The amended Town by-law now states:

AR

Article 20 Change to the Town budget process

To see if the Town will vote to change Article IV “Advisory Committee,” Section 4 of the Town By-Laws to read: 

“It shall be duty of the Town Administrator in conjunction with the BOS to consider expenditures and develop a budget for the ensuing fiscal year of the several boards, officers and committees of the town, as prepared by them in such form and detail as prescribed by the Town Administrator.”; or take any other action relative thereto. 
Submitted by the Board of Selectmen

On a substitute motion duly made and seconded the Town voted that Article III “Town Officers“ of the Town By-laws be herby amended:

4. “It shall be duty of the Town Administrator in conjunction with the BOS to consider expenditures and develop a budget for the ensuing fiscal year of the several boards, officers and committees of the town, as prepared by them in such form and detail as prescribed by the Town Administrator.”

Passed Unanimously/May 19^th @ 8:38pm

So, article III of the town bylaws, section 4 had said the town created a town administrator, then the following year, that seems to have been amended, so the question is, did the selectmen by way of town meeting choose to repeal that part of the by-laws or did they mean to create a section 4a. That question was posed to town legal counsel and the opinion was, before going to town meeting, perhaps the selectmen and Advisory committee should have a meeting and try to come to an agreement on how the process should go. To date, that meeting has not taken place.

posted by Jeff Bennett

May 14, 2013, Annual Town Meeting - Article presented by the Board of Selectmen.



Article 46 To see if the Town will vote to amend Article III of the Revised General By-laws by adding the following new section 4 or to take any other action related thereto: Section 4: Town AdministratorThe Selectmen are authorized and empowered to appoint an executive secretary or town administrator who may be appointed by them for a term of one or three years and to remove him at their discretion. An executive secretary or town administrator appointed under the provisions of this section shall be sworn to the faithful performance of his duties. During the time that he holds office he shall hold no elective town office, but he may be appointed by the selectmen or, with their approval, by any other town officer, board, committee or commission, to any other town office or position consistent with his office. He shall receive such aggregate compensation, not exceeding the amount appropriated therefore, as the selectmen may determine. He shall act by and for the selectmen in any matter which they may assign to him relating to the administration of the affairs of the town or of any town office or department under their supervision and control, or, with the approval of the selectmen, may perform such other duties as may be requested of him by any other town officer, board, committee or commission.
Submitted by the Board of Selectmen 

On a motion duly made and seconded the town voted that Article III of the Revised General By-laws be amended, by adding the following new section 4, as follows: Section 4: Town Administrator- “The Board of Selectmen is authorized and empowered to appoint a town administrator who may be appointed for a term of one or three years, and to remove the town administrator at their discretion. The town administrator appointed under the provisions of this section shall be sworn to the faithful performance of the duties of the office. During the time that the town administrator holds office the town administrator shall hold no elective town office, but may be appointed by the Board of Selectmen or, with their approval, by any other town officer, board, committee or commission, to any other town office or position consistent with the town administrator’s office. The Town Administrator shall receive such aggregate compensation, not exceeding the amount appropriated therefore, as the Board of Selectmen may determine. The Town Administrator shall act by and for the Board of Selectmen in any matter which the Board may assign to the town administrator relating to the administration of the affairs of the town or of any town office or department under their supervision and control, or, with the approval of the Board of Selectmen, may perform such other duties as may be requested by any other town officer, board, committee or commission.” And, further, to reflect the above-mentioned amendment to Article III of the Templeton Revised General By-Laws, the following Templeton Revised General ByLaw sections will also be amended by replacing the title of “Town Coordinator” with the title of “Town Administrator” in Article XLII-Capital Planning By-Law- Section 1: And in: Article XLVII-Personnel By-Law –Section 3(b) and Section 3 (c) Passed/May 16th @ 8:37

This was the by-law in 2013 and going into the annual town meeting of 2014.

Jeff Bennett was a member of the Board of Selectmen at the time this was passed, in an attempt to bring professional help to the town, which was/is desperately needed.

posted by Jeff Bennett

At the risk of being accused of sounding like a broken record, I am posting this to inform residents of action taken by selectmen that would seem to go against Templeton Town by-laws.

Article XLII - Capital Planning by-law

Section 1. Capital Improvement Committee:

The Board of selectmen is hereby authorized to establish and appoint a Capital Improvements Committee, to be composed of five members, for a term of one year.

The following boards and committees shall nominate one of their members to serve annually:

The Advisory Committee
The Board of Selectmen
The School Committee
The Planning Board
A member from the community (preferable with some relevant experience in purchasing or general business practices)
The town administrator or town accountant as exofficio member.

The committee shall chose it's own officers.

Section 2: Committee duties;

To facilitate the reasonable acquisition and replacement of capital items (defined as assets and projects with a useful life of five or more years, and a cost of more than $10,000.00)

So the question could be; Did the selectmen knowingly go against the Town by-law with regards to capital purchase of a truck with a cost of more than $10,000.00? Said truck was purchased by way of using deficit spending (as in spending money you have not appropriated nor perhaps do not have). This now adds to the total of money spent that must now be made available to pay, from where and at what cost to other things? Will something else have to suffer to pay for these items?

Another part of this by-law is:
It is the intent of this by-law that all capital improvements requested by a town department or board be considered in the committee's report before presentation to the town for appropriation. I suppose one more way to get around town meeting is to purchase said truck by way of the old charge account, snow & ice deficit spending.

posted by Jeff Bennett