The Rochester Finance Committee has doubled down on the Select Board’s rejection of the Old Rochester School District’s $12,000,000 debt-exclusion request that will appear on the warrant for the Annual Town Meeting to be held on Monday, May 13, at Rochester Memorial School.
In the previous hour before the Finance Committee’s public meeting on Monday night at Town Hall, the Select Board had just signed the warrant at the Senior Center nearby and handed it over to Town Moderator David Arancio, who also serves on the town’s Finance Committee.
So when Arancio joined fellow Finance Committee members Peter Armanetti, Jim Austin and Chairman Kris Stoltenberg at Town Hall for their 7:00 pm meeting, the four poured over the 14 articles of the 21-article draft warrant relevant to the committee.
None of the members were comfortable recommending Article 14, which states: “To see if the Town will vote to approve the $12,000,000 debt authorized by the Old Rochester Regional School District to pay costs of making various capital improvements and repairs to the District’s Junior/Senior High School, including the payment of all costs incidental or related thereto, and further, to see if the Town will vote to make any such approval contingent upon passage of a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion pursuant to (General Law Chapter) 59, (Section) 21C, or to take any other action relative thereto.”
Finance Director (and newly appointed Interim Town Administrator) Suzanne Szyndlar described ORR’s proposal as “seed money before the circuit breaker comes in the following year.”
Stoltenberg said that when ORR Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Howie Barber presented on ORR’s capital needs two weeks ago, the request was news to him, so he started asking questions.
“The answers were on the vague side,” said Stoltenberg, realizing that the Select Board members shared similar reactions. “This is a huge number under any circumstance. This is an important initiative that they want. ‘Hey, we’re looking for $12,000,000 and we’re going to put this on an override.’ That’s a big deal. There are no hard numbers in there.”
Stoltenberg said taking the critical stance makes him feel badly.
“We want to support the schools, but … if we have fiduciary responsibility to voters, then I don’t see how we can recommend this,” he said. “I’m a big supporter of the schools, and I realize if something does break down. … Plan B is, when it breaks, come to us and we’ll deal with it.”
Arancio shared the concern that the town could be seen by its insurance carrier as negligent should its recommendation to voters be identified in the report of a future facilities failure.
“We have a very good relationship with the School Committee. … When I started you could cut the tension with a knife because the three towns didn’t work together. If this is something they really need, … I don’t think this is going away,” said Arancio. “I believe the rollout could have been better.”
ORR’s presentations on the request have divided the needs of the high school and junior high buildings into three major projects: upgrading 99 HVAC units, replacing 60 exterior doors and a new public-address system that would link the two schools’ communications. Other projects include bathrooms and new LED lighting at the high school athletic fields.
Armanetti compared the request to the process the town navigated to complete upgrades to Rochester Memorial School, saying the ORR presentation “was not as robust and transparent as I would like it to be. … This is an increase of $400,000 a year coming on. … It’s not even close to the same. When we did RMS, every single cent was transparent.”
A citizen attending the meeting whose identification was not requested by the committee said Article 14 has been written in a manner that would create a fund where there is no obligation on the part of the ORR School District to spend the money on any particular item.
“And that would be without any further review by Rochester’s Finance Committee, (Select Board) or voters. To create that kind of a slush fund would be irresponsible,” he said. “We the citizens look to the Finance Committee more than any other (government body) … It’s a blank check. I would urge you to do what our Select Board did unanimously, which is vote to not recommend this. To pay it back would be approximately another $7,000,000 of interest so it would be $19,000,000. This group spends a lot of time thinking about how to spend 20 grand. … It’s a wish list is all it is, and it’s subject to change.”
Szyndlar indicated that the ORR School Committee is the responsible party in carrying through the request to its intentions and that “all articles are (written) very similarly to this.”
“I don’t think they would necessarily spend it willy-nilly,” said Stoltenberg, who outlined three scenarios for the Finance Committee’s consumption: to recommend supporting the request, to recommend against it or to offer no recommendation.
Armanetti motioned to not recommend in its current form. Austin had entertained more neutral thoughts such as those articulated by Stoltenberg but saw no path toward a recommendation and agreed with Armanetti’s motion to not recommend the article.
“I believe that we push things away all the time. My recommendation is to not recommend, (it’s) poorly written. Not that it doesn’t need to be done,” said Arancio. “Take the school out of it. We would never take out $12,000,000 for a road improvement.”
The committee voted unanimously not to recommend the article.
Articles 2-15 all received Finance Committee approval, including a $26,022,613 FY25 Operating Budget. The FY24 appropriated Operating Budget is $25,075,010.
Stoltenberg, who is not seeking re-election to the committee, accepted his nomination to the search committee that will henceforth seek to replace Town Administrator Glenn Cannon, who will take on the same job in Carver on May 14.
The next meeting of the Rochester Finance Committee is scheduled for the Annual Town Meeting to be held on Monday, May 13, at Rochester Memorial School.
Rochester Finance Committee
By Mick Colageo