Select Board continues budget work with early deadline in sight
December 22, 2025 | By Lisa Scagliotti The Waterbury Select Board meets tonight to continue its work on drafting the proposed 2026 budget that will be presented to the voters on Town Meeting Day, March 3.
The board has scheduled two “budget adjustment” meetings for Saturday, Jan. 10, and Monday, Jan. 12, to review the draft budget before it needs to be approved for publication in the annual town report at the end of January. To prepare the budget early, the board has added several special meetings this month, including a Sunday session in early December.
Working with the municipal manager, the board is reviewing drafts for town departments and requests from boards and commissions for 2026. Some highlights include a proposal to spend $75,000 from local option tax revenue to contract for the Washington County Sheriff’s Department to supplement current police services provided by Vermont State Police. Another item being considered is the possible replacement of a firetruck, which likely will be included.
The manager and board, with each session, are honing the list of proposed items to be paid for out of local option tax revenue, which comes from an additional 1% tax on sales, rooms and meals, and alcohol sales in town, begun in mid-2023. Town Manager Tom Leitz estimates that the town will have just over $392,000 in local option tax funds from 2024 unspent; his estimate for new revenue from the various sales taxes in 2026 is $925,000.
Overall, the latest budget draft in progress would increase the municipal tax rate by 3.37%.
The board and manager will prepare a presentation to share their draft budget, including local option tax spending for 2026, with the community in early January to review and hear feedback, with time to make adjustments if necessary.
In addition to focusing on the budget process, the board has spent time on various staffing issues. It so far has not taken any action regarding the recent resignation announcement by Town Clerk and Treasurer Karen Petrovic, who is stepping down as of Jan. 2. The position will need to be addressed ahead of Town Meeting Day, and the remaining two years of Petrovic’s term would be on the ballot for election.
Petrovic’s resignation comes as Deputy Town Clerk and Treasurer Beth Jones is planning to retire in early 2026. The Select Board tonight will discuss the deputy clerk’s job description.
The board last week approved the manager’s recommendation to fill the vacant Recreation Director position, in keeping with the town charter’s directive that the board approve department head selections. It voted unanimously to support hiring Erika Linskey.
Manager Leitz also spoke at length during the Dec. 15 meeting, addressing the recent spate of staff resignations across departments. Multiple community members in attendance commented on the town staffing changes, voicing concerns about losing experienced personnel.
Leitz acknowledged he has made some mistakes in handling personnel issues such as revamping the town’s health insurance coverage structure last year. He also pointed to progress on some other human resources issues such as updating the employee handbook. He shared that union contracts that have been in negotiations since June for both the town employees and workers in the Edward Farrar Utility District are at the “handshake agreement” stage and should be ready for a vote in early 2026.
At the end of its Dec. 15 meeting, the Select Board held two executive sessions with no action after either. One was with the town manager, the other was with the town clerk.
Also on tonight’s meeting agenda:
The board will discuss a potential bond vote to fund flood mitigation work the town is seeking to do at Randall Meadow along the Winooski River behind the Randall Street neighborhood. The proposal to excavate the property to create more flood storage has won a $2 million federal Disaster Recovery Community Development Block Grant, which is less than half the estimated $4.3 million needed for the project.
The topic of whether to form a committee to consider any future changes to Waterbury’s town meeting format and process is another on tonight’s agenda. Voters at this year’s town meeting overwhelmingly decided against shifting all business to paper ballots, which would have eliminated the need for an in-person meeting to debate and approve the town budget and other finance questions. Only Waterbury’s local elections are done by paper ballot.
Tonight’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the Steele Community Room at the municipal offices, and it’s available online via Zoom. The agenda, with attachments of working documents and livestream links, is online on the Select Board’s page of the town website here.
Recordings of board meetings are posted online at ORCA Media. The Dec. 15 meeting video is below.
The board’s next meetings will be a regular meeting on Jan. 5; special meetings on Jan. 10 and Jan. 12 for budget discussion and review; Jan. 20, a Tuesday, to avoid meeting on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Waterbury Roundabout will post more Select Board updates ahead of the Jan. 10-12 budget review meetings.