Deficit spending for snow and ice:

Section 31D: Snow and ice removal; emergency expenditures; reporting requirements

[ First paragraph effective until November 7, 2016. For text effective November 7, 2016, see below.]

  Section 31D. Any city or town may incur liability and make expenditures in any fiscal year in excess of available appropriations for snow and ice removal, provided that such expenditures are approved by the town manager and the finance or advisory committee in a town having a town manager, by the selectmen and the finance or advisory committee in any other town, by the city manager and the city council in a city having a city manager or by the mayor and city council in any other city; provided, however, that the appropriation for such purposes in said fiscal year equaled or exceeded the appropriation for said purposes in the prior fiscal year. Expenditures made under authority of this section shall be certified to the board of assessors and included in the next annual tax rate.

[ First paragraph as amended by 2016, 218, Sec. 74 effective November 7, 2016. For text effective until November 7, 2016, see above.]

  Any city or town may incur liability and make expenditures in any fiscal year in excess of available appropriations for snow and ice removal, provided that such expenditures are approved by chief administrative officer; provided, however, that the appropriation for such purposes in said fiscal year equaled or exceeded the appropriation for said purposes in the prior fiscal year. Expenditures made under authority of this section shall be certified to the board of assessors and included in the next annual tax rate.

  Every city or town shall annually, not later than September fifteenth, report to the division of local services of the department of revenue the total amounts appropriated and expended, including any funding or reimbursements received from the commonwealth, for snow and ice removal in the fiscal year ending on the preceding June thirtieth.

posted by Jeff Bennett

The best and the brightest? or who is on first?  A PILOT or no PILOT?

david smartFebruary 26, 2017 at 10:37 AM

To top it all off the light and water pay no PILOT to Templeton and board after board have little power to due anything about it.
WHY?

Wasn't it your board JEFFY that was the first time we were shorted the PILOT payments?
Good job there also!
With now power to do anything about it i might add.
Or maybe no desire to confront and get it back would be a fit.
You see i get the feeling your Buddy DANA another plow contractor would get upset about any involvement and cooperation or lack of you would have had back then.
It all adds up and i think we as in others minus you would have had a lot better results if it was without your help and involvement.
So which team are you on this time Jeffy?
One only has to think back and ask why didn't Jeffy ever go to any light and water meetings and help out the cause?
It's clear now!

pretty much says all that needs to be said!

posted by Jeff Bennett

Templeton Town by-laws -

Article IV - Advisory Committee

section 1. There shall be an Advisory Committee (not a board) consisting of seven legal voters of the town who shall be appointed by the Moderator as herein provided. No elective or appointive town officer or town employee shall be elgible to serve on said committee, except that a representative from the Advisory Committee shall be entitled to serve on Capital Planning and the insurance advisory committee. (That last one is in correct according to state law)

Section 5. In the discharge of it's duty, said committee shall have free access to all books of record and accounts, bills and vouchers on which money has been or may be paid from the town treasury. Officers, boards and committees of the town, shall, upon request, furnish said committee with facts, figures and any other information pertaining to their several activities.

Section 6. It shall be the duty of the Advisory Committee to make an annual report of its doings, with recommendations relative to financial matters and the conduct of town business, to be contained in the annual town report.

Labor contracts are town business, adding to debt in any way is town business. This current board of selectmen who signed off on contracts, have been so far unable to get a fire chief and now a town administrator. The board of selectmen I served on had no such problem and now the question (s) should be, why? What keeps getting in the way of getting these vital positions filled?

Why did the purchase of a truck not go through capital planning? Why would a board or department head go the deficit spending route? It seems the go around town meeting is the preferred route for some and that should be taken seriously and as an insult to the voters/taxpayers, in my opinion.

posted by Jeff Bennett

No one is fooled, not when the Town Administrator sends documents to the Advisory Committee stating things such as;
"Snow & Ice - Failure to plan for expenses of making sand." Who is in charge of planning a department expense such as "making sand" for winter time? Unplanned purchase of used truck for the fleet. Who is responsible for asking selectmen to buy a truck on credit, as in use the deficit spending law to get around capital planning and town meeting to buy a truck? Unplanned repair to machine that rescreens sand at the highway garage. Why is the sand rescreened? Was it not done properly the first time? Again, why is this repair being done on credit rather than from the maintenance expense account? Again, this action results in having to find more money to pay this bill which will become due. The town either has to find the money from existing funds, remember the last time when money was taken from fire/EMS salary to pay for snow & ice deficit then had to put some back because that caused a shortage in that account! So now highway department head, again goes to the credit card, the selectmen allow it and now that money will have to be found and again, it takes away from other departments. This is not new and is no surprise to this resident nor the Advisory Committee. We can read and we get financial updates.

The town administrator also included this:
"The issue that concerns me is to preserve as much of the reserve fund as possible until we approach year's end. An over transfer from the reserve fund is effectively trapped in the account into which it is transferred until May 1 of each year. Preserving as much of the reserve fund as long as possible provides us with maximum flexibility to manage the budget." Jeffy was not fooled again little Davey, but you may have been.

Notes on the expense ledger indicate that the fire/EMS account may again be targeted for transfer, as the note reads Firefighter/EMS salaries, with a balance of $118,733.56, as of February 2, 2017 has the note (May 1 source of $'s).

posted by Jeff Bennett

Lets overthink something:

According to the Templeton highway department shop steward, there are 7 guys on the highway team.
The labor contract for the highway union contains items such as a $250.00 boot allowance for each employee and according to the union steward, that could add up to $1750.00 per year. The other items are one free insulated jacket or one free pair of insulated coveralls, five tee shirts for each employee per year and the town will also purchase and provide free water-proof boots, gloves, rain gear and safety equipment to each of those seven employees each year. In 2018, the free boot allowance will increase to $300.00 per employee which will be, well $2100.00.
I made a point of suggesting that this labor contract, along with the other contracts the selectmen have agreed to contribute to further debt of the town. I also made a point of questioning whether these promises made to the highway union could be a reason why inspection services was short of funds again this year. Seems this happens alot in Templeton, many items end up being short of funds to make it through a fiscal year. As in these contracts and promises that have to have money set aside to cover them can take funds away that could have been used to cover other items such as inspection services. Question is/was; do these items in the contract equate to a reason (s) why there is not enough money to go around for ALL departments and expenses? There was a need or request to transfer $2500.00 from the town reserve fund to inspection services. Since if you add up all of the potential costs for all of the above items and not just the boots, you probably come up with more than $2500.00. Since the union steward only used the boot item and the figure of $1750.00, it appears that either the steward cannot read, cannot do 4th grade math or just chose to use one item in an attempt to muddy the waters, so to speak on a particular subject. That subject being the fact that I chose the highway contract to make a point on town finance and the actions of the selectmen. Apparently it is okay for the union steward to complain and pick on the light & water commissioners but no one is allowed to point out items on Templeton highway. By only using the boot allowance and the figure of $1750.00 to try and make someone look like they do not know how to add or that they do not under stand things, shows, in my opinion, that it just may be the shop steward who does not understand things. The shop steward is of course little Davey.

posted by Jeff Bennett

Advisory Committee Meeting

At last night's meeting, the committee voted five yes to approve transfer of $2500.00 from the reserve fund to inspection services. There were five of seven members present at the meeting. The transfer request was voted unanimously to be approved.

Committee voted to accept minutes of last meeting with no corrections.

Committee voted to ask for  department budget requests for the fiscal year 2018, so the committee can try to compare to the prior years and to have information to make sound recommendations to town meeting.

The committee will also be asking the town administrator to come to a meeting for some budget discussion.

The accountant budget is completed and the budget format for town meeting is in the works. There will probably not be much time for the advisory committee to look at and discuss the fiscal year 2018 spending plan for town meeting.

An important topic was looking at what is actually collected by the town with regards to revenue and the committee will be looking at that in more detail in the future and perhaps have it in it's report to town meeting. Another item discussed was the snow & ice deficit and how some purchases charged off to that fund may be questionable, for instance, a truck that is not exclusive to snow & ice. It did not seem to be a prudent, sound financial move in the opinion of some members. This means more money has to go to pay this "bill" which takes funds away from other items.


posted by Jeff Bennett

The calculator works and it shows the actions of the Templeton highway department, backed by votes of the Templeton board of selectmen add to the debt of the Town and at least two items may be questionable.

Buying a truck out of snow and ice simply because you can deficit spend is in my opinion, irresponsible. A truck is not exclusive to plowing and sanding the roads. Again, using the snow and ice deficit spending allowance to repair a screening plant in the middle of the winter is in my opinion, irresponsible. The screen is used for other purposes. This deficit spending is the same as using ones credit cards to get everything you want now, without the funds to pay for it. That bill will come due and those funds will have to come from somewhere, which again, takes funds away from other items.

Fifth grade math, well, just look at the fiscal 2017 spending plan and it is apparent that someone needs to stay for extra help!. Does the potential $1750.00 equal $2500.00? No, but add up ALL of the extra freebies in the highway contract and as I pointed out prior, one must look at ALL contracts involving labor to realize the effect these have on the added debt or future financial obligations of the town. It is really a simple thing to see.

If anyone looks to see, the last fiscal year, Advisory Committee recommended the amount of $8500.00 for inspection services to try and avoid these needed transfers. Because the same amount used in fiscal 2016 was used in fiscal 2017 and since 2016 was short, it stands to reason of this citizen and member of the Advisory Committee that you will probable be short again!

Lastly, I guess it is okay for Davey to pick on the Templeton light and water department, but if someone points out anything about the highway department, little Davey gets bent out of shape.

Sorry about that but one must look at the total and whole town and consider those things that have effect on other parts and like it or not, labor contracts have an effect and they are public records and they involve the spending of public monies. So perhaps Davey should brush up on his fifth grade math, because when you spend, you better have money to pay for it because you have to pay for it eventually, unless of course, you are spending other people's money.

posted by Jeff Bennett