Narragansett Regional School Committee forms a District Re-Organization Advisory Committee. One purpose of this committee will be to help guide the administrative team and school committee shape a vision for the future of the NRHS district.

Within this letter, which was distributed through the Town office, as was explained to me. The school committee wished the committee to be made up as follows;

1 school committee representative from each district town (Templeton & Phillipston)
1 select board member from each town
1 community member from each town
1 teacher from each school (5)
1 UFCW member from each unit (cafeteria, secretary, paraprofessional)
1 member from each town's Advisory/Finance committee
Town Administrator or equivalent from each town.

Here in lies my concern; Templeton Advisory Committee did not receive the invitation/notification; not a phone call, no email, no letter, which would or should have come by way of town hall, as in the board of selectmen's office. I found out by way of a newspaper article and then contacted the school district.
There was a deadline of sorts within the original letter; December 11, 2017.

My conclusion is this was a deliberate move to leave Advisory Committee out of the loop and make it appear Advisory did not care or was not paying attention. ( I suppose it could have been a lapse because of the holidays approaching ) :) I draw this conclusion based on past actions by the current town administrator and board of selectmen. Games, plain and simple, as in those calls for resignation and bogus open meeting law violations, which after much bluster and newspaper coverage, never went anywhere. The responses from the Advisory Committee were never appealed to the attorney general's office. Selectmen Fortes stated at a recorded meeting "that we have to be the adults here." - Then he posts a tweet of himself doing a face first plunge into a swimming pool with a beer in hand, now that is an adult!

I was at the BOS meeting when mention of the creation of this district committee was stated and that the district was looking for a member of the board of selectmen to serve on it, no mention of Advisory Committee, even as I sat there at that meeting. Sorry boys and girls, I am now on that committee! I thank the Narragansett School district Committee and the superintendent of schools for their consideration.

School building committee;

Ground breaking should begin/ is planned for spring of 2018. There will be a website through the school district where information will be posted on progress with regards to the project. Residents will also be able to contact town hall, the school district, the school committee as well as attend meetings and or watch the recording on tv. Also mentioned was a planned announcement of when the existing building will come down and that should be sometime after the first of the year.

Actual digging for the new school again will be in the spring, as in warm weather, so the people in the pictures with shovels and such will be comfy.

Missing in action was committee member Diane Haley Brooks, who did manage a "drive by" after the meeting had adjourned, picking up some paper work from committee member Hank Mason in the parking lot. Now that is dedication

Capital planning managed a quorum and conducted some business while agreeing to hopefully have recommendations ready by end of January, 2018 for the upcoming Annual Town Meeting.

Note; While there may be work going on at the site now, I believe the "ground breaking" will include the usual group photo with shovels and the actual work involved in building the new structure rather than site work such as erecting fences, bringing in equipment and probably demolition of the existing building. Feel free to contact the school district for more information.

TO:            Board of Selectmen
FROM:      Carter Terenzini, Town Administrator
RE:             Administrator's Weekly Report
DATE:        December 14, 2017
CC:             All Departments

Town Hall will be closing at noon on Thursday, December 21, for the Holiday. Other Town

Offices will be closed at noon on Friday, December 22, for the Holiday.

All Town offices will re-open on Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Important Notices

Budget and Legislative Packages Are Due January 2, 2018

Please make sure all of your units and committees are submitting their projects to the CPC

We are having a continuing problem with CH. 30B procurements. Please confer with this

office before entering into any purchase or contract with a value of greater than $2,500.00. 

More formal guidance will be issued in mid January after conferring with the BOS.

Business Meeting or Workshop: The following is intended to supplement agenda items where a full memorandum may not have been required or updates are needed.

Weekly Report:  We opened the bids for the timber cut at the landfill and highway site (s). Our estimate was for a gross income of $15k with a net of $10k. The actual bids are closer to a gross income of $21k with a net of $15k. This will be on your 1/08 agenda. We have rejected the Police Station bids. The Chief met with the project manager and others to try and see where the major differences were between the estimates and the final bids. He will be prepared to brief you at your January workshop along with a plan to go forward. The several offices of the Treasurer/Collector and Development Services have been relocated. While we have a few more things to do over the coming year, this should address the safety concerns expressed by the Town Auditor. That said, the new security features for the Treasurer/Collector will mean a need to relocate the copying and faxing activities of some to the hall copier or other methods. Eric arranged for Jackie Abbott from the State's Operational Services Division to come to Town Hall on Tuesday to train staff members how to use CommBuys for state-wide contracts. Jackie trained staff members on how to make purchases and post bids for services on CommBuys. The staff felt more confident and prepared to use CommBuys in the future after the training. Along with Eric Politt, the following people attended: Eric Baker Dispatch, Felicia Kuehl, the accounts payable clerk from NRSD, Holly Young from the BOS office, Mallory Seamon of development services and Pam Rogers from DPW office. COA and Fire both wanted to attend but had other obligations. They will receive training on CommBuys in the near future.


Assessors:  The past two weeks have been very busy in our offices as work was being done in getting bills ready for 3rd and 4th quarter billing. Exemptions have been posted; liens for utilities have been placed on the tax bills. The actual FY 2018 Real Estate and Personal Property Commitment was processed on Tuesday afternoon and the files have been sent to the Collector/Treasurer office to export to the billing company. This year's tax bills bring a tax rate of $16.72 (an increase of .60 cents per thousand valuation) One reason for the increase is for the elementary school feasibility studies that were never committed in 2009 and 2013 thru 2015. Also real estate property values have increased this year.

posted meeting for December 19, 2017:

1. Meet and Greet the New Committee
Chair-MAJ Michael Currie
Co-Chair Hal Bourgeois
Secretary SGT Christine Caplis
Treasurer Ted Furr
2. Approving Calendar FY14
3. Budget FY15
4. Director’s Operation Report (John Caplis).
5. New Business
a. Look at Bylaws
6. Set next quarters meeting dates.
7. Executive Session, if desired.

from the Templeton Town website:

Name
Title
Phone

Jessica Butts
Director of Veterans Services

This is one of the things that piss me off! Veterans should have a clear idea of who is in charge and whom to contact. The Veterans Committee should also know and post the correct information!

Anonymous8:06 AM

State facts or shut your trap!

Comments like this start all kinds of rumours, accusations, conspiracies

Some facts about Carter Terenzini;

He had an affair with an employee under his supervision.

He failed to disclose this in an interview for a job as Administrator/Manager.

He claimed to have a degree that he did not have.

One Town where he served as Administrator had residents bring forth an article to eliminate the position of Administrator, apparently after seeing the "writing on the wall" so to speak, Terenzini left.

In Spencer, Terenzini called people who wrote about him on line and other places the "maggots of malice"

You can find newspaper articles and even quotes from selectmen in towns where he has served to verify the above.

You can also be the judge if Terenzini has changed his management style or not. You can look into how things are going at Town Hall. 

Questions asked by the Advisory Committee:
Answered by the part time town administrator:

 Carter Terenzini
> 
> Town Administrator
> 
> Town of Templeton
> 
> 160 Patriots Road
> 
> East Templeton, MA 01438
> 
> 1.978.894.2753
> 
> From: advisorycommittee templeton1.org [mailto:advisorycommittee@templeton1.org] 
> Sent: Thursday, December 7, 2017 7:19 AM
> To: hyoung templeton1.org <hyoung@templeton1.org <mailto:hyoung@templeton1.org> >
> Cc: Carter Terenzini <townadministrator@templeton1.org <mailto:townadministrator@templeton1.org> >
> Subject: Advisory questions
> 
> Holly,
> 
> Before the committee questions, Advisory did agree to have a meeting on December 20, 2017, a Wednesday, at 6:00 P.M. at Town Hall in the conference room. This is an already scheduled/planned date for a meeting. I just wish to confirm with you that this is a good day/date/time. Planned items will be Advisory budget for FY2019 and Committee report for the ATR so as to meet time lines put forth by the administrator.
> 
> Now for the questions:
> 
> 1. - Is the BOS financial policy shown on the Town website under the BOS tab the most current up to date one or has there been changes or additions that have not yet been posted?

Holly Young -"I can answer the first question for you, however, the others will have to wait for Carter to answer when he is back in the office on Monday. The financial policy on the website is the latest completed one. It is on the agenda for Monday for an amendment to it to be voted. I’m assuming once that is updated, we will replace the current one on the website."
> 
> 2. - As to the 5 million dollar bond anticipation note (BAN) for the Town that was due to be settled by December 1, 2017 been paid off or has it been extended?
> 
> The Ban was paid out of a new BAN executed a few days earlier.  This is not uncommon of how things are done as we move a project toward permanent bonding.
> 
> 3. - Are there any other bond anticipation notes (BANs) out at this time?
> 
> We have four totaling $9.9M.
> 
> 4. - Does the Town have a firm to conduct the Templeton FY 2017 audit in pace and if so, who is it?
> 
> Roselli and Clark has conducted the FY 2017 audit under the terms of its agreement for FY ’13 through FY 17.  They have completed their field work.
> 
> Lastly, while this is not a question, the committee voted that it is not feasible at this time to give a hard date for the required pre-town meeting by the Advisory Committee. There is a time line requirement by aw and the committee will meet time line and forward it to this office in a timely manner.
> 
> Please let us know at your earliest convenience that Kelli and I might attend if we have not made a prior commitment. 
> 
> Also, Paul Grubb will be in touch with the administrator with regards to VADAR training days/dates. 
> 
> regards;
> 
> Jeff Bennett

Let's Work It Out: The Importance of Reconciliation
Melinda Ordway and Marcia Bohinc - Technical Assistance Bureau


All too frequently, headlines around the Commonwealth have reported the occurrence of missing money, misappropriations, or unauthorized spending in cities and towns. While the risk that a community may fail to detect fraud or otherwise safeguard its assets is a very real and critical problem, perhaps the strongest internal control for managing the situation is the performance of regular accounting reconciliations.

The Division of Local Services (DLS) has continually preached the importance of conducting frequent and prompt reconciliations. A reconciliation involves comparing two separately controlled sets of records to verify whether related account balances agree. This fundamental accounting process helps identify any unusual postings that could be caused by bookkeeping errors, or worse, by deception. The process of proving that transactions are in balance is essential for ensuring the integrity of general ledger data and mitigating fraud.


As a best practice, every community should conduct reconciliations of its two largest assets, cash and receivables, at least monthly to ensure records are accurate and no money is missing. However, the local volume of transactions may dictate that these reconciliations occur weekly, or even daily, given how time-consuming it can be to determine the source of discrepancies.

As the custodian of all revenues, tax titles, and tax possessions, the treasurer must keep a timely and accurate cashbook and reconcile this comprehensive journal of receipts and payments (including bank deposits and withdrawals) against bank statements each month. The collector maintains listings of the community’s various outstanding receivables, each of which is based on a receivable control. In this record of original entry, it begins with the initial tax commitment and tracks each processed collection, abatement, exemption, and tax title transfer, and is adjusted for each issued refund, resulting in the outstanding receivable balance.

After the treasurer and collector have internally reconciled their records, they should provide the balances to the accounting officer for comparison with the general ledger. The financial officers should then meet to discuss any identified discrepancies (caused by missing information, keying errors, timing differences, etc.) with the goal of resolving them. The results of these reconciliations should be reported to the community’s central manager or executive body to verify they were done and provide explanations for any outstanding variances.

Beyond cash and receivables, there are other bookkeeping records that must be periodically reconciled with the general ledger. These include the treasurer’s debt schedule and payroll with holdings, the assessors’ commitment and overlay charges, and other municipal and school department revenue and expenditure records.



To provide guidance and reinforce accountability, local officials should formally adopt a reconciliation policy that identifies each reconciliation to be conducted, assigns responsibilities, establishes deadlines, and requires the results be reported to the chief administrative or executive officer. Sample policies can be found in manuals posted on the Technical Assistance Bureau’s webpage. It should be every community’s goal to prioritize and complete regular reconciliations. Apart from the risk of potentially undetected revenue losses, the lack of timely reconciliations could delay or otherwise negatively impact the certification of free cash by DLS. It could also delay an audit engagement and result in a comment in the audit firm’s management letter.