Wakefield Town Council Notes -- February 24, 2025

Here's a summary of what we covered at the Town Council's meeting on Monday, February 24:

• The Town Council approved Fiscal Year 2026 budgets for the Animal Inspector, Parking Clerk, General Insurance, and Workers Compensation. These four budgets total $1.2 million, representing 1% of Wakefield's total municipal budget, and they will increase by 14.9% in the coming fiscal year. The most significant driver of this increase is the Workers Compensation budget, where our workers compensation insurance rates are increasing by more than 30%, primarily due to the rate impact of a large number of high-cost claims from Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023. With fewer claims in Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025 so far, it is expected that Workers Compensation insurance rate increases could moderate significantly after the coming fiscal year.

• After a lengthy discussion, the Council voted 4-3 to discontinue work on a municipal decarbonization roadmap that the Town initiated last year. Together with Councilors Carney and Butt, I strongly opposed the majority's shortsighted decision to discontinue this vital work. With Wakefield spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to heat and cool municipal buildings and fuel the Town's vehicle fleet, it's irresponsible not to continue researching how we can reduce emissions and make targeted investments to reduce our ongoing operating costs. Moreover, the discontinuation of this work takes Wakefield out of contention for the Commonwealth's Climate Leader Communities, closing access to future state grant opportunities.

• As part of our process of reviewing all Town Council policies and procedures, we discussed the Town's Asset Naming Policy. The Council reaffirmed the policy without any changes.

• The Town Administrator presented an update on spending of the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds allocated to the Wakefield Affordable Housing Trust. The trust spent approximately $6,000 on Wakefield Renters Assistance Program recipients in 2024, with an additional $17,000 in benefits distributed in 2025 so far.

• The Town Council reviewed a Request for Quotes for search firms to help manage the recruitment of a new Town Administrator. The Council will interview any interested bidders at our meeting on March 24, with the intention of selecting a firm at that meeting. At our next meeting, we will begin discussing the composition of a search committee for the Town Administrator position.

Our next meeting will be on Monday, March 10 at 7:00 PM. As always, please feel free to join us in person at the Wakefield Community Access TV studio, or virtually on Zoom.