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Residents and attorneys debate citizen petition to rescind Timberlane lease purchase
Summary
At a Jan. joint meeting, attorney Jim O'Shaughnessy and residents debated a citizen petition to rescind Timberlane Regional School District’s 2023 $25.243 million lease-purchase authorization. Counsel warned of equipment removal, replacement costs and legal risk if voters exercise non-appropriation; petitioners say the lease improperly avoided a two-thirds vote.
Attorney Jim O'Shaughnessy, who advised the meeting, told the joint Timberlane Regional School District budget committee and school board that the 2023 warrant article authorizing a 20-year lease-purchase up to $25,243,000 (with a first-year payment of $2,061,000) included a standard non-appropriation clause that allows the legislative body to stop appropriating funds for future lease payments. "If the legislative body at annual meeting does not appropriate sufficient funds to make the lease payment due in the coming fiscal year, then the lease will terminate," O'Shaughnessy said, explaining that termination can require the district to return equipment to the lessor.
The petition on the warrant seeks to rescind and terminate the March 14, 2023 adoption of Article 3 and would, if enacted, require the district to cease use of the leased equipment at the end of the current…
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