Westport Finance Committee Advances FY27 Budget Review Across Three Departments

Finance Committee · Meeting of January 13, 2026

Westport Finance Committee hears police, clerk, and treasurer budgets with unresolved Diamond debt looming over FY27 planning. Police Chief Dunn told the panel Tuesday that the department has reached 30 of its 31 budgeted officers and expects a full complement by May, while pressing for a 32nd officer at $106,000 and a roughly $30,000 warrant article for joint active-shooter training with the fire department, endorsed by committee members Hugh Morton and Al Lees as a necessary standalone budget item. Town Clerk Kristin Synton said polling-place consolidation, which would cut costly per-precinct police coverage on election days, has been blocked for 2026 by the new high school's unwillingness to commit while the old school building's fate is unresolved.

Treasurer-Collector Susan Brayton flagged a postage budget jump from $36,500 to $50,000 and confirmed that a school PCB cleanup loan costs $214,852 annually through 2032. The committee's sharpest exchange came over the Diamond Middle-High School project, whose debt impact on Westport taxpayers remains unquantified, with original annual estimates of $550,000 to $600,000 potentially higher given increased borrowing and rising interest rates.

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Source: the Finance Committee meeting of January 13, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.