Warren Finance Committee Backs $8,250 Board of Health Stipend, Rejects Larger Request

Finance Committee · Meeting of February 26, 2026

Warren Finance Committee caps Board of Health stipend increase at $8,250, rejecting a request for $9,000. Meeting February 26, Finance Committee Chair Joseph Dziok and members Charles Lyman and Tammy Dufresne agreed the combined stipend for the three-member board, which had stood at $5,425 two years ago, should not jump to $9,000 in a single budget cycle, even as a board representative explained that new state Department of Public Health training mandates and expanded housing inspection duties had significantly increased the workload. Dziok said directly, "I will not vote for increase the budget to 9,000," and Lyman echoed that "we can't make it all up in one year." The committee also approved a 2.5 percent salary recommendation for the highway surveyor, set the Finance Committee's own expense line at $1,200, and confirmed that under state quorum law the committee never needed a bylaw change it passed last year.

The next meeting is set for March 12 at 2:30 p.m., when school budget subcommittee chair Nicole Gonzales is expected to present preliminary school spending figures, with the school assessment the single largest unresolved number in the town budget.

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Source: the Finance Committee meeting of February 26, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.