Bigger Government Costs More Money
Vote No Charter & Save

Voters in the Town of Saugus will go to the polls on November 3^rd to elect a Board of Selectmen, School Committee, Town Meeting Members, and a Housing Authority. There is also one question on the ballot seeking the approval of a proposed charter. The voters of Saugus need to know the facts before making a decision regarding the new governmental structure set forth in the charter.

Bigger Government Is Not Always Better Government

The proposed charter would remove representative Town Meeting and turn Saugus into a city. Although it will create new layers of government and new government positions, it does not attempt to increase revenue to cover these new expenses, so it will also result in cuts in other areas.

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• Local Elections To Be Held Every Year

  Article 7, Section 7-1

  Every election costs money. Here we're doubling our election expenses. There's no plan for increasing revenue, so for each extra expense, something else (like a program for seniors or children) must go as the budget must be kept in balance. Estimated cost to taxpayers over five years: $90,000.

• Elections To Be Held Again in April, 2009

  Article 7, Section 7-1

  Similar to the above, but for just this year. Estimated cost to taxpayers this year only: $30,000.

• New Position: Town Auditor

  Article 2, Section 2-8 and Article 9, Section 9-5

  The first year salary will be $25,000 and after that the auditor shall receive 50% of the highest salary paid to a town employee. Cost to taxpayers over a five year period will thus be a minimum of $225,000 plus benefits. Again since there's no plan for increasing revenue, each new position will generally mean another position somewhere else (like a teacher, firefighter, or policeman) will have to go.

• Master Plan Creation

  Article 5, Section 5-3

  The Town has paid to create a Master Plan on several occasions. None have ever been used enough to cover their creation costs. Cost to the taxpayers includes an initial one-time cost upward of $80,000 and periodic updates at around $5,000 a piece for a total of approximate $100,000 over a five year period.

• New Clerical & Staff Positions

  Article 5, Article 6, and Others

  Currently most of the Boards, Commissions, Committees, and Authorities in Town do not have their own paid clerk. Many of the Agencies and Committees proposed in the new charter would have their own paid clerk and/or staff. New staff in one area of the budget generally leads to staff reductions in another area as ultimately the budget must be balanced.

• New Ad Hoc Positions

  Article 2, Section 2-8

  The new charter gives the Assembly the explicit right to hire people to assist it in carrying out its responsibilities.

• Deeper Bureaucracy

  Various Articles

  The new charter mandates new layers of government:

  • 1 Assembly President
  • 26 Assemblors
  • 1 Select Board Chair
  • 4 Select Board Members.

  This makes for less citizen input and (with at-large positions) even less representation than with the current system.

• Less Competent Committees

  Various Articles

  Existing committees like the Finance Committee and Building Committee (currently mandated by Saugus By-Laws, not the Saugus Charter) are going to be overhauled in a questionable way. While the proposed Charter would require more members of them to be from the Assembly (and thus indirectly elected) it has no hard requirements on technical expertise. We would likely lose most of the professional expertise that these committees contain.

• Questionable Finance

  Article 6

  The current budgeting process is bottoms-up; each department prepares its own budget, passes it along to the Town Manager who initially balances it. It then passes through multiple series of public meetings in which it can be adjusted. The ultimate budget passed to Town Meeting is the one prepared in public by the Finance Committee. In the new system, the initial budget will be made by the Select Board, not the people actually doing the work, and the ultimate budget passed to Town Assembly (which can even get passed by default if the Assembly does not act quickly enough) is the version prepared in private by the Town Manager.

• Uneven Residency Restrictions

  Article 4, Section 4-1

  Under the proposed charter the Town Manager shall have to be a resident of Saugus (or continuously seek temporary waivers of the residency requirement). No other town employee, even the School Superintendent (who historically is sometimes paid more than the Town Manager) has this restriction. Regardless of whether one is in favor or against residency restrictions, most can agree that they ought to be evenly applied when they exist.

• Untested Charter

  Entire Document

  The proposed charter is completely untested as no other charter in the Commonwealth is like it. Maybe it will work, and maybe it won't. Do you like gambling with your tax dollars?

• Bye Bye By-Laws

  Entire Document

  The proposed charter would turn Saugus into a city. At the state level of government Saugus would become known as the City Known as the Town of Saugus. All of Saugus' existing by-laws would have to be reformulated as ordinances. The only fair comparison between the proposed charter and the existing system has to account for the Saugus By-Laws in addition to the Saugus Charter. Unfortunately most of the existing comparisons ignore this point. The ordinances that are needed to replace the by-laws have not yet been written.