EASTHAM — The comments at an April 22 select board session on this year’s warrant articles had Town Moderator Scott Kerry looking forward to Monday’s town meeting. “It sounds like we’ll have some lively discussion on May 5,” he said.
His remark came after a lengthy exchange between Finance Director Rich Bienvenue and Wendy Gamba, treasurer of the Eastham Part-Time Resident Taxpayers Association.
Gamba is the lead petitioner of warrant Article 9A, which asks the town to hire a “qualified, independent entity to audit and develop a comprehensive tax strategy … before moving forward with any changes for the FY2026 tax structure.”
“This article presents an opportunity for the taxpayers to send a message to the select board that this issue is important and timely,” Gamba said, turning her chair to face the audience during the public comment period, at Town Manager Jacqui Beebe’s suggestion.
Gamba said that both part-time and full-time residents had been involved in writing the article, and in the process they had met with various auditing firms and would be “happy to make an introduction.”
Bienvenue, who serves as both assistant town manager and finance director, said that Eastham’s tax strategy is already transparent and effective. “We have one of the most comprehensive financial planning processes anywhere in the state,” he said. “We have second and third opinions with capital planning committees, CPA committees, the finance committee, and the select board, all giving their recommendations on these articles. There is plenty of discussion, all recorded, all on our website.”
Bienvenue suggested that voters read the town staff’s explainer about the article in the warrant booklet. That explanation, which occupies five pages of the booklet following the article’s two pages, describes the petition as “misleading,” and states that “the Select Board does not have the authority to appropriate funds or assess taxes.”
Eastham’s finance committee was unanimous last month in not recommending the nonbinding article. Four members of the select board also voted not to recommend Article 9A. The fifth, Robert Bruns, abstained from the vote but said he thought the petitioned article was “a stall tactic against the residential tax exemption,” or RTE.
The state requires towns to decide whether to adopt the exemption every year; it is intended to encourage year-round residency by shifting the tax burden away from medium and low-valued year-round properties onto high-valued properties and properties not occupied year round by residents. The select board has been debating instituting a 10- or 20-percent RTE at its annual tax classification hearing in the fall. It’s a policy Bruns has said he opposes.
Gamba was joined at the microphone by Carolyn Gorczyca, another part-time resident. “You could compare this to going into surgery,” Gorczyca said. “You would ask for a second opinion from another surgeon. It’s just a second opinion. You know your surgeon’s good. You just want a second opinion.”
“There are multi-year implications to decisions that are being made,” Gamba added. She pointed to this year’s Article 8A, which deals with the allocation of Community Preservation Act funds.
“There is no tax impact to CPA articles,” Bienvenue responded, adding that Gamba had spread “misinformation” about the article. Those funds come from a surcharge on property taxes, he explained — “that’s state law.” Towns spend them in three areas: open space protection, historic preservation, and affordable housing. This year, 30 percent of the town’s anticipated CPA funds will go to housing — an increase from last year’s 10 percent, which is the minimum required by the state. “It’s up to the CPC committee to determine recommendations to town meeting on how to spend that money,” Bienvenue said.
As the back and forth continued, Kerry reiterated that the April 22 meeting was not meant as a place to discuss the relative merits of warrant articles. Instead, he said, the meeting was for voters to ask questions to make sure they understood what was being asked in the warrant.
A 9-Article Warrant
This year’s annual town meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, May 5 in the high school’s auditorium. There are nine articles on the warrant, but, because some include several parts, townspeople will vote on a total of 23 questions.
The first vote that night won’t be for one of the warrant articles. As is traditional, Kerry said, voters will first decide if nonresidents will be allowed to speak at the meeting.
Because Article 9A was petitioned by a nonresident, Kerry said that nonresidents will automatically be allowed to speak on it regardless of what the town decides for the rest of the meeting. Article 9A will, however, have to be moved and seconded by Eastham residents.
Select board member Jamie Demetri asked that part-time residents identify themselves while speaking. Gorczyca objected: “When it comes to speaking, we’re all taxpayers,” she said. “Why would it be different to know if it was a part-timer or a full-timer?”
“It’s good for voters to know who is presenting, that’s all,” replied board chair Aimee Eckman.
Kerry said that, because part-time residents are seated separately at town meeting, their status as nonvoters will be evident.
The first four articles on the warrant are budgetary: Article 1 sets spending limits for revolving funds; Article 2 is the operating budget for the year; Article 3 establishes the capital budget and approves a “placeholder” five-year capital improvement plan. The placeholder budget is designed to help the town plan its finances for future years but has no actual impact on taxes or the allocation of funds.
Article 4 contains several specialized provisions: Article 4B allows the town to invest its active management funds in order to combat inflation; Articles 4D and 4E authorize the acquisition and transfer of two condominium units across from Salt Pond for use as a wastewater pump station.
Whether to adopt the “seasonal community” designation will be considered in Article 5. As part of the Affordable Homes Act, the state has already established that all towns in Barnstable County where more than 35 percent of the housing is occupied seasonally — that percentage is now 55 in Eastham, according to Bienvenue — may adopt the designation. Other towns must apply first, then, if approved, may vote to adopt it.
The designation would allow the town to implement year-round housing occupancy restrictions, develop preferential housing for municipal workers, and raise the RTE as high as 50 percent. “This act combined a lot of things that towns on the Outer Cape have been asking for for years,” one home-rule petition at a time, Eckman said. “This allows us to bypass that.”
Article 6A is one such home-rule petition. If passed, it would authorize the town to request legislation from the state allowing it to implement a real estate transfer fee. Eckman said it’s unlikely that the state will create that legislation, but she said it was nevertheless important for the town to show its support for the policy.
Article 7 focuses on a series of zoning changes for the North Eastham Corridor Special District, which extends along Route 6 from Old Orchard Road to Nauset Road. The changes are part of Eastham’s Village Center Master Plan for a walkable business district, which was presented to the public in a series of zoning workshops in January and February. The zoning changes are mostly “form-based” codes, meaning that the rules take into account the look of buildings, not just their uses. The goal is to allow for the creation of mixed-use commercial and residential units in the envisioned new special district.
Article 8 addresses how CPA funds will be spent. Eastham resident Keith Burritt criticized one part of the proposal: the transfer of $760,000 in undesignated funds to renovate the second and third floors of the Council on Aging’s thrift store on Massasoit Road to create community housing.
“That’s a lot of money to pump into that building,” said. He also said that he opposed the addition of a wheelchair ramp at the building, which he worried would destroy the building’s historic character.
Town Manager Jacqui Beebe said there were no plans to install a wheelchair ramp at the building.
The building is a historic landmark, built between 1871 and 1874. It served as a general store for decades. Town meeting voted in 2022 to buy the house, which the COA had been renting since 1984, in order to both preserve the shop location and add upstairs apartments.
