Foxborough Town Meeting Settles Budget Controversy

FOXBOROUGH, MA — Town meeting voters settled disagreements between the Board of Selectmen and Budget Advisory Committee over the town's budget on Monday night with voters primarily accepting the $79.1 million the selectmen proposed for fiscal year 2020. The budget represented a 4.3 percent increase from the last year and with some exceptions, the selectman's proposal was approved. About $213,000 was cut from the town's budget, which begins on July 1.

Residents voted against an administrative position in the water department, a new position in the finance department, adding a fourth new police vehicle, a few proposed salary increases, and an additional $15,000 in group health insurances.

Advisory chair Susan Dring said none of the proposed cuts were personal, but came out of a fear of people not being able to afford to live in Foxborough. She said Foxborough's budget has increased $17 million over the last 5 years without any drastic changes to the level of service. Dring said her and the rest of the advisory board were particularly worried about the rising costs of healthcare, and when the town adds new employees, the town is essentially agreeing to pay them healthcare and a pension, a cost which doesn't go away.

"We’re not trying to pick on anybody," Dring said. “We’re just looking to limit the amount of growth we have."

Police spending was one area where residents primarily stuck with the selectmen's proposal. Residents approved an increase to the budget for police salaries from roughly $3.5 million to about $4.1 million. The advisory committee had proposed appropriating a little over $4 million.

Police Chief William Baker asked voters to support the higher police salary budget to cover the cost of overtime, which he said has been historically underfunded in Foxborough. Baker projects overtime for patrols, "non discretionary" situations, and training to cost about $452,000 next year.

"That amount of overtime is necessary for the kinds of services you support," Baker said.

Compromises were made with how many new police vehicles the taxpayers would foot the bill for. Residents agreed for three new vehicles rather than the four the department had asked for. This particular item was extremely contentious with a 100-100 tie, defeating the request. Residents requested a re-vote on this particular line-item because they wanted to make sure police would ultimately still get vehicles if they voted down the budget advisory's request for three, voters decided not to re-vote after clarification that if the vote for four vehicles was defeated, as well as the three, the police department wouldn't get any new vehicles. Residents then voted unanimously for three new vehicles for the department.

The fire department was also supported by town meeting voters, approving the selectmen's budget allowing for a new deputy fire chief, and money to pay for a new fire hose and other equipment. The town had always had two deputy chiefs, but lost one when Michael Kelleher was promoted to fire chief after Roger Hatfield's retirement.

The fire department had previously presented a new emergency medical service coordinator position to the advisory committee, which the committee thought was a good idea. But after Hatfield retired, the advisory committee wanted the fire department to think outside the box an eliminate the second deputy chief position.

"This would be detrimental to our operation...," Kelleher said. "He (Hatfield) didn’t propose it thinking he was gonna lose a deputy chief in the process."

The debate got heated and Dring reiterated that the recommendations from the advisory board were not personal.

"We have nothing but respect for the people in town," Dring said explaining healthcare cost have risen from 9 to 18 percent of the budget in a short period of time. "It's nothing personal."

The budget debate ate up the overwhelming majority of the four-and-a-half-hour town meeting, with almost all of the required 100-person quorum gone before the rest of the 25 town meeting articles were even voted on. Still, the quorum hung on and finished town meeting approving several other articles, including:

• Banning the zoning of stores which primarily sell tobacco in town outside of Route 1.
• $3.6 million in capital spending outside the budget, including $160,000 for two new school buses, $190,000 for town upgrades, $150,000 for building security cameras.
• Officially accepting Shea Lane as a public road
• Allowing electronic signs along Route 1 and in certain areas of downtown Foxborough, particularly at the Marilyn Rodman Performing Arts Center.