• Webster FinCom chair seeks town meeting delay — again

• By Brian Lee
  Telegram & Gazette Staff

  
  Posted Jun. 4, 2016 at 8:02 PM
  
  

  WEBSTER — For the second consecutive year, Finance Committee Chairman Michael Finamore is acting to delay the annual town meeting slated to begin Monday night.

  Pointing the blame at acting Town Administrator Pamela A. Leduc, Mr. Finamore said, “The board cannot make an informed decision when they do not have a complete, accurate accounting of the budget and free cash.”

  Ms. Leduc did not return a phone message to her office Friday.

  Mr. Finamore said, “She insists we have a full budget. I’m insisting we don’t have a full budget. The selectmen are going to be taking up the water rate again Monday night.

  “If they have to take up the water rate, because they used retained earnings and it hasn’t been certified, we don’t have a full budget. I can’t in clear conscience make a decision to bring it to the town meeting floor without a full disclosure of the budget. Our job is to obtain the information and to inform the people and let them decide. We have nothing to inform them on because we don’t have the information needed.”

  The fiscal 2017 budget is about $39.9 million.

  Because retained earnings and free cash aren’t certified, Mr. Finamore said, “We can’t make a determination on that. We don’t know what the state is going to do.”

  Mr. Finamore said he has informed Town Moderator Thomas V. Ralph Sr. of his plan. He said, “The finance board is going into the meeting without any recommendations, and it’s against state law for them to have a meeting without recommendations of the finance board. The interim town administrator has failed to inform (us) in a timely and proper manner.”

  Reached Friday, Mr. Ralph said he would not discuss what’s going to happen until he had all the information from all of the involved people. He suggested his research of the matter would carry into the weekend.

  Mr. Finamore also said he took exception to the $559,000 budget for the South Worcester County Communications Center, serving Webster and Dudley in the Webster Police Department, because it is not itemized for the benefit of the public.

  Mr. Finamore said he was told the center is a separate entity and such details aren't needed. He disputes that suggestion.

  “If I were to come on the town meeting floor and tell you, accept this budget as presented, and this (dispatch center budget) is in there, and then tomorrow, the dispatch director gives everyone $150,000 raises, you’d call the finance board idiots,” Mr. Finamore said.

  Mr. Finamore said Ms. Leduc had told him that, despite the finance board’s concerns, “she’s going to go on the town meeting floor; she’s going to hold the meeting.”

  “I said, you do that and I will be before the Inspector General’s office Tuesday morning and the courts. She knows I’ll do it.”

  Last year, Mr. Finamore successfully moved to delay the annual town meeting until the eve of the start of fiscal 2016, which began last July 1. He said at that time the finance board did not get a chance to review the budget and make recommendations to town meeting, as called for by the home-rule charter.

  But the dynamics of last year’s delay differ from this year's issue.

  “I did it on the town meeting floor,” Mr. Finamore recalled. “She created the problem last year, but, (town counsel law firm) Kopelman & Paige, selectmen, and her and I came to an agreement, that if they allowed me to hold a meeting, I would not scream, kick and holler that it was not a legitimately advertised and posted meeting, and the FinComm would come back with recommendations” for the fiscal 2016 budget.