Belmont Override Defeat: Ominous or Opportunity

There were a few tears and some long faces but members of One Belmont who gathered together at a private house to hear the results of Monday's Proposition 2 1/2 override vote were proud of the work they did to educate citizens about the town's financial situation.

"I thought we'd win but we didn't," said Steve Evans, one of the organizers of One Belmont.

"We had our first meeting only nine weeks ago and it's just mind-boggling what we accomplished. We set a goal of getting 3,000 votes and we did it which is phenomenal."

The concern on the part of the members of the ballot question group was – and remains – the deepening structural deficit of the schools and town government for fiscal year 2011, which begins July 1.

That problem will not go away and the issue of an override will likely come up again, many override supporters said.

"When people have the experience of living with the pain these cuts will mean, they will come back hungry," said School Committee member Dan Scharfman.

"A lot of people don't trust town government for the wrong reasons – they see bits and pieces (of the process) and don't understand it. If they have more time to understand why our government makes decisions and have increased trust, they will vote for an override," he said.

P.J. Looney, who was vocal about his opposition to taxes being raised, said no one wins when an override fails. 

"The school cuts are the most painful and, in my opinion, the hardest to justify but for some reason we continue to treat the town and schools as competing entities," he said in an email late Monday night.

"We need to stop that and get the sides to work together to find cost efficiencies and use those savings to fill teaching and public safety positions."

What this means for Belmont, Looney believes, "is we need less talk and more action. We need to find new sources of revenue through productive commercial development and find savings through consolidation, privatization and regionalization. We will need an override next year based on state aid cuts and what the town does in these next six months is crucial to securing a Yes vote."

At this time, said Scott Ferson, One Belmont has completed its work and it is too early to speculate on what efforts might be undertaken for budget decisions not yet made.

Scharfman, however, said it's possible the issue of a Proposition 2 1/2 override will arise in the fall or spring and he believes it will be incumbent upon the members of One Belmont at that time to form again and educate the public.

"We didn't have the time to really reach out to voters," he said.

"But now we have new leadership in the schools, on the Warrant Committee, on the Board of Selectmen and we have a new newspaper in town. People are hungry for more information."

The special election, which cost approximately $15,000, drew 40 percent of voters.

That is an unusually high turnout for Belmont elections, said Scharfman. The town cannot gather information on exactly who voted for and against the override but he said it is a myth that seniors voted against it.

"I talked to many people at the polls and the seniors are as generous a group as you will find."

Rather, said Anne Lougee, the people who voted against the override are most likely those who will not be greatly impacted by the cuts in services planned for the coming year. She is very involved in the school system – including serving as co-president of Belmont High School's PTO – and believes the financial situation for the town and schools will only get worse.

"The police are on very thin ice," she said, recalling how struck she was to learn at a budget forum in May that the department has to send at least three or four officers to domestic violence calls and only have a few other officers for the rest the town may need on a particular shift.

Moreover, Lougee said, it must be demoralizing for the people who work for the town departments to see the override vote fail.

"They are already understaffed and people are saying 'Tough luck'."

She, too, believes the issue of an override vote will come up again, citing upcoming cuts in services from fire, police, library and the Department of Public Works as well as the loss of teachers, libraries and sports programs in the schools.

Director of Finance and Administration Dr. Gerry Missal, who will be retiring on June 30, said with the override failing to pass, it was a sad way to be leaving the school department after 10 years of service.

"What you people have done is fabulous," he said to One Belmont members.

"You ran into a buzz saw in terms of the economic times."

But there's no place to go from here except up, Missal said.

"All of you have to continue to organize to bring pressure on the powers that be like the Warrant Committee to study the allocation of resources for 2012."

All is not lost, said many members of One Belmont.

"We didn't lose by that much," said Scharfman.

"This was not a landslide vote. The message is that people value town services but are worried about money at the same time," he said.