Above: When heading to Town Meeting this Saturday morning, don’t drive to the normal location. To ensure room for a large turnout, the meeting will take place at Algonquin. (images cropped from the Town Clerk’s posted document)
I’m sharing some key details related to this Saturday’s Special Town Meeting (including recently announced changes). That includes info on how to participate, and precisely what the Article would authorize (which is different than what was printed in the Warrant).
Most readers should know by now that May 10th, is the Special Town Meeting to vote on whether or not to fund a new four grade building to replace Neary School. This post is specifically to cover the logistics for parking, checking in, participating, and the actual motion that officials will ask voters to approve.
(To read more about the project details and cost implications, click here for my overview and here for other related coverage including letters to the editor.)
Parking & Check-In
The meeting is open to everyone who is registered to vote in elections as a Southborough resident — as long as their registration was completed by April 28th. (There is no special registration for participating in this meeting. Registration only refers to being a registered voter.)
The meeting will take place at Algonquin Regional High School (79 Bartlett St, Northborough) with the entrance through the main rotunda in the front of the building. Wheelchairs will be available for anyone who needs one. One parking lot, closer to the entrance, will be reserved for “Older residents and families with children”. (See image right.) Other drivers will be directed to one of the many other parking areas around the school. (For full details, click here.)
Check in will begin at 7:30 am for the meeting scheduled to open at 9:00 am. (While ID isn’t required, check-in runs quicker if you have your license ready to be scanned.)
For most people, getting there at 7:30 am is way too soon. But there are some committees that will be checking in early as they head to 8:00/8:30 am meetings at the school that morning to prepare for the big meeting.
(Those meetings are open to the public if people want to attend. You can find the agendas posted here for the Advisory Committee, Neary Building Committee, Southborough School Committee, and the Select Board.)
Participating in the Meeting
There will be a main and secondary “hall”. The A/V setup will allow voters in each to fully participate. Each room will hear and see the presenters and commenters, be allowed to make public comments, plus make motions (or call points of order) and vote. (No food will be allowed in either room and “Drinks MUST be in a sealed container like a screw cap water bottle or Yeti bottle”.)
Those rooms have switched since plans were initially posted. The Main Hall with the Moderator and presenters will now be in the auditorium.
The gymnasium will be used for families who bring their children with them, and any overflow needed from the main hall. (There is no babysitting. Parents are expected to sit with their kids.) A Deputy Moderator will oversee that secondary hall (with voters’ “consent”).
Passing the Article requires over 2/3 of voters to approve it. Town Moderator, Paul Cimino, has stated that, when the time comes, he plans to call for a vote by hand. He will only employ use of “clickers” to digitally count the votes if the result. (That could also happen if he determines it is clear, but at least seven voters immediately rise to object and call for a recount.)
Since the clickers might be used, I expect that prior to the presentation of the Article, the Town Clerk will provide an overview and “test” of the clickers as he has at the past few meetings.
I read on social media that some opponents of the project had floated and debated the idea of calling for a motion to indefinitely postpone the Article early in the meeting. Based on past meetings, I expect the Moderator wouldn’t allow that to proceed before the Article is first presented and he felt that voters had a fair enough chance to make comments, ask questions and get answers. (In the past he has clarified that his role gives him that discretion.)
If at some point in the meeting, a vote on postponement is allowed, that only requires a majority to approve. Alternatively, “Moving the Question” to cut off debate and get right to a vote requires more than a 2/3 vote. (And that is also something the Moderator has said he has the discretion to not allow if it is too soon.)
It would only takes a majority approval to amend the motion that will be made for funding the building project. But my understanding is that to move forward with a project that has funding support from the state, the motion will essentially have to pass as proposed. (Scroll down for more on that.)
The Motion & What it Would/Wouldn’t Authorize
I asked for and received the motion that will be proposed. It is longer than the Article in the Warrant, and now specifies the full cost of the proposed project.1 (Scroll down for the full wording.)
The motion asks voters to cover the funding of an $108M project (which includes contingencies for unforseen costs). After reimbursements for energy rebates and reimbursements from the Mass School Building Authority (MSBA), the NBC has stated that Southborough’s share would be about $68M of that.
One question that I had earlier in the process was whether voting to fund $108M would give the Town wiggle room for the total project expense (and therefore Southborough’s share) to go up since the estimate included getting about $40M in rebates and reimbursements. The answer is a firm no.
According to Kathy Cook (Chair of both the Select Board and the Neary Building Committee Financial Subcommittee) if the building project will cost more than $108,517,205, the extra cost would have to go back to the MSBA for approval. More importantly, it would also need approval from Town Meeting voters. (If the project doesn’t cost as much as the estimate with the built-in contingencies allows, the Town is able to reduce the amount to be borrowed.)
To clarify that expense cap just relates to the actual project costs, including construction. (Given the questions the public has had about the impact of tariffs and inflation, it appears the possibility of ballooning construction costs appeared to be residents’ primary concern about potential cost increases.)
The future tax impacts for residents that have been estimated and promoted by the NBC are based on the projected costs for borrowing for the project (debt service for issuing municipal bonds to cover the project cost) and anticipated operational cost savings. If you have questions about that, or the promised MSBA reimbursements and expected energy rebates, you can read a letter from Cook on behalf of the NBC Financial Subcommittee that I posted yesterday here.
[Note: Earlier this week, I covered how residents can see what the projected tax implications are for their properties. You can find that calculator here.]
I wouldn’t be surprised if on Saturday a voter proposes amending the Article to reduce the project cost or to move the building site. In past meetings, Cook and Jason Malinowski (NBC’s Chair) have said that neither changes would be allowed by the MSBA, which would essentially treat the amended Article as a “No” vote. (The MSBA approved the specific project proposal. Making those kinds of significant changes would require reapplying in a future funding round.) And without the MSBA funding, the Town wouldn’t move forward with the project.
Any proposed amendment could also be rejected as “out of bounds” by the Moderator for not being relevant enough for the language in the Warrant to have served as fair notice to the public. (That’s usually not an impediment, but it depends on how extreme a proposed amendment is.)
Even if a super-majority of voters pass the Article, moving forward will also require voters to pass a ballot measure allowing the expense. (That’s referred to in the motion. You can read the ballot question and more about voting on it through this Tuesday’s Town Election here.)
If that vote fails next week, the Select Board can call a special election to try to get that passed between now and late October.
The board could also choose to call another Special Town Meeting if this Saturday’s vote fails and they decide a second attempt has a good shot at a different result. (If either or both votes fail, expect a public discussion between the Select Board, NBC, School Committee, and Advisory Committee on the Town’s next steps.)
Now here is the full language that officials plan to “move” voters approve this Saturday:
That the Town of Southborough appropriates the amount of one hundred eight million five hundred seventeen thousand two hundred five dollars ($108,517,205) to pay costs of designing, constructing, reconstructing and equipping the Margaret A. Neary School, located at 53 Parkerville Road Southborough, Massachusetts to be used as a new four grade school, including the payment of all costs incidental or related thereto (the “Project”), which school facility shall have an anticipated useful life as an educational facility for the instruction of school children for at least 50 years, and for which the Town may be eligible for a grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (“MSBA”), said amount to be expended under the direction of the Southborough School Building Committee. To meet this appropriation the Town Treasurer, with the approval of the Select Board, is authorized to borrow said amount under M.G.L. Chapter 44, or pursuant to any other enabling authority. The Town acknowledges that the MSBA’s grant program is a non-entitlement, discretionary program based on need, as determined by the MSBA, and any project costs the Town incurs in excess of any grant approved by and received from the MSBA shall be the sole responsibility of the Town; provided further that any grant that the Town may receive from the MSBA for the Project shall not exceed the lesser of (1) forty-six and seventy-six hundredths percent (46.76%) of eligible, approved project costs, as determined by the MSBA, or (2) the total maximum grant amount determined by the MSBA; provided that any appropriation hereunder shall be subject to and contingent upon an affirmative vote of the Town to exempt the amounts required for the payment of interest and principal on said borrowing from the limitations on taxes imposed by M.G.L. 59, Section 21C (Proposition 2½); and that the amount of borrowing authorized pursuant to this vote shall be reduced by any grant amount set forth in the Project Funding Agreement that may be executed between the Town of Southborough and the MSBA.
- For those who may have assumed the motion needs to use the same language as posted in the Warrant. . . The Warrant is just used to notify the public of the general topic that will be addressed. As long as the Motion is legally covered as within the bounds and scope, the language of the motion can be different, and replacing the language is fairly common. (It usually happens when the Town has updated financial details or language changes based on advice from legal counsel.)
