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WARRANT FOR TOWN OF WESTPORT ANNUAL TOWN MEETING JUNE 5, 2021 WITH FINANCE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS AND MOTIONS Consideration of the matters contained herein shall begin at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 5, 2021 at Westport Jr./Sr.High School in the Harold S. Wood Auditorium. FINANCE COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Gary Carreiro, Chairperson Karen Raus, Vice-Chairperson Charles “Buzzy” Baron Cynthia Brown Robert N. McCarthy Hugh M. Morton Tracy A. Priestner Kevin Rioux Tom Schmitt RULES OF WESTPORT TOWN MEETING Rules of Town Meeting exist to guarantee an orderly, dignified, fair discussion of issues leading to informed votes and good decisions. We all deserve the respect and courtesy of our neighbors and owe them the same. All rules will be politely, but firmly enforced for the benefit of all. Addressing the Meeting • Wait to be recognized (given the floor) by the Moderator. • Begin by stating your name. • Speak only to the motion before the meeting at the moment. • No personal speech; you may not speak about other persons or to other persons. You may reference the ideas of others and comment on them. You may not reference the person or comment on his or her character, motivation, etc. • Rude or disrespectful speech will not be tolerated. • While all may speak on a motion as many times as they like, no one may speak twice until everyone who wishes to, has spoken once. • Speakers are limited to five minutes. • Ten-minute presentations are allowed by prior arrangement with the Moderator. Such presentations must be supported by written or projected visual aids. Questions Speakers may ask a question of another person in the hall, but that question must be addressed through the Moderator. For example “I have a question through Moderator (or the chair) for Town Counsel”. Dialogue between two persons is not allowed. Calling the Question A speaker may not participate in debate and finish their comments with a motion to call the question. Such a motion must be the only thing the speaker says on that trip to the microphone. Amendments VERY simple amendments to a motion that change only a word or two or a number can be moved verbally. All other amendments must be presented to the Moderator in writing. Handouts Printed information can be left on the table by the door for voters to read if the following rules are followed: • Must be approved in advance by the Moderator. • Must be left on the table for optional pick up. May not be distributed by hand. • Must identify the author(s). • Must be informational. • Must conform to rules of Town Meeting speech. No other literature may be distributed within the High School building. Reconsideration Announcement of intent to reconsider will be accepted as a “point of order”. Proponents of reconsideration must convince the Moderator that reconsideration will offer some significant value to the meeting beyond re-stacking the hall or re-hashing work already done or the motion to reconsider will be disallowed. Further rules of Town Meeting are found in Westport’s By-Laws and in the book Town Meeting Time, published by the Massachusetts Moderator’s Association. Two Meetings We will be completing two Town Meetings today. The first is an Annual Town Meeting which is held once a year, is required by state law and sets the town’s operating budget for the coming fiscal year beginning July 1. It also typically addresses several other matters that you will see contained in the 39 articles making up the warrant. A town may hold as many Special Town Meetings in a year as it deems necessary. Today a Special Town Meeting is scheduled to be held within the Annual Town Meeting. The reason is an important issue arose too late to be included in the Annual Town Meeting but early enough to be included in a Special Town Meeting. The procedure will work like this: We will convene the Annual Town Meeting at 9 AM. At 10 AM, we will recess the Annual Town Meeting and convene the Special Town Meeting. We will address the single article of the Special Town Meeting warrant, dissolve the Special Town Meeting and resume the Annual Town Meeting where we left off. Warrant Articles, Motions and Finance Committee Recommendations If you have attended town meeting before, you may notice that this printed copy of the warrants is structured a little differently than it has been in the past. In it, you will see the 38 articles of the Annual Town Meeting warrant and the single article of the Special Town Meeting that is embedded in the Annual. These 39 articles on two warrants define the matters we will address in this meeting. We will address each of these articles and no others. A warrant article poses a question. We begin action on a warrant article by asking for a motion. A motion proposes a specific answer to the question posed by the warrant article. Sometimes the answer is a simple yes or no. If it is a yes, the motion is likely to read something like: “I move the town adopt the provisions of Article X as printed in the warrant” Sometimes the answer is more complex, and the wording is much longer and more complicated. Because motions must be made in proper legalese to be legally effective, their wording is arranged in advance. You will see the prearranged wording for motions under all articles printed below the warrant article. Occasionally, a late development makes it necessary for the motion to be changed slightly at the last minute. If that situation arises and the motion presented is different from what you see here in the printed warrant, you will be told so and the difference explained. In the past, Finance Committee recommendations have been communicated as “the Finance Committee recommends Article X” or “the Finance Committee does not recommend Article X”. That does not make sense because the article is a question. What we need from the Finance Committee is not their recommendation on the question but their recommended answer. For that reason, this year’s recommendations will follow the text of the motion and will tell us whether the Finance Committee does or does not recommend the meeting voting in favor of that motion, i.e. that answer to the question posed by the warrant article. Thanks for attending and helping us decide these important matters. Annual Town Meeting, June 5, 2021 Message from the Finance Committee Westport’s Chronic Structural Deficit Expenses outpacing revenues is a structural deficit, and Westport has been in this chronic situation for many years. Each year it becomes more difficult to find ways to patch up the holes. For many years, we have adopted short-term solutions which simply "kick the can down the road." Revenue Westport’s revenue growth is limited by the: o Proposition 2 ½ o Historical State aid reductions that have not been restored o Slower growth of local tax and fee receipts o Few new sustainable and diverse revenue sources The biggest factor constraining revenue growth is Prop 2 ½. Westport relies on Property Tax as 73% of its overall revenue, and that growth is limited by the tax levy. Expenses Westport faces growing demands to increase expenditures in all its municipal services, as well as to comply with additional required state mandates. Each year, making the budget “balance” means these needed funds are excluded from the budget and not appropriated. Virtually every department in all of Westport’s sectors of its General Government, Public Safety, Schools, Public Works and Facilities, Human Services, Culture and Recreation are lacking the resources to adequately provide needed services to our Town residents. There are not sufficient revenues to support these needed expenditures. Many departments have needed positions that are unfilled. Many departments are understaffed. Many departments wait each budget year for help, and each year, the requests remain unfunded. Chronic Deficit As we look ahead, the fiscal outlook does not improve. In fact, the structural deficit grows each year. Revenue growth continues to be limited and expense increases are dictated by growth and other mandates that outpace available funds. The Budget presented to you today has many difficult choices. Current recurring revenue sources are not sufficient to sustain and support all legitimate department needs. Again, many budget requests have been eliminated from the Finance Committee recommended budget in order to maintain a balanced budget. FY22 Budget The FY22 budget process started back in October when departments prepared their budgets for the following fiscal year. Department heads participated in budget hearings with both the Select Board and the Finance Committee from December through April. The nine member Finance Committee holds multiple public meetings and encourages anyone to attend our meetings. The full FY22 budget is included in the Warrant Article 5. Recommendations for Free Cash Free cash is an unappropriated fund balance, and is certified by the Department of Revenue once the financial books are closed for the fiscal year. The free cash calculation incorporates surplus revenues (revenue collections in excess of estimated revenues), budget turn backs (unexpended appropriations), the prior year’s free cash balance, and outstanding property taxes. Free cash is the amount of funds that are unrestricted and available for appropriation. Free Cash is a nonrecurring revenue source, and should be limited to paying one-time expenditures, funding capital projects, or replenishing other reserves. There is no guarantee the amount of free cash that will be available each year, and is unpredictable. Recurring expenses should only be funded by recurring/reliable revenue sources. The Department of Revenue (DOR) recommends avoiding supplementing current year departmental operations with free cash.

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