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The Sudbury Select Board voted 4-1 to support the Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) Operating Budget during their Tuesday, March 31 meeting. The Board also voted 5-0 to recommend approval of the Capital Budget. The Operating Budget and the Capital Budget are articles three and four respectively on the Annual Town Meeting warrant. Both articles can be viewed in the meeting packet here. The preliminary FY27 budget can be reviewed in full here.
Member Dan Carty voted against Article 3 (the operating budget for the Town, Sudbury Public Schools, and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School) indicating that he will not support the article until he knows what was discussed at a September 2025 meeting between Town Manager Andy Sheehan, Select Board Chair Lisa Kouchakdjian, and Sudbury School Committee Chair Karyn Jones.
Carty has raised questions about this meeting in three consecutive Select Board meetings. An email he received from a record request includes a message from Town Manager Sheehan telling Jones and Kouchakdjian “We are starting to dig in to next year’s operating and capital budgets. We also are planning for the financing of the two roof projects. I think it would be useful for the three of us to sit down and talk about the overall financial picture. It will also allow us to strategize a bit for the road ahead, both near term and longer term.” (A copy of the email was published on Carty’s campaign Facebook page and shared during a public session in March.)
On Tuesday Carty told the Board “I can’t in good conscience vote for this budget until I know what those strategic discussions were. So I’m a ‘no’ on the budget.” (2:36:30 below)
Tensions flared between board members a few minutes later when Chair Lisa Kouchakdjian was complimenting Town leadership on what she felt was the most transparent budget-building process she had seen in Sudbury. “This is the most transparent I’ve seen the Town budget since I’ve been following the local politics here. I think you’ve both done an incredible job.” (2:4`1:00 below)
At that point Carty interjected “Other than in closed door meetings to talk about budget strategy. Right?”
Vice Chair Janie Dretler, Chair Kouchakdjian and member Radha Gargeya pushed back in ensuing discussion, arguing there was nothing inappropriate about the meeting in question. Members also exchanged some barbs on a number of unrelated matters, as well.
After some back and forth on norms between Carty and Gargeya, member Charlie Russo implored the board to get back on track. “Can we quit grandstanding and can we just move on and have a vote?”
Member Carty originally raised his concerns with the September 2025 meeting in his opening remarks during the March 10 meeting of the Select Board. (6:54) Town Manager Andy Sheehan responded with a statement in the March 17 meeting of the Select Board:
“There was issue taken with a meeting I held last September with the Chairs of the SPS School Committee and the Select Board. The insinuation was that the meeting was somehow inappropriate and it was held in secret. It was neither of those things. Under the Town Charter the Town Manager is the Chief Administrative Officer of the Town and is responsible for ‘all the financial management functions of the town unless otherwise provided by this act.’ (‘This act’ being the charter.) Administrative responsibilities as described in the charter include ‘to coordinate activities of all town departments, officers, boards or commissions of the town.’ So the meeting in question falls squarely within the duties and responsibilities of the Town Manager as described in the charter. And that is the case no matter the individual who holds the office at a particular point in time.”
Sheehan’s comments can be viewed at 1:50 below: