By K.B. Sherman, Community Reporter
?Shrewsbury – Just as the economy promises to be the key issue in the 2012 elections, so the economy was indirectly the main topic of discussion on the first night of the Shrewsbury Annual Town Meeting.
Approximately 350 voters approved the fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget after nearly three hours of debate. There were 31 articles on the meeting warrant, but as discussions grew more heated and complicated, only six had been dealt with by the time the frustrated voters chose to adjourn the meeting at 11:05 p.m. until Wednesday, May 23.
The first contentious discussion of the night involved Article 3, which asked the voters to approve amending the town Classification and Compensation Plan and the Consolidated Personnel Bylaw. A lengthy and complicated presentation followed, the gist of which was a recommendation to reclassify some town jobs and to raise salaries by an average of 2 percent to be more in line with what the town asserts is the average in neighboring communities. Fifteen voters then followed the presentation with questions and comments on the proposed plan. Voters raised concerns on issues such as the affordability of the plan; possible attrition of town workers because of low pay; why the town feels free to raise salaries amid personnel layoffs; comparison to the private sector; and the impact of collective bargaining upon such proposed changes and salary increases.
One voter asked the question: why do town employees get automatic raises when there is not in place any sort of job performance review process? Town Manager Daniel Morgado replied that a performance-based personnel system “doesn's work very well” and in any event, performance is assured through the job level of an employee since performance would have to be good for the employee to successfully meet job requirements in the long term. The discussion then turned to the issue of wanting to pay town employees more but that under current fiscal conditions, that was not possible and that a Proposition 2 ? override to provide more money for employees was not realistic.
Article 5 – to pay $621,855 from general funds for various town services – generated another discussion. The question was whether the town's spending over $300,000 to remove fallen trees following last October's ice storm was a good decision, with some voters asking why people should not be responsible for tree removal on and about their own property. Another voter suggested that citizens be required to purchase tree-removal stickers as trash bags are now purchased to show they had paid for such removal. Morgado claimed that such services should be expected of the town for the public good. The article passed on a majority vote.
Article 6 asked for approval for the fiscal year (FY) 2013 $97.6 million budget. Erin Canzano, the school committee chair, presented a detailed report on the school district's
finances, which make up just over half of the town's total FY2013 budget. She noted what the committee has identified as inadequate funding resulting in staff and teacher layoffs, increased class sizes, insufficient money for special education, lagging school maintenance, and damage to AP and other programs.
Her presentation was then challenged by a number of voters. Several noted that the town was projected to experience shrinking class sizes from now until 2020, not increasing class sizes as was used in the school committee's budget analysis. Town Manager Daniel Morgado countered that transfers into town of more students would account for projected increased class sizes. Another voter noted that school budget increases had been exceeding expected class size increases for years and wanted to know why the school budget has risen faster than any other element of the town budget since FY2002; the FY 2013 school budget was 57 percent higher than that of FY2002. The voter also noted that staffing levels have consistently overtaken student enrollment.
Several other voters then challenged the school committee's presentation. One noted that teacher salary raises ran from 4.8 to 15.9 percent, including cost- of-living adjustments (COLA) while COLA itself has been just 4.3 percent. Morgado replied that the raises were comparable to that of neighboring towns and that collective bargaining left the town with little wiggle room in this matter.
The issue of a Proposition 2 ? override was raised several times during the night but each time quickly dismissed by Morgado and Town Moderator Christopher Mehne. Questions about the impact of unfunded mandates were met with the explanation from officials that they are so complex that they cannot be adequately discussed in a town meeting forum.
The discussion of the town budget went on for some time, with voters evenly divided between wanting to cut the budget and wanting increase the budget, especially where it involved the schools.
The FY2013 budget was approved for $97.6 million, which includes $49.8 million for the schools.