Dighton town meeting passes $1.1 million free cash plan, rejects $15,410 for assessors' staff 22-14

DIGHTON Dighton voters approved every spending article at the Special Town Meeting on Monday, Nov. 9, but turned down a push to add money for the short-staffed assessors' office, 22-14.

The meeting in the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School auditorium passed all 20 articles it voted on (the 21st, for any other business, needed no vote), most of them unanimously on voice votes. The free cash plan went through as the final warrant printed it, $1,119,095.10 in all, which leaves about $804,600 of the $1,923,714 in free cash the town listed as available in October.

The two debates of the night were about staffing at Town Hall and the age of the highway department's trucks, and both ended with the plan the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee had put forward.

The assessors' office

Board of Assessors Chairman William Moore gave the first report of town officials at the start of the meeting, saying his office lost one full-time employee to fiscal 2027 budget cuts and then lost its principal assessor to a job in another assessor's office, which left a single employee to staff it for almost two months. The town has since hired an experienced principal assessor, he said, and the staff and a contracted tax consultant are catching up to meet state deadlines.

Moore told voters the selectmen would meet with the assessors after the town meeting to set the fiscal 2027 tax rate, and that the rate has to be set quickly so third- and fourth-quarter tax bills go out before the end of the calendar year.

Article 3 asked voters to raise and appropriate $137,915 for added fiscal 2027 costs. Town Administrator Ralph Vitacco told the meeting that most departments are in it because the clerical union accepted a 2% cost-of-living increase, and that it also pays for a new float position shared by the treasurer and collector, the assessors and the town clerk, starting in January, plus a specialized law firm for a coming state tax appeal case.

Moore moved to raise the assessors' personnel line in that article from $9,590 to $25,000, an increase of $15,410. He argued that the position was cut at the annual town meeting on the belief that money was tight, and that $1.9 million in free cash turned up this fall. "And we desperately need this position," he said.

Board of Assessors Clerk Nancy Goulart backed the amendment, saying residents come to the office this time of year about Chapter 61 land and veterans' benefits, that setting the new tax rate carries a fixed deadline, and that the contracted tax consultant costs the town more than an employee would.

One selectman backed him, saying the town's local receipts have come in 15% to 30% above its estimates year after year and that the money is there without touching free cash. Speakers against the amendment said the treasurer's and clerk's offices are short too, that the shared position is meant to help all three offices, and that staffing belongs in the annual budget review that runs through the annual town meeting. One of them said the town already sees a gap in its fiscal 2028 budget.

The moderator called for a counted show of hands, with checkers in the back of the auditorium, and the amendment failed 22-14, after which voters passed Article 3 as printed.

The highway trucks

Article 7 moved up to $596,185 of free cash into the Capital Stabilization Account. Answering a resident who asked why the money was not going to needs right now, a speaker said the town is putting together a capital plan and intends to draw on the account as projects are ranked.

A member of the Capital Outlay Committee told the meeting the highway department's inventory lists 26 vehicles and large pieces of equipment, 16 of them rated fair to poor, and that all but one of those 16 is more than 20 years old. He moved to spend $295,855 of the money on a truck with a plow and a four-season body and put the other $300,330 into the account, saying a truck takes about a year to arrive after it is ordered.

The moderator ruled the amendment out of order, saying it would change the entire purpose of the article and that nowhere in the warrant was there any mention of buying highway equipment. The article then passed as written. Another speaker said the selectmen and the Finance Committee know the condition of the fleet, that the account is meant in part to address it, and that a second truck is expected to come up at the annual town meeting.

Everything else that passed

• Article 2: $14,944.49 in prior year bills, $7,464.26 from free cash and $7,480.23 from sewer retained earnings; it needed a nine-tenths vote.
• Articles 4 to 6: $1,910 for sewer personnel from sewer retained earnings, $89,152.95 left from a 2020 library project moved to library repairs at 207 Main St., and $8,418.24 left from a 2022 dump truck purchase moved to truck repairs.
• Articles 8 and 9: $96,185 from free cash to the general Stabilization Account and $50,000 to the trust fund for retirees' health and life insurance.
• Articles 10 to 12: from the ambulance fund, $145,533.06 for the third and final payment on the ambulance lease, $138,000 for two cardiac monitors and $9,200 for three IV pumps.
• Article 13: a $76,000 fire prevention vehicle, $35,370 from free cash and $40,630 from the insurance fund.
• Article 14: $175,000 from free cash for design- and construction-phase engineering on the Pleasant Street Bridge replacement.
• Articles 15 and 16: $44,598.85 for Rapid SOS software and $54,237.41 for Zetron dispatch software and equipment, each split between free cash and the ambulance fund.
• Articles 17 and 18: $20,000 for the Stormwater Committee's federal discharge permit work and $73,000 to move public safety antennas on the Elm Street water tank.
• Article 19: acceptance of the state law on abandoned town funds; a speaker said it lets the town return small balances left in old developer-funded peer review accounts, with notice, or send them through the state's unclaimed property process.
• Article 20: the false alarm bylaw now names the Authority Having Jurisdiction, or its designee, as the enforcing person instead of police officers, which Fire Chief Christopher Maguy said lets fire personnel enforce false alarms without going to the police department; the fines stay the same.

What happens next

The selectmen take up Dighton Elementary next. On Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 6 p.m., on the upper level of Old Town Hall, 1111 Somerset Ave., they decide whether the $123.2 million Dighton Elementary rebuild goes to voters in April. The fiscal 2027 tax rate still has to be set with the assessors before the third-quarter bills go out.

Of the three articles dropped from the draft warrant, the $66,703 police administrative vehicle and the stormwater bylaw change are set to return at the Annual Town Meeting in June 2027, and a state law on the police chief's role will be considered for that warrant, as we reported when the final warrant posted.

South Coast 360 asked Town Clerk Shara Costa on Nov. 10 and Nov. 12 and Town Administrator Ralph Vitacco on Nov. 13 for the certified vote record, and the story will be updated when it arrives.

How to weigh in

Residents can reach the Board of Selectmen at boardofselectmen@dighton-ma.gov. Town Hall is at 979 Somerset Ave., 508-669-6431.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.