After deliberating deep into the night on Tuesday over town expenditures, Oak Bluffs voters will need to return to the high school’s Performing Arts Center on Wednesday to hopefully wrap up voting on the remaining warrant articles of the annual town meeting.
The second round of deliberating on warrant articles will take place again at the center, starting at 7 pm on Wednesday.
Discussion during the town’s annual and special town meetings lasted from around 7:30 to 10:40 pm on Tuesday, and while 50 articles still need to be decided on, the nearly 350 voters that gathered on the first night did make a major decision, and approved a $1.9 million override to fill a funding gap in the town’s $46.2 million budget for fiscal year 2027.
This is the first time the town has approved an override for its municipal budget since 2019. The override will still need to be voted on at the town election on Thursday, April 16, at the town library before it can be enacted.
The override was meant to bypass a state law called Proposition 2½, which limits municipalities to collecting no more than 2.5 percent of property values in taxes. Overrides on town budgets have been a statewide phenomenon this year.
Acting town administrator Wendy Brough told voters that the town was facing various increased costs that stemmed from mandatory, unavoidable expenses, including employee insurance spikes, rising educational costs, and new positions.
Brough said while there is $4.3 million in free cash, funding remaining from the previous fiscal year, the town couldn’t simply rely on it to fill funding gaps. The town has been aiming to keep the balance of free cash within the state Department of Revenue’s recommendation of between 5 and 7 percent of the town budget over the years, Brough said.
“Continued reliance on free cash to fund ongoing operations reduces financial resiliency and limits the town’s ability to respond to unforeseen expenses, such as the recent blizzard that impacted us all,” Brough said. The blizzard cost the town at least $300,000 in snow and ice removal, on top of costs for tree damage and personnel. Brough also said that using free cash has provided temporary relief for taxpayers, but didn’t address the town’s “structural budget deficit” pushed up by inflation, leading to the override request.
Town moderator Jack Law went over the annual fiscal-year budget department by department.
Although there were amendments on the meeting floor by Rizwan Malik, Oak Bluffs School committee chair, that reduced educational spending by $65,337, the town still faced a steep budget.
Voters questioned certain positions the town was looking to finance. Some individuals made calls to find local candidates in the future to staff the conservation department, since Garrett Albiston lives in New Hampshire and does much of his work remotely, though members of the conservation commission defended Albiston’s performance.
Regarding a proposed new school resource officer, Oak Bluffs Police Chief Jonathan Searle said this would be an officer in the town department to patrol the Oak Bluffs School in the summer. He and Jeremy Light, principal of the school, highlighted that a school resource officer, like Det. Jillian Sedlier-Clarke, who also works in this role, can be a positive role model for students and act as a deterrent for crimes. “We can’t put a price on this,” Light said.
While the override, and the budget, ultimately passed, some voters expressed concern over the rising expenses, and said there was a need to prepare for the future and stabilize the budget.
“There needs to be a plan moving forward,” Gail Barmakian, Oak Bluffs wastewater commission chair and former select board member, said.
Voters also approved various other town expenses, including $100,000 for the annual town fireworks and $75,000 for a public EcoRich 500 composter to handle residential food waste, although how the compost will be used has not yet been determined. There were also unexpected costs that the town needed to cover, such as $100,000 in overtime pay for the Oak Bluffs Police Department.
“We’re running it as tight as we can,” Jonathan Searle, Oak Bluffs Police Chief, said. “The reality is, professional policing in 2026 costs money.”
Meanwhile, the voters also reviewed whether the tree warden and town clerk should be changed from elected to appointed positions. While the tree warden was approved 110–38 for this proposed change, there was pushback regarding the town clerk position.
Most voters, including former town clerks, advocated to keep town clerk an elected position, independent from the influences of other town officials like the select board and town administrator. Town clerks run local elections, and act as municipal recordkeepers who work directly with the state and voters.
Voters rejected making the town clerk an appointed position 162–20, the only failed warrant article of the evening.