Oakham Town Meeting Approves $4.9 Million Budget, Defeats Open-Meeting Bylaw

OAKHAM — June 24, 2025 — Oakham Annual Town Meeting approves $4.9 million budget and defeats a citizen-petition transparency bylaw 63-27. Voters at the June 24 meeting passed a $4,957,711.48 fiscal year 2026 operating budget — $4,628,289.10 raised and appropriated plus $158,000 from free cash — with Town Accountant Lori Barker explaining that a $9,250 reduction in treasurer expenses reflects the town's switch to new accounting software. A citizen petition under Article 19 that would have required all Oakham public bodies to post agendas online, offer remote meeting access, and video-record all sessions was defeated after Alex Weiss of KP Law, the town's outside legal counsel, warned the bylaw exceeded state open meeting law requirements and that "there's a significant likelihood that the attorney general may reject certain parts of it." A proposal to reduce the Board of Assessors from three elected members to one appointed assessor was passed over at the assessors' own request, and the meeting repurposed $15,950 in leftover 2023 fire truck appropriation funds for Highway Department safety equipment, control units, and Building Department code books.