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Residents urge earlier budget planning and a council code of conduct during Gray public comments
Summary
Residents at Gray’s council meeting urged earlier, more detailed budget preparation and zero-based budgeting; another commenter urged the council to adopt a code of conduct after social-media disputes during the recent election. The town manager reported local election turnout of 2,830 voters (~47%).
During the public-comment portion of the Gray Town Council meeting, speakers pressed the council on fiscal planning and elected-official conduct.
Bob Coleman, a member of the town’s Finance Committee, told the council the town struggled with its budget because costs are rising faster than revenue and argued the council should start a zero-based budget approach at the start of the fiscal year so department managers must justify each expense. He urged the council to begin preparing on July 1 so budget season will be more orderly and transparent.
Aaron Demers (calling in) asked the council to adopt a code of conduct after the recent local election, citing social-media attacks, allegations of sign stealing and the use of fake profiles to target candidates. Demers said the council cannot control citizens’ private actions but that elected officials and committee members should hold themselves to a higher standard to maintain public trust.
Town Manager (unnamed) provided election participation statistics earlier in the meeting, saying 2,830 voters — about 47% of eligible voters — participated in the most recent local election, with 663 absentee ballots. The manager presented turnout figures for previous years for comparison and noted the municipal office and library would observe a staff training day on June 24 (library and town office opening at 1:00 p.m.; the transfer station closed).
Councilors acknowledged the concerns. Several said they wanted to accelerate the budget timeline to allow more department-level detail and public input, and the council asked members to submit tracked-change suggestions for proposed rule amendments and a code-of-conduct discussion at an upcoming meeting. No formal policy on budgeting methods or on a code of conduct was adopted at this session.
