ORANGE — Residents did not vote to put the town’s monthly expense reports online, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
Capping off the Annual Town Meeting Tuesday was an article asking for the town to participate in an “open checkbook” policy, similar to that in nearby Phillipston and Greenfield, where residents can see their municipality’s monthly “general ledgers,” documents detailing line by line where the town is spending money.
The state of Massachusetts already produces an online expense report, as was cited in the article, but, in Orange, residents chose not to implement the policy officially — at least for now.
A motion to pass over the article, postponing a vote to a future Town Meeting, passed. This came after some debate and a promise from the Selectboard the town would voluntarily put expense reports online during a six-month “trial period.”
“I think we should put our town finances online and let people see where our $21 million is being spent,” said Victor MacDonald, who along with his wife, Laurie MacDonald, produced the citizens’ petition to get the article on this year’s warrant.
The article came at a time of heightened discussions about the town’s finances. Just Monday night, the town passed a $21,353,712.07 budget — a 6.2 percent increase compared to last year’s 2 percent increase. That budget, which goes into effect in the new fiscal year starting July 1, is contingent on a Proposition 2½ tax override passing on July 29.
There is a roughly $514,000 gap between what Orange passed as its budget and what the town can actually afford, and if the override vote fails, the town will have to make cuts to close the gap. The current fiscal situation is all the more reason to put town expense reports online, Victor MacDonald said.
“If we’re going to have open and transparent government, this is something that the state does, puts its expense report online, and we think it’s a good idea for the town to do this,” said Victor MacDonald. “We think that the problems the selectmen anticipate are not going to be forthcoming.”
The “problems” MacDonald referred to were outlined by the Selectboard, Finance Committee and Town Administrator Gabriele Voelker.
Selectboard Chairman Ryan Mailloux said the “challenge” of looking at the town’s expense reports are that they are “very unclear” — even to other town employees besides the accountant. People would naturally have questions looking at the document, Mailloux said, and it could end up being a time-waster.
Mailloux made the motion to pass over the article, which voters approved 50 to 35 after some debate about the value of putting the town’s expense reports online.
Voelker said that, while she is not against the idea in principle, putting the online expense reports online could end up creating more, perhaps unnecessary, work for town employees.
“We have a lot of public records requests that tie up a very limited amount of staff,” Voelker said.
“I, in fact, took a test drive with this and shared it with a couple of citizens who came to me and asked, ‘What the heck is this thing that you’re talking about?’ I pulled an example and showed it to them and they said, ‘Yeah, I don’t know what that $700 is, what did you spend it on, what meeting did you go to,’ and that’s exactly what we’re kind of worried about,” Voelker said.
Voelker added that the schools budgets will only show up as single-line items on the expense reports, representing the town’s total allocation toward education — legally, it is up to school committees, not towns, to apportion money for education, with towns merely voting to give schools an overall budget. So, residents would not be able to discern things like teachers’ and administrators’ salaries from the expense reports.
The Selectboard, as well as Voelker, recommended a six-month “trial period,” in which the town would voluntarily put the expense reports online and, if there are no issues with “an unusual amount of public records requests,” then the town would continue the practice. If it turns out town employees are being tied up explaining menial day-to-day costs with residents, the expense reports would no longer be put online.
The first online expense report — 17 pages long — is a “trial report,” according to Voelker, and will be put on the town website July 1.
The town’s finances are already public information, and residents may go to the Town Hall in person to request details. The proposed article only meant the town’s monthly “general ledgers” would be disseminated online.
“It’s not a bad thing to have the expense reports put on the website at all, but we don’t want it to interfere with the daily function of the town, and that is a possibility of that,” Voelker said.
Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.