Voters at Duxbury's annual Town Meeting got through article 18 before recessing to Monday evening at 7 p.m. Voters approved all three capital items on the warrant – construction money for a fire station renovation, design and construction funds for a new police station on Mayflower Street, and money for the schematic design of a new co-located middle school/high school. The town's operating and capital budgets passed fairly easily. The meeting will pick up Monday night at 7 p.m., beginning with the Community Preservation Act articles –– unless someone moves to reconsider a vote from Saturday. See below for a play-by-play of Saturday's session, and stay tuned for further updates.

 

9:10 a.m. Meeting has been open for a couple minutes. Friend Weiler introduced all the players (Finance Committee, Board of Selectmen etc.) and also recognized former Moderator Allen Borhneimer. Charlie Fargo (who, unless I'm mistaken, is a former moderator himself) will serve as assistant moderator today.

9:13 a.m. The meeting will run until noon with an hour break, then until 5 p.m. We'll reconvene on Monday at 7 p.m. (Note: This is a half hour earlier than previous years. Friend W. said he wants to try to avoid going too late at night.)

 

9:21 a.m. Finance Committee Chairman Ken McCarthy is explaining his recommendations for the special Town Meeting. McCarthy praised Town Manager, Finance Director and school department for working together. He also mentioned that due to the work of those people, health insurance costs continue to show minimal increases.

9:24 a.m. I'm might change my mind on the lack of debate in this special, the whole "funding the new classification and compensation" questions is on this warrant. McCarthy, in giving a history of this issue, noted they identified the need for this in 1996 but they didn't start it until 2004.

9:28 a.m. Just learned that the Planning Board voted to indefinitely postpone articles 38, 39, 40, which are the lot coverage and parking bylaws. McCarthy also said that because of the compensation study and the delay caused by the two professional unions, about 30 middle managers will be getting three years of retro pay.

9:32 a.m. Weiler is stepping aside for the assistant moderator for the next two motions about the police department, to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest because his son is a police officer. "I haven't see you all like this for a while," quipped Fargo before getting to business.

9:36 a.m. Friend W. said that Charlie Fargo was the one who got him involved in town politics 30-plus years ago.

9:39 a.m. Amy MacNab asked about the balance for free cash. Finance Committee says $3.4 million. Friend W. just had his first flub, saying that we would now vote on motion 6 (McCarthy corrected him, noting we just voted motion 6.) "I'm sort of fixated on six," Weiler joked. All kidding aside, Friend is really coming across like he's got a great handle on this. I think he's going to be a very good moderator. Ken McCarthy is also doing a very good job putting the budget items in plain English.

9:43 a.m. McCarthy just said that the former police chief left an unpaid bill on his desk that wasn't found until after the fiscal year.

9:44 a.m. Just wrapped up all the separate motions in article 1 and quickly passed article 2 for unpaid bills. Moving on to article 3, union contracts. Passes on voice vote.

9:47 a.m. Remember that I'm also tweeting updates, for people who don't have access to the computer but might have a phone. Follow me @duxburyclipper. I also started using the hashtag #DuxTM11 and other people are already using it. Seriously, how cool is technology?

9:48 a.m. Voting on article 6, dealing with the compensation/salary study. Ayes have it.

9:51 a.m. All special Town Meeting articles pass. Little discussion. We're back into the annual Town Meeting now.

9:57 a.m. Article 2 passes with no debate, but outgoing selectman Betsy Sullivan was honored with a proclamation by current board chairman Shawn Dahlen.

9:58 a.m. Article 3, compensation for elected town employees, passes, ayes have it.

10:01 a.m. Budget presentation from Town Manager Richard MacDonald. FY12 is $54,956,335, a 1.73 percent increase over last year. It is a balanced budget.

10:07 a.m. I know I've heard things about the town doing well in controlling health care costs, but to only have average increases of 1 percent per year when other places are going up 10 or more is amazing. I'm always really impressed by the budget presentation, and it's because of the hard work from people in Town Hall and the town departments.

10:08:a.m. MacDonald also put in a pitch for the three big debt exclusion projects. Said that they could represent "a quantum leap in improving our police, fire and school facilities." Called the police station "a dinosaur."

10:21 a.m. Another interesting highlight of the budget: The school budget increase (not the total budget mind you, just the increase over last year) was 233 percent more than the increase last year.

10:32 a.m. "We continue to manage the unmanagable." -– MacDonald talking about health care costs.

10:37 a.m. They are using $1.25 million for capital projects this year –– that's a big increase over years past. If that becomes a trend, it might go a long way toward helping with some of the lack of maintenance issues that have plagued town buildings over the year. Let's hope maintenance doesn't get pushed under the rug again.

10:42 a.m. Town operating budget presentation just wrapped up. On to the schools.

10:50 a.m. School bus budget might be affected because of rising gas prices due to Middle East unrest.

10:56 a.m. School budget presentation wraps up. They'll divide out the water and pool enterprise funds and vote separately on those. Rest of operation budget will be done according to past practice –– moving each major subheadings separately.

10:58 a.m. Friend W. points out that the town is close to the levy limit, so amending any budget line item might put the total budget over the 2 1/2 limit, requiring cuts elsewhere.

10:58 a.m. A couple questions on the school budget about buses but it still passes easily. Colleen Brayer gets some applause for suggesting the town look into sidewalks next year.

11:19 a.m. Article 5, town operating budget, passes fairly easily.

11:19 a.m. Fiscal Advisory committee making their presentation. This long term capital plan was extremely informative last year and I'm glad they're doing it. Taking a bird's-eye view of these things is the way to avoid the short term capital thinking that leads to bad maintenance, or buildings/vehicles/equipment aging out at the same time.

11:26 a.m. Just when I think I'm tech savvy for blogging, tweeting and taking photos from Town Meeting, I walk by Clipper Publisher Josh Cutler, who has his iPad out and is taking notes. Makes my MacBook look like decades-old technology.

11:38 a.m. Very interesting long-range capital presentation. Sounds like a lot of thought went into how to do the borrowing for the school project if it should pass. Also, interesting to hear that anticipated future projects include a $6 million DPW yard, other building replacements and renovations to the Powder Point Bridge.

11:40 a.m. All this borrowing would put the increase on the avg. tax bill up over $1,000. I think it's funny that so many people seems shocked by this because that's what Fiscal Advisory was saying last year –– and the Clipper reported on it.

11:44 a.m. Long term capital presentation wraps up.

11:55 a.m. Will Zachmann asked a question about the possible impact of all this borrowing on the town's credit rating. Dave Madigan said there is a possibility the town could go to a double A plus –– but he said that should have little impact on the town's ability to borrow. (He should know, he trades municipal bonds for a living.) Zachmann also asked about inflation. Madigan said that's unlikely to go up in the near future.

12:05 p.m. Rather than tackle the 7 seperate motions in Article 6 (capital budget) the moderator suggests breaking for lunch, and the crowd agrees. We'll be back at 1:05 p.m.

1:08 p.m. Meeting back in session. Will be voting on seven separate motions. Moderator stressed that much of the big projects discussed in the morning sessions aren't in article 6 – we'll either be voting on that later or not at all.

1:26 p.m. I don't know if other people feel the same way, but I really like it when people ask a couple of questions on a budget item, then the vote is unanimous. That tells me it was a good question, and recieved a good answer. Reflects well on town staff, particularly the financial people.

1:27 p.m. Someone just asked if "this was a good time to bring up the subject of North Hill." Moderator, and the majority of people (from the grumbling) thought it was out of order. Wierd.

1:45 p.m. Someone at the mic suggested that a lot of the capital requests we're hearing here are wants, not needs. He got some applause from the crowd.

1:52 p.m. Moving on to article 7, the updated personnel plan. Wayne Heward, chairman of the personnel board, spoke to the compensation changes, praising the work of town employees, and mentioning that they're now incorporating merit into pay increases. "We have a great team here and I believe the proceedings you see today will justify that," he said.

1:59 p.m. Articles 7, 8 9 pass relatively quickly. Article 10 is the revolving funds article and doesn't have a dollar figure, so I'm sure this will pass quickly as well (although there are a couple of separate motions in here.)

2:10 p.m. On to Article 11, beach lease. Friend W. is recusing himself again, giving way to the assistant moderator. Jim Sullivan asked if CPA money could be used to pay the beach lease. Town Counsel Bob Troy pointed out that it would have to go through the Community Preservation Committee. In addition, he said CPA funds could not be used for a temporary expenditure like a lease payment. Sullivan then asked if the CPA money could be use to buy the whole beach. Troy said yes, but pointed out again that it would have to go through the committee.

2:13 p.m. We're on article 15, the cemetery land swap. There was some nice applause for article 13, renaming a part of the town forest the David Cutler forest, as members of Cutler's family were introduced. Cutler was a passionate defender of open space and, as it turns out, used to camp on that very spot as a young man. We're coming up on the big three capital items (fire, police and school.)

2:46 p.m. No offense to Bob Hayes, but this is a looooong discussion for an article that will engender exactly zero discussion.

2:51 p.m. Will Z. is offering an amendment to this article striking the language referring to the land not given for the senior center project.

2:54 p.m. Will's motion was seconded. I misunderstood this at first, the amendment would remove the part of the swap that gives selectmen land to the cemetery.

3:03 p.m. Article 15 passes. On to the discussion of the fire station renovation.

3:05 p.m . Jim Sullivan wants to bring the CPA article, article 28, up now because he said it will reduce taxes and may help with the passage of the big projects. Friend Weiler said the bylaws don't allow that – you can only switch subsequent articles.

3:28 p.m. The background music in the fire department video is AWESOME.

3:44 p.m. More discussion than I expected on the fire station project. People seem to be fixating on the smaller items in the proposal.

3:48 p.m. Someone tried to move the question – to thunderous applause – but since he'd already spoken he couldn't. Next speaker didn't move the question.

3:49 p.m. Someone wanted to make an amendment saying no hybrid borrowing could occur. Moderator was uncomfortable with it and wanted to check with counsel. Counsel said OK, but the proponent withdrew his amendment.

3:56 p.m. Question has been moved and we're voting on the fire station renovation. Looks like it will easily pass, just judging from the hands in the air.

4:15 p.m. Fire station renovation passes 860-39. Wow, there's a lot of people here. However, as it's 4:15 p.m. I'm not sure we'll even get to the schools tonight.

4:33 p.m. Chief Clancy, noting the late hour, nixed his slideshow and simply asked voters to support a new police station. Recieved applause. However, there's now an amendment on the floor to make this question about design funds only.

4:36 p.m. Selectman Shawn Dahlen pointed out that even if this amendment is approved, the ballot has already been printed and that may cause problems.

4:50 p.m. Question has been moved on the police station amendment for design funds only. Fails on voice vote in this room, but Friend W. is checking the people in the cafeteria.

4:56 p.m. Amendment fails, moderator is trying to get this to pass with a voice vote. Seemed pretty clear in the main PAC room, Friend W. is now headed to the caf to check out what those folks think.

5:00 p.m. Police station passes on a voice vote. I had a thought: I feel like there are a lot more amendments on this Town Meeting floor than is previous years. Friend W. tried to get a sense of the meeting and it was close, so he put it to a vote.

5:03 p.m. After some debate, (the room seemed really split on this) it seems we'll be going forward with discussing article 18 for the schools.

5:12 p.m. Finance Committee voted 6-3 to support this, so it wasn't unanimous.

5:22 p.m. Some pretty nasty photos of the conditions at the middle school and high school.

6:00 p.m. School presentation wraps up. I thought both Dr. Tantillo and Elizabeth Lewis did an excellent job, very factual, yet drove home thier points.

6:20 p.m. I know the crowd seems pretty pro-school project here, but I hate to see people laughing at or shouting over those voicing objections. I'l like to think we're better than that (and remember, this is coming from the paper that endorsed the project.) I'm just going to chalk it up to the late hour.

6:38 p.m. Questions has been moved. Moderator is trying to do it with a voice vote. Ayes have it, even with the 2/3 vote. We're adjourned until 7 p.m. on Monday.