Understanding the Town Side

To understand how to influence budget decisions, it helps to  understand how Arlington's town government is organized:

• Arlington is governed by the "Town Manager Act of the Town of Arlington, Massachusetts," the "By-Laws of the Town of Arlington" and Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 43A, "Standard Form of Representative Town Meeting Government."

• The Board of Selectmen (BOS) plays an analogous role to the School Committee.  They hire the Town Manager, and act as the Executive Committee to oversee administration of various programs, appointments, and licenses, much as SC hires Superintendent, and reviews administration of policy and budgets. 

• The day-to-day operation of the Town is administered by the Town Manager,

• At some point, typically in January, the warrant opens where articles that will  come before Town Meeting are submitted by various committees or groups of citizens.

• The Board of Selectman reviews the warrant, and recommend of vote of action or no action.

• Town Meeting votes on BOS recommendations and approves final budgets.

All budgets from all town departments, including the schools, are reviewed by the Finance Committee.  The Finance Committee is made up of a representative from each of Arlington's  20 precincts.  The current chairs of the FinCom are Allen Tosti, who has served for over 33 years, and Charles Foskett.

 Arlington's public schools received a majority of the operating budget as allocated under a local convention called the O'Neill formula.    Recently, departmental budgets are also constrained by caps placed by the Override.  Under the Override,  departmental budgets are capped at 4% each year.  Last year, each department was allocated a 3.3% increase, due to other factors that impacted override projections (fuel cost, state aid, health care costs)

The SPOT Organizing Committee believes that the school side of the budget has undergone much scrutiny over the last few years, but would like to see similar diligence on the town side.  The Board of Selectman, working with Finance Committee, Town Manager, and various boards and commissions can push to have diligent review of town departmental budgets to the same level of rigor that has been applied to the school budget.  We urge you to  contact the Selectmen to express this concerns.

To learn more about the budgeting process, take a look at the Annual Budget Flowchart.

• Kevin Greeley greeleycom@aol.com prefers voice mail at (617) 621-7055
• Jack Hurd: jhurd5@aol.com 781-648-2169
• Diane Mahon: dianemahon@comcast.net 781-646-9038
• Annie LaCourt  annie@lacourt.net  781-641-2918
• Clarissa Rowe clarissa.rowe@comcast.net  781- 643-3156
• OR send e-mail to Marie at mkrepelka@town.arlington.MA.US and instruct her to forward to all BOS
   
  For more information on the selectmen and upcoming board meetings, see the Board of Selectmen page on the Arlington town web site.

And here are some minutes and letters that SPOT members have written:

Joint Board of Selectmen/School Committee budget meeting, 12/06/044

Letter to the Advocate

Colleen Kirby's comments to the Board of Selectmen, November 10, 2003

Sue Sheffler's notes from FinCom meeting, November 3, 2003