Budget amendments, camping bylaw and gun exemption all fail at Spring Town Meeting

Town Meeting members rejected a series of proposals at this year’s Spring Town Meeting Tuesday, June 3, including an amendment to shift funds into the school budget, a controversial camping bylaw aimed at addressing homelessness on public land and a measure that would have allowed licensed gun owners to once again carry firearms in municipal buildings.

$108.5 million budget. The town’s proposed $108.5 million budget for fiscal year 2026, representing a 3.77% increase over the previous year, aroused a lengthy discussion from meeting members.

Precinct 6 Town Meeting member Nathan Silva offered a detailed amendment to the budget, seeking to reallocate $732,522 from 15 town departments, including the police, Public Works, town legal counsel and facilities, and instead boost the school department’s funding by $476,139, while placing the remaining $256,383 into the Finance Committee’s reserve fund. The proposed changes would not have increased the budget overall but would have significantly restructured spending priorities.

Silva criticized what he described as a long-standing pattern of underfunding Dartmouth’s public schools. He said although plans are now in place to address the school’s use of School Choice Funds to bridge the budget gap, “This is a band-aid.” He noted how a net of 11.5 staffing positions have been downsized in the district over the last two years due to budget restraints. 

The motion drew passionate responses. Select Board member David Tatelbaum said he shared Silva’s concerns about the school budget but opposed the amendment’s blunt approach, suggesting to revisit “with a scalpel, not a chainsaw.”

Precinct 7 member Albert Lay asked the room why the town wasn’t discussing a Proposition 2½ override instead of carving into existing line items. But in the end, the proposed amendment failed in a 60-101 vote.

A follow-up amendment targeting the town administrator’s salary line also failed. That motion, introduced by Finance Committee Chair Robert Gauvin, sought to reduce the funding for the position by approximately $24,000 and reallocate it to the schools. 

Gauvin said the proposed reduction reflected concerns over the handling of the recent hiring process and general disagreement over how high the contracted pay is, submitting his resignation last month in protest.

Prior to the meeting, Select Board member Shawn McDonald argued a move like this would put the town in jeopardy of litigation. It was confirmed at Town Meeting that, if passed, the amendment would not actually be able to change the contracted pay — only the line item.

Select Board Chair Heidi Silva Brooks offered insight into the failed contract negotiations with the board’s original pick for the position, Bridget Almon, director of finance in Fall River.

Almon, who had no prior experience as a town administrator or assistant administrator, turned down the offer of $190,000, citing the workload and objecting to several terms drafted in the contract by town counsel. 

The Board later interviewed and completed negotiations based on that original contract with Cody Haddad, which Silva Brooks says, expedited the process.

“The Select Board stands behind the process and the candidate,” she said. “We look forward to Dartmouth’s success with Cody in the town administrator role.”

The amendment failed and the $108.5 million budget was passed as originally presented.

Camping bylaw. Members also rejected a proposed camping bylaw that would have restricted unauthorized overnight camping on public and private land between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. The bylaw was designed in part to help the town address longstanding issues with encampments, particularly in environmentally sensitive areas.

Police Chief Brian Levesque described the current system, which relies heavily on criminal trespass orders, as limited and time-consuming. 

Not only is this time consuming, but limits what his department can do, noting that a violation of a trespass order is an arrestable offense. While the bylaw would have a penalty, it would be significantly less than that of what violators currently pay and would grant the department a bit more discretion when handling these situations.

Silva Brooks said Dartmouth has successfully housed all 28 previously identified unhoused individuals through its outreach team this year but noted that some encampments, particularly those near the town’s water supply, present serious public health and environmental hazards. 

“The price that we currently have ranges between $15,000 and $24,000 to clean up one encampment site,” she said. “This encampment site is in an aquifer district and is on the banks of water that feeds our well system. 
It must be cleaned up.”

Despite those concerns, opponents said the bylaw would place undue burden on unhoused residents and risk criminalizing poverty. 

Precinct 8’s Howard Baker-Smith argued the town already has a way to handle these situations and the bylaw seems “unnecessary,” noting it would likely only charge those who can’t afford to pay.

License to carry in municipal administrative buildings. A request, which sought to exempt municipal administrative buildings from a statewide gun ban, also drew opposition from Town Meeting members. Under the new state law, named An Act to Modernize Firearm Laws, carrying firearms is prohibited in government buildings, unless a local exemption is passed.

Supporters argued that the exemption would allow trained, licensed gun owners to legally carry in Town Hall, libraries and similar spaces, keeping them safe in the event there was a threat. It was noted whether the exemption passed, someone wanting to do harm is going to make the attempt either way.

But a majority of members disagreed, with Precinct 8’s Margo Moore stating, “We’d be promoting a gun culture in Dartmouth.”

According to Silva Brooks, a survey conducted ahead of the meeting showed 68% of town employees opposed the exemption. 

The article failed, bringing about a round of applause from Town Meeting members.

Approved requests. Despite these failed proposals, the meeting did see the approval of several funding measures, including the allocation of $435,000 from the Opioid Legal Settlements Stabilization Fund to support the Dartmouth Advocates for Addiction, Recovery and Treatment Committee. That funding will go toward strengthening prevention, harm reduction, and treatment services.

Another approved measure provided $45,000 from DCTV’s stabilization fund for construction of a temporary garage to house its vehicles. The station has rented a garage in New Bedford for two decades and sees the new facility as a cost-saving and logistically simpler solution.

Members also approved several Community Preservation Act projects and routine funding requests for enterprise accounts, including solid waste, sewer, water and waterways, without significant debate.