from the Town Administrator report on Templeton Town website
Town Hall will be closed on July 3rd
(All are using a vacation day) and July 4th!
Payroll for the week ending June 30, 2017 must
be submitted in hand or in the drop box by 7:30 a.m. on 07/05/2017!
Please remember the last date to submit bills for FY ’17 is 10 AM on Monday, July 10, 2017.
The following is intended to provide information where a full memo may not have been
warranted or supplement the provided information.
Business Meeting or Workshop: N/A
Weekly Report: I attended the several meetings w/Winchendon and DOR. I worked with Kelli on
the year end transfer to cover snow and ice. I want to recognize the hard work of the staff during
the re-organizations, staff vacancies, and restrained spending to cover not only this
$132k deficit
but the $200k FY ’17 budget deficit as well. You can be rightly proud of their selfless efforts in this
matter. We advertised the new Library Assistant to help cover the expanded hours, the Fire/EMS
Admin Assistant, and the two Highway Driver/Laborer positions. I met with the DPW Director and
Mechanic about the evaluation of all the unit’s rolling stock to try to develop a realistic plan to
address the multiple deficiencies across the fleet. They will pursue and report back within the next
two weeks. The balance of the week has been spent on the OML complaints to possibly be brought
by the Board, follow-up on the School project as I briefed you and other daily matters.
So, over 60 transfers in fiscal year 2016 (including some within the report of the Advisory Committee) a built in 200 thousand dollar deficit in fiscal year 2017, so far, a known 300 thousand dollar built in budget deficit in fiscal year 2018 and already the division of local services is telling the selectmen there will be trouble in fiscal year 2019. Leaving two positions unfilled, which allowed for money to be left over in the highway salary account, which was presented to the Advisory Committee in a request for transfer to pay town counsel bills. Then, there was the reason given for vacation roll over and one reason given at a selectmen meeting was due to shortage of workers in highway department. Sounds like that was due to inaction of the selectmen through the town administrator.
Time to watch town meeting of May 2016 when selectmen and then interim town administrator told town meeting that all was okay and the selectmen's budget was all good. I wonder if those 32 thousand dollars in raises contributed to the 200 thousand dollar deficit in FY2017?
Now as I watch the chairman of the board of selectmen state that the Attorney General's office agrees that there are OML violations and that office will do what ever the selectmen wish, (that is my opinion, arrived at by way of conversations with the chairman of the select board) I look back at statements of that individual, acting as veteran's service agent for Templeton and the whole revolving fund for veterans services, which now suddenly does not work. So, was that bad information, was it more lies, was it a combination? Who knows and whatever the case may be, I know I can no longer trust members of the board of selectmen, as actions by them in open meetings suggest I cannot trust them. When selectmen Diane Haley Brooks uses her elected position to retaliate against me, I think she forgot the training received by folks from MCAD. That is my opinion anyway and perhaps, as she states often, she did not process that information well. Again, in my opinion, perhaps she needs an interpreter. I strongly suggest the selectmen put more money in town counsel expense for the coming year.
posted by Jeff Bennett
