Town Meeting Warrant; If you look over the warrant for the May 19, 2018 Templeton Town Meeting, you will find several articles involving Town By-laws. On May 2, 2018, at Advisory Committee meeting, the town administrator stated the codification study of Templeton by-laws are in, he has a book but he stated he has not reviewed it as of yet. There is also a CD/DVD in with the report as well. Apparently, this process has been complete for some time. So, why propose by-law changes now before reading a taxpayer paid for report? Why pay for something if you are not going to use it or ignore it and make changes that may have already been made by the company you spent money on? Makes me wonder about the competency of the entire board of selectmen. Unless the T/A is keeping this from selectmen or the selectmen are asleep at the wheel, so to speak, why would they vote those articles in? The T/A stated he planned to address this at a planned fall special Town Meeting. So, my question is, why not wait until the fall to propose the by-law changes, if needed?

VOTE Jeff Bennett for Selectman

Recently, a  source tells me long time Templeton employee Carol Lee Eaton has been given an option; resign or be fired. There may have been a mistake made by her. Considering the number of mistakes, some continue still, by the Town Accountant and current Town Treasurer/Collector, why does this employee receive this treatment?

If you read the FY 2017 audit report, you will find on page 10 that the Town continues to improperly account for the E911 grant funds. Whose responsibility is it to track Town funds, to check Town expenses and record them as legal, charged to the correct fund and ensure there is enough money in each fund to cover charges? Why the Town Accountant. Why do the managers of Templeton (selectmen) continue to overlook this employee while they seem to hold all others to a different standard? Perhaps less time spent meddling in politics and more time spent on the job for which you are paid to do.

There is much talk of low attendance at Town Meeting, hard to get volunteers for committees and even candidates to run for office. Perhaps part of the problem is a failure of management to treat all the same and to put things forward in a truly open and honest fashion. Perhaps what is needed is a selectman who will speak to this and who will point out such things as expenditure reports continually showing mistakes. Enough with the "keying errors."

It is truly time for a change, please VOTE Jeff Bennett for Selectmen

If you are paying attention, the FY 2017 Annual Town Report is now posted on Town web site. The following comes from the selectmen portion of the report:

Future Aspirations
As Templeton continues to progress towards financial stability the Board plans to change focus
from financial correction to financial efficiency & operational standardization. We intend to
explore both of these routes equally in order to promote a healthy work space and cost effective
savings for the tax payers. We are hoping to increase communication with surrounding towns to
discuss openly points of possible synergies and methods of strategies. Encouraging department
heads to reach out to other department heads from neighboring communities for ideas and
promoting training of our current staff to allow them to think about how their job can be done
more effectively while maintaining extraordinary service.

On page 78 of that report is an item from the special Town Meeting of October 20, 2016. It was about FY 2017 budget supplement.

On a motion duly made and seconded the town voted to amend the 2017 annual town
budget as voted in Article 4 at the annual town meeting to add the sum of Eighty-Seven
Thousand Five Hundred One Dollars and No Cents ($87,501) to the long term debt
service line of that budget (Account No. 100-710-700-59-5910-000), and further to
transfer said sum from the stabilization fund to pay for the foregoing
Defeated/October 20th @ 7:56 by hand count requested by 7 or more voters.

Prior to the vote, Advisory Committee member Jeff Bennett pointed out that according to the current balance number given to the Advisory Committee before the meeting, that $87K represented about half of the stabilization fund and that it did not seem prudent to make that move. Thank fully it did not happen, as Advisory found out later, the actual balance of the stabilization fund at the time of the meeting was around $90,000.00. After that vote and meeting, selectmen began a verbal assault on Advisory Committee, even going so far as to profess that people needed to get the permission of the Moderator regarding what material people can bring into Town Meeting with them. No, the moderator is not the paper police. If you check, Julie Richard was a member of the select board at that time and I was a member of the Advisory Committee. Now, I would like to represent you on the Board of Selectmen, where I will speak up for you.

It is time for a change, I ask that you VOTE Jeff Bennett for selectmen. Thank You.

Interesting item from last Advisory Committee meeting; The Town Administrator presented the committee with an end of year financial transfer request. Transfer from Insurance and Benefits fund to Veterans Fund. Amount of transfer request is $7,000.00. The amount shown to still be in the Veterans fund as of April 27, 2018 is $5,365.00. The amount shown to be in the Insurance & Benefits Fund as of April 27, 2018 is $519,538.00.

From the 3rd quarter financial report from Town Accountant dated April 23, 2018, Insurance & Benefits shows $745,860.27

A month earlier, expenditure report dated March 22, 2018 shows Insurance & Benefits as $747,776.49

Will be interesting to see what the end of year balance is for Insurance & Benefits, as in what is left over, if any.

I also have to question why a Town with a general fund spending plan of over 8 million dollars is going to use a meals tax, which does not even exist yet, as a basis to support 3 year leases on a car and a truck (police cruiser and highway one tone truck) while letting about $196,000.00 roll forward, untouched. I have to question why create 2 new 3 year bills when you do not have to. Spend the money you have and put the leftover into capital stabilization fund.

The warrant article states a three year lease for both vehicles at $42,000.00 per year with a limit of $126,000.00. If you just use the $126,000.00 as the case price for both items, there would still be $70,000 to put into capital stabilization without creating new bills that now have to be funded with future unknown money. What if the meals tax does not pass? Again,my view is it is a foolish move to let that $196 thousand roll on and bet on an unknown.

It is Time for a change - VOTE Jeff Bennett for Selectmen

SUMMARY:  Overlay and Overlay surplus

These guidelines explain recent amendments made by the Municipal Modernization Act that impact the Allowance for Abatements and Exemptions (overlay). St. 2016, c. 218, §§ 131, 133 and 152. They explain the statutory standard for maintaining an adequate overlay and the actions the Commissioner of Revenue (Commissioner) may take when approving a tax rate or determining available funds (free cash) to ensure compliance with that standard. Overlay is an account to fund anticipated abatements and exemptions of committed real and personal property taxes. The overlay amount is determined by the board of assessors (assessors) and may be raised in the tax rate without appropriation. Excess overlay is determined, certified and transferred by vote of the assessors to a Fund Balance Reserved for Overlay Released by the Assessors for Expenditures (overlay surplus). Overlay surplus may then be appropriated by the legislative body for any lawful purpose until the end of the fiscal year, i.e., June 30. Overlay surplus not appropriated by year-end is closed to the general fund undesignated fund balance. G.L. c. 59, §§ 23 and 25.

This is posted so as to try and inform people of what the item is and how it is used. If you hear or see overlay surplus at Town Meeting, now you will hopefully have an idea of what it is and how or why it comes to be.

In case you are paying attention:

If you look on the Templeton Town web site under departments and click Town Administrator, then click on the FY2019 Town Meeting Warrant, look at article 21; fiscal year 2019 General Fund operating budget (OPEX) and you will see a dollar figure of $8,220,298.00.

If you stay at the same place and look through the budget book presentation, sections 1-3, move down until you come to the summary - General Fund Operating budget and look down at the total: $8,315,481.00 is what you will see.

In the hard copy (paper) book that was handed out to selectmen and Advisory Committee members, we go to the same page, General Fund Operating Budget and we see a total of $8,220,231.00.
That was an "update"passed on to Advisory on April 9, 2018. So, which one is correct? Which one did the select board vote on? Do they know?

What is voted on at Town Meeting will be, but why don't all the dollar figures match?
How is putting conflicting information on the Town's website for taxpayers helping anyone out?

Does anyone remember the MA DOT complete streets program? Templeton is a compact member. According to the website, Templeton does not have or it did not work on the complete streets best practice policy. The website does not show any projects for Templeton. I recall this grant program was going to be used to aid in the design / re do of Wellington Road and part of South Road with regards to the area around the new school. I wonder if this is going to be another good opportunity left untapped by the selectmen like the CDBG program. That is the program used to rebuild infrastructure in the Back Bay area of Baldwinville. Water lines, drainage, sidewalks and road beds. Perhaps they are too busy with writing policies. Of course if you do not show up for meetings, it is hard to bring these things up.

The key word or phrase is complete streets best practice policy and the DOT web site shows a no for Templeton. No projects approved for FY 2017, rounds 1 and 2. No projects approved FY 2018 round 1 and 2. No prioritization plan approved yet either according to the website.

 VOTE

for Jeff Bennett for Selectmen