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Town Manager Stresses Prioritization, Discipline, Civility In Fiscal Planning
Sudbury’s Town Manager, Andy Sheehan, was at ease discussing the finer points of municipal finance with the Sudbury Finance Committee on Monday, September 30. Sheehan re-presented an update he had previously provided to the Select Board on the Town’s goal to build a long-term, sustainable budget. He then fielded questions from each of the committee members.
The biggest takeaway from the conversation came early on: Sheehan made it clear that he was not expecting to go for an override in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget, which will be built in the coming months.
“Every time I talk about this people jump to the override question. I cannot say that an override won’t be necessary. It is, in many respects, the easiest way or the simplest way to do it, except for the political challenge of getting an override passed. It is a hard thing to do, and I don’t want to go to the voters any earlier than i have to to make that request. The approach that I’m taking is we need to make sure that we’ve exhausted every opportunity prior to going for an override. And so I’ll jump ahead a little bit and say that I do not expect that we’ll be looking at an override as we start to build the Fiscal 26 budget, which is next fiscal year’s budget.”
(19:45)
In his opening presentation, Sheehan called for civility as the Town works through difficult financial decisions:
“I think it’s important that we turn down the volume. The nature of public discourse lately, in the last several years, has gotten very hot. I didn’t really think that the Washington approach to public discourse, the rock throwing we see in D.C. and that we’ve seen for several decades, I didn’t think that would really come down to the local level, but unfortunately it has.”
(21:30)
The meeting covered a lot of ground, with each member of the Finance Committee asking a variety of questions. Here are the highlights:
Regionalization of Town Services
Sheehan noted that the Town has already regionalized several services, citing veteran’s services, public health partnerships and regional dispatch. Sheehan indicated that the Town will continue to evaluate opportunities to regionalize wherever it makes sense and whenever such opportunities arise. The idea here is to share a resource, such as a staff person, between two or more municipalities in order to either save money or improve service quality.
Privatizing Ambulance Service
Sheehan acknowledged that this does work well in some communities, but can vary by the community based on distance to hospitals and other factors. He didn’t rule out privatization of ambulance service as a way to generate greater revenue for the Town.
Eliminating Overnight Lockup
Member Hank Sorett felt overnight lockup at the Sudbury Police Station was expensive, and most of those folks are sent to Framingham the next day. He felt the Town could save money by partnering with Framingham and eliminating overnight lockup in Sudbury. Sheehan said this was an idea worth exploring, but also added that he doesn’t think there are many overnight lockup situations.
Communication
Member Ryan Lynch pointed out that Town communication around the budget and financial matters could improve. Sheehan agreed and identified some of the challenges the Town faces with communicating around the budget, going on to suggest that the Town restart its use of ClearGov as one way to improve.
Union Negotiations
Sheehan gave a quick update that there are seven union groups, two agreements are done, and negotiations are ongoing with the others. He noted that “there’s a lot up in the air” with employees, but refrained from getting into details while negotiations are ongoing.
Combined Facilities MOA and Unmet Staffing Needs
Sheehan voiced his support for the shared services model, called out that it’s “widely used in the area” and “makes a lot of sense.” He also indicated that he is open to revisiting the terms of the agreement and will be meeting with a working group in the months ahead. Notably, he reiterated that he thinks the facilities department needs more capacity, going on to say the Town needs to add a number of positions in order to meet demand for services. He said he is hoping the FY26 budget will begin to address unmet staffing needs, but didn’t know how many positions that might include.
Capital Planning and Financial Policies
Sheehan said “I think the committee will be pleased with the conversations that we have around capital planning this year. I think we’re going to have more data than we’ve ever had as a result of the facilities study that’s going on. Up to this point, all we’ve had really in terms of decent, quantifiable information was our insurance schedules. And that’s not really the level of detail we need. We are starting this year to build a 15 year capital plan. Typically we’ve done five.” He went on to add that he anticipates discussions to update the Select Board’s financial policies in the next year.
The Finance Committee members reiterated their appreciation for the time the Town Manager spent with them, and voiced appreciation that he was willing to open a dialogue on many of these issues. Long time member Eric Poch put the meeting into a broader context based on his experiences over the years: “Thanks Andy. Thanks for joining us. I think these conversations are a welcome change to many prior administrations.” (1:35:08)
