How the selectmen and Town Administrator budget and plan????

A financial transfer request dated June 29, 2017 to transfer $12,500.00 from town vehicle fuel to help pay for the snow & ice deficit. Within the general ledger printout for snow & Ice are bills from Huhtala Oil Co. totaling $24,585.84.

So, charged off under the guise of snow & ice is fuel for the trucks and within the budget versus actual document from the town accountant is a fund for town vehicle fuel. It shows $73,000.00 appropriated with $52,312.97 used and $20,687.03 left. That document is dated June 29, 2017.

The game: Town meeting (registered voters) are asked for an amount of money to pay for fuel for town vehicles and the people approve it. Then the selectmen and town administrator "charge" all fuel used during the winter storms. They then use money from the town vehicle fuel account to help pay that "charged" stuff off. I think most people can and do understand keeping track of what is spent on snow removal but I think the game of moving money around is an attempt to show there is more money available than there really is. That is what I think turns people off and is one of the reasons the voters are reluctant to give more of their  tax dollars up. They simply do not trust the people who are spending their money; too many games, too many curtains.

The Templeton Advisory Committee submitted it's report for the 2016 annual Town report and included were many financial transfers, that are not shown anywhere else in that report. Unfortunately, someone in the selectmen's office decided not to include that information in the annual town report. That information will now supposedly be included in the financial supplemental report due out later this year, we shall see!

posted by Jeff Bennett