Budget Committee Meeting, April 18, 2024
Karyn Quinn voted onto committee in tight vote. Michael Kelly’s re-election bid for Chairman fails. Owen Friend-Gray elected Chairman.
Because Budget Committee member John Decker was elected to the Board of Selectmen, the Budget Committee met to choose a replacement to fill the seat for the year. While as of Monday evening, no one had contacted committee chairman Michael Kelly to volunteer, four candidates were at the meeting to volunteer: Kevin Murphy, Maureen Campaiola, Tom Bukiewicz, and Karyn Quinn.
Kevin Murphy then withdrew his candidacy, saying that he volunteered because he was expecting that no one else would.
Maureen Campaiola touted her prior budgeting experience. She discussed how there are a lot of frustrated taxpayers and frustration and anger in the community about ever-increasing taxes.
Karyn Quinn described how she ran a $10 million budget for a research center. She also described her civic work, including the Marston fundraising committee, Friends of the Library committee, and as an alternate trustee for the library. She thinks the public should know more about the budget.
This led to the committee to digress to discuss the public’s confusion about pay cuts for town employees. Committee member Charlotte Fyfe pointed out that while the committee did cut salary budgets, no employees took pay cuts. The budget cuts reflected positions that were unfilled in the early part of the year.
Tom Bukiewicz, a former member of the committee who lost his re-election bid touted his four years’ experience on the committee. He pointed out that with the failure of so many of the warrant articles for spending the committee is going to have an even more difficult time this year developing a budget than in previous years. The committee will have to ask uncomfortable questions and make unpopular cuts to keep the budget within the 4% tax cap. He discussed his work in past years doing exactly those things and his willingness to allow himself to be perceived as the bad guy to enable the committee to do its job. “People already hate me, so I don’t mind.” He thought that the committee should work to make it easier for people to donate to the town and to encourage such donations. A large portion of the taxpayers voted for higher taxes for themselves.
Following the candidate statements, the committee began its deliberations.
Selectman Morin endorsed Campaiola. He said that even though the two of them were often in disagreement he thought she would be an asset to the committee.
School Board representative Daniel Roy endorsed Campaiola, citing her work on the CIP and School Facilities Committees.
Michael Kelly endorsed Campaiola, noting that while he appreciated Bukiewicz’s hard work and commitment, he was too unruly.
Charlotte Fyfe endorsed Quinn. While she appreciated Bukiewicz’s hard work, he was too ideological and contentious.
Jeffery Morrison endorsed Bukiewicz.
Robert Kelly endorsed Bukiewicz.
Donna Danis endorsed Quinn. She pointed out that Bukiewicz had lost his re-election bid by a large margin, which she felt should be interpreted as the voters not wanting him on the committee.
Tom Bukiewicz interrupted the deliberations to withdraw his candidacy, saying that it was clear that he did not have enough votes to win, and that he endorsed Campaiola.
The committee voted as follows on the two remaining candidates:
Sandra Jones: Quinn
Robert Kelly: Campaiola
Charlotte Fyfe: Quinn
John Morin: Campaiola
Micheal Kelly: Campaiola
Owen Friend-Gray: Quinn
Donna Danis: Quinn
Jeffery Morrison: Campaiola
Jillian Eldredge: Quinn
Daniel Roy: Campaiola
This resulted in a 5-5 tie. Selectman Morin changed his vote to break the tie. There was a short recess while Selectman Morin swore Karyn Quinn into office.
After the recess, the committee discussed whether money could be saved by having the committee select a secretary to take minutes so that a minute-taker would not be required. Danis and Jones objected on concerns that it is difficult to participate and take minutes, and that it creates an opportunity to bias the minutes. The idea was dropped.
There was a discussion about how the Chairman should be selected. Should it be on the kind of rotating/seniority basis used by the Board of Selectmen or the preferences of the committee?
Michael Kelly was nominated to continue his role as Chairman. The motion failed 5 to 3.
Owen Friend-Gray was then nominated and won 5 to 3.
Donna Danis volunteered to be Vice Chairman. Michael Kelly was nominated. The vote was 5 to 5. Chairman Friend-Gray declared Kelly to be the winner based on the committee’s practice of declaring tie votes on motions as passing. Later in the meeting Chairman Friend-Gray said he thinks the committee should discuss this practice at its next meeting, as it is so unusual. The committee also needs to codify some of its practices.
Discussion moved to establishing the committee’s calendar.
Donna Danis proposed that the committee meet next month with the department heads so that it could hear about their frustrations with their budgets, to show that the committee cares about them, and to learn what problems were being faced.
Selectman Morin said he did not feel that the town did a good job communicating to the public why they should vote for the spending the town proposed. He noted that the failed warrant articles lost by small margins.
Chairman Friend-Gray said that the Town Administrator had proposed to have onsite training for the committee provided by the NH Municipal Association. The committee agreed to the training, with particular interest in hearing from experts regarding the committee’s questions about how the 4% tax cap should be applied. The Chairman will coordinate a date for it, likely in August.
Donna Danis asked Selectman Morin what areas of the budget were the Selectmen most uncomfortable. He thought the greatest concern was with the Highway Department because while the department is now fully staffed, they had such a limited budget to do highway work. He was also concerned about the Recreation Department, as its services were highly utilized, but were very sensitive to any cuts in their budget.
[Commentary: Close followers of town politics note that there are two wings on the Budget Committee. One is anti-tax and wishes to constrain services; the other is pro-services. The March town election sent mixed signals. While the electorate made extraordinary votes against spending, albeit by small margins, they also voted not to re-elect two members of the Budget Committee who were among those most committed to opposition to tax growth. It is difficult to reconcile these two things. Several theories have been advanced.
High inflation has substantially reduced discretionary spending. When given the discretion of choosing what to pay in taxes, the voters decided that they wanted fewer services and less taxes.
While the electorate is more anti-tax than its elected officials, it is not anti-tax on the ideological grounds supported by the losing candidates.
The losing candidates lost because of their behavior, not their positions.
The electorate was unusually anti-tax this year due to a loss of faith in their elected officials, particularly the Board of Selectmen, due to dissatisfaction with how the personnel issues in the Fire Department have been handled and concerns published in state-wide media about the ethics of one of the Selectmen.
The town, particularly the Board of Selectmen, failed to properly explain to the voters why the proposed spending was needed.
All of these may have played a role.
Last year the anti-tax wing achieved a majority on the committee and padded their majority by appointing another member of their wing to a vacant seat. This year the reverse happened.
The upcoming budgeting season will be particularly interesting. The committee’s new pro-services majority will have to go against their personal preferences to comply with the 4% tax cap. Meanwhile, compliance will be more difficult than it has ever been, not only because of ongoing high inflation, but because the voters' rejection of 2024 warrant articles means that the cap for the 2025 budget will be based on a figure even lower than what the committee faced for their proposed 2024 budget.]
Other News
The Nottingham Historical Society will hold its Annual Pie Social on Sunday, April 21, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm at the Old Town Hall.
National Drug Take-Back Day will be held at the Police Station on Saturday, April 27, from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Bring in your outdated and unwanted prescription drugs for proper disposal.
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