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Three ideas for town planning, communication, and collaboration (with Sources)

  • Mar 3
  • 4 min read

NOTE: Please click any of the links within the content below to see the sources and more detailed information for the text. Also feel free to email joeforlynnfield@gmail.com with any questions or comments!


A Lynnfield resident recently asked me: what exactly would you do differently as a Select Board member? While I can’t anticipate every decision that I’d face, I wanted to offer my “top 3” ideas related to planning for the town’s future.


First - I’d like to benchmark our capital planning and budgeting processes (1) against other municipalities, to see if there are best practices we can adopt to provide more transparency to residents. For example - the Lynnfield Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) lists the projects and costs being proposed, but the CIPs in Andover (2), Needham (3), Newton (4), and West Newbury (5) also publicly display details such as project description, anticipated cost and schedule, detailed town recommendations, and funding sources. A benchmarking committee composed of Lynnfield residents (ideally with experience in capital planning) could help identify best practices for CIPs, and bring specific recommendations to the Select Board.


I used a similar process to draft the first ever Rules and Regulations for the Lynnfield Library Board of Trustees (6) - identify best practices, incorporate relevant content into a draft document, and review the draft documents in Open Meetings. I think it’s important for the town to publicly and proactively provide detailed information on capital projects, to remove ambiguity about the plan and reduce resident confusion over the funding sources that will pay for each project.


Second, and along the same lines - I’d work with the Town Administrator (and any relevant boards and departments) to document the annual budget schedule and communicate it to the town. While the Lynnfield town charter does establish the deadlines for the town budget (7) to be submitted to the Town Administrator, Finance Committee, and Select Board, there often seems to be confusion on the exact dates that the budgets will be presented, and the specific Open Meetings where residents can publicly comment on the budget before it’s finalized. As a team lead working with clients, I found that a printable schedule made it much easier to create a shared sense of dates and milestones, to avoid frustration over missing a decision point or chance to offer feedback.


Third, and most important - I’d meet with as many individual members of our boards, commissions, and committees as possible, to hear about their experiences working in our local government. While I have my own perspective and ideas of what’s working well in our town, I know I don’t have all the answers, and have always found that hearing other perspectives (whether I agree with them or not) can lead to a better outcome. I have great respect for any resident who freely volunteers their time and energy to help govern our town, and I would do everything I could to empower each volunteer board and committee to help guide the decisions that shape our town’s future.


I realize there’s a lot of information referenced in this letter to the editor, such as the CIPs for other towns or the budget schedule established by the town charter. If you’d like to explore this information in more detail, please click on any of the links in this article, or scroll down to read more about each source. I’m also learning a lot about Lynnfield by listening to other residents and neighbors - please email me at joeforlynnfield@gmail.com if you’d like to get in touch, or browse the “Events” page to see future meet & greets.


I look forward to helping Lynnfield residents plan for our communal future. Please vote Joe Gallagher for Select Board at the Lynnfield Town Election (8) on Tuesday, April 14!


Sources


(1) capital planning and budgeting processes


Information on the Lynnfield Capital Improvement Plan can be seen at the following link: https://www.lynnfieldma.gov/682/Budget-and-Town-Meeting-Documents


Click “FY27 Capital Projects FINAL Budget 2-6-26” at the bottom of the link above to see the recommendations for the latest FY27 capital projects.



CIP Summary Memo (which lists members of the CIP working committee): https://www.lynnfieldma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2151/CIP-Summary-Memo?bidId= 


DPW Director John Scenna's presentation to Select Board (summarizes the purpose of CIP): https://vimeo.com/1071439615#t=25m0s 


Lynnfield Capital Projects web site (last updated August 2024):


The Lynnfield Town Charter establishes a CIP process in Chapter 7, Section 6 “Capital Improvements Program”:


(2) Andover


Town of Andover Capital Improvement Program (with links to previous years): https://andoverma.gov/219/Capital-Improvement-Program 


(3) Needham


Town of Needham FY2027-2031 Capital Improvement Plan: https://www.needhamma.gov/5758/FY2027-2031-Capital-Improvement-Plan


(4) Newton


City of Newton Capital Improvement Plan (with links to previous years): https://www.newtonma.gov/government/finance/capital-improvement-plan


(5) West Newbury



(6) Rules and Regulations for the Lynnfield Library Board of Trustees


The Lynnfield Public Library Board of Trustees Rules and Regulations can be seen in the Town Charter here: https://ecode360.com/46462850#46462850 


I drafted this document based on a review of the Trustee Bylaws for several other municipalities’ libraries, including several which were provided by the MBLC (MA Board of Library Commissioners). The sample Bylaw documents can be seen here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1eaio2_3hq4vx2FIMCc34pBfxscx49vb6 



The comparison spreadsheet allowed me to draft a “Rules and Regulations” document for the Lynnfield Library Trustees based on the relevant content from other towns' Trustee bylaws. As Chair of the Lynnfield Library Trustees, I introduced and refined these meetings over a series of monthly Open Meetings, where every Trustee could offer feedback on the document and discuss feedback publicly.


Once the document was finalized based on Trustee feedback, the Board unanimously voted to adopt the Rules and Regulations at our monthly Trustee meeting on February 24, 2025 (see meeting notes).


(7) deadlines for the town budget


Town of Lynnfield Charter, Chapter 7, Section 5 “Submission of Budget and Budget Message”: https://ecode360.com/28618493


(8) Lynnfield Town Election


This year, the annual Lynnfield Town Election will be held on Tuesday, April 14 at Lynnfield High School. Polls are open 7am to 8pm.


More detailed information on the town election can be found at the Lynnfield Town Clerk's "Election and Voting info" page at: https://www.lynnfieldma.gov/271/Election-Voting-Info


You can also visit the Voting page on this web site to explore options for vote by mail, absentee ballots, and early voting.



Thanks for reading - and please vote Joe Gallagher for Select Board at the Lynnfield Town Election on Tuesday, April 14!

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