Wellesley Annual Town Meeting started on April Fools’ Day this year at the middle school, but there was little foolin’ around. In fact, Executive Director Meghan Jop said at the start of her first of two presentations that she couldn’t get words from a song—“let’s get down to business”— out of her head all day leading into the town legislative body’s first night together for 2025.

Indeed, night #1 was straightforward. There was little in the way of questions or discussion.

Town Clerk KC Kato swore in new and re-elected Town Meeting members, Moderator Mark Kaplan went through an abbreviated version of the rules, and memorial resolutions were read to honor town contributors who died over the past year. The meeting clocked in at just over three hours (see Wellesley Media recording for all the action), and only two motions were voted on, as the Omnibus budget presentations got underway before things ended at 10:30pm.

But just when you thought Town Meeting couldn’t get off to any more of a matter-of-fact start, Kaplan ended the proceedings by calling attention to something he mentioned in a bulletin to Town Meeting members the day before about the Omnibus budget article: “We may be dealing with a motion that might generate considerable debate, and we’re going to do whatever we can to finish up the Article [on Wednesday night].”

The cliffhanger

The motion Kaplan referred to proposes to split out the school budget from the rest of the town’s overall $224.5M budget. Jop had referred earlier to the school’s portion of the overall budget amounting to about 65% when you factor in shared services like health insurance.

Breaking out the school budget was a topic of discussion last month at the Advisory Committee, an appointed town body that vets articles and motions ahead of Town Meeting. Some said it was difficult for them to approve the whole budget if they disagreed with big parts of it.

Town Meeting member Michael Tobin plans to make a motion to amend Article 8, Motion 2 (Omnibus budget) by splitting it into one motion for the budget for all departments other than schools and a second for just the schools’ $94M-plus budget.

In explaining his reason for the motion amendment to the moderator, Select Board, and Advisory Committee, Tobin wrote in part: “During each of the 10 years I have been in Town Meeting, I have heard frustration from TMMs that there is no mechanism for more fine-grained voting on budget items of critical importance. The entire Omnibus budget can only be voted up or down. Voting it down puts all government services at risk.”

He plans to read this to Town Meeting on Wednesday night.

Town-wide Financial Plan & Five-Year Capital Budget

Select Board Chair Colette Aufranc warmed up the crowd for Article 2, which involved Jop presenting the Town-wide Financial Plan & Five-Year Capital Budget. Town Meeting members and the general public are encouraged to read the documents (see also: “OK, OK, we read Wellesley’s Town-Wide Financial Plan).

The plan comes together based on reports from town departments and bodies, plus estimates and financial assumptions previously approved by the Select Board. The plan, which outlines the town’s budgeting and financial planning processes, also is built on a foundation of a bunch of other plans, from the Climate Action Plan to the Unified Plan.

“The Town-wide Financial Plan is a critical companion to the Omnibus budget and Article 8, and gives context to important initiatives that then become budget drivers,” said Aufranc, who also made the first of six references among speakers of the term “override.” As in, capital projects requested or on the drawing board could require a permanent tax increase in the form of an override, or a temporary one in the form of a debt exclusion (the term “override” was also referenced by Jop in pointing out there hasn’t been one in Wellesley since 2014 for the FY15 budget). Aufranc cited potential capital projects that could cost $140M combined.

She also addressed concerns about federal funding cuts that could impact state and local dispersements. Aufranc said she has attended four briefings on this in the past two weeks, and that town officials are staying in close touch with federal and state legislators who represent Wellesley. The state budget is expected to stay level for FY26, but Wellesley is watching for possible changes to the FY27 and beyond budgets. Special education and school lunch funding is considered most at risk.

The presentation of the Town-wide Financial Plan gives town leadership a chance to share the big picture and do some humble bragging. Wellesley balanced the budget, got millions of dollars in grants to help defray costs and get projects done, has strong reserves to safeguard against downturns, and has an awesome staff that the town should be able to better retain thanks to a new classification and compensation system, Jop relayed.

Jop also covered Wellesley’s revenue sources, the biggest by far of which is property taxes. The median residential home assessment has ballooned from $1.35M two years ago to $1.65M. But the town has made efforts to supplement revenue from property taxes by boosting “new growth,” including a big increase in permitting fees that could net $500K over the next fiscal year.

On the horizon for this coming fiscal year: Union negotiations for new contracts.

Town Meeting approved the motion under Article 2 unanimously by voice vote.

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Omnibus budget

Under Article 8 Motion 2, Jop led what will be a parade of town employees and elected representatives sharing departmental budget proposals. The motion covers operating and capital budgets.

The Select Board had given departments individual guidelines for budget increases, with most given recommendations for a 3% increase in personal services and expenses. Some were given higher guidelines, including in cases where expenses (say traffic and parking) previously assigned to one department were shifted to others. The addition of a few new jobs, including a content coordinator in the Select Board’s office, also contributed to budget increases.

Jop avoided repeating what she’d covered during the Town-wide Financial Plan presentation.

The Department of Public Works’ David Cohen shared his team’s budget proposal for personal services and expenses ($8.4M). Among notable items during his presentation was a projected return to growth for Recycling & Disposal Facility revenue. The DPW seeks about $12M in capital funding, a chunk of which comes from the state, and among other things it will look to resurface 8-to-10 miles of roads. Playgrounds, Weston Road, and tennis/pickleball court projects are on the agenda.

Marla Robinson presented for the Wellesley Free Library Board of Trustees and said that some 75% of library expenses are mandated. The library is adding one position. Among other noteworthy items in her presentation: Private funding will enable a Hills branch interior refresh in 2026 and the library is adding a cabinet at the Barton Road Community Center to allow residents to check out materials and return them there.

Additional presentations from other departments will be shared on Wednesday.

Pre-game protest

An all-purpose protest took place at the Kingsbury Street side of the Middle School ahead of Town Meeting, though the protesters were not targeting Town Meeting or even the town with their signs. They just had a captive audience given the crowd headed to Town Meeting.

About 50 protesters were taking part when we stopped by, and signs addressed frustrations over everything from banned books and potential special education funding cuts to threats to immigrants and diversity initiatives. In milling among the protesters, I heard talk of ditching Teslas and the rise of autocracy (I was handed a small book on the latter topic).

We also heard that people will be taking buses from Wellesley to Boston on Saturday for the “Hands Off” protest against the new federal administration.