Board of Selectmen Meeting, November 28, 2022

Delayed tax bills. Defining what the 4% tax cap applies to. New Town Administrator search.

Delayed Tax Bills

Tax bills are being delayed because the state government has not informed towns yet of the rate imposed by the state.

4% Tax Cap on What Budget?

The 4% tax cap adopted by the voters earlier this year limits the town to proposing budgets that are no more than 4% higher than the town’s prior-year budget. Because of this, the board discussed whether the town’s adoption of 2022 Warrant Article #5 should be interpreted as an increase to the operating budget. If it did not represent an increase to the operating budget, then $457k in cuts to the draft budget will be needed to achieve the 4% cap. If it is, then only $157k in cuts will be needed.

Here’s 2022 Warrant Article #5:

All selectmen present (Tyler Eaton was not present) voted in favor of including the $300k from the warrant article in developing the board’s budget recommendations. However, the Board of Selectmen’s decision is not binding on the Budget Committee. 

New Town Manager Search

20 applications have been received. Half were from NH. Half have master's degrees. 

Six candidates are being pursued. 4 are experienced town administrators in NH, 1 from MA, and 1 has experience as an interim town administrator. By mid-December, these will be narrowed down to 3 or 4 candidates for the board to interview. The board will narrow this down to two candidates for the department heads to interview.

Conservation Land Enforcement

The Conservation Commission had petitioned the board for help in dealing with a landowner who has repeatedly violated the deeded conservation restrictions. The board had hoped that the Conservation fund could be used to fund legal action and asked the Interim Town Manager to research the issue. The research results were that these funds could not be used. 

The board did not take up the issue of how then to respond to the Conservation Commission’s request for enforcement help.

Video Feed Failure

The video feed abruptly stopped in mid-meeting, so, I’m unable to report on what else happened at the meeting.. Watch the video: