Charge and Membership
The charge of the Structural Change Impact Group (SCIG) was approved in September 2020, and updated or amended in October 2020, November 2020, and April 2021.
Its purpose was: “to investigate and recommend a list of key structural changes for the Town of Belmont, which may impact its economic condition, the structural deficit challenges the Town faces, on the Town operational approach to delivering services to the community.”
The committee initially consisted of ten members selected among the following roles: Select Board (1), School Committee (1), Warrant Committee (2), Energy Committee (1), Vision 21 Implementation Committee (1) and Town Residents at Large (4). Committee members were appointed in December 2020 and the first meeting was held in January 2021. The number of Town Residents was increased to five in April 2021 (thereby increasing total committee membership from ten to eleven). Three of the committee positions turned over during its term.
| Member | Representation |
|---|---|
| Vicki Amalfitano | Resident |
| Brian Antonellis | Resident |
| Joe Bernard, Clerk | Resident |
| Travis Franck, Chair | Energy Committee |
| Matthew Gasbarro | Resident |
| Anne Helgen | Warrant Committee |
| Norma Massarotti | Resident |
| Meghan Moriarty | School Committee |
| Mark Paolillo, Vice Chair | Select Board |
| Aaron Pikcilingis | Vision 21 Committee |
| Paul Rickter | Warrant Committee |
| Adam Dash | Select Board (until April 2021) |
| Amy Checkoway | School Committee (until June 2021) |
| Patricia Groves | Resident (until January 2021) |
: Table 1 – Payments for energy transmission to the town of Belmont for the final transmission line.
Gathering of Ideas
The committee gathered ideas to research from a variety of sources, including:
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A March 2010 summary of ideas for potential structural changes in Belmont
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The 2015 report of the Financial Task Force
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A list of structural changes compiled by the Select Board in July 2020
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A public meeting in March 2021, where members of the public suggested ideas
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The 2021 report of the Financial Task Force II
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An online form for gathering ideas from the public and Town staff, which was available from March 2021 until February 2022
In these ways, more than 400 ideas were gathered. This set of ideas became the core of the committee’s work.
Design/Approach
To research and report on the ideas gathered, the committee organized itself into three sub-committees: Consolidation, Regionalization, and Outsourcing; Personnel, Compensation, Benefits, and Retirement; and Town Services, Budget, and Revenue. Subcommittees elected chairs and then evaluated ideas assigned to them by the full committee, consolidating similar ideas to simplify the research of these ideas and the writing of recommendations. In some cases, this consolidation involved abstracting away details to evaluate a theme more broadly. For example, reviewing the current and potential uses of all town-owned buildings rather than just those that happened to be included among the suggestions.
To provide fair evaluations, the team developed a rubric and scoring system that was applied to every idea gathered through the above processes. This system asked the evaluators to score each consolidated idea across multiple measures – financial impact, operational impact, relative ease of implementation, and time to implementation – and compiled them into a weighted composite score. These weighted composites and their component scores are included in each individual evaluation.
To research ideas, committee members performed desk research and met with Belmont Town and School department staff, other committee chairs, as well as department representatives from other towns to gather input in the evaluation of the ideas submitted. This research informed the scores assigned to each idea, often resulting in updated and improved scores when new details about implementation, potential cost savings, or other pertinent details emerged.
Learning
The team found the work meaningful and rewarding. The approach to evaluate all ideas presented a challenge given the time required to evaluate, research, and write recommendations. Evaluating and writing up ideas that had either already been implemented or that were clearly unfeasible or illegal took time away from evaluating and discussing the ideas for consideration. The team was well led, dedicated, and worked diligently but began encountering meeting time conflicts as the holidays approached and as the committee duration began exceeding its original expected end date.
Implementing change that is feasible requires the leadership of an organization to understand, support and embrace the change. Next steps lie with the Select Board, Town Administrator, School Committee, School Superintendent, Fire and Police Chiefs, Department Managers, town committees and boards, and union leaders who will use this output as a foundation in their ongoing, respective work plans to deliver superior services and education to the Town of Belmont’s residents, employees, and students at a lower cost.