Once again, Templeton selectmen show they do not know town bylaws, do not understand them and this is a serious and sad state of affairs. First, Templeton has a bylaw on advisory committee, it states how members are appointed and who appoints them as well as when a vacancy happens during the year at any time.

One section of said bylaw states:

Upon the effective date of this revised article of the Town Bylaws, the terms of all existing members of the Advisory Committee shall terminate at the next Town Meeting; the Moderator shall then appoint five members to serve until the conclusion of the next Annual Town Meeting. The Moderator of the Annual Town Meeting shall, within 30 days after said meeting, appoint one member of said Committee for a term of one year, two members for terms of two years, and two members for terms of three years. After the term of these initial appointments, the Moderator shall within 30 days after the adjournment of every Annual Town Meeting, appoint for a term of three years the number of persons as may be necessary, to provide a committee of five members. The terms of office of said members shall commence immediately upon being sworn in by the Town Clerk and shall expire at the close of final adjournment of the Annual Town Meeting at which their successors are appointed. The Advisory Committee shall choose its own officers and its members shall serve without pay, and it shall cause to be kept a true record of its proceedings.

Another section states:

Vacancy - If a member resigns or is absent from five consecutive meetings of the Advisory Committee, except in case of illness, the position shall be deemed to be vacant and shall be filled as herein provided. The Advisory Committee shall notify the Town Administrator, who will first check to determine if there are any interest forms of Town registered voters on file to fill the vacancy. If none, the Town Administrator will ensure the vacancy is posted to the Town web site. The Select Board shall thereupon fill such vacancy of the Committee, and this appointment shall expire at the final adjournment of the next succeeding Annual Town Meeting. The Select Board shall instruct the Town Administrator to notify the Town Clerk and the Advisory Committee of any such appointment. The Moderator, at the next annual Town Meeting, shall appoint a successor to complete the unexpired term.

I submitted an interest form to serve on advisory, I attended BOS meeting to get appointed and when the item came up, the chairman of the select board asked me how I wanted to be appointed because we are less than 30 days from town meeting. Templeton just had a town meeting on November 15, 2023, which is after the town had our required by state law annual town meeting, which makes the November town meeting a special town meeting and the moderator cannot, according to the bylaw appoint anyone to advisory after more than 30 days have passed since the adjournment/dissolve our annual town meeting. Our selectmen need to read and understand town bylaws, those are "marching orders" from town voters, you know, the boss of the selectmen.

 Senior Tax Work-Off Abatement Program (the program) recognizes that many senior citizens can provide a wealth of knowledge and skills from which the Town could benefit in its various departmental needs. The program is designed to match municipal volunteer opportunities with eligible taxpayers in order to assist them with property tax bills, increase involvement in municipal government, and enhance municipal services by utilizing the skills and abilities of qualified volunteer residents. Under this property tax-relief program, eligible homeowners aged 60 or older volunteer their service to the Town and are compensated at a rate per hour of service that is credited to their real property tax bills. These credits may be in addition to any property tax exemptions that they may be eligible for under other statutes, such as personal exemptions under M.G.L. c. 59 § 5 or residential exemptions under M.G.L c. 59 § 5C. If eligible they may also defer the balance of their taxes under M.G.L. c. 58 § 5(41A).

Templeton selectmen and Council on Aging should put this matter before annual town meeting in order to lower age of senior work off and pursue and ensure residents are aware of additional programs to aid seniors in property tax relief. They deserve that effort.

 When reviewing the previous 15 EQVs, it becomes apparent that changes in values have had their ups and downs. Despite these fluctuations, there has been a 433% increase over 28 years. All four classes of property have seen major increases from the 1994 EQV to the 2022 EQV, with Residential showing the greatest increase and Industrial showing the smallest.

There has been a continuing increase in EQVs for all four property classes over the last four EQVs. Residential continues to represent the most significant change, increasing from $787B in 2014 to $1.3T in 2022.

Reviewing Commercial, Industrial and Personal Property EQV

Property is broken into four separate and distinct classifications. They are residential, commercial, industrial, and personal property. More information on property classification and taxation can be found here. When reviewing EQV broken down by classification, it’s important to acknowledge changes beyond those in the residential class. Commercial EQV has increased 60% from $116B to $186B. Industrial has increased 66% from $31B to $52B. Personal property has increased 63% from $28B to $46B.

The above information came from the MA division local services.

 Pete, Pete and repeattttt.

Just read weekly town administrator report. Under fire dept., it is the same message for 5 weeks in a row (must be good execution)

Apparatus/equipment: 4 gas meters from ladder 1 still out of service for repairs, Engine 2 out of service for normal oil change and service work. While returning from service work Engine 2 developed fuel and oil leaks. It remains out of service for repairs. Engine 3 light tower is out of service for repairs. The truck itself is in service.

 § 22-15

Motion to pass over articles.

A motion to "pass over" an article in the warrant shall not be entertained until a motion incorporating the substance of said article is before the meeting and at least one voter has spoken in favor thereof, unless, after a reasonable opportunity so to do, no voter makes such motion or speaks in favor thereof. A motion to "pass over" shall be debatable as to its merits but not as to the merits of the article.

At about 2:03;58 into town meeting, a motion to pass over article 11 was made by I believe Mathew Rivard second by selectman Griffis to pass over article 11. Clearly in the town bylaws, a motion on the article needs to be made first before any motion to pass over the article can be made. Since no main motion was made, kind of hard for anyone to speak in favor of the motion. Once again, this current board of selectmen failed to follow town bylaws and fail to even know them or perhaps ignore them.

The selectmen insist on making all the motions, so, they need to know the procedure (s) to do so.

 After reading the Templeton weekly report from town administrator, I have to think about is this coming to Templeton?

Officials in a suburban Chicago community have issued municipal citations to a local news reporter for what they say were persistent contacts with city officials seeking comment on treacherous fall flooding.

The tickets from Calumet City, a city of 35,000 located 24 miles (39 kilometers) south of Chicago, allege “interference/hampering of city employees" by Hank Sanders, a reporter for the Daily Southtown, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.

It's the latest of several recent First Amendment dust-ups involving city officials and news outlets around the country, following this week's arrest of a small-town Alabama newspaper publisher and reporter after reporting on a grand jury investigation of a school district, and the August police raid of a newspaper and its publisher's home in Kansas tied to an apparent dispute a restaurant owner had with the paper.

 Town resident questions his town government. Town employee does not like being questioned, interferes with his free time.

So, the town employee, Templeton town administrator uses tax dollars to complain that a few town residents are causing him grief because tey are asking questions and then said town employee states he is going to talk with chairman of select board, who is a government employee (outside of being a paid selectman) to make a list of names of people asking questions and for information (a job of government employees) and make it sound like the residents are costing tax payers money by asking questions.

So, if you follow along, a town employee, adam LaMontagne, is using tax dollars, is time, town paper, computers, etc., to complain that a few residents are asking too many questions, which as the town employee tasked with day to day stuff of town governance and one of the town's records access officers, he is using tax dollars to complain about having to do his job? Wonderful, even Bear is shaking his head at that one! If this was not so serious, it would be damn funny, a town employee using town money to complain about having to do his job, fantastic.

 

latest from Templeton town administrator weekly report.

Our office has been receiving daily public records requests this week which has triggered a queue.

Each will be handled on a first come, first serve basis within the allowable time. We have a couple habitual records requestors in Town. I will be looking into the possibility of adding a part-time public records access officer/archivist position for the Town to respond to each accordingly. I will be examining with the Chair to see if we should post a log within the Weekly of the requestor’s name and whether they were assessed a fee or not.

Well, well well, it has come to try and intimidate people for asking for public information.

Habitual records requesters, well, I, Jeff Bennett have been asking for many public records of late and I have no intention of stopping. I know of another person who is requesting alot of information because the TA and others in town government are less than transparent. State law is almost everything that comes into town hall is public information. The TA is one of the towns record access officers per MGL. Apparently he does not like doing that job. Again, better transparency, less lying, less bullshit and answer the questions and maybe you get fewer requests for records. Obey the law, follow town bylaws and follow your own policy and maybe get fewer requests. You are not going to embarrass me mr. TA, just going to make me dig more and request more, make you earn your 100K per year.