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Foster allocates $50,000 for public-safety needs; residents contest process used
Summary
The council approved $50,000 in public-safety allotments — including $5,000 to South Foster Fire Department, $10,000 for a call-pay incentive and $35,000 for engineering-board-managed public-safety expenditures — after several residents argued the financial town meeting vote required separate, line-item approvals.
The Foster Town Council voted to allot funds for public-safety purposes after an extended debate over whether the council was following the intent of the town’s financial meeting.
Councilor (motion-maker) moved to allot $5,000 to the South Foster Fire Department (to fulfill a $17,500 request), $10,000 for a firefighter incentive pay program at $15 per call, and $35,000 to the engineering board for public-safety uses, with expenditures to require signatures from the fire chiefs of South Foster, Musa Valley, and Foster Center companies. The motion was seconded and, after discussion, approved by voice vote.
Resident Dave Rathman challenged the approach, citing a prior legal opinion and urging each financial-town-meeting line item be voted on individually. "You're going against the will of what the people at the town meeting were voting for," Rathman said, arguing the town should implement the vote as presented at the financial meeting. Town solicitor Joanna and other councilors disagreed in part, explaining the council has authority to allocate funds under the town’s capital procedure and that the engineering board’s role and prior practice guide the current approach.
Why it matters: The debate centers on local democratic procedure: whether the council may reallocate financial-meeting allotments into a pooled engineering-board account to be distributed by that board, or whether each recipient should receive a separately recorded allotment as presented to voters. The council’s decision will determine how emergency-service funds are administered for the coming fiscal year.
What’s next: Councilors indicated they will prepare a resolution or clearer language at a future financial meeting if the intent is to restrict how unused incentive funds should be carried or distributed; recused members were asked to leave the table during the vote.
