Weston voters will decide on Nov. 3 whether to take away the Annual Town Budget Meeting's power to cut the budget, whether one party may hold five of the seven seats on a town board, and whether to adopt the rest of a charter rewrite that would double what the selectmen can add to a department's budget in a year.
That last change is in Section 9.9, the part of the charter Selectwoman Lauren Traum cited on Oct. 1 when she said she would not vote for the town's year-end budget transfers. She argued that Section 9.9, as she reads it, requires Board of Finance approval for amounts over $5,000, and that some of the spending lacked it. First Selectwoman Samantha Nestor answered, "That's why we changed it in the charter," without saying which change she meant. The motion failed that night for lack of a second; the selectmen approved the transfers at their Oct. 15 meeting.
The rewritten section would raise the amount the selectmen can add to any department's appropriations in a year from $5,000 to $10,000, and the yearly total for all departments from $50,000 to $100,000, according to the town's explanatory text, the official summary of the questions. Larger additions would need the Board of Finance's prior approval, and beyond 2 percent of the tax levy, a town meeting's.
Each question gets its own yes or no, decided by majority. A no keeps the current charter on that point.
Question 1: how many seats one party can hold
The charter now caps one party at a bare majority of a board or commission: four seats on a seven-member board. A yes would raise the cap to the state-law maximum, five of seven.
Question 2: the budget meeting's power to cut
Today, voters who attend the Annual Town Budget Meeting can reduce or remove items in the proposed budget before all voters approve or reject it at referendum. A yes would send the budget to referendum unchanged. The meeting would still be held for public discussion.
Question 3: everything else
A yes adopts the rest of the Charter Revision Commission's final report as one package. Besides the Section 9.9 limits, the package would:
- Let the selectmen move up to $35,000 within one town department's budget, and up to $15,000 between departments in the last six months of the fiscal year, if the moves add no employees and commit no future budgets. Larger transfers would need the Board of Finance.
- Revise the year-end closeout rules: the selectmen could shift leftover money between departments to close the books, on the finance director's recommendation, and the Board of Finance would act about 90 days after the fiscal year ends.
- Count a tie on a referendum as a rejection.
- Shrink the Board of Police Commissioners from seven members to five.
- Keep the town clerk and tax collector appointed, and repeal the process for making them elected again.
- Rewrite the ethics rules with due-process steps and penalties, and limit the Board of Ethics to two members from any one party.
- Add public forums on the school budget and at the start of the Board of Finance's budget hearings, and require the selectmen to appoint a new charter commission by Oct. 1, 2035.
How it got to the ballot
The commission approved its final report unanimously on July 13. On July 23 the Board of Selectmen accepted it, sent it to the ballot and split it into three questions, each vote 2-1: Nestor and Selectman Anthony Pesco in favor, Traum opposed.
Traum moved to put the $35,000 transfer power to voters as a separate fourth question. Her motion died without a second.
The proposed charter is on the town website and at the town clerk's office, and copies will be at the polls.
Also on the ballot
Nestor is the Democratic candidate for the 26th State Senate District, against Alma Sarelli, who is on the Republican and Independent Party lines. Weston's other races, from the Secretary of the State's sample ballot:
- State House, 135th District: Anne M. Hughes, Democratic and Working Families; Darrell Harris, Republican and Independent Party
- Congress, 4th District: Jim Himes, Democratic; Michael Ted Goldstein, Republican; Benjamin Wesley, Independent Party
- Judge of Probate: Lisa Wexler, Democratic, the only candidate listed
- Registrar of Voters: Deirdre Doran, Democratic; Tammy Herzog Roberts, Republican
- Plus governor and four other statewide offices
When and where
Early voting runs through Sunday, Nov. 1, in the Town Hall Meeting Room, 56 Norfield Road: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27, and Thursday, Oct. 29, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on other days, with same-day registration. On Election Day, polls are open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Weston Middle School gym, entrance at the back, according to the Registrar of Voters.