Adams Town Meeting Clears All But Two Warrant Articles
Newly elected Moderator Myra Wilk is the first woman moderator in the town's history.
The 96 town meeting members who attended annual town meeting bulldozed through all 28 articles in an hour, but slowed their pace to discuss Article 9, the McCann Technical School assessment of $1,030,016 that ultimately passed with a 61-35 vote.
"McCann Tech is a fantastic asset to this community and the county and I think we need to support that," town meeting member John Levesque, who held the article, said.
The town saw a nearly 27 percent increase in its assessment to the Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District because 14 more Adams students are enrolled.
The Finance Committee earlier this year voted not to recommend the budget because it was thought the increase was too high and that McCann's benefit packages did not mirror the sacrifices made by Adams-Cheshire and the town.
Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco reiterated this decision.
"We are all trying to cut costs and we are all trying to control our benefits and labor and McCann is not joining in with us in some of the struggles that we are facing in the town and the regional school district," he said. "We all agree McCann offers a great product but are they sharing in the same sacrifices?"
The Finance Committee's recommendation on a no vote was essentially a protest because multiple members of the nine towns in the district would have to vote down the $9.3 million budget to send McCann back to the drawing board.
Town meeting member Scott Cernik asked if there was a breakdown of the increase and why it was so high.
Mazzucco said as Adams becomes a larger contributor to the school and other communities decrease their enrollment, Adams gets hit with a larger cost.
"There is another side to the formula it depends on if other towns go up or down," Mazzucco said. "So not only did we go up 14 students, we are also a bigger percentage of the student body than we were the previous year, so we got double whacked."
Town meeting also pumped the brakes on Article 23, which would allow the town to rescind its acceptance of the Civil Service Law. Town meeting member Norman Schutz asked why the town wanted to back out.
Mazzucco said Civil Service makes it more difficult to hire police officers.
"Civil Service dates back over 100 years and the system worked great for years for many communities but a lot of communities are starting to back out of it," Mazzucco said. "It takes us close to a year to hire officers under Civil Service."
Mazzucco said officers will still have protections under their union and they would still have to meet state training standards.
He added the police must agree to the rescinding and that the town is negotiating with the union and things are going favorably.
Police Chief Richard Tarsa said Civil Service does not benefit the town.
"It makes the process of hiring a lot easier and since I became chief I have turned 20 people away because they weren't on Civil Service," he said. "Nine of them have been picked up by other departments in the county."
"By dissolving our ties with it, it allows us to pick from a bigger and deeper pool."
Town meeting held little discussion over Articles 26 and 27, which were citizens' petitions that originated from a Cheshire effort to amend the district agreement and allow Cheshire to independently fund its school without triggering a proportional increase in Adams.
Town meeting followed the Finance Committee’s recommendation to reject the articles, however, they were moot anyways because Cheshire town meeting narrowly voted down the amendment based on town counsel's opinion it would not be supported by the Department of Education, a critical hurdle in the amendment process.
Town meeting also briefly held Articles 5 through 6, which represented parts of the $15.5 million budget; after some discussion, the budget was overwhelmingly cleared.
Article 8, the $5.5 million Adams-Cheshire school assessment, was also briefly held, but after some discussion on teacher negotiations was pushed through.
Last week, Cheshire town meeting residents rejected the $19.2 million school budget that represented the closing of Cheshire Elementary school. Without a budget in place that both towns agree upon by the end of the month, the district could be forced to operate with a reduced budget until one can be passed.
If a budget is not passed by Dec. 1, the state will take over the district.
However, the School Committee will reconsider the budget on Tuesday and either resubmit the same budget or propose a new one. If a higher budget is proposed, Adams will have to vote again.
Cheshire officials have already scheduled a special town meeting in mid-July.
If asecond round of town meetings cannot pass a budget, it will go to a districtwide vote.
Tags: adams_budget, town meeting 2017,
