Although a dramatically lower cost estimate for this year’s renovation of Hildreth House has made the need for additional funding for that project less likely for now, last week’s Town Meeting vote not to transfer this year’s free cash to the town’s capital stabilization fund continued to reverberate through town boards this week. That vote by a solid Town Meeting majority surprised town officials, but was intended to ensure that money would be available to quickly cover a cost overrun if necessary.
Capital Planning and Investment Committee (CPIC) members and the outgoing chairwoman of the Finance Committee reacted to the vote and the debate that preceded it with a mixture of hurt and concern, first at a Monday morning capital committee meeting and then the next day at a Tuesday evening Board of Selectmen meeting.
Caught off guard
At the Monday meeting, CPIC members said Selectwoman Lucy Wallace’s decision to oppose Article 22 had caught them off guard and left them no time to work out a solution. In the voting to stop the transfer of free cash to the capital fund, Wallace was joined by Selectmen Stu Sklar and Leo Blair.
“It felt like a kick in the teeth,” CPIC member Teresa Jardin said.
“There’s mischief in how the Board of Selectmen operates,” said CPIC Vice Chairwoman, SusanMary Redinger, who represents the School Committee. The selectmen need to hear that “we are disappointed in the process. It makes us look like idiots,” she said. She later joined a unanimous vote to send a letter to the selectmen voicing the committee’s disappointment.
CPIC Chairwoman, Debbie Ricci, provided the Press with a copy of the April 11 letter on Tuesday before the selectmen’s meeting was called to order, but no other copies were distributed and it was unclear who had seen the document prior to the meeting. Wallace said Wednesday that she had yet to receive a copy.
Dangerous precedent?
Wallace in particular, as well as the other two board members who voted against the measure, were clearly the targets of the letter’s complaint. “At ATM, the division that took place on the floor was the direct result of a lack of civility during the days leading up to the ATM,” it stated. “[A] selectman became a key part of an effort to defeat the article without having the courtesy of letting anyone know … until just before Town Meeting.”
“[T]he actions and comments made at ATM … may have left some voters with a mistrust of CPIC and set a dangerous precedent for reserving the use of free cash for projects that circumvent the procedures and bylaws already agreed to by the town and town officials,” the letter continued, concluding with a plea that the selectmen act in a way that encourages elected and appointed volunteers to work collaboratively in the future.
During public comment, CPIC Chairwoman Ricci and two members stepped to the microphone to directly address the selectmen and amplify statements made in their letter. They were joined by outgoing Finance Committee Chairwoman Alice von Loesecke, who is about to join the Board of Selectmen as Blair’s replacement.
Fighting back tears, Finance Committee and CPIC member Heidi Frank, whose three-year appointment expires this year, said she had regarded her appointment to CPIC as “an honor,” but had been shocked by the selectmen’s lack of support and was no longer willing to serve as a town volunteer. “I felt like a deer in the headlights last Tuesday night,” she said. “Our main job [on CPIC] is to ask hard questions. It can be tough. They can sometimes be silly questions. But it’s our job. We recommend; we don’t decide. That’s what taxpayers want.”
First-year volunteer Jardin, a citizen-at-large CPIC member, said she too had been taken aback by the lack of support from the selectmen, and, in an equally emotional statement, said the town was not well served by the board’s treatment of volunteers like herself.
Von Loesecke noted the praise Harvard’s financial planning policies had received in the 2011 audit by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue as well as Standard & Poor’s decision to raise Harvard’s municipal bond rating from AA to AAA status. That increase has lowered interest on Harvard’s bonds by 0.5 percent, she said.
Looking for commitment
In her comments, CPIC Chairwoman Ricci said that if CPIC had known ahead of time, she was sure they could have worked something out and come up with a better solution. “Even if the article was voted down, at least we would have tried,” she said.
The selectmen made no comment, but Chairman Ron Ricci asked Town Administrator Tim Bragan to make room for a discussion at the next selectmen’s meeting.
But in a brief interview Wednesday morning, Selectwoman Wallace said that she had in fact approached the capital committee the night of town meeting. Wallace said she told the committee, which was in session, that if they would vote and commit to making money available should there be a budget overrun at Hildreth House, “then that would be fine.” But, said Wallace, “they wouldn’t do that. They waffled.” The CPIC schedule is very precise, she said. Without a commitment from CPIC, those who wanted work on Hildreth House to begin this summer could have found themselves waiting a year.
“This is not the first time I have been accused of stealing a vote,” Wallace added. She said she was amazed people thought she had that much power. “It can be tough out there. I have lost many votes. But you get up the next morning and put your best foot forward.”
Free cash redux
Free cash is the amount of money left unspent at the end of each fiscal year. In 2009 and 2010, Harvard passed bylaws that first created CPIC and then a stabilization fund to be used explicitly for capital projects with a cost greater than $20,000 and an expected life of more than 5 years. The bylaw also designates free cash as the source of money for the capital fund. The bylaws were enacted by a two-thirds vote of Town Meeting. In succeeding years, the transfer of free cash to the fund has been an uncontroversial item on the town warrant.
Problems arose this year when word circulated that construction cost estimates for Hildreth House renovations were higher than the amount approved by the 2015 Annual Town Meeting. Proponents wanted assurances that CPIC would make the funds available if they were needed, but concluded that rather than leaving that decision in the hands of CPIC it was best to withhold the free cash so a special town meeting could make the decision at a later date.
CPIC and FinCom members were especially upset that Wallace was among those speaking against the transfer of free cash to the capital fund. CPIC member and Selectman Ken Swanton said he only learned that Wallace planned to oppose the article when she called him at 5 p.m. the night of Town Meeting to give him a heads-up. Swanton said he then called Ron and Debbie Ricci sometime around 5:30 p.m. to warn them. Bragan said he only learned of plans to scuttle the article the night of Town Meeting. When the selectmen reviewed the Town Meeting warrant in February, a meeting at which Bragan and all five selectmen were present, they did not discuss or object to the article. In effect, Chairman Ricci confirmed, the selectmen had given their implicit approval.
Not a problem for now
When Town Meeting gathered on Tuesday last week, the traditionally uncontroversial free cash article was suddenly the target of an organized opposition. Proponents were unable to muster the two-thirds vote needed to pass it. Today, the free cash that would have been transferred sits in an account of the General Fund. If a town meeting takes no further action before the end of the fiscal year June 30, there the cash must remain, the initial balance of next year’s free cash.
“That’s not a problem for now,” said Finance Director Lorraine Leonard Wednesday morning. But that’s the money the town sets aside to fund the purchase and debt service on vehicles, equipment, and other large items. With a current balance of $951,995, there is enough money in the capital fund to cover the next one or two years of the five-year capital plan, she said. And if business as usual returns next year, there should be roughly twice as much available for a transfer.
Hildtreth costs below budget
Coincidentally this week, at a meeting of the Town Hall and Hildreth House Construction Committee Monday morning, project manager Steve Kirby released new cost estimates showing that, thanks to modifications and cuts made by the committee and architect a few weeks ago, the final estimate for safety and accessibility renovations to Hildreth House is under its Town Meeting–approved budget by about $130,000 (see story). There is still a risk that once the project goes out to bid, costs could exceed its budget, but not by much, said construction committee Chairman Rick Maiore.
As for whether free cash, if needed before June 30, could be used to make up for a shortfall in Hildreth funding, “We’ll find out [at Special Town Meeting],” Bragan said. ““It will all work itself out.”
