HANSON – The Select Board on Tuesday, July16 grapples with the need to communicate the necessary operational override for the town next year, with the apparent logical conflict of spending ARPA funds to do it.
The good news, they were told as they met virtually with consulting firm Capital Strategic Solutions, was that those leftover federal funds are in an account that can only be used for municipal government purposes. The firm’s officials pledged to fine-tune cost estimates of about $50,000 plus an anticipated $5,000 for mailers – down to the $49,000 to $50,000 without an added cost for voter information mailers.
At the same time, they had another communication issue on their hands.
“We now sound like we’re on the Starship Enterprise,” Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said as she welcomed them to the meeting as an intermittent echo reverberated through the meeting room. “I have no way to control it.”
Whitman Hanson Community Access Television production assistant Paul Watson worked throughout the meeting to correct the problem.
Capital CEO Nicole Figueiredo led the presentation, which the Mass.-based, certified women-owned business specializing in municipal engagement and other forms of public administration, community engagement and project management – among other specialties – spoke to the firm’s expertise in Hanson’s need for explaining the need for an operational override for the town next year.
“Some of the key objectives in doing outreach and engagement for an override is explaining what an override is and outlining the specific needs the override will address, whether it’s funding for public safety, infrastructure and schools, etc.,” Figueiredo said.
While the Select Board has been emphasizing the need for such outreach, they also expressed concern about the cost.
“Your development of educational materials [is important], but then there’s an additional service for direct mailers, which would be delivering the educational materials to the townspeople,” Vice Chair Ann Rein said. “That’s an extra five grand. I noticed that – that wouldn’t come out of the cost of the contract.”
Figueiredo granted that would be an additional cost.
“That’s why I’m talking about costs, because we’ve been down this road before,” Select Board member Joe Weeks said. “[We] thought we had the costs figured out, and then, come to find out, it wasn’t what we thought it was. That’s why I want to be very clear what this is, because it’s going to be, already, a hard sell if we’re asking people for an override, by spending $15,000 that we say we don’t have to spend.”
“Which makes no sense,” Board member Ed Heal said.
Rein said Capital did a marvelous job getting the town social media running properly, proving themselves worth the money, but the question is, does the town have the money.
Town Administrator Lisa Green said leftover ARPA funds from the treasury bucket could be used for Capital’s costs as a general government services expense.
“That’s why we’re even talking about this,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
Michael Gallagher, a professional consultant with Capital Strategic Solutions, is a retired administrator in North Attleboro where he participated in the town’s change of government and a recent Proposition 2 ½ override.
“We were able to get an override passed because of the outreach we had done,” he said, noting he has a lot of experience in both the public and private sector.
“One of the things that was very important and a key to the process was part of our public outreach and making sure we were very open and had a plan in place,” Gallagher said of his experience in North Attleboro. “We also did a lot of making sure we were very specific about where every dollar went.”
He and the North Attleboro Select Board had provided a spreadsheet where every expenditure was outlined down to the dollar to show where the override would be spent for the following three years, he said.
Figueiredo agreed that municipal finance can be very challenging to explain to residents.
“We highlight the benefits and address the potential concerns,” she said, adding that press releases, the town website, media channels and community meetings are leaned on to get the word out.
Feedback from the community during the process is really important, Figueiredo said.
“You don’t really know what your community members do understand and don’t understand about an override,” she said. Both representatives of Capital Strategic Solutions have override experience under their belts.
They start with data-gathering centering on historical revenue and expense information, which they described as critical, then they can do projections on “what it might look like without any type of revenue enhancement through an override,” building their strategic plan on how the town intends to use that information.
“If you show them what’s happening to their town – because it is their town, it’s their money – people understand when you show them all the data,” he said.
“You’re giving them ownership on how these funds are being spent,” Figueiredo agreed.
As the town moves into the voting phase, providing maximum access to that information ensures people know what they are voting for, encouraging as many people as possible to vote, regardless of which side of the question they favor.
Weeks, satisfied that leftover ARPA funds could be used for the voter education project, asked if there wasn’t a more pressing need in town for that $50,000 wallet.
“I have to ask the question, because someone’s going to kick me if I don’t,” he said.
“The most important thing is to collect the data and get the information out there,” Green said. “Given the staffing in the office, we can’t do this alone, we really need the support of Capital Strategic Solutions, where they have people who have been through this process, that have a lot more insight – this is what they do every day.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett also responded to Week’s question about whether there are more important uses for the money.
“I don’t think there is,” she said. “We are at a critical crossroads here, and if this does not happen, we are looking at catastrophic cuts – not just town government, but schools – the whole way across. This is it. … This year, we felt a little bit of the pinch and next year, we’re going to feel the full blow.”
She also pointed out that residents often complain about rising tax rates.
“No,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “The tax rate has not been raised. Your value of your property has increased because that’s what property values do. The tax you are paying is based on the value of your property.”
The Board of Assessors sets the property values based on state formulas, not haphazardly does.
“I wish they would realize they could work with us,” Rein said. “We all have to work through this. It is not an easy thing to do.”
Weeks said that, while he agrees the outreach is one of the only permitted uses for these ARPA funds, he wanted to ensure the cost would not increase.
“I just want to make sure that that $50,000 doesn’t turn into $100,000 or $75,000 and then we’re pulling it out of free cash,” he said.
“If we hold the budget, I think it’s a good thing,” Rein said.
Figueiredo said Capital’s goal is to work side by side with Green and the board to help them communicate the financial health of the community, its revenue sources and expenditures, and develop the strategic plan to get out before the voters.
“We’re going to provide the support services they need that they don’t [already] have,” Figueiredo said. “A lot of communities that do overrides have a lot of staff.”
They will review the data and financial reports with Green and develop a game plan for how the override revenue is going to get back to the community in a positive light, as well as what would happen if an override failed – from impacts on snow plowing and public safety to infrastructure permits that communities need.
“That’s the backbone of your community right there,” she said.
The town’s financial health – revenue sources, expenditures and capital projects – will also be reviewed in order to develop a comprehensive voter education and engagement plan, including meetings and forums with community members.
FitzGerald-Kemmett characterized the plan as “a little bit vague” in terms of numbers the town stands to receive and she asked Capital to reconsider – after seeing what officials have already done with other consultants hired with ARPA money to do some fiscal forecasting.
“I’d like to see the mailer included in the $49,000,” she said. “Clearly, we have to do a mailer and we don’t have another $5,000 kicking around. That may be the only way to reach all these people.”
Figueiredo agreed to re-examine that and come back at another meeting or otherwise submit a clear, concise plan for what they need to do in terms of public meetings and the number or mailers needed.
“I think we’d like more meat on the bones in terms of a project plan and timeline, with costs,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We’re really excited about our staff … and us having support in trying to educate people and get the facts out there.”