By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—After four workshops over the course of the past two months, the Brandon Budget Committee voted on Monday night to propose a FY25 budget to the Selectboard that is roughly 13% higher than the current year’s. The proposed dollar amount is, pending final adjustments, $3,749,220. The portion to be raised directly by taxes is up 9.7% The budget for the current fiscal year was $3,346,150.
The Budget Committee is composed of the five members of the Brandon Selectboard, the Town Manager, the Deputy Town Manager, and six appointed citizens. The two town managers and six citizens operated in an advisory capacity only, with no vote on the final proposal that will be sent for final approval to the Selectboard in January.
The bulk of the increase in the proposed budget stemmed from a single line item in the Highway Department’s budget: paving. The Committee voted to include $300,000 for road maintenance in the FY25 budget, whereas in some previous years the money needed for paving was either presented as a separate article on the ballot at Town Meeting or seen as a capital expense to be paid out of the 1% Local Option Tax fund.
Either way, those approaches kept the paving expenses out of the budget and led to what Selectboard Chair Tracy Wyman called “smoke and mirrors,” allegedly causing residents to believe that the town was spending less money than it actually was. The Committee ultimately felt that paving was an organic function of town government and ought to be included as a regular line item.
Not all voting members of the Committee were on board with the change, however. Selectboard member Brian Coolidge voted against the inclusion of the $300K.
The Brandon Police Department also saw some changes to its budget. Its current budget, for FY24, is $864,915. The Committee voted to increase that amount to $900,000, with the stipulation that the K-9 Unit be eliminated.
The Committee spent a fair amount of time debating whether to keep or eliminate Guinness the canine officer and determined that the benefits of the K-9 program did not justify the annual expense of keeping it. There was concern among some Committee members that if Guinness were removed from the department, then his handler, Officer Aidan Alnwick, might leave with him. The vote to eliminate the K-9 program was 4 to 1, with Heather Nelson abstaining from the vote.
The savings from eliminating the K-9 program is approximately $8,500 per year.
The Committee also considered the Police Department’s request to hire another officer in order to provide 24/7 on-duty police coverage, but ultimately decided against it in a 2 to 3 vote, with Selectboard members Cecil Reniche-Smith and Heather Nelson voting for the motion and Messers. Wyman, Coolidge, and Tim Guiles voting against. The cost of an additional officer, depending on their rank, would range from approximately $67K to $78K.
As the Department is currently staffed, Brandon has 24-hour coverage, but overnight calls are answered by “on call” officers, who have already gone home and are often awakened to respond. “On duty” coverage would ensure that there was always an officer on duty in town.
Several of the six non-voting citizen members of the Committee advised the voting members to approve the request for another officer, stating that they had heard support for the hire from many other residents.
The Committee declined to put the question of a new officer hire on the ballot at Town Meeting as well. Two motions to include the question as either binding or merely advisory (to gauge public sentiment on the issue) were not seconded.
The proposed budget for Code Enforcement included a $4,515 line item for the consolidation of three part-time jobs into one. Currently, the zoning administrator, health officer, and rental housing officer are all separate part-time jobs. If the proposed budget is approved, these three positions would be consolidated into a single position at 60% time (3 days per week) beginning in July 2024.
The proffered rationale for the change was that it would benefit residents to have a zoning administrator in the Town Office more than one day per week and that the other two positions could be handled by that same person. The vote on this proposed change was 4 to 1, with Mr. Coolidge the sole nay.
The Recreation Department’s proposed budget of $182,380 was approved in a 3 to 2 vote, with Messrs. Wyman and Coolidge voting against it. Mr. Coolidge had expressed a desire to “streamline” the Department by cutting some programs and positions.
Rec Director Bill Moore countered Mr. Coolidge’s proposals by saying, “If you cut expenses, you cut revenues.”
The Committee reduced from $15K to $10K the proposed amount earmarked for legal services in the Town Administration budget. Town Manager Seth Hopkins had expressed concern that because the town does not have a staff attorney, hourly costs of hiring outside counsel add up quickly.
A motion was made by Mr. Coolidge to eliminate $6K for mail-in ballots from the Town Clerk’s budget. Mr. Coolidge asserted that there were sufficient means for voters to get ballots without automatic mailing, something begun in Brandon during COVID. Ms. Reniche-Smith argued that mail-in ballots have been shown to increase voter participation and should be continued. The motion failed in a 2 to 3 vote, with Messrs. Coolidge and Wyman voting for it and the remainder of the voting members against. Ultimately, the Clerk’s proposed budget was approved at $229,420, an increase of 4.94% over the previous year.
The Committee’s proposals must now be approved by the Selectboard, whose next meeting will be on Monday, January 8 at 7 p.m. After a proposed budget is approved by the Selectboard, it will be presented for approval by Brandon voters at Town Meeting in March. If voters reject the proposed budget, the Selectboard will need to revise its proposal and present it for another vote.
