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Article 3 is traditionally the “operating budget” article at Sudbury’s Annual Town Meetings. This year’s proposed budget had the full support of both the Select Board and the Finance Committee. However, Town Meeting has the final say, and residents have the opportunity to propose amendments to the budget as presented.
A resident did just that at the first night of Sudbury’s Town meeting this year. The amendment proposed to take two-thirds of the $300,000 Reserve Fund (a total of $200,000) and move it into the vocational education budget line item. A Reserve Fund is put into the budget each year to cover extraordinary and unexpected expenses and emergency situations. The Finance Committee has jurisdiction over it, and its a source of emergency funding that doesn’t require calling a Town Meeting. The amendment, if passed, would not send any additional students to vocational schools, but the proponent, Goodnow Library Trustee Jean Nam, argued it would send a message to vocational districts.
“We need to understand how much money it will take for Minuteman to even consider taking us back. Beyond just tuition, they will expect some sort of re-joining fee. And since we voted (at Town Meeting in 2016) to leave the Minuteman Vocational district, we’re going to need to eat some crow and make an equally strong statement of commitment to convince them that we want to come back.”
In the hall, Select Board Chair Jennifer Roberts read a statement in opposition on behalf of the full Select Board. The statement was voted just hours earlier during the pre-Town Meeting Select Board meeting. Board members Janie Dretler and Lisa Kouchakdjian also spoke in opposition to the amendment in the hall.
Yet it was Town Manager Andy Sheehan who may have had the most impact during the discussion. Sheehan calmly explained to the hall why he felt the amendment was not a good idea, and offered alternative approaches that he would be happy to bring forward to a future Town Meeting. That included a vocational education stabilization fund that the Town could contribute to annually until a district is seeking new members. Having the cash to rejoin on-hand would be an advantage. Sudbury doesn’t control the timeline of rejoining a district, so it may have the time to build up quite the war chest to get back in. Sheehan also referenced that all the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds had been obligated, making the Reserve Fund more critical than in prior years.
In a key moment in the hall, Sheehan explained that the Reserve Fund had been used in recent years, despite a claim in the proponent’s presentation that said it hadn’t been tapped.
The comments from Sheehan led the proponent, Jean Nam, to offer a rebuttal to the hall. She raised her blue card and argued that in her four years on the Finance Committee, the Reserve Fund had never been used, and that the Town reporting bears this out. She did not reference which Town report. Sudbury Weekly found at least two instances of Finance Committee minutes when Nam voted, as a member of the Finance Committee, to authorize use of the Reserve Fund. (April 4, 2022, October 4, 2021)
At least one of those instances was actually cited by Town Manager Andy Sheehan on the floor of Town Meeting. As he listed examples of the times the fund had been tapped, he mentioned using it for the Board of Health.
The exchange between Nam and Sheehan appeared to influence voters in the hall. The final vote was 46 in favor of the amendment, and 228 opposed.