ORANGE — It’s been one year since every department in town saw at least a 5 percent cut to its requested operating budget. At the schools, late buses were cut and a kindergarten classroom was temporarily lost, and every other department — from the libraries to police and fire — had to make due with less than what was originally thought necessary.
With the financial situation looking no better this year, it’s time, says one Orange couple, for more transparency, which means putting the town’s expense reports — its general ledgers — online each month.
“This could actually save time instead of spending time,” Victor MacDonald said. “But the real question is, ‘Why not do this?’ We should be entitled to see what the town is spending. It’s our money.”
Victor MacDonald and his wife, Laurie MacDonald, have put together a citizens petition that they expect will be voted at the June 17 Annual Town Meeting.
The MacDonalds obtained 27 signatures for their petition — out of 28 people who were asked to sign — and, despite some pushback from the Selectboard, they are optimistic the measure will pass.
The petition reads, “To see if the town will put the town’s expense report online. Gabe Voelker, town administrator, said on March 13, 2019 at a Selectboard meeting, ‘It’s easy enough to do.’ The town will be able to use the same brand computer software system already in use, which is Vadar. This has already (been) implemented in many other town in the commonwealth, including the neighboring town of Phillipston.”
The petition also points out that the state has been putting its expense reports online since 2011, and “is in favor of the towns being participants in the ‘open checkbook’ concept. This concept of open and transparent government will enable both the citizens and the municipal departments to have easy access to the town’s expenditure information as it is regularly updated.”
According to Laurie MacDonald, the state of the town’s finances could be an impetus for more fiscal transparency — Orange is facing a $730,000 deficit between what departments have asked for and what the town can afford, and talks of a potential tax override have already begun, one year after the town saw at least 5 percent cuts to every department’s requested operating budget.
“Especially in the condition we are in now, I think people will vote this,” Laurie MacDonald said.
The MacDonalds contend that the petition asks for something that is easy to do and would adhere to the town’s policies on data security and privacy, omitting personally identifiable information.
The town would use the software Vadar — which it already has and pays for — to put the expense reports online with no cost, much like neighboring Phillipston, which uses the same software and began putting its expense reports online last year.
“This is the people’s money,” Phillipston Selectboard Chairman John Telepciak said in September, a few weeks after Phillipton’s online “open checkbook” went live. “They have a right to see how it is being used.”
The idea of an online expense reports was brought before the Orange Selectboard on March 13, and the board’s newest member, Bill Wrigley, contended that putting the reports online would do more harm than good.
Wrigley said the general ledgers are, in large part, incomprehensible except to the people who put them together, and that residents looking at the expense reports will have many questions, that answering those questions will take up time that Town Hall staff could better spend on other things.
“Given our limited resources, essentially putting your general ledgers online could turn into something where we’re getting calls incessantly about our nomenclature,” Wrigley said. “Is that an solution looking for a problem? Is there a concern that our ledgers aren’t accurate?”
Town Administrator Voelker said that much of the Town Hall staff’s time is already spent on public records requests but did say putting the reports online is “easy enough to do.”
“The idea is that we put our expense report up on the website so that every time it changes people can look at it and see what is spent out of our expense accounts,” Voelker said.
“I would recommend that you start it July 1 in the new fiscal year,” Voelker said.
Redactions would have to be made in cases like veterans services and health care services to protect people’s anonymity, Voelker said.
The concern, Voelker said, is that, “We already spend a lot of time on public records request and it is prohibitive with our limited staffing.”
Without any indication there is something incorrect or improper about the town’s general ledgers, Wrigley said, they do not need to be put online. The information is already publicly available to those who come into the Town Hall, Wrigley said.
“Transparency’s not intended that you put everything online,” Wrigley said. “And if it is then where does it stop? That’s an argument to absurdity.”
Selectboard Vice Chairwoman Jane Peirce sided with Wrigley, and said the general ledgers being put online could be “a wonderful opportunity for misinformation and misinterpretation and bad information to get out there.”
“I’m not aware that there’s a big demand for this information,” Peirce said.
Selectboard Chairman Ryan Mailloux was reserved in giving a definitive opinion and, ultimately, the discussion was tabled. Mailloux said he recognizes the online expense reports could end up taking valuable time from town employees, but also said he might support the idea in the future, and that in a few year’s time the practice could be commonplace among Massachusetts towns.
But for Victor MacDonald, there is little reason not to put the expense reports online, especially since the town already has the software that would enable it to do so.
“Why shouldn’t we? The state puts their checkbook online,” said Victor MacDonald. “And people can look at this without having to bother all the people at Town Hall.”
“It’s not like it’s a personal checkbook. It’s the town’s and it’s our money,” he added.
Laurie MacDonald said she thinks the “open checkbook” format would actually save time rather than waste it — both for citizens who no longer have to go to the Town Hall for the information, and for town departments to easily access the town’s monthly expenses.
“It wouldn’t cost the town any money, and it’s not just for the citizens, it’s for the departments,” said Laurie MacDonald.
The MacDonalds said their primary motivations when it comes to petitions is transparency and individual choice.
Last year, the MacDonalds led a movement in opposition to a proposed plastic bag ban, which was ultimately defeated at annual Town Meeting. They passed out literature to voters, and started a recycling program at the Orange Transfer Station so that people could still use the plastic bags, but have a place to properly dispose of them.
The recycling program, they report, is still doing well, and they are recycling hundreds of bags each week.
The couple moved to Orange after traveling the country as a band and Christian ministry. They raised eight children in a “thrifty” way, Laurie MacDonald said, and a town that is struggling financially should be just as frugal.
“We would like to see the town spend like we did when we raised our children,” Laurie MacDonald said.
Both of the MacDonalds said putting expense reports online would enable residents to check the local government on its spending habits.
“Let’s be transparent,” Laurie MacDonald said. “We do our part and they do their part. We pay our taxes, let’s see what’s being spent.”
Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.