Election Updates: Planning Board and MERSD Budget Update

Manchester Elections: May 16

It is very important to get out and vote on May 16!  The two competitive elections are for Select Board and Planning Board.  

Here's the voting info:

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

7 AM to 8 PM

Memorial School

Sample Ballot

Absentee Ballot Application

Vote by Mail Application

You can read the candidate statements in The Cricket here.

You can view the forum for the Select Board candidates here.

You can view the forum for the Planning Board candidates here.

Housing in Manchester is an important issue in this election. Accessible and affordable housing is necessary if we want seniors to be able to stay in town, robust enrollment and programs in schools, protection from 40B developers, an active downtown, and a vibrant population of young families.  

The planning board has been working on changes in the zoning laws that are necessary to create affordable housing opportunities in Manchester. Zoning laws in general are meant to limit or prevent change. They have been used in the past to limit the options for people who cannot afford single-family homes and have been used in some parts of the US to create and maintain segregated housing.  Manchester's zoning laws were written in the 1950s when Route 128 was built to rein in development.  They have been very restrictive and difficult to understand. We need thoughtful changes to zoning laws if we want affordable housing in our town.

The planning board election is particularly important because two candidates (Olney and Hanson-Philbrick) have been working on changes to the zoning laws. The changes have been slow and cumbersome because it has been necessary to understand and communicate highly technical language. (See Olney's comments at around the 1:24:18 mark.) Two candidates (Furse and Flood) have been open about running together to vote in a block of 4 of 7 (see Flood's comments in the forum at around 1:20:30.).  This change will impact the future direction of the board's work and decisions.

 In the forum linked above, the candidates for the planning board present their positions on these changes to the zoning laws.  As I viewed the videos, I thought about the following questions:

• Who understands what is within the purview of the planning board?

• Who is most qualified, experienced, and knowledgeable about how to guide our town through zoning changes? 

• Who has offered real solutions to challenges that are within the bounds of the law?

• Who has the demeanor to have productive conversations with people who have different opinions? 

• When the candidates consider affordable housing, who do they include? Who is left out of the conversation? Why?

If you don't have 2 hours to view this recording, you can use the following timestamps as a shortcut.

• 2:00 - (Watch around 17 minutes) Candidate Introductions 

• 27:23 - (Watch about 2 min.) Question about current challenges to senior and public housing in Manchester and what we should do about it. Donna Furse's response provides an overview of the existing affordable housing situation (5.05% of 10% state requirement), an update on the Powder House Lane units, and what will happen when new affordable housing become available. 

• 32:19: (watch about 1 min.) Chris Olney explains that the Manchester Affordable Housing Trust has $1 million in its coffers and how it can be leveraged to create more affordable housing. He serves on the board of the Affordable Housing Trust. 

• 37:40: (watch about 18 min. for all candidate responses) Erika Brown asks about the required MBTA Community overlay district mandated from the state.  She explains that "as an MBTA community, Manchester must consider whether to create multi-family zoning near the train station at the end of the next year or face losing access to state grants..." All candidates respond. 

• 1:06:01: (watch about 10 min.) All candidate closing statements

• 1:18:57: (Watch about 4 min.) Marty Flood answers a question about working together. He makes it clear he is running so that he and Donna can work in a block of four with two other current board members. (The board is made up of 7 people.)

• 1:24: 18 (Watch about 1 minute) Chris Olney talks about the work done in the past couple of years with the technical language of zoning laws that is hard to understand and communicate.

• 1:29:47: (Watch about 5 minutes). Marty Flood answers a question requesting clarity about his position on the issues discussed in the forum. 

• 1:36:09 (Watch about 2 minutes). Chris Olney shares what he understands is the "character of Manchester" - a phrase used throughout Manchester's Master Plan. 

You can view the forum for the Planning Board candidates here.

MERSD Budget Update

The override did not pass in Essex.

This is the explanation that School Committee Chair Theresa Whitman posted on Facebook about what happens next.  Theresa did win back her seat.  I've highlighted the most important information and immediate steps in yellow.

As we all know, Essex leaders proposed two overrides this spring for voters’ approval: one for $289,165 toward the MERSD budget, and one for $56,186 toward the Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School District (Essex Tech) budget. Both were approved last Monday, May 1, at Annual Town Meeting. That put the overrides on the ballot for yesterday’s town election. The MERSD override proposed in question 1 did fail (388 yes, 507 no, 5 blank). The Essex Tech override proposed in question 2 did pass (529 yes, 363 no, 8 blank).

So what’s next for MERSD?

The results of yesterday’s election here in Essex effectively mean that Manchester has approved the MERSD budget and Essex has rejected it. As explained at Essex’s ATM by Greg Corbo, town counsel for Essex, this sets in motion the following process:

[IMMEDIATE NEXT STEPS:]
The school committee must reconvene to reconsider the budget. We can choose to alter it or keep it the same, but we must reconsider and officially take a new vote on the budget.

Once that happens, each town will hold a special town meeting to vote on the reconsidered budget.

If the reconsidered budget passes in each town, we move forward.
If it fails in either town, the school committee must again reconvene, reconsider, and revote. (Please note that this second reconsideration was not mentioned by Attorney Corbo, but I have added it here as that’s been my understanding - that school committee would need to reconsider the budget again before sending it to the joint town meeting.)

This reconsidered budget now goes to a joint town meeting, or “super town meeting,” meaning that both towns meet together and we vote as a regional school community; the votes are not separated by where we live.

The remaining question is whether or not a super town meeting vote that approves the budget but that still requires an override in Essex will be binding as is, or if it would constitute a failure to approve a budget that would trigger state intervention. Either way, if the process is not complete by the beginning of FY 24 (July 1), state intervention will be triggered and we will move forward with what is called the 1/12 budget, meaning that we go month-to-month with the budget from the previous fiscal year.

This is my understanding of the process. I will edit this if I receive new and/or corrected info confirmed by counsel for the district. Lots of people “know” what happens, but I won’t be posting anything that isn’t confirmed by MERSD counsel in order to avoid complications.

What is not in question is that the next step is for school committee to reconvene and reconsider the budget. I am meeting with the superintendent this morning and will be posting updates about meeting dates as they come up. While I know this is a hot topic, I am turning off comments for this post in particular because it’s intended simply to provide information. If you have questions, please reach out to me directly.

Thank you all for your support. We’ll get through this!

I will stay in touch about future School Committee meetings that reveal what the revised budget may be and what may be cut. I will also communicate about actions that can be taken to advocate for what you care about.  

As always, feel free to reach out with any questions by replying to this email and I'll do my best to answer them. There are no dumb questions!!

Thank you!!

Lindsay