The Town’s Finance Committee met earlier this week to go through all 52 Town Meeting warrant articles and provide recommendations for those that had financial implications.
The only articles FinCom advised town voters to vote against were Articles 46, 47 and 48.
Article 46 asks the Town to “vote to appropriate the funds from free cash not to exceed the sum of $100,000 and establish an independent town audit by an independent audit agency.” The Article was sponsored by Philip Mancuso, who was no longer in attendance by the time his article was discussed Monday night.
“Legally, the Town of Marblehead is audited annually. It has to be. There is an annual audit by a CPA firm already. It costs us $70,000,” said FinCom Chair Alec Goolsby. “I would have liked to hear a little bit more from the article sponsor on this because we already are doing an annual audit, and we’ve gone above and beyond that in the last five years of doing an internal controls type audit.”
A community member said he had spoken with the article sponsor and said Mancuso was looking for a “more DOGE-like” audit to see “are we doing the right thing?”
FinCom unanimously voted against Article 46.
Article 47 was sponsored by Emily DeJoy and asks if the Town will vote “to eliminate the position of Sustainability Coordinator” because “said position has no clear essential administrative function.”
Goolsby said, “I understand from legal counsel that this is advisory only… You can’t actually eliminate a position in an article within Town Meeting, but can be advisory to the select board.”
DeJoy was not there to present her article, but Director of Planning and Community Development Brendan Callahan took the time during this warrant hearing to speak highly of Sustainability Coordinator Logan Casey and explain why the position exists.
“He is the longest staff member in our department right now. The sustainability coordinator position was created after the Town completed the debt-zero roadmap in May 2023. The first action item on that plan was to hire a sustainability coordinator,” Callahan said. “He was hired in January 2024. Since then, he’s applied for and secured over $665,000 in grants for the Town.
“Logan’s very critical in incorporating energy efficiency technologies in multiple different town projects. He’s assisted on ADA-compliant projects. He’s helped create Marblehead’s sustainability guidelines that are being considered by the Old Historic District Committee. He’s critical toward the State Street Restroom Year-Round Access project… He’s been a huge asset to the department. He has the most institutional knowledge. He’s been a great employee and great staff member for the Town.”
Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer and Finance Director Aleesha Benjamin also expressed their gratitude for Casey and emphasized his importance.
“It was a steal to get somebody that young (with) that much talent into a position like this, so he is absolutely a value added to this community,” said Kezer.
In a vote of 8-1, with FinCom member Michael Janko voting against the majority, FinCom voted to recommend the Town vote against Article 47.
Article 48 was also sponsored by Mancuso and is asking the town to vote “to advise the Select Board to enact a policy that requires any departmental division heat to be employed by the Town of Marblehead to reside within the Town of Marblehead.”
Goolsby said this article was also “advisory only, but it would be something that would need to be considered by Town leaders if Town Meeting advised them.”
“I would argue that there could be financial implications if it passed because there’s a fair amount of people who don’t live in Marblehead in these positions, so presumably, there would be recruiting-type fees or a negotiation for their replacement, which I think would give, from my perspective, a little bit of leverage to the employees that are the applicants if there’s less of a pool of individuals available for this position,” said Goolsby.
FinCom member Eric Knight raised concerns about this provision, stating, “We’re a small town, and modern governance is incredibly complicated.”
“I don’t believe that we have a large enough talent pool to be able to find, within town, all of the necessary skill sets that we need, so I’m going to suggest that we oppose Article 48,” Knight said.
FinCom unanimously voted against this article.
FinCom delayed the discussion of Article 33 until April 28.
