Weston FinCom approves publishing budget recommendations, pulls four items from consent agenda

WESTON — March 26, 2020 — Weston Finance Committee votes to publish budget recommendations after Select Board rejects them. Meeting remotely March 26, the committee unanimously approved its FY21 report, which would let the operating budget grow about 3 percent rather than the 5.4 percent Town Manager Leon Gaumond drafted, and asks the Select Board to find another $500,000 in cuts. Chair Lisa Reitano said the Select Board "pretty much categorically rejected" the committee's draft Tuesday; member John McDonald said the rebuff "fell on deaf ears." The committee also voted unanimously to ask the Select Board to pull four items — Article 6 (OPEB), Article 20 (a $652,000 capital package including a replacement ambulance), and Articles 21 and 22 (drainage debt exclusions) — from the consent agenda. School Committee Chair Midge Connolly defended a 3.54 percent school increase driven by $658,480 in salary growth and $601,000 in new out-of-district tuitions. Town Meeting has been delayed to no earlier than June 2.