When Norwood’s Annual Town Meeting wrapped up at the end of May, it adjourned on a sour note, leaving its representative members and taxpayers confused, frustrated, and worried about the possible outcome of a mistake that originated with the acting school superintendent’s erroneous interpretation of planned school repair projects and costs.
Based on the information it was given, Town Meeting approved the Selectmen’s School Building Special Repairs budget account for $263,000 to fund repairs outlined by Superintendent Moretti as $151,000 for Cleveland School lighting fixtures, $75,000 for Prescott School floor tiles, and the remainder for Coakley Middle School lockers.
Later in the evening, Town Meeting was asked to approve $2.4 million in borrowing for capital outlay projects, including, again, the replacement of Cleveland classroom lighting and Prescott floor tiles. Since that funding was also approved, there was a double appropriation for the same repairs, which, fortunately, can only be made and paid for once.
Town Counsel Michael Lehane confirmed that Town Meeting approved the funds specifically for the three projects Superintendent Moretti outlined and that the funds would have to be spent accordingly.
The downside to the duplicate appropriations is that critical projects that should have been included on the School Building Special Repairs budget account are now unfunded and may not get needed attention because of the error.
The confusion apparently lies in the existence of several repair lists and the lack of a final, definitive list being available at Town Meeting.
Selectman Bill Plasko, a member of the town’s Budget Balancing Subcommittee, said the problem may have stemmed from the fact that the subcommittee moved several items from the capital outlay list for borrowing into the selectmen’s school building repairs account. Plasko said those changes were somehow lost in the shuffle.
“The confusion is there is still no accurate list, so we’re trying to get to the bottom of that,” said Plasko.
The answer may be found in the fact that this was a budget cycle like no other. The ailing economy forced many Massachusetts cities and towns to formulate their budgets based on ever-changing state aid numbers. The pressure to cut back on spending and generate a balanced budget in time for town meetings forced officials, most of them volunteers, to put in a lot of additional time and effort under tremendous pressure.
For the volunteers who put in endless hours on balancing the budget, personal lives also continued on with all of the pressures and stresses that most of us endure in our own daily lives. They just also had to balance a town budget on top of everything else.
But, for Norwood, the mistakes made at Town Meeting can and will be corrected.
“This is the type of thing that is fixable,” said Town Moderator David Hern. “It’s just a matter of clarifying to the members and taxpayers what exactly the money is being spent on.”
It is likely that the problem will be corrected at a Special Town Meeting in the fall. By then, Town Meeting members and officials should be well rested and less distracted so that the town’s business can be addressed in a clear, well-documented fashion.
This year’s annual meeting, with its overstuffed Special warrant, poor attendance, and lack of documentation for zoning and budget articles, offers officials and Town Meeting members an opportunity to reflect on these deficiencies and work towards making the system work better in the future.
Norwood resident Candace Leary’s Midpoints column appears Mondays in the Transcript.
