The Weathersfield Select Board convened a special meeting to discuss the revised town budget for fiscal year 2027 and related warning articles. The board reviewed a proposal that reduced the total budget request to voters by $215,778 through line-item cuts, and discussed the possibility of funding the capital plan or borrowing for equipment replacements. The meeting included public comments and staff reports.
Okay, it is 638, I believe. Sorry for the delay. We have to wait for a member, please write for allegiance. I fled allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stance one nation under God, individual with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. This is a special meeting. Uh dealing specifically with budgets. And uh warnings. Uh first on the agenda is the general fund budget. Brandon, take it away. All right. Um, so we've got agenda item three. A V A for B. All of the money. Just go right through them all. I guess. Okay. Can we make sure the people online are hearing us? Yes. Thank you, Joe. Don't meet the audience. Hello, everybody online. Can you hear us? Yeah, we can hear you. Okay, we can hear you too. Thank you, Nate. We can hear you. Uh so in total, we just decrease our table to request to the voters by 215,778. And the general fund list included a reduction budgets for chaired services, including office supplies, postage, equipment, software, technology, training, land record supplies, transfers, the town cleric reserves, transfers to the reappraisal reserve, and eliminated the land use assistant position and reduced fire and truck repairs. And the library we reduced office supplies, trustees expense, trustee expenditures, library programs, and library media. In the highway fund, we reduce supplies, parts, and equipment, non-vehicle repairs, paid being solved for Avon and Clora. For the capital plans, we reduce the highway motorized equipment fund by 142,000. We're reduced the fire truck replacement plan by 25,000, then 100% eliminated technology replacements. We are also not proposing that we send the free nonprofit article requests back to the voters this year. So the total cumulative um proposed reduction budget is 215,000 less. Um at the budget committee meeting, there was some concerns raised about capital plan articles, and I was requested to get a legal opinion. Um the budget committee members' concern suggested that the articles may not have fully satisfied voter clarity requirements under 17 VSA 2642 due to their reference to broader capitals, but it's not fully incorporated into the warning. I did review this matter with the town attorney who disagrees with that interpretation. The town attorney advised that warned articles must be sufficiently clear and definite to inform voters of the matter being considered, but they may be stated in general terms and not required to include the full detail of supporting documents sections capital plans. In this case, the capital plans were discussed in multiple public meetings, including a duly warned public hearing, and were unanimously approved by the select board. The plans were made early available to the public at the town office and online with options that bodies mailed to them upon request. These efforts ensured that voters had access to comprehensive information beyond the warning itself. Based on this, the town attorney believes the articles met legal standards. So I have uh so we open up the word. If I may have a comment to add to what Mr. Golden get this statement, yes. At the last select board meeting on March 23rd, a citizen made the following statement, and I quote, I read VLCT's guidance for noticing municipal articles and also noticing of budgets. They have guidance which we are not following, and we need to. When the taxpayers asked to commit to a capital plan for a duration of five or longer years, very specific wording has to be included. That's one of the reasons it was a no vote, and we discussed it very briefly at the last budget meeting.