Select Board sets schedule for joint budget hearings and outlines town-meeting timeline

The Brookline Select Board discussed and confirmed the schedule and procedures for upcoming joint budget hearings with the Finance Committee and set key deadlines for the town-meeting calendar.

Chair noted the budget hearings will run Monday through Wednesday next week starting at 06:30, and emphasized the requirement for seven days’ public notice for hearings; the board agreed to post a generic notice immediately to satisfy that requirement. Chair asked members to decide who will present each warrant article by Tuesday the 20th so presenters have time to prepare.

Key deadlines announced: the town election filing period was stated to open Wednesday, Jan. 21 and close Friday, Jan. 30; the Town Hall bond public hearing must be publicly noticed by Jan. 27; the deadline for submitting petition warrant articles was referenced as Feb. 3, and the board scheduled Feb. 17 for hearings on petition warrant articles. The board plans to finalize warrant-article presentation order and to vote on recommendations at the end of the multi-day budget hearings.

The board also discussed practical organization: ranking bond and large budget items early in the order, placing the operating budget after bond items, and handling nonmonetary warrant articles later in the sequence. The Chair urged members to provide warrant-article copies and to avoid numerical confusions by using lettered identifiers (a, b, c) when circulating drafts.

Next steps: public notices to be posted, presenters assigned by the next meeting, and final cover/dedication decisions for the town report to be prepared before printing.