At the Tisbury annual town meeting Tuesday, voters will decide whether to give the town administrator more power over municipal hiring, finance and information technology, and they will confront an ever-increasing town budget — up more than 5 per cent for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The annual and special town meetings are set for April 29 at 7 p.m. in the new gymnasium at Tisbury School, which opened last fall after a three-year, campus-wide renovation costing $81 million.

Select board chair John Cahill told the Gazette this week that strengthening the town administrator’s position is the most significant business voters will undertake on Tuesday night.

“It has such lasting value and can make a real difference, and it doesn’t cost us a nickel to make it happen,” he said.

The warrant article asks voters to codify the town administrator’s job description, which was rewritten last year by a town task force and used in the executive search process that resulted in Joseph LaCivita taking the position last month.

“If you’re going to ask someone to be the CEO . . . they need to have the wherewithal to manage the affairs of the town,” Mr. Cahill said.

The select board does not need — and arguably should not have — direct authority over individual town departments, Mr. Cahill said, noting that the term of office is three years and elected members often change, disrupting the continuity of board oversight.

“You don’t want to have the [information technology] director reporting to the select board, or the finance director,” he said.

After an earlier version of the town administrator bylaw failed to win approval at a special town meeting last December, Mr. Cahill said, town officials worked with the task force to address objections voters expressed at the time.

The rewritten bylaw places more limits on the administrator’s power, with three major changes from the December version that return staffing oversight to elected town bodies: 

The Tisbury personnel board will retain its responsibilities for job classification and compensation plans, the select board will have the right to veto hirings and dismissals within 15 days and the school committee, library board, water works board and board of health will continue to have independent hiring and firing authority over their employees.

Elsewhere on the warrant, payroll, benefits and school costs once again dominate the town’s $41.7 million budget for fiscal year 2026, which is 5.2 per cent higher than the current spending plan that ends June 30.

Rising expenses for the police, fire and ambulance departments, in particular, have drawn a cautionary statement in the town meeting voter guide from Tisbury’s finance and advisory committee.

“FinCom members have concerns about the town’s long-term ability to support the services currently provided to our residents,” the committee wrote, citing both housing costs and training requirements as stumbling blocks to sustainability.

The short-staffed Tisbury police department has been relying on overtime all winter as it seeks to fill five vacancies. Four candidates currently are in the hiring pipeline, but it could be six to nine months before they have completed state-mandated training and are ready to join the force, according to the voter guide statement.

“If it isn’t happening already, in the future, out of necessity, there will have to be increased cooperation between towns to fully staff departments . . . with an increasingly limited pool of qualified personnel,” the finance committee wrote.

Unlike most other Island towns, Tisbury was able to avoid a Proposition 2 1/2 override this year. Mr. Cahill cited a mutual effort by all departments to contain their budgets as much as possible, but future needs loom large.

“Tisbury is definitely in need of a better financial picture,” he said. “We’ve got to find ways to improve our revenue gathering . . . and how we spend that money and where we spend that money.”

Voters will be asked to fund multiple new positions or functions, including a year-round deputy shellfish constable at $70,511, postponed from the 2024 town meeting; a conservation agent at $55,412; and $40,000 for a part-time inspector of short-term rentals.

In recent years, short-stay vacation rentals have been subject to more detailed rules and oversight in every Island town, including Tisbury.

In addition, the library is asking to upgrade one of its reference librarians to the new position of assistant library director, with no dollar amount specified.

Voters will be asked to spend $450,000 in unreserved town money to renovate the town-owned Tashmoo Spring house, where Mr. LaCivita and his wife will live once the work is completed.

Mr. Cahill said the estimate came in higher than originally projected because the town decided to upgrade the septic system as well, reducing nitrogen emissions and protecting fragile Lake Tashmoo.

“The benefit is to not just the home, but the whole property,” he said.

Formerly used to house construction workers from the Tisbury School project, and before that as offices, the Tashmoo residence represents the town’s first foray into employee housing, Mr. Cahill said.

“This is the first time in 11 years we have had to reach out and hire a town administrator, and the real estate market has changed dramatically,” he said.

On the mainland, employees of affluent municipalities can commute from more affordable towns — an option not available here, Mr. Cahill said. 

“To ask somebody to move to the Island [is] a stiff lift in order to bring in the right talent, so housing became — for the first time — a component of our offering,” he said.

Town officials now are considering the use of municipal housing to attract future employees as well, he said.

Tuesday’s warrant also includes a uniquely Tisbury version of the leaf blower bylaw that passed in Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and West Tisbury earlier this month.

Select board member Roy Cutrer strongly opposed the inclusion of electric blowers in the bylaw’s restrictions, leading the board to remove all references to electric equipment in the article text.

As rewritten, the bylaw allows combustion blowers to be used from March 15 to May 31 and from Oct. 15 to Jan. 15, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. 

No more than two of the gas blowers would be allowed to run at once on any property, and their use would be prohibited entirely on Sundays. Combustion-powered blowers would be totally banned starting on March 15, 2028.

The Tisbury planning board voted last week to support the bylaw, although Brook Katzen, owner of The Cove Golf and Grill, said being unable to blow leaves and debris from his mini-golf course on Sundays would be a hardship.

Retired Tisbury moderator Deborah Medders is returning to run Tuesday’s town meetings after Donald Rose, elected in 2023 to replace her, was unable to complete his term. 

Retired Tisbury fire chief John Schilling is the only candidate running for town moderator in the May 13 election, which takes place from noon to 8 p.m. at the emergency services building on Spring street. 

The ballot includes two contested races, with Alicia Lesnikowska challenging incumbent Michael Watts for Tisbury school committee and three people — William Henry O’Brien, George A. Santos, Jr. and Israel Ziegenhorn — vying to fill the board of health vacancy left by Michael Loberg.

Mr. Cahill said he was looking forward to having Ms. Medders bring her practiced hand to the meeting Tuesday.

“She’s such a gem when it comes to these matters,” said Mr. Cahill, adding that he hopes for a good turnout at the gym.

“Town meeting is so important and it is the only time where the town can really speak their minds,” he said. 

“The more people that participate in the discussion, the better the decisions are,” he said.