With the town’s budget year beginning July 1 and police and fire staffing still unsettled after May’s failed override, the central question before Halifax is no longer whether to restore lost positions but how it can lawfully do so. At the June 9 Select Board meeting, a resident’s letter and the Finance Committee chair openly clashed over the answer — the resident arguing only a special town meeting can fund the jobs, the chair insisting the committee can legally tap the town’s reserve fund. Town Counsel is now reviewing both the resident’s petition and the funding question, with department heads warning that time is running out.
The dispute that dominated the Select Board’s public comment period traces directly to the Finance Committee’s June 1 meeting and to a budget season that ended with Halifax voters rejecting a Proposition 2 ½ override. At the May 11 town meeting, the town adopted reduced figures for the police and fire lines, and a subsequent override at the ballot box failed. That left both departments facing July 1 staffing reductions to meet the approved budget.
At the June 1 Finance Committee meeting, Police Chief Joao Chaves asked directly whether the additional funds discussed for public safety were settled or still in legal limbo, telling the committee his department has to “make some difficult decisions” before the new fiscal year begins. Finance Committee Chair Jim Walters answered plainly: “The Finance Committee has complete control over the reserve account.” Town Administrator Steven Solbo, joining by phone, agreed that the committee is the authority on the reserve fund. Walters confirmed the committee’s intent to fund the positions “for the year” through a single reserve transfer rather than incremental payments.
That plan is what drew a formal objection at the Select Board meeting. Chair Thomas Pratt read into the record a letter from former Selectman Gordon Andrews, who could not attend in person. Andrews framed the issue not as a disagreement over goals but over legal process. “I want the fire and police positions restored. So does this board,” his letter stated. “I’m here about how that can be lawfully done.”
Andrews argued that the reserve fund cannot be used to reverse decisions the town meeting deliberately made. Under state law, he wrote, a reserve transfer is reserved for “extraordinary or unforeseen” circumstances, and a shortfall the town knowingly voted into place does not meet that standard. He pointed to the way the reserve was built, contending the town moved $300,000 of recurring tax-levy money into the account after telling residents all season that the levy could not cover the police and fire lines. Funding the exact staffing the voters declined to approve, he argued, would circumvent both the appropriation process and the failed override. “Only Town Meeting can restore what Town Meeting set,” the letter read. Andrews said he had submitted a citizen petition for a Special Town Meeting, which has been forwarded to Town Counsel for legal review, and asked the board to apply the same standard to any reserve transfer: obtain a written counsel opinion first.
Walters, who attended the Select Board meeting and identified himself as Finance Committee Chair “for transparency,” delivered a detailed rebuttal from the floor. He agreed that, as a general rule, only Town Meeting can change appropriations once set, but said it is not the only body that can move money afterward. He cited Massachusetts General Law Chapter 44, Section 31, which bars departments from spending beyond their appropriations, and Chapter 40, Section 6, which he said authorizes a finance committee to transfer reserve funds to cover shortfalls in town line items. He also noted that the statute offers no fixed definition of “unusual, extraordinary, or unforeseen,” meaning the question turns on interpretation.
Walters then walked the board through the test he applies to reserve requests. Is the expenditure legal? Yes, he said. Was it reasonably unforeseeable when the budget was set? He argued it was: the Finance Committee voted the budget it presented to town meeting on April 6, and only learned of school cost overages at town meeting itself, with no chance to revise its numbers. Is there supporting documentation, and is the department managing responsibly? Yes, on both counts, he said, crediting the police and fire chiefs with sound budgets. Is the reserve fund the appropriate vehicle, and is the situation extraordinary? Again yes, he argued, calling it both unusual — because the school figures surfaced after the committee had already approved its budget — and a genuine public-safety risk. “Statute and precedent and Massachusetts municipal budget practices allow this to happen,” he concluded.
The June 1 Finance Committee meeting adds context to that account. Members learned that a roughly $600,000 discrepancy between Silver Lake regional and Halifax Elementary figures was discovered only the Friday before the Monday Town Meeting, and that the numbers shifted again the night of the vote. Walters, for his part, has characterized Andrews’s petition for a Special Town Meeting as “premature,” “procedurally flawed,” and inconsistent with state municipal finance practice — a view he aired at the June 1 meeting while noting the petition was already with counsel.
A third voice urged speed over argument. Deputy Police Chief Ted Benner told the board that with roughly three weeks until July 1, both sides face real uncertainty. Whatever counsel decides, he said, “it should be made as quick as possible so the departments are actually knowing what their budget numbers are going to be.” Pratt agreed time was of the essence and said the matter had been expedited as much as possible, while declining to comment further on any pending petitions, noting the board had received none directly as of the meeting.
Six days later, the funding fight ran into the calendar. At the Finance Committee’s June 15 meeting, Town Administrator Steven Solbo reported that the citizen’s petition seeking a Special Town Meeting was submitted late that day, likely too late to act on before the new fiscal year. Because the petition seeks to appropriate free cash, the money would have to be spent by June 30. The Select Board must open a town meeting warrant within 14 days and then has 45 days to hold the meeting, but with no Select Board meeting scheduled, Solbo said the following day was effectively the last chance “under the wire.” The petition’s signatures still had to be certified, and he said he would seek Town Counsel’s guidance on the timeline immediately.
With a June vote in doubt, Solbo and Finance Committee Chair Jim Walters pivoted to a fall town meeting as the more realistic path to settle police and fire staffing. That route would require Halifax to re-certify its free cash by September 30 — which Solbo said means retaining municipal accountant Eric Kinsherf’s firm through the deadline — and Walters floated a meeting in the first two weeks of December. Solbo cautioned that the petition will carry weight regardless of any related vote, citing the town of Yarmouth, which still had to hold a Special Town Meeting after a related ballot measure failed.
The committee took no action to fund police or fire staffing through the reserve fund, despite signaling that intent on June 1. One potential bright spot surfaced late in the meeting: committee member Frank Johnston said the state’s snow-and-ice reimbursement for Halifax — just under $138,000 — had been approved, an amount the town’s accountant called “almost our whole deficit.” The figure came with a caveat, however, having been seen on a social media post rather than confirmed through official channels; staff said they would verify the amount and timing.