Thursday, March 29, WSPN hosted a debate at Wayland High School for the selectman candidates. All four candidates, Chris Brown, Ed Collins, Douglas Leard and Susan Pope, participated.

During the debate, the student moderators, junior Caitlin O’Keeffe, senior Ben Rabin and junior Kruti Vora asked the candidates questions about issues affecting the town of Wayland. The questions focused on warrant articles for the upcoming Town Meeting. Each candidate was given two minutes to respond to each question.

One issue the candidates addressed was Article 4: Amend Town Section 19: Elect Finance Committee.

Pope and Brown agreed that continuing to have the town’s selectmen appoint the Finance Committee will result in a more qualified committee.

“It is a sharp learning curve to be on the Finance Committee,” said Pope. “[Selectmen] make sure members have expertise in finance.”

Collins believes that an elected Finance Committee provides more options.

“The real point of the article is not to get rid of people, but to look for a variety in views, and add some openness to the positions that we’re advocating,” Collins said.

Leard would also like to explore different ways of selecting the Finance Committee, including election or potentially having them appointed by the Moderator.

The candidates also discussed their opinions on Article 17: Accept Law Allowing Increased Real Estate Tax Exemption Amounts.

Leard and Collins oppose the article, claiming that similarly to last fall, Wayland still has enough free cash to avoid greatly raising tax rates.

“The free cash came from over-taxing you in the first place,” said Collins.

“I need to see budget efficiency before we do anything with taxes,” said Leard. “As a realtor, I see too many people here who have to sell their homes because they can’t afford to live in town anymore; that hurts.”

Pope and Brown support the article. Brown explained that Wayland’s “free cash” is a non-renewable source, and that we need an increase in taxes to maintain our town services. Pope also reminded the audience that Wayland’s taxes are residentially, not commercially, based.

“Using free cash to fund ongoing operations is an unsustainable model,” Brown said. “[Once we are out of free cash], we’re going to have to  have very difficult conversations about the programs we’re going to cut. Are we going to cut from the school programs, police, fire department, the library? I don’t want to have those conversations; I want to lay out a long-term budget plan that helps us maintain our services.”

An issue all the candidates agree upon is Article 12: Appropriate fund for Construction Documents and Bidding of New Department of Public Works (DPW) Maintenance and Storage Facility. All candidates believe that the current DPW, especially the garage, is inadequate. They believe that a new DPW, potentially on River Road, is necessary.

“Our current facility is so old, we don’t have records to when it was built,” said Brown.

“We do need a new DPW, the one we have is in deplorable condition. I would hope that the town does some adequate testing for methane gas,” Leard said.

In their closing statements, each of the candidates summarized the issues that are most important to their campaign.

Brown supports long-term budget plans, as opposed to politically popular, short-term decisions. He also feels it is important to address the senior housing project and the town center. His goals are to avoid cutting services, and to save funds to help maintain Wayland’s character, such as by purchasing Mainstone farm if and when it is sold.

“I want the board to develop a long-term strategy where we can keep all of our outstanding services, and still continue to enjoy our semi-rural way of life. Selectmen have the obligation to the town to look out for the town’s long term interests,” said Brown.

Collins’ priorities include improving Wayland’s water quality and lowering its charges, decreasing tax rates and addressing a surplus in free cash funds.

“The tax rate is related to the over-collection of funds from excessive real-estate taxes, and also from water charges; there’s a 3.4 million dollar surplus in that fund. It affects the tax rate. Whether we fund projects now, by using free cash recklessly, has a real impact on who’s going to pay for those projects,” Collins said.

Pope emphasized her goals to make positive change in Wayland by supporting several new projects. Pope is also proud to support Wayland’s services, particularly the school system, and she hopes to maintain the conservation land that makes Wayland unique.

“Wayland is facing many issues in opportunities, whether it be rental units for senior citizens, a bike trail, changing town government as we know it, a new senior center, the library, or the town center finally under construction,” said Pope. “I would be able to work for positive changes in Wayland.”

“If a topic was discussed repeatedly at town boards and committee meetings, Wayland residents should be informed,” Leard said. “It’s important that the town communicates outside the Town Building walls; we’re all residents.”

The a recording of the debate will be available to watch on WAYCAM.

The election will be held Tuesday, April 3.

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