Battle brewing in Templeton???
Actually, a legal opinion on a Town meeting change or addition to Town by-laws was requested by the Advisory Board and it is scheduled to be discussed this Wednesday at our next public meeting. This should be a good meeting as it is budget season as well. The only thing that really seems to have happened was an addition of a duplicate section to Town by-laws which may or may not have been the intention. What is clear is the role of the Advisory Board was not changed by that Town Meeting vote, as Article IV - Advisory Committee, section 4 was NOT changed with that Town meeting vote. Another section may have been added to article III - Town officers which appears to be a duplication of section 4 of article IV - advisory committee.
Another confusing item within the most recent budget versus actual summary provided by the Town Accountant is the item listed as firefighter / ems salaries under expenditures. Listed under allocated is $84,902.50 and expended $94,428.15 with a deficit of -$9,525.65. Also of interest to me is the allocated versus spent amounts under dispatch wages with allocated at $229,417.00 and expended -$131,791.38 and here I recall former chief of police stating at a public selectmen meeting and even handing out written copies that dispatch only costs Templeton less than $40 thousand dollars a year. Clearly he was wrong or something has really changed in a bad way for taxpayers. In my opinion, I was lied to at that meeting, I felt so then and I still do.
Another item has Worcester county retirement as allocated and expended $612,557.00 so just keep adding employees and bring on more EMS personnel and watch that number continue to grow. I still believe that shows it is cheaper in the long haul to contract much out and not grow the size of government. I believe people will see this when the OPEB figure begins to show up at town meeting. Contract people may cost as much or more up front but on the back side, there is no more additions to retirement or insurance, with group insurance showing up on the budget versus actual sheet as $1,056,012.00 which will also continue to grow. Contract ambulance and regional dispatch may begin to look better and better in a few years, if Templeton does not miss the boat.
Jeff Bennett
