opportunity to work in my hometown where I grew up and where I still live,” she said.

“I’m sorry to see you go but I can’t compete with being 500 feet from work,” said Board Member Adam Dash, who along with the rest of the board praised Healey for her work in finalizing at time contensious union contracts.

A graduate (BA) of St. Amselm College and (MBA) Southern New Hampshire University, Healey arrived in Belmont in September 2017 as assistant to than HR Head Jessica Porter. She became acting director in October 2020 before being named director in March 2021.

Town Field Playground Renovation Begins In September After Construction Bid Accepted

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Photo:The proposed project at Town Field

After being pushed aside for other projects and delayed by a worldwide pandemic, Monday night, Aug. 15, was Town Field’s time in the spotlight as the Belmont Select Board voted unanimously to approve a bid to begin construction on the renovation of the Field’s playground and courts at the intersection of Beech and Waverley streets.

“We are anxious and excited to say goodbye to our current Town Field Playground, and hello to the new one in the spring,” said Cortney Eldridge, co-chair of the Friends of Town Field.

And the project – which was first proposed by neighbors in 2016 and brought before the Community Preservation Committee in the fall of 2019 – is coming in at a bargain. Approved for $1,049,033 by Town Meeting vote in May, the town selected the low bid of $870,000 from M.J. Cataldo of Littleton, a potential $179,000 savings which will be returned to the CPC coffers.

Cataldo submitted the low bid of eight submitted with half exceeding the town’s price tag. Waterfield Design Group, the project’s design and landscape team, gave a thumbs up to Cataldo’s past work with the Winchester firm.

According to Jay Marcotte, director of the town’s Department of Public Works, the schedule calls for a start date in September with a completion of the job in June of next year. The project will begin with the demolition of the existing playground and court and the removal of the old and outdated playground equipment and relacing with modern and more accessible equipment. There will be four pickleball courts and a renovated basketball court.

It’s been a long and winding journey for what has been a popular proposal that joins several CPC-funded projects at the town’s playing fields. After receiving an initial $680,624 in 2020, competing CPC and town priorities and Covid-19 delays forced the proposal to the sidelines for two years. In that time, construction costs skyrocketed forcing the proposal to return to Town Meeting in 2022 for an additional request of $343,409.

Eldridge said she and the Friends group hopes Monday’s vote will be final big challenge before the opening of the new playground and courts.

“This was one of the last hurdles we needed to pass, and I am really hoping it’s smooth sailing from here on out,” she said.

Historic Changes Proposed For Belmont Government, Budget Process As Town Facing ’Serious Financial Difficulties’

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Photo: The Collins Center’s Stephen Cirillo

Stephen Cirillo did not mince words: an on-going structural deficit will result in Belmont “facing a significant financial challenge” in the next years.

Yet Cirillo’s statement was hardly a Cassandra-like message; everyone knows it’s only so true. In fact, Cirillo has been before the town for the past four years sounding that same alarm and voters passed a Proposition 2 1/2 override in 2015 to fill the town’s coffer emptied by an earlier fiscal imbalance. But in a damning review of the town’s financial structure by the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at UMass Boston presented before a joint hybrid meeting of the town’s major committees and boards on Wednesday, Aug. 3, the ability of Belmont’s leaders to effectively face the current fiscal precipice is hindered by an antiquated governmental framework that mutes any opportunity to come to grips with the issues.

“We are concerned that underpinning the current financial challenges is an overall organizational structure that may be unable to meet these difficulties,” said Cirillo, a staff associate at the Center.

In one example that surprised the reviewers, no where in the town’s bylaws or special acts in the 162 years since the town was incorporated was the Select Board ever declared as head of the executive branch.

“Belmont is one of the most decentralized town structures” of its size existing in the Commonwealth, said Cirillo, in which varying committees, boards and elected officials deals with certain aspects of the town’s financial landscape but not the whole “in an inherently uncoordinated fashion.”

“Individually, none of these is necessarily unusual or problematic,” reads the report, but put together, “[it] creates a significant diffusion of responsibility and authority across the executive branch” which is unusual for a large town such as Belmont.

The initial reaction from the officials and the public was an acceptance with an acknowledgment that the recommendations must be seriously considered.

“I thought the report was incredibly well done. Very comprehensive and pointed,” said Mark Paolillo, chair of the Select Board. “So I welcome these recommendations. They are fairly robust.”

Seven months and 18 interviews

The review was initiated by Town Administrator Patrice Garvin and the Select Board which received a state grant 18 months ago to look at the town’s financial structure with the Collins Center which has assisted the town previously on developing financial policy and revenue forecasts. The report took seven months to complete with 18 of 19 town officials, employees, appointees and a resident on the Center’s interview list participating in hour-long sessions between November 2021 and February 2022.

While the review spotlighted the structure of town governance, it also pointed out the lack of fiscal “best practices” in its budgetary process. Belmont has been able, so far, to stave off the financial crisis of the structural deficit in the past seven years by using non-recurring funds such as free cash and state and federal and state grants, Cirillo said that approach is simply not sustainable “and you’re rapidly approaching the financial cliff” when one-time revenue will not fill the gap between recurring revenue and expenditures. When that occurs, the only option will require cuts to essential services – education, public safety, public works – or seeking a series of overrides to balance the budget.

While the conditions creating the structural deficit remain, Cirillo presented a list of recommendations that would bring historic change to Belmont’s governmental model and budget process since the town’s founding in 1859. The 19 recommendations [see a copy at the bottom of the page] are not radical in any sense, said Cirillo. In fact, they would bring Belmont in line structurally with nearly all cities and towns in the Commonwealth including comparable towns.

Read the 40-page Financial Organization Structure Review here.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Cirillo pointed to three key recommendations as essential to put Belmont on the path towards. One is to revamp the town’s current annual budget process into a formalized financial planning cycle by adopting guidelines and best practices developed by the state’s Division of Revenues’ Department of Local Services.

Calling the new planning cycle ”very simple,” Cirillo said each player – be it the town administrator, the select board or department head – has a specific timeline to do their specific tasks and move it forward to the next step. ”And each person, each committee has their responsibility to make their decisions themselves, independent of a group meeting,” he said.

Another main recommendation is to define and strengthen the powers and duties of the Select Board and Town Administrator via new bylaws, changes in policy and through special legislation so that “everything should flow through the Select Board and the representative Town Administrator,” said Cirillo.

“We believe that the Town’s executive branch is not configured in a way that aligns authority, responsibility and accountability,” said the report.

The third recommendation is for the Select Board to take the lead in determining what policies will guide the budget process. Cirillo said once the agreed-to revenue expenditure forecast is presented and reviewed, the board would issue policy directives such as how much should be spent on capital projects, set department hiring freezes to forestall layoffs or call for draft budgets that show the effects of reductions to their assigned revenue.

”These budget guidelines would flow to the town administrator who would then send a directive to the department heads, including the school department, at the beginning of the budget process,” said Cirillo.

Once the department budgets are returned at a date certain, the Town Administrator will prepare a budget recommendation back to the Select Board and Warrant Committee both who will meet with the individual departments “which should have the right to advocate for revenue … for the services they deliver,” said Cirillo.

”Ultimately, the Select Board will make their budget recommendation to Town Meeting with the Warrant Committee making their own budget recommendation to Town Meeting,” said Cirillo, noting it’s likely those recommendations will be very close in their final numbers ”because all budgeting is incremental in nature.” If there are differences in opinion, the board and the committee should seek to reconcile their differences. If not, the Warrant Committee can bring its budget to the town’s legislative body and the Select Board can ask for an up or down vote, he said.

New finance director to lead new financial management team

Cirillo was happy to see one of the 19 recommendations has been implemented with the “excellent” hire of Jennifer Hewitt as the town’s assistant town administrator and finance director who will chair a new Financial Management Team. The team will hold regular meetings to “create opportunities to develop new ideas and analyze the impact of upcoming fiscal events … and offer early strategies to deal with anticipated areas of concern.”

Other recommendation calls for the transition of the Town Treasurer position and the Board of Assessors from elected to appointed posts as well as finding other sources of revenue from economic development that will attract an appropriate level of commercial and industrial activity.

The Warrant Committee’s Jack Weis said his concern was the school district makes up 60 percent of the town’s budget and while town and schools have worked collaboratively, “there’s no guarantee that could work and there’s been examples where that didn’t work.” While Cirillo said the school committee does control the school department, it remains a department with the town of Belmont and the Select Board and Warrant Committee are responsible for creating the budget for the town.

“They should be working with the superintendent of school … or make every effort to do so and they succeed more times than not,” said Cirillo, noting that the schools will be part of the budget process every step of the way and they will know the fiscal reality the town is working in.

”The budget is driven by the executive and the executive is the Select Board represented by the town administrator and the warrant committee represents the Town Meeting,” said Cirillo.

Much what the Collins Center is recommending is not new. In fact, many of the suggestions were first proposed in a 2011 financial management review conducted by the state’s Division of Local Services. ”We implemented a handful of recommendations, many which we did not,” said Paolillo. ”When reading the report, I was not surprised to see that a lot of the recommendations from 11 years ago were in this report.”

While Wednesday meeting was the release of the report, a subsequent public meeting on Aug. 29 will be used to plan a path forward, said Paolillo.

”We can’t make changes in a vacuum” it will need consensus of town and elected officials as well as the public ”because some of the recommendations, I would say, are maybe controversial,” said Paolillo.

”It’s not the end of the discussion,” said Paolillo. ”It’s the beginning of our deliberations. This will be an ongoing dialogue … so we need your thoughts and input.”

Paolillo Named 2022-3 Select Board Chair

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Photo: Mark Paolillo

Mark Paolillo was unanimously elected chair of the Belmont Select Board for the coming year in a vote during the board’s annual organizing meeting on Wednesday, April 6.

Adam Dash steps into the vice-chair role with Roy Epstein, who won re-election to the board the previous night, taking the role of member.

”I certainly appreciate [Dash’s] leadership over the past year and I look forward to working with both you in the upcoming year. We have a lot of work that we need to accomplish,” said Paolillo, who was the board’s vice chair over the past year.

The remainder of the morning meeting was taken up on the board’s liaison assignments with town committees and boards.

Letter To The Editor: This We Agree On, Vote Epstein If You Care About Belmont’s Schools

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Photo: Letters to the editor

To the editor:

Over the years the two of us have often found ourselves on different sides of political debates within Town. At meetings of the Select Board, or in the pages of the Citizen Herald we’ve debated and butted heads over any number of issues. Throughout, however, we have always been united by one thing: our love of Belmont and our sincere desire to see our Town and its residents thrive.

That’s why we’re writing to you today to urge you to elect Roy Epstein for the Select Board, and to warn you about his opponent’s stated plan to cut $8 million from the budget for our public schools. If enacted, such a plan would see as many as 160 school staff laid off and deeply degrade the quality of education our children receive. Belmont residents who cherish our public schools must stand, as one, and re-elect Mr. Epstein and refute this noxious proposal. 

Lasseter’s plan? Crippling cuts to schools

The source of our alarm is a statement made by Roy’s opponent, Jeff Lasseter, during the League of Women Voters debate on March 24. Speaking about the Town’s finances, Lasseter stated that the School Committee had budgeted for $69 to $70 million dollars for the next fiscal year but “only needed 59-60 million” if the School Department used “common sense spending.” That’s a $9 to $10 million reduction in school funding – around 14 percent of our budget.

And this was no gaffe. In fact, Roy’s opponent repeated his claim on Saturday afternoon during a forum hosted on behalf of Belmont’s Pan-Asian Coalition and the Belmont Chinese American Association.

Hyperbole by candidates on the campaign trail is nothing new nor is it unique to Belmont. But the plan promoted by Roy’s opponent would have serious implications for our students.

Here are the real numbers for Belmont’s schools

The facts of the School Budget for 2022-2023 are clear and a matter of public record. After months of discussion and planning, the School Department presented a revised budget of $67.2 million as of March 29, 2022. This number is slightly lower than the School Department’s original request for $69.4 million. Those $2 million in cuts have been followed by another cut of $165,000 and a proposed cut of $507,400. 
This final cut has not been approved by the School Committee. Even without the final $507,400, the Committee would need to cut an additional $8.2 million to meet the budget target of $59 million set by Roy Epstein’s opponent.       

Mind you: Belmont’s public schools already run lean. Class size in Belmont is larger than average among our peer districts, while per pupil spending in-district is thousands of dollars per-pupil below the State average. The two of us can, and have, disagreed about the relative importance of such statistics to educational outcomes. What we agree on is that Belmont’s public schools already operate with a much leaner budget than comparable districts.  

Death blow: Cut 120 teachers and 40 aides

What would happen if the School Department reduced its already lean budget to $59 million as Roy’s opponent has proposed? Well, the only areas for substantial cuts are staffing: personnel. We cannot end state-mandated services (which account for $23 million); we cannot cut fixed costs for operations. To find another $8.2 million in cuts, Lasseter has proposed, Belmont would have no choice but to carry out massive layoffs of teachers and professional aides. Salary savings for 160 personnel would be $10 million.  Health insurance savings would be $1.5 million. But unemployment benefits paid for layoffs would be a cost increase of $3.3 million.

By our calculations, to live within a budget of $59 million in FY23, Belmont might close one of its elementary schools entirely, squeezing all of that school’s students into the other three grade schools in Town. But even that logistic nightmare would not be save enough.

If we, instead, spread the $8.2 million in cuts over K-12, we would need to eliminate more than 160 positions in all: 120 teachers and 40 professional aides. The number of teachers in Belmont would be reduced by more than one-third. Class sizes would explode as a result. Elementary grades would see classes of more than 30 students. At the high school, we would need to cut all electives, saving staffing for the core classes required by the state. AP offerings would also be affected. Fees would soar, further hampering working families in town.

Just as troubling as the implications of Lasseter’s proposal for our schools is the fact-free and cavalier manner in which he floated them. The schools, he said, simply needed “common sense spending” to find the millions in savings. He offered no details on what “common sense” entailed, or  where the millions of dollars in cuts would come from.    

Wanted: facts and common sense, not conspiracies

As a town, and a nation, we know well what to expect from politicians who rail against government, while reveling in their ignorance of how it actually works. We know the dangers of conspiracy theories and promises like “only I can fix it!” We’ve seen the chaos that such ill-conceived and ill-informed plans deliver.

Only now is our community emerging from the trial and trauma of the COVID pandemic. Masks are coming off and life is ever so slowly returning to normal. But there is so much more to do. Now, more than ever, we need smart, serious and informed leaders who can lead our Town out of the depths of the pandemic, and put us back on a track to prosperity and common purpose. On Tuesday, Roy Epstein is the candidate who can deliver that. Together, we urge you to vote for him on Tuesday, April 5.

Paul F. Roberts, Town Meeting Member Precinct 8, Chair, IT Advisory Committee

Ralph T. Jones, Town Meeting Member, Precinct 3, School Committee

[Note: Jones is the chair of Roy Epstein’s re-election campaign]

Letter To The Editor: Lasseter Will Welcome Change To Status Quo

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Photo: A lawn sign for Jeff Lasseter (Jeff for Belmont Facebook page)

To the editor:

Although I’m too young to vote, I want to express my support for Jeff Lasseter who is running for Belmont Select Board. I’ve met Jeff and was impressed with his depth of knowledge, commitment to the town, and how he listens to residents and thinks about their input, before reaching decisions, leading to action. I appreciate how Jeff hired young Belmont residents to work in his restaurant and his involvement in the community through sponsoring fundraisers. 

In his many years in federal government, Jeff acquired real life experience balancing the books, often needing to do “more with less.” We need to run the town like a business, holding everyone involved with the town’s finances accountable. 

Jeff sincerely relates to parents, seniors, business owners and anyone invested in improving our town for all. Jeff’s ability to relate to all constituents and respect their concerns, is a welcome change to the status quo in Belmont.

Antonio Molle

Warwick Road

Select Board No Fan Of Proposal For Two-Way Traffic On Leonard This Summer

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Photo: One or two-way traffic will be coming to Leonard Street this summer

If there has been one town-led change to the Belmont landscape over the past two years that has received overwhelming approval, it’s been the nearly six months that Leonard Street becomes a one-way avenue through Belmont Center.

Devised by the town and Select Board in the spring of 2020 to allow the center’s eateries enough room to install outdoor dining when the Covid-19 pandemic closed down indoor service at restaurants, the opening of Leonard Street with a single traffic lane from Alexander Avenue to Channing Road created a pedestrian-friendly area that attracted strollers, shoppers and diners to the business district. In 2021, additional parking was created along the street as well as flower pots and new railing as the length of the closure was increased from early May to late October.

”People love it,” said Chair Adam Dash. “The only complaint I heard was why can’t you close both lanes. Get rid of the cars.”

So when the Select Board heard a proposal from the Belmont Center Business Association to temporarily close Leonard Street to one lane from May to October, the board was eager to move forward. That was until they heard from the town on what the business group was proposing. Rather than one lane, the association members was seeking two, narrow lanes with a more limited area along the curb given over to restaurants for al fresco dining.

Since no one from the BCBA attended the meeting, it was up to Town Administrator Patrice Garvin to tell the board that earlier in the day town officials had “some additional conversations” with the association and while it wanted the board to approve the dates for closing the street from May 2 through Oct. 25, the association’s “alternatives”was specifically having two-way traffic along Leonard. So far, said Garvin, the town had not even started any preliminary work such as creating a traffic pattern map or even knowing “how that will work.”

“Roy [Epstein, board member] and Glenn Clancy [town engineer] spent a lot of time on moving spaces around … and that worked pretty well,” said Dash, who said he had not heard about the association’s proposal when he met earlier in the day with the BCBA president Gerry Dickhaut, owner of Champions Sporting Goods.

“I’ve never heard anyone say they want two-way traffic,” said Dash.

“One way layout worked fine, but a two way?” pondered Epstein.

Clancy said the alternative would squeeze two-way traffic lane which would include sharing the lanes with bikes, dining, adding more parking spaces, with less pedestrian areas all in the same program package.

”They see an opportunity with two lanes to be able to provide for more parking for some of the businesses that don’t fully support closing even one lane of traffic,” said Clancy, pointing to office owners and retailers who are demanding “better parking facilities.”

It became immediately apparent the three-member select board saw the BCBA proposal as going over like a lead zeppelin. The three members said they would not vote on anything until they saw some details of any likely alternative.

”We need a plan to vote on,” said Mark Paolillo, who even floated the idea of following other towns which shut off traffic to business centers for certain days of the week such as from Thursday to Sunday.

“I don’t know what I’m voting on so I’m not voting on [the dates],” said Dash.

“The one lane worked. It has robust attendance. Cars seem to be moving slow particularly at night,” said Paolillo.

The board deferred the vote until Monday, March 14.

Belmont Select Board Convey Support For Ukraine And Its People

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Photo: The Select Board express its support for the embattled Ukrainian people as its country is invaded by Russia

Belmont joins a growing number of communities around the world expressing its support for Ukraine and its people as the European nation is being invaded by Russia.

While saying it’s usually not the place of the town’s executive body to venture into areas outside their purview, Select Board member Mark Paolillo said on Monday, Feb. 28, that “all of us have been watching the events in Ukraine and the attack on democracy. Those individuals that are of Ukrainian descent in Belmont, we stand with them and the Ukrainians as they fight off the aggression by someone that’s trying to destroy democracy.”

“We can say that the leaders of Belmont stands with the Ukrainians against the Russian aggression,” said Select Board Chair Adam Dash who noted that more than 100 years ago the paternal side of his family fled Russian pograms to America from Odessa, Ukraine.

”I agree that [the Russian invasion] is completely out of hand and we maybe are on the verge of World War III. It is completely outrageous and I hope this gets resolved,” said Dash.

In addition, Vice Chair Roy Epstein saluted “the bravery of the individual Russians who have stood up against the Russian government and are paying a frightful consequence” including physical assaults and long prison sentences.

“I don’t know what more we can do as a town of Belmont other than stand strong with our Ukrainian colleagues,” said Paolillo.