Voters in Waldoboro used the polls to express their apparent desire for a smaller municipal budget on June 8. Six budget-related articles, containing a total of $242,437 in expenditures, were voted down, according to the election results available on the town website.
At an emergency meeting on June 10, the Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to hold an open Special Town Meeting at 7 p.m. on June 22 at Medomak Middle School. At that meeting, the town will revisit five of those articles.
Along with the budget articles, voters also rejected a proposed change to the town land use ordinance governing subdivisions.
All other items on the warrant passed, many by a wide margin.
The budget items voted down were: $97,715 for the office of the town manager (664 yes, 743 no); $77,352 for the assessing department (672 yes, 720 no); $500 for Broadreach Family & Community Services, (613-759); $62,330 for planning and development, (640-665); and $4540 for upkeep of the A.D. Gray Building (623-670).
The town also voted down Article 3, which would have allowed the selectmen to spend an amount of money equal to three-months of the previous year’s appropriation during the time between when the budget items were rejected and when new ones can be approved.
The town will revisit the budgets for the town manager, the assessing department, planning and development and the A.D. Gray building.
At the Special Town Meeting, voters will have an opportunity to discuss the budget allocations and amend them before authorizing them. The articles will be closed, which means the budget allocations can be lowered but not raised.
Because Waldoboro adopted the town-manager style of government, they are required by state law to have an acting town manager. The same is true of the code enforcement officer, whose salary is paid for out of the planning and development budget.
Because Article 3 failed, the new budget must be approved by July 1, when the new fiscal year begins.
At the June 10 selectmen’s meeting, concerns were raised by both the selectmen and several Waldoboro residents about the fact that limited turnout at the Special Town Meeting might make the process unfair.
About 1400 voters went to the polls on June 8. The turnout to the Special Town Meeting will likely be much smaller.
“What if only 25 people show up?” asked Waldoboro resident Ronald Miller. “Is that fair for them to overturn people’s decision?”
Unfortunately, in order for the town to hold the Special Town Meeting in time to have a budget ready for July 1, they cannot hold the meeting by referendum, which many felt would draw larger turnout.
The town is required by law to give 45-days notice before a referendum vote. The requirement is only seven-days notice for an open meeting.
“It’s as fair as it’s going to be,” said Selectman Becky Maxwell. “We need people to be interested in coming out to vote.”
Selectman Bob Butler summed up the board’s sentiments: “I don’t want to create a situation where people come and vote-in a budget that people already voted down,” he said. “People need to show up and express what they think about the budget.”
Had Article 3 passed, the town most likely would have restarted a much longer budget process, including public hearings, meetings of the budget committee, and culminating in another referendum vote, said Town Manager William Post.
“We’re in a bit of a bind,” Post said. “We don’t have the time to figure out why these articles failed and to work with the public on changing them.”
Although it often involves limited turnout, the idea behind having an open Town Meeting is that at the end of the night the articles have been discussed and approved in one form or another, Post said.
As a fallback, Article 3 from the original warrant will be revisited as the last article at the Special Town Meeting.
