Town Meeting 2026

There are only a handful of articles left, but they are big ticket items: the town budget – which includes nearly a $3 million hike – and articles on whether to increase the water and sewer rates

By Mark E. Vogler

SAUGUS – This year’s Annual Town Meeting has completed action on all but five of the 46 articles on the warrant. But the remaining order of business when the town’s 50-member legislature resumes its deliberations – as early as June 8 – includes passage of the most important item, Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree’s proposed budget for the 2027 Fiscal Year that begins July 1. The manager’s recommended spending plan, which he amended late last month, includes nearly a $3 million boost over the School Department budget for this year.

While the town manager’s recommendation carries considerable weight and there’s a strong pro-school spending attitude among the current town meeting members, the School Department budget is expected to draw considerable discussion when members consider the budget. Town Meeting includes 15 new members this year, many of them who campaigned during last year’s town elections on increased funding for Saugus Public Schools as their top priority.

In addition to Article 2 (what the town will raise and appropriate for the 2027 Fiscal Year), Town Meeting members will consider four other articles:

• Article 17 – whether to increase water rates for residential and commercial users.
• Article 18 – what money to raise and appropriate for the Water Enterprise Fund.
• Article 19 – what money to raise and appropriate for the Sewer Enterprise Fund.
• Article 20 – what money the town will vote to appropriate from the Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) Access Enterprise Fund for operating the SaugusTV (cable television) studio.

Town Meeting did not meet this week because of the Memorial Day holiday observed on Monday (May 25). Town Moderator Stephen N. Doherty told The Saugus Advocate this week that there were no plans to meet next Monday (June 1) because of some unfinished business related to some of the remaining articles. “We’re hoping to meet again on June 8th,” Doherty said.

“That’s contingent upon the Board of Selectmen voting on the sewer rate and the Finance Committee completing its work. They are supposed to meet next Wednesday. If we don’t meet on the 8th, we will meet on the 15^th,” he said.

Selectmen were scheduled to meet again at 7 p.m. next Tuesday (June 2).

Prior to discussion of the sewer rates, selectmen usually meet with the town’s longtime consultant, The Abrahams Group LLC, which usually does a presentation on its recommended water and sewer rates and other options for the upcoming fiscal year. “We are trying to schedule a meeting, but a date has not been confirmed yet,” Board of Selectmen Chair Debra Panetta said just before the newspaper’s deadline.

Panetta said selectmen still planned to meet next Tuesday night.

Last year, selectmen approved a 5 percent increase in the sewer rate for the second consecutive year. Town Meeting members voted 38-5 in support of a 6 percent increase in the water rate last year.

Big night for Parlante

Precinct 2 Town Meeting Member Matthew Parlante walked out of Session 3 of the Annual Town Meeting last week (May 18) with a huge smile. He was happy about what would easily be his best night since getting elected as a Town Meeting member back in 2023. Parlante introduced several warrant articles during his first two years as a Town Meeting member. All of his measures failed.

He had two more articles fail last week. But two other articles he initiated passed on unanimous voice votes, as did the amendment he offered to support an article introduced by Selectmen Anthony Cogliano and Michael Serino to support a 13-member Town Meeting Charter Review Committee. Members voted 41-6 in support of creating the committee.

“I made the amendment to Mike Serino’s charter review committee to have town meeting members picked by lottery rather than his original idea which was for each precinct to elect one person. My amendment passed as well as the article,” Parlante noted later.

“I feel really good about tonight,” Parlante said, adding that it was very satisfying to have colleagues finally vote in support of one of his warrant articles.

Members voted unanimously in support of Article 42, a measure that Parlante initiated to create an 11-member Bylaw Review Committee. They also approved by unanimous voice vote Article 44, which Parlante authored as a new bylaw prohibiting the placement and operation of cryptocurrency automated teller machines (ATMs) and virtual currency kiosks.

Parlante said he was able to confirm four active listings of cryptocurrency ATMs in Saugus. They are located at Stop & Shop on Main Street, Nasty Nonni’s on Main Street, CVS on Broadway and Speedway on Broadway. The bylaw would need approval by the state Attorney General’s Office before it becomes effective.

He noted that several communities in the state have already taken steps to ban the machines because of problems they encountered in their communities. Parlante cited the case of Haverhill, which earlier this year adopted its own regulations after reported local scam losses, including reports of more than $1 million in crypto scam losses across 33 incidents in 2024 and 2025.

“It prohibits anyone from installing, operating, maintaining, hosting, or allowing a cryptocurrency ATM or virtual currency kiosk in Saugus. Existing machines would have to be removed within sixty days, and violations would be subject to a $300 daily fine per device,” Parlante said.

“This is not anti-technology, and it is not anti-crypto. People who want to lawfully buy or sell cryptocurrency still have other ways to do that. This article focuses only on cash-to-crypto machines in public locations, because those machines are being used as the final step in scams that can wipe out someone’s savings before police ever have a realistic chance to intervene,” he said. “At the end of the day, this is a simple question: do we want to leave these machines in place and wait until more residents are harmed, or do we want to act now, the way other Massachusetts communities already have? I believe Saugus should act now to protect residents, especially seniors, from a type of fraud that is growing, fast-moving, and very difficult to reverse once it happens.”