It was one of the gloomiest days of the month, with grey skies, falling temperatures, and rain in the forecast from morning until night. “You picked a heck of a day for this meeting,” said Selectman Peter Warren, as he arrived at the May 16 Board of Selectmen’s (BOS) strategy meeting.
Considering the conditions outside, a meeting of the selectmen in the warm, well-lit Town Hall meeting room would seem to have been a relief, but the coziness did little to brighten their mood. Given an opportunity to consider the future of the town and their own goals for the coming year, the temper of the BOS and Town Administrator Tim Bragan seemed at times to take on the cast of the weather outside, with their talk turning to Harvard’s ongoing “structural deficit,” the seeming complacency of residents on matters financial, issues of trust among the selectmen themselves, the challenge of managing two major construction projects, and the need for budgets that are balanced for more than one year at a time.
“I don’t think, personally, that we have enough of a sense of urgency” about Harvard’s financial situation, Selectman Bill Johnson told his fellow board members. It’s because, he declared, “we go year to year” and each year manage to balance the budget. “There are not enough people in town who are scared,” Johnson declared. “Why? We haven’t had an override in three years.”
The newly elected BOS convenes annually for the informal strategic planning session before the start of the new fiscal year, to “develop and determine their goals.” The gathering is prescribed by the board’s policies and procedures, and the meeting is posted and public. No votes are taken and the discussion is less formal than a regular meeting, but these forums are important because they help the selectmen sort through the critical needs of the town and decide on actions they will take together in the coming year to meet them. And the selectmen have, over the years, become less sensitive to the presence of outside observers.
The session this year was convened nearly a month earlier than previous get-togethers. All five BOS members were present, as were Bragan and Executive Assistant Julie Doucet, who kept notes. With Bragan at the white board, the meeting began with the selectmen, one at a time, stating their top three issues, an exercise that brought the following concerns to the top of the list.
- Dealing with the structural deficit, the ever-looming gap between the costs of running the town and the revenues available to do so
- Managing the upgrade of the town’s wastewater treatment plant and construction of a town center sewer, expected to begin this summer;
- Developing schematic design plans for Town Hall and Hildreth House in time for Annual Town Meeting
- Doing better planning for the future, including an update to the town Master Plan, a plan for the commercial district, and plans for the future of Devens
- Continuing to pursue sharing of services with neighboring towns, including Devens
- Getting a grip on maintenance of town buildings and playing fields
The search for ways to manage the structural deficit consumed much of the ensuing five and one-half-hour discussion, with at least two significant results:
- The BOS will press again for five-year plans and budgets, this time from all town committees and boards as well as every town department. The BOS expects to announce an “all boards” meeting for June 13 to kick off the planning process and get everyone on board, so to speak.
- The BOS will soon create working groups to review all town sources of revenue, including fees, land assessments, Community Preservation Act dollars, and more to identify those that might be increased. Another working group will look for town organizations and services that might be better managed as self-sustaining “enterprise funds,” in which fees and town subsidies cover the costs of their operation.
The push for five-year plans and budgets is meant to identify future costs well ahead of the year in which they are likely to be requested, allowing town officials to prioritize and schedule them. Five-year plans can also be used to schedule borrowing and tax overrides when anticipated town revenues can be seen to be insufficient in any given year.
The push for new sources of revenue complements the drive for five-year plans. As Bragan noted, the town’s existing capital funds—money set aside for future projects and purchases—will be gone in two and one-half years and there is no plan to refill that bucket. Selectman Ron Ricci observed that although state taxes have gone up in recent years, less of it is coming back to the town, which has lost $700,000 in state funds over the past decade. And no one knows how long the money the town receives each year for educating Devens students can continue.
Last year, fewer than half of the town’s boards and committees submitted five-year plans as requested. This year, the BOS hopes to achieve 100 percent participation. There’s no carrot, but here’s the stick the BOS will recommend: if a capital request by any town-funded group is not framed by a five-year budget and plan, the request will be denied.
Although the topics of five-year planning, new revenue sources, the Municipal Buildings Committee, and the sewer dominated this year’s meeting, the selectmen also reviewed their policies and procedures, especially those dealing with communication among themselves and the appointment of committees. New Chairwoman Marie Sobalvarro pressed for greater sharing of information between selectmen and respect for the policy that states: “Realize that [a selectman] is one of a team and should abide by board decisions once they are made.” There was a consensus among members that the BOS needed to encourage more residents to become involved in town business and that its volunteer committees needed broader participation. These discussions led to two concrete outcomes:
- At the suggestion of Ricci, the BOS will hold an informal monthly meeting solely for the purpose of sharing information and opinions on matters the board must decide. The first meeting will be scheduled for the morning of Wednesday, May 25. These will be posted public meetings, but no votes will be taken. Ricci offered to supply the coffee.
- In the future, the positions on all BOS-appointed committees will be opened to residents who want to volunteer, whether they are currently serving or not. Current members will be encouraged to apply again, but the BOS will review all applicants and make fresh appointments as it sees fit. The complete list of volunteer committee positions for the coming year will be available on the town website this week.
Throughout the session, discussion was predominantly civil and on-topic. Though they were unable to get through the entire agenda Sobalvarro had prepared, the selectmen agreed they would use the upcoming communications meeting next week to complete their work. In an e-mail to the Press, Sobalvarro said her expectation was that she and co-chairman Bill Johnson would be ready to present a final list of goals to a vote by the BOS at their next regular meeting on June 7.
