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Committees: Advisory Committee

Member Guide

The Advisory Committee is established by Article 14 of the Town by-Laws (Appendix A), and our actions and operations are further governed by our own self-imposed Rules (Appendix B). The Committee’s work largely consists of four responsibilities:

1. Recommending a Town budget for the coming fiscal year for action at Annual Town Meeting;

2. Providing a recommendation to Annual and Special Town Meetings on every article in the Town Meeting Warrant;

3. Throughout the year, approving or disapproving (along with the Selectmen) distributions (transfers) from the Reserve Fund; and,

4. Throughout the year, keeping apprised of the activities of other boards, Town agencies and/or committees whose activities may be related to Advisory Committee responsibilities.

1) BUDGET RESPONSIBILITIES

There are three general budget components requiring review by the Advisory Committee: the Municipal Budget, the School Budget, and the Capital Budget. The Advisory Committee performs its Municipal and School Budget oversight role through its respective budget subcommittees, as further described below; the Committee is directly represented on the Capital Outlay Committee by its two voting members. The Town Financial Policy (Appendix C) provides guidelines for the development of annual budgets, and Committee members should review this document at the beginning of the budgeting process.

The Municipal Budget Process

The proposed budget for Municipal salaries and expenses is prepared initially by the Town Administrator, Town Accountant, and department heads working together. The Board of Selectmen reviews every part of the budget in open hearings and votes either to recommend it or to recommend changes.

The Advisory Committee also reviews every part of the proposed budget, and votes to approve or to make changes in the budget, usually after the Selectmen have made their recommendations. The Advisory Committee votes its recommendations utilizing input from the respective Advisory Committee budget subcommittees as described below, from the Board of Selectmen, and from department heads. The budget as recommended by the Advisory Committee is the budget that is presented as a motion on the floor of Town Meeting.

The School Department develops a proposed budget for salaries and expenses, and presents it to the School Committee in a series of public hearings. The School Committee reviews it and adopts it with any changes it wishes to make.
Meanwhile, in a series of meetings, representatives of the Advisory Committee (the School budget subcommittee), the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee arrive at a proposal for how much of the total Town budget can be allocated to schools for the coming fiscal year. This involves more or less negotiation depending on the school needs in relation to Town revenue projections.

The School Committee and the School Department present the budget as a whole to the Selectmen and the Advisory Committee. There may or may not be further negotiation about the final school budget.

Members of the Advisory Committee’s School subcommittee attend the School Committee hearings to be aware of the priorities and concerns of the School Committee, the School Department, and the citizens who attend the hearings. The School Committee sets priorities for how it will spend funds; the Selectmen and Advisory Committee seek to balance the needs of the schools with other Town priorities in setting the school budget bottom line.

The Capital Budget Process

Every year, each Town department, including the School Department, may propose prioritized capital expenditures for the next five fiscal years to the Capital Outlay Committee. The Capital Outlay Committee includes two members of the Advisory Committee, three members appointed by the Moderator, and the Town Accountant (ex officio). The Capital Outlay Committee evaluates departmental proposals and incorporates those that it considers most necessary into a recommended Five-Year Capital Plan, with particular focus on the upcoming fiscal year. The Five-Year Capital Plan, along with an accompanying Report, is then presented by the Capital Outlay Committee to the Board of Selectmen and Advisory Committee for their respective recommendations. Very large capital items, such as building projects or other large expenditures that require borrowing, generally will appear in separate Warrant articles.

Budget Subcommittees

Each member of the Advisory Committee will be assigned to one or more budget subcommittees. The chair of each subcommittee will organize the work, and someone from each subcommittee will have oversight responsibility for each budget line item in the Warrant. The role of each budget subcommittee involves understanding—through direct, detailed discussion with department heads—the following key elements:

1. Priorities: Understand the rationale for the department’s top priorities, including new initiatives, proposed for action during the upcoming fiscal year. Early focus on priorities facilitates the subsequent balancing of aggregated departmental expenses within forecast Town revenues.

2. Completeness: Be satisfied with the sufficiency of the department’s budget to accommodate all anticipated expenditures, particularly those with historical substantiation. Budget ‘padding’ is not acceptable, and the Town’s current practice of requiring zero-base budgets should help to make the actual budget needs more transparent.

3. Reserve Fund Transfer History: Emphasize to department heads that Reserve Fund transfer requests are intended only for unforeseeable events or emergencies. Review the history of transfer requests from your department to determine if there is some pattern of what appears to be excessive requests over time, or recurring overruns in salary lines of the budget. Work with your department to determine the causes of these requests and a possible method of minimizing them in the future.

4. Significant Budget Changes: From time to time, department heads request, or are asked to consider, significant changes to their budgets from previous years’ patterns. These changes may be triggered by new spending initiatives, ideas to make operations more efficient, requests from Town administration to reduce budgets due to anticipated reductions in Town revenues, and the like. In these circumstances, input from department heads is especially important to allow the Committee to evaluate such changes.

Here are some suggestions on how to fulfill your budget subcommittee responsibilities:

• Review recent past departmental budgets and Reserve Fund transfer requests to familiarize yourself with past patterns.

• Attend the budget hearing(s) held by the Selectmen on your area, if possible. The Selectmen’s office will have the schedule.

• Attend interim budget update sessions over the course of the fiscal year, if possible, to remain apprised of any issues that might arise affecting either Reserve Fund transfer requests or budget requests for the upcoming fiscal year. The Town Accountant’s office will have the schedule.

• Follow up with the department head to answer any questions you may have, particularly regarding significant changes from previous years’ patterns. The Town Accountant and the Town Administrator, and their respective staff, can also provide information.

• Review new projects for incidental additional impact on the department budgets you have been assigned (or possibly on other departmental budgets), for example, a requirement for ongoing increased maintenance or utility costs resulting from new buildings, new playing fields, etc. This may involve interfacing with other Advisory Committee budget subcommittees.

• Invite the department head to attend the Advisory Committee’s hearing(s) on their budget, and make sure they know when it is. Heads of large departments will come to present their own budgets (e.g., police, fire, DPW); heads of smaller ones may not need to attend if there is no controversy. On the other hand, some department heads appreciate the opportunity to update the Committee on their work even if there is little to discuss about their proposed budget. Also, sometimes questions come up, and if the department head is not present, action must be postponed so you can investigate. Having the department head at the meeting is a judgment call you and the head can make together.

• At the time of final Advisory Committee review, be prepared as subcommittee chair—or appropriate member with responsibility if designated by your subcommittee chair—to summarize the respective department’s priorities and other budget highlights, inviting the department head to amplify points as necessary. A detailed, line-by-line budget walk-through by the full Committee should not be necessary if the subcommittee has done its job well. Work with the department head to address any issues raised by the Committee prior to its final vote.

• Decide on your recommendation, preferably after the Selectmen have made their recommendation. You will offer your recommendation as a motion to the Committee. If your recommendation differs from that of the Selectmen, be prepared to justify your position, and be sure to invite the Selectmen and/or Town Administrator to the Advisory Committee’s hearing to give them the opportunity to join the discussion. If you have made changes to an individual departmental budget, it is your responsibility to review the changes with the department head prior to the Advisory Committee meeting. There should be no surprises presented at the meeting.

• At Town Meeting, if a question is raised about your budget item, you will be asked to speak to it.

2) WARRANT ARTICLES

Warrant Articles can take several forms, including citizens’ petition articles, changes to the Town’s General By-laws, changes to the Town’s Zoning By-laws, CPC articles, articles involving the disposition of Town funds, and the like. As a general rule, Warrant articles for the Annual Town Meeting must be proposed by the third week in January. Some types of articles have earlier deadlines (e.g., Zoning By-law amendments), and some article numbers may be reserved until immediately before Town Meeting (e.g., by the Board of Selectmen) to allow emergency or otherwise unforeseen issues to be addressed at Town Meeting. Most articles of substance are initially proposed or discussed well in advance of the January deadline. Each warrant article will be assigned to one or more Committee liaisons who will recommend to the entire Committee one of the following actions: Approval as originally proposed, No Action (disapproval), or approval with modified language. Warrant Article liaisons should proceed as follows:

• As soon as possible after receiving the assignment, speak to the proponents of the article and try to understand the purpose and rationale for the proposed article. If the article represents an issue with another board or committee working on it, such as a building project, a Zoning By-law amendment, or a Community Preservation Committee article, attend meetings of the relevant committee to help in forming your recommendation. If the article is one of the recurring articles that must be voted on at each Town Meeting, talk to the person assigned the previous year for suggestions and direction.

• If the article involves expenditure of Town money, confirm the amount with the Finance Director prior to presenting to the full Committee.

• If the article involves a real-estate transaction of any type, ensure the parties involved have investigated (and have copies of, if appropriate) relevant documents and other legal instruments. Such items might include: the deed; wills or other estate documents; previous related Town Meeting transcripts, Warrant Articles, and outcomes; minutes of Planning Board, Conservation Commission, Selectmen’s or other appropriate meetings addressing the property in question; appraisals; Zoning analyses; hazardous waste analyses; property condition reports; and anything else necessary for a rational decision-making process.

• It is not uncommon for Warrant articles to have long-term cost impacts that might not be immediately apparent. Such impacts can include operating costs, personnel costs, repair and replacement costs, increases or decreases in tax revenues, and the like. Encourage proponents of Warrant articles to thoroughly address these life-cycle costs before presenting their proposals to the Committee.

• Think carefully about who may be affected in any way by the article and seek them out as well. It is always best to identify all points of view as early as possible, including opposing views, so the Committee and Town Meeting itself can make the most informed decision possible. If Town departments or bodies (e.g., Planning Board, Historic Districts Commission, Conservation Commission) are recommending late changes to an article, you, on behalf of the Committee, must require that they notify everyone affected in a timely manner, so concerns can be addressed early. When concerns arise for the first time on the floor of Town Meeting, or even two weeks before, it is already too late to do them justice.

• Make sure all interested parties know when the Advisory Committee will be discussing the article. Scheduled discussions of Warrant articles must be posted at least five days in advance of the public hearing; the Finance Director’s staff will take care of all required postings. We may discuss an article at any time, but we try not to vote on an article until after the Selectmen do. Prepare recommended actions and Comments for Warrant articles sufficiently in advance of the scheduled Committee meeting so that members will have an opportunity to review the material prior to the meeting; drafts should be sent electronically to the Finance Director’s office for e-mail distribution to the Committee and for inclusion in Committee members’ folders the night the article is scheduled for discussion.

• Come to the scheduled hearing prepared to discuss the article. It is the liaison’s responsibility to put forth the ultimate motion for the Committee’s vote, and to prepare the comment that will appear in the Warrant. During the course of the discussion, the Committee may make suggestions about the final language of the article and about what to include in the Comment, and the liaison should make sure that the Committee’s suggestions are incorporated appropriately.

• When the Committee disagrees with the Selectmen or other Town agency involved in a Warrant article, we make an effort to negotiate a solution on which everyone can agree. While this isn’t always possible, it is helpful to the voters if Town leadership works together to find a proposal which addresses as many concerns as possible before Town Meeting.

In order for the Committee’s recommendation to appear in the printed Warrant, the Committee must vote on the article by the third week in March (the exact date will be specified each year by the Selectmen’s office), and voting in advance of this deadline, if possible, is preferable. After the Committee has voted, submit the Committee’s part of the text of the Warrant to the Selectmen’s office as soon as possible; provide electronic copies to the Committee Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Town Finance Director as well. The Selectmen’s office or Committee Chair will provide an appropriate format; include the title of the article and the date of its approval by the Committee. There are three parts to each article as presented in the Warrant (you provide two of these: the text of the Recommendation of the Committee, and the Committee’s Comment on the Recommendation).
The three parts are as follows:

1. The Article as it was presented to the Advisory Committee. Changes may not be made by the Advisory Committee to this part of the document; it must be printed in the Warrant exactly as it was authored (or amended) by the original proponent. All Zoning articles, regardless of how they were originally proposed, must appear in the final wording recommended by the Planning Board.

2. The Recommendation of the Advisory Committee. This becomes the motion on the floor when the article is taken up at Town Meeting. If the Committee votes in favor of the article as originally presented, the Recommendation will be, word for word, the same as the article. If the Committee recommends something different, the wording will be whatever the Committee approved. The Recommendation might also be, “That no action be taken on this article.”

3. The Comment, which briefly explains why the Committee took its position. You should use this as an opportunity to anticipate and answer questions which might be asked from the floor, saving time at Town Meeting. Recommendations for No Action are often presented without Comment, but a Comment might be desirable in some cases, to answer likely questions in advance. For complex or controversial Articles, it is important to provide a draft Comment for the entire Advisory Committee to review prior to submitting the Comment for incorporation into the Warrant. Comments are very influential at Town Meeting, so make sure that they are clear, that they are factual, and that they accurately reflect the thoughts of the Committee. Comments also may be examined in the future to establish the intent of the Committee and of Town Meeting, so thoughtful Comments are important.

If the Committee can’t make a Recommendation before the deadline for printing the Warrant, the Recommendation, along with its related Comment, must go in a supplementary report, available on the night of Town Meeting. This is never desirable, because voters don’t have adequate time for review. Nevertheless, it frequently occurs with one or more articles because some matters are still evolving until just before Town Meeting. We do our best to get as many Recommendations into the Warrant as possible.

Once the draft Warrant has been assembled, you will be responsible for proof-reading the articles for which you had responsibility. The final order of articles is at the discretion of the Town Administrator and the Moderator.

At Town Meeting, you will be responsible for presenting (if required) the article and/or responding to any questions from the floor. Your responses are to be factual and express no personal opinions as you are speaking on behalf of the entire Advisory Committee.

3) RESERVE FUND TRANSFERS

The Reserve Fund is intended to meet unforeseen expenses which could not be anticipated in the original budget. These requests come up throughout the year from departments that have unanticipated expenses. They are supposed to be unexpected and unusual; otherwise, they should have been included in the budget. Encourage the departments for which you are the liaison to submit requests before the expenditure of unauthorized funds so that the Committee is not presented with a fait accompli.

The person with budget responsibility for that area may be asked to look into the request. We generally vote on these items after the Selectmen do.

4) LIAISON ACTIVITIES

Advisory Committee members are assigned to act as liaisons to other Town boards, agencies and committees, such as the Recreation Commission, South Shore Country Club, Community Preservation Committee, various building committees, and the like. When you receive your assignment, contact the chair or director of the individual committee, introduce yourself, and ask to be included in all of its communications and in the distribution of its meeting minutes. Your goal is to keep apprised of any actions of these groups that might lead to Advisory Committee involvement so that you can keep the Committee up to date on its activities, particularly if they will result in a Warrant article or a significant impact on the Town budget. Depending on the nature of the individual committee and its impact on the Town’s affairs, you may need to attend its regular meetings.

You also should assist your assigned committee in understanding the general process associated with Town Meeting action, and how the committee will need to interact with the Advisory Committee along the way.