Woburn finance committee reviews FY25 department budgets; staffing, grants and a large veterans donation highlighted

WOBURN — Department heads briefed the City Council Committee on Finance on their proposed FY25 budgets, stressing constrained requests, targeted increases and growing demand for services.

Tom Quinn, identified during discussion as the building commissioner, told the committee the Inspectional Services operating and maintenance lines are largely level-funded but asked for an additional $1,000 for academic courses to support training for new electrical and building inspectors. He said the department set aside about $41,000 to cover a vacant second building inspector through provisional and retired inspectors, and to pay limited overtime when needed. Quinn said permit counts were similar year over year but fee revenue was skewed upward by a single large commercial Mill Street project.

In technology, the IT presenter reported the city received a $105,000 state grant in January 2024 to standardize cybersecurity across city systems. For FY25 the department sought modest increases — roughly $10,000 for Munis licensing, $10,000 for computer programs to cover data-retention needs and about $1,000 for additional ArcGIS user licenses — and described an ongoing, proactive approach to cybersecurity within existing resources.

The veterans services agent said the veterans agent budget is level-funded for the coming year, with a small, targeted increase tied to cemetery flags. The office also deposited a large charitable contribution — reported in the meeting as $130,086 from the South [end] Italian Club — into a revolving account to support veterans’ needs and monument repairs; some flag costs are later reimbursed by the state, the presenter said.

Parks and library leaders urged more staffing. The parks superintendent described maintaining roughly 80 acres and 35 areas with limited staff and praised an award for his crew while warning the ordinance-level staffing of seven full-time employees remains unmet; the mayor’s proposed budget funds a return to six. The library presenter said in-person programming and attendance are up, cited recent grants for signage and archives preservation, and said “we need six to eight staff members” on duty to run the building and programming safely and reliably.

Public safety leaders outlined personnel and technology priorities. The police chief reported four recent academy graduates and described grant awards that expand capabilities: a $100,000 Cummings Foundation grant for a municipal drone program and a $52,000 Stanton grant to fund a K9 (reported as named Odin), associated cruiser and handler training. The chief described a recent search operation where a drone with thermal imaging helped locate an elderly missing person who, according to on-scene medical staff, likely would not have survived the night without that intervention.

Across departments, presenters emphasized hiring challenges, use of temporary or provisional staff to maintain services, and active grant-seeking to offset operating costs. The committee recorded a motion to submit the library presentation to the record and later adjourned after routine closing business.