Town Meeting Warrant Article No Longer Seeks to Reduce Finance Committee Membership

Article 33 of this year's Easton Town Meeting Warrant will no longer ask town meeting voters to reduce the size of Easton's Finance Committee from nine to five.

Selectmen voted unanimously to amend the article Monday night.

The decision comes after finance committee members expressed discontent with the article, arguing that five members would not be sufficient when fully reviewing the town's operating budget and warrant articles.

Additionally, school committee member and former finance committee chair Donna Abelli sent a letter to selectmen displaying her lack of support for the article.

"I thought we’d have an advocate at town meeting that now we don’t have," selectmen chair Colleen Corona said.

Town Administrator David Colton said he originally placed the article in the warrant in lieu of a citizens petition that Abelli intended to submit. Abelli, however, wrote in her letter that the Finance Committee should first be consulted.

"I did submit a request to reserve a spot for a warrant article to reduce the number of FinCom members; however, I did so in a 'knee-jerk' reaction when I realized the deadline for submitting articles was one day away," she wrote in the April 24 letter. "Instead of submitting this request to the BOS, I should have first had a discussion with current FinCom members. I have since spoken with and apologized to the FinCom Chairman and Vice Chairman."

While Article 33 will no longer call for a reduction in Finance Committee members, selectmen are still calling for a change in Easton's Capital Planning Committee.

"I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water, so to speak," selectmen Dan Murphy said.

The article calls for a change in how members are appointed to Easton's Capital Planning Committee. Rather than four appointees by the town moderator, two would be appointed by the moderator, one would be appointed by selectmen and one would be appointed by the school committee.