At tonight's meeting of the Advisory Board, Wednesday, April 20, 2016, the Town Administrator was asked about the large jump in dispatch costs. Part of his answer was that for many years the E 911 grant was used to supplement salaries while the salary appropriation was used for other purposes and that was not correct. The Town Administrator stated that was against the rules and it had to be stopped. He stated that the current chief of police said the Town needed to ween itself off of this money. So perhaps a certain selectmen was not so wrong after all and it was not a bad idea to be looking at the dispatch budget, costs and the E 911 grant. Apparently it does costs more than $37,000.00 to run dispatch.

Jeff Bennett

Good Afternoon,

I was notified that Jeff Bennet sat as a voting member of the IAC this morning. I do not have him listed as a member of this board, and have confirmed that he has not been sworn-in with the Town Clerk.

Should the Advisory Board wish to have Mr. Bennet serve on the IAC, they will have to make a vote and notify me of such so that I can get it on the Board of Selectmen’s agenda for appointment. Once appointed he can see the Town Clerk to be sworn-in and begin serving as a voting member.

Until these steps are completed he cannot serve as a voting member, and doing such could result in an open meeting law violation.

    Thank You for your time,

  Alisha O'Malley

Alisha O'Malley, Human Resources

Town of Templeton Board of Selectmen

P.O. Box 620, 160 Patriots Road

East Templeton, MA  01438

Phone 978-894-2756

This email was forwarded to me by the chairman of the Advisory Board, it apparently was sent to all members of the advisory board except to Jeff Bennett. This is what I found when I checked the open meeting law guide:

Bodies appointed by a public official solely for the purpose of advising the official on a decision that individual could make alone are not public bodies subject to the Open Meeting Law. For example, a school superintendent appoints a five-member advisory body to assist her in nominating candidates for school principal, a task the 1 Although the Legislature itself is not a public body subject to the Open Meeting Law, certain legislative commissions must follow the Law’s requirements. Open Meeting Law Guide Page 4 Version 3.18.15 superintendent could perform herself. That advisory body would not be subject to the Open Meeting Law. The Town Administrator and selectmen made the call to keep the health insurance as it is after some meetings last year so presumably, that could have been done this year and this committee by its name is only an advisory committee doing what the Town Administrator could do so does the open meeting law come into play? 

Bennett

However, with some exceptions, the town’s fiscal situation has since fallen more in line with neighboring communities. The number of building permits issued and their estimated value, as presented in Appendix A, Chart II, has declined and, after a spike in development, new growth, which is anticipated tax revenue associated with new construction, has returned to a more historic level. Consistent with the experience of most Massachusetts towns, Appendix A, Chart III shows a decline in home sales and an increase in foreclosures. Reflective of the regional economy, the unemployment rate as of June 2009 rose to 10.8 percent of the town’s working population, ranking it the 8th highest among all Massachusetts towns. See Appendix A, Chart I and Table I. Although Templeton has been moderately successful in its initiatives to stabilize the annual budget, the town is taxing to its levy limit and using all of its free cash to support recurring operating expenses that continue to escalate. While town meeting appropriated a “balanced budget” of $13,823,558 for FY2010 funded through a combination of property taxes ($7.27m), state aid ($1.53m), local receipts ($1.52m) and miscellaneous revenue ($3.5m), a significant portion was funded with free cash. As depicted in Appendix A, Table III, free cash is a healthy 6.4 percent of the budget or $882,486. Over the preceding two years however, the town has appropriated 100 percent of certified free cash or $1.55 million in total to supplement the budget.

The above material is from the DOR financial review of 2009.

Jeff Bennett