Templeton General Town by-laws Article IV - Advisory Committee
Section 4. - It shall be the duty of the Advisory Committee (there is no TAB or advisory board) annually to consider the expenditures in previous years and the estimated requirements for the ensuing year of the several boards, officers, and committees of the town, as prepared by them in such form and detail as may be prescribed by said committee. The said committee shall add to such statement of expenditures and estimates, another column, giving the amounts which in their opinion should be appropriated for the ensuing year, and shall further add thereto such explanations and suggestions relating to the proposed appropriations as it may deem expedient, and report thereon as provided in section five of article II.
That is what the Town by law states and it, along with Massachusetts general law, is what some members of the Advisory Committee has stated and made a case for for some time. In fiscal year 2014, that committee got their shot and some mistakes were made. Then the town's people, in my opinion, decided to go back to listening to the selectmen and so we got fiscal year 2017.
Now who is blaming who for the 2017 mess, the selectmen, so Bev, were the selectmen setup too?
You cannot have it both ways, mess up in 2014 and blame management for everything. You can of course, get information that is wrong, which in my opinion, is why several sources should be used.
If you want responsibility for something, then you must also take responsibility when things go wrong as well as when they go right. Can't blame the selectmen for 2017 then turn around and blame management for something you put together. That does not fly and people will see that. You lose elections, faith and belief from the people. You also lose trust which is very hard to get back, in my opinion. Past Town meeting records were available, past annual town reports were available along with past town tax recap sheets were available. There are many sources of information as well as the advisory committee having access to the Massachusetts division of local services technical division.
Some mistakes were made, not the first and apparently not the last. Which is why I believe that two entities rather than one should be looking, discussing and voting on the expense appropriations to be presented to the town, rather than only one.
I wonder if Dave Smart has ever file charges in court against the Town?
posted by Jeff Bennett
I have no problem working with the selectmen on anything. I certainly think our Advisory Committee has more knowledge than the selectmen as far as the budget goes. I do think the selectmen were setup by the TA they had faith in. I doubt the selectmen even knew what was in the budget that was passed at the ATM, seeing it was not the budget they approved. Warning signs were flashing but either the selectmen did not see them, or they were ignored. A lot of mistakes were made in 14, and the years before and after that. The Advisory Board used the numbers they were given. Were they setup ? Yes, in a way they were, in my opinion, but the Town was also. Who would hire a young lady at a selectmen's meeting even when she said she didn't know the job, but would try. Well we are paying for that mistake, big time. I wonder what the bill will be in the end, when we find out how deep the hole is that we are in ? We cannot afford any more mistakes
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