Special financial report to be published and it will not contain Town employee salaries, according to the Town Accountant. "It will be written according to the Town by-laws."
So what does the Town by-law say - Article VIII Records and reports.
Section 4. states The annual town report shall contain, in addition to the reports of officers, boards, and committees as herein before provided, a detailed report of all monies received into and paid out of the town treasury in the financial year next preceding. In my opinion, salaries are monies paid out of the town treasury, what do you think? showing separately payments made from the proceeds of loans as capital outlays for permanent improvements; the report of the collector of taxes, of receipts, payments and abatements; statements of all funds belonging to the town or held for the benefit of its inhabitants; a statement of the liabilities of the town on bonds, notes, certificates of indebtedness or otherwise, and of indebtedness authorized but not incurred, and the purpose thereof : a statement of transfers made to or from any appropriation; abstracts of the records of the meetings of the town held since publication of the last municipal year: and such other matters as the said report is required by law to contain, or as may be inserted by the selectmen under the discretion granted them by law.
So I will be making a public records request for a list of salaries for all town employees as that involves the spending of public monies and we will see where that leads.
On anther note, apparently the continued blogging about policies and procedures and the selectmen leaving public comment off the agenda (for the past 4 months) brought selectmen Brooks to broach that subject. Again, we will see for the next selectmen meeting if it is included on the agenda.
Now to go thru the meeting calendar and try to get an idea of how long it has been.
Oh, the selectmen are great dancers!
posted by Jeff Bennett
PS: to all the peeps on DHB face book - Howdy!
I dont get it. It seems our BOS is adamant about not following "Policies and Procedure". Last night when talking about 8 employees request to roll over vacation time it was said, by Diane, that she had concerns because 2 of the people didn't qualify for rollovers under the "competitive bargaining contract" with the union.
ReplyDeleteThere was all kinds of talk. Suggestions on warning people in the future. Allowing them to do it this year but sending out notices about future years, etc. I made the simple solution to follow our "Policies and Procedures". All of a sudden Diane starts talking about a 30 yr employee, 50 hours of vacation and potentially loosing the employee. None of this apparently involves anyone from the actual list of 8, but it was used to justify avoiding the Policy. Carter then chimes in by defending the 6 people who nobody had a problem with to begin with. I felt like I was riding in the clown car. At one point Doug mentioned the fact that they hadn't denied anyone rollover in 10yrs and somehow the Board was convinced that because they hadn't denied anyone in 10 yrs their was Precedent. All I could hear was, "it's in the past"! Welcome to the future, "same as it ever was, same as it ever was"
Really, We have precedent for many things. Does this mean we wont be doing audits for 5 years, we have precedent. Will we be splitting bids? We have precedent! Will we be commingling funds? We have precedent! I guess my point is just because you haven't followed the rules over the past many years isn't rational for continuing not to follow them!!!!
I'm reasonably sure that Cameron didn't take part in the editing of the "Bad check Policy" as it still read as disorganized, inconsistent in it verbiage and swapped terms throughout the Policy.
I firmly feel that the Advisory Committee should of had input in the editing prior to it being brought up at the meeting for approval at it deals with financial matters. As Will stated we already had a check policy and I see nothing in the new updated version that greatly improves the task with the present edits.
Just my observation and opinion.
Around and around they go, where will they stop ? Nobody knows ! But I know ! Right where they started ! Making policies when there is one already! Great waste of time ! When are Diane's people going to tell her to smarten up. Bob M is right ! There is only two ways to do anything, the right way and the wrong way ! It does seem that there is not a leader in the whole bunch ! That is sad, and leaves us open to more fiscal abuse ! When are the people in this town going to say , enough ? I know the answer to that also. When they get the first tax bill with the school on it ! What no $1.74 ?
DeleteWas just reading the T&G while trying to get cool........ahhhhhh. Noticed another update from Rutland, Paxton..
ReplyDeleteWachusett Regional school board cuts budget, will try again for OK from Rutland and Paxton.
If both fail to approve their budget assessment by July 1, the school district will come under state fiscal management, with the state commissioner of elementary and secondary education to set a month-to-month budget for the district.
Relevant? I think so.
It's called a 1 - 12th budget and they do it till the nuclear option is used.
ReplyDeleteLike here they exhaust the shell games and then go nuclear. School closings and where have we seen that play out. Gee i wonder if they said they drop teachers like Wiese did before Miller took over. After they get caught i the lies they usually move to another school system.
This is becoming an unmanageable issue for many towns, cities, States along with Pension liabilities. We as a Country, State or Town need to pay for things with todays money and stop pushing the bill down the road. It only leads to bankruptcy. An article today about Hartford shows how vulnerable all communities are to this stuff.
ReplyDelete