A budget tells us what we can't afford...

Welcome back!

The month of December is brought to you by: municipal finance. It’s that special time of year when budgets are duct-taped together built for the Town and the schools. Those budgets eventually get put forward for a vote at the Annual Town Meeting in May. While residents get the final say in May, a lot of the difficult decisions are made in a flurry of meetings over the next few months.

But that’s not all! The Annual Town Forum is coming in hot. Can you guess the topic?

You guessed it! Municipal finance.

Here’s the thing - a lot of people would rather spike their eggnog and watch Elf or Home Alone than listen to a primer on municipal finance on a cold evening in early December. In fact, most people would probably choose to watch the 2019 movie version of Cats than attend a forum on municipal finance. But look at it this way: one movie critic said of Cats “You can't believe what you're looking at because it's so hideous to behold.” There’s no way a forum on municipal finance could be that bad, so you’re better off going to the forum. But what if it were that bad? Wouldn’t that make it a must-attend event???

Whichever way you slice it, the forum is the place to be next week. So mark your calendars - next Wednesday, December 11, at 7pm. Feel free to show up at Town Hall (cat costumes optional) or join by Zoom. It’s a hybrid event.

Here’s what we have for you this week:

1. Select Board Lightning Round

2. Time to Think About Running for Local Office

3. SudburyWeekly.com News Roundup

4. Preliminary Lincoln-Sudbury Budget Highlights Pressures

Let’s get into it!

Select Board Lightning Round

By Kevin LaHaise

The Sudbury Select Board met on Tuesday, December 3. Here are the highlights:

Tax Classification

• They classified the taxes! The main thing residents need to know is that they did not add any burden on residential property owners relative to commercial or industrial property owners.

• According to the meeting packet, the net impact on the average single-family residential tax bill is a $577 annual increase.

Camp Sewataro Financials

• Years ago, the Town acquired a camp property for about $11 million. The property was the home of Camp Sewataro, a longtime summer day camp business. After the acquisition, the Town entered into an agreement with a private camp operator to continue to run a private summer camp on the property and maintain the property throughout the year. (1:52:00)

• The current agreement sets terms for revenue sharing with the camp operator. The Town gets 25% of the first $1,000,000 of the camp operator’s profits.

• For 2024, the revenue share to the Town improved over 2023. The Town is getting a bit more than $112,000 in revenue share (Page 56). The exact number in the document is getting updated because there was an error spotted in the report from the camp operator. The Town of Sudbury got about $92K last year.

• The Town also received $206,000 this year in rent from the camp operator. (That base rent increases 3% per year under the third amendment in the original contract. Page 56) This is roughly equivalent to the property taxes paid to the town when the land was privately owned.

• The Town is paying $743,362 for the debt on the property in the current fiscal year. (Page 66) If the Town can continue to squeeze out $100K per year in revenue sharing, it will offset the total debt and interest paid in just shy of 130 years.

Select Board Code of Conduct

• The board members rehashed their grievances about a variety of past incidents and disagreements and then passed a new code of conduct policy by way of a 4-1 vote. Member Carty was the ‘no’ vote. (2:13:20)

Combined Facilities Department

• Chair Jennifer Roberts provided an update on the ongoing discussions between the Town and Sudbury Public Schools (SPS) about their shared facilities department. SPS has been seeking a basis for terminating the agreement that established the department with a goal of enhanced efficiency and service delivery. The latest from the SPS side is here.

• Town Manager Andy Sheehan was more blunt in his comments to the board this time:

• Sheehan went on to cite that peer communities use the combined facilities approach, then added that he doesn’t think the terms of the memorandum of agreement are the issue, but the implementation is.

• Sheehan concluded: “And I think we have to be honest that trust in government at all levels has probably never been lower. I don’t ever remember it being as low as it is now. I didn’t think it was going to seep to the local level in the way that is has, but it has. And I think, especially as we’re looking ahead to an override, or a potential override in a couple of years, we have to do everything in our power to manage our costs. And so going in the direction of separating facilities, I think, is really not telling a good story to the residents.”

• On the SPS side, focus has recently shifted to the shared electrician position. SPS leadership has changed their story about their electrical needs.

  • In September SPS said they were outsourcing electrical work rather than using the in-house electrician. (1:41:00)

  • In November SPS said they were not outsourcing electrical work and had no electrical needs in their five school buildings. (1:36:20)

  • In the meeting packet for that meeting, SPS leadership reported that they had used the Town electrician for about three-dozen jobs since June of 2024. (Page 66)

  • In the same packet the Director of Business and Human Resources stated: “Our analysis has concluded that the District does not require an electrician nor can we warrant the expense.” (Page 47)

Time to Think About Running for Local Office

By the League of Women Voters of Sudbury

Prospective candidates for town and school committee positions can begin “pulling papers” to gather signatures and run for local office in early January. Signatures must be gathered and returned to the Clerk’s office by early February. Sudbury’s town election will be Monday, March 31. 

Any registered voter in Sudbury has the right to run. Boards and committees do not choose who may run to join them. You can learn more about your right to run and the steps for running here on the LWV website.

The list of openings will be posted by the Town Clerk in late December and will include seats on the Select Board, Sudbury School Committee, and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional District School Committee. Prospective candidates will be able to find run for office information including dates for the LWV Sudbury Candidates’ Forum recording sessions and Meet the Candidates event on the Sudbury League’s website here.

A 2024 state League program on campaign finance demystifies the campaign finance filing requirements and process. In the recording, Jason Tait from the Office of Campaign and Political Finance offers tips, tricks, and tools to make campaign finance filings easy. You can find it here.

The 2023 Town Forum on voting and volunteerism in Sudbury offers insights into our local government and opportunities to participate in it. You can watch the recording on SudburyTV here.

Preliminary Lincoln-Sudbury Budget Highlights Pressures

By Kevin LaHaise

What’s Going On:

• The Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee met on Tuesday, December 3. The preliminary Fiscal Year 2026 budget was presented. There’s an initial variance between the proposed budget and budget guidance of approximately $240,000.

• The Town of Sudbury provided 3.0% guidance. The Town of Lincoln provided 2.5% guidance. The FY26 apportionment ratio presented was a very slight shift toward Lincoln at 12.76% and Sudbury at 87.24%. “Apportionment” is a fancy word for how members of a regional school district agree to divvy up the bill.

• Lincoln-Sudbury leadership repeatedly emphasized that this budget is very preliminary. Union contracts are still being negotiated, and there could be changes on the expense or revenue sides of the budget.

• There was discussion among the committee about declining enrollment. Several members emphasized the importance of maintaining the breadth and depth of the program of studies while experiencing enrollment declines.

• Chair Ravi Simon asked about potential cuts to federal funding. Kirsteen Patterson, the Director of Finance and Operations, said the district has braced and prepared for that possibility, but it remains unknown if that will come to pass. (1:06:00)

Why It’s Important:

• Superintendent Andrew Stephens emphasized that even as enrollment may decline, costs can still increase for a variety of reasons, ranging from fixed costs to growing student needs, to significant increases in the cost of services like out-of-district placements. He reminded the committee that there have previously been reductions in the district as enrollment has decreased by about 300 students in the last five years, but those are often offset by increasing needs elsewhere.

• Kirsteen Patterson, Director of Finance and Operations, added that regional districts have obligations that are unique in terms of the “municipal-type costs” they need to carry in their budget, such as health insurance and pension systems. She added:

Parting Thoughts

Quick reminder — the Town of Sudbury Holiday Village is tomorrow! The Town is going to have tons of food vendors, food trucks, live music, an ice sculptor, and more. Did we mention food trucks? Oh, and baby animals! We know it’s probably too cold for a baby giraffe… so here’s the next best thing (after real baby animals and food trucks):

Keep an eye on the site in the coming days. We’ll have more news on the Sudbury Public Schools budget building meetings, an update on the Park and Recreation Commission meeting, and more.

We’re also dialing in plans for Sudbury Weekly in 2025. We are looking to expand coverage of a number of beats. As always - you can send ideas/thoughts/suggestions to [email protected] anytime. What type of stories are most useful to you? What topics do you want to read more about and less about in the future? Do you prefer long-form features or short-form summaries? Are there any specific stories or story types from this year that you’d like to see more of?

Should Sudbury Weekly make a public commitment to never publish another bad haiku again? (We can live without the haikus, but the animated GIFs have to stay!)

As always, we appreciate any feedback you can share!

Onward!