Well, at least the firms hired and paid to look at things and make suggestions are doing their homework???? Right!!

from the Collins memo concerning Advisory Committee:
TO:     Templeton Board of Selectmen 
FROM:    Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management
DATE:     October 16, 2017
RE:     Miscellaneous findings regarding the Advisory Committee in Templeton

Although the primary focus of this Community Compact project is Templeton’s budget document, process, and related financial policies, throughout the research for the project, the Center project team has become aware of various issues affecting the Town’s ability to develop its budget and financial policies. This memo addresses one of these topics: the role and responsibilities of the Town’s Advisory Committee. (Future memos may address other aspects of the process.)

Advisory Committee Vacancy Appointments :
  The Center project team was reviewing the Town’s finance‐related bylaws and noticed an unusual provision related to how the Advisory Committee is constructed (emphasis added): 

Article IV, Section 3. The said committee shall fill any vacancy which may occur in its membership, by vote, attested copy of which shall be sent by the secretary to the Town Clerk. If any member is absent from five consecutive meetings of said committee, except in case of illness, his position shall be deemed to be vacant and shall be filled as herein provided. The term of office of any person so chosen to fill a vacancy shall expire at the final adjournment of the next succeeding Annual Town Meeting, and the Moderator thereof shall appoint his successor to complete the unexpired term of the member in whose office such vacancy originally occurred.”

 The project team is aware of only one other town (Townsend) that similarly provides for the Advisory Committee to select its own members in the event of vacancies. In those towns where the Moderator is the appointing authority of the Advisory Committee (which is a plurality of Massachusetts towns), the Moderator typically fills vacancies that appear. Allowing a board or committee to appoint its own members, even for a short period of time, risks creating a situation where any traits or points of view can become self‐reinforcing. 

It would be worth considering a revision to the bylaw to remove this provision to reduce the potential that a future Advisory Committee becomes self‐reinforcing.

from the website of the town of Bolton, MA:

chapter 10; boards, committees and other bodies
article I Advisory committee

Templeton All Boards Meeting 

Monday, November 26, 2018, at 6:30 P.M 

Kamaloht-1 North Main Street, East Templeton, MA-01438 

Board of Selectmen is hosting this third joint meeting of all Town Boards and Committees

Agenda
1. Call the Meeting to Order
2. Chairman of SelectBoard ~ Finance & Progress Overview FY’18
3. Timeline & Outlook for FY’20
4. Round Robin of Board & Committee Members a. Needs/Wants for improved efficiency & service to the community; b. Possible Goals for their units c. Comments, Additions, Revision to BoS Goals
 5. Wrap-UP & Comments

You Are Invited!  

All Boards Meeting 

 Monday, November 26, 2018, at 6:30 P.M 

Kamaloht-1 North Main Street, East Templeton, MA-01438 

The SelectBoard will be hosting this third joint meeting of all our Town Boards and Committees on November 26, 2018. Based upon what we learned from the last two years’ meetings, we hope to improve upon this avenue of communication. The purpose of this meeting is several fold. Certainly, we hope to convey to you the progress we have made this past year. However, we also hope to hear from you with respect to your view of that progress, the direction you feel our organization should be heading in and - most importantly - your ideas of how we might better work together to improve communications, efficiency, and better serve our community. My fellow Board members and I look forward to seeing you on the 26th for some great communication!

The subject that no one seems to want to talk about:

Tax over ride for the school district. The district has said it will seek a tax override but so far, no amount or reason (s) have been given. The school supporting selectmen all of a sudden want answers about this, as if they seem upset, surprised or both. This subject has been talked about multiple times, especially this past budget season.  Get ready for an interesting time and remember, you have already voted on and approved three tax increases since May of 2018. In case you forgot, override for ambulance service, meals tax and the new animal control by-law that increased the cost of dog licenses and fines for any violations. It has been stated the tax increase will be significant. Then there will be the tax increase to pay for the building itself. Remember, you voted on that back in 2015, so enjoy all of the tax hikes you voted for and remember to break out the check book.

Countdown to 2020 Town Meeting

Checkpoint                                                                                  Day                          Date

Town Election                                                                             Monday                    May 20, 2019

Town Meeting                                                                             Wednesday               May 15, 2019

Advisory Committee Drop Dead to Issue Report                        Monday                    May 13, 2019(1)

Annual Town Report in Town Clerk’s Office                                Monday                    May 13, 2019(2)

Target Date for Voter’s Guide to be Available to Public              Wednesday                May 8, 2019

Drop Dead for Warrant & Advert to be Posted/Published           Wednesday               May 8, 2019(3)

Drop Dead for BoS to Submit Warrant to

Constable & Advert to Newspaper                                               Wednesday               May 1, 2019

BoS Takes Final Vote on Warrant                                                Wednesday               April 24, 2019

Advisory Committee Public Hearing on Budget TBD TBD Advisory Committee(4)

Drop Dead for Ballot Questions for Annual Town Election           Wednesday               April 17, 2019

BoS Drop Dead to Transmit ATM Warrant & Budget

Recommendations to Advisory Committee                                  Monday                     April 8, 2019(5)

Last Day to return nomination papers Monday April 1, 2019

BoS Adopts Budget & Warrant Recommendations                      Wednesday               March 27, 2019

BoS Budget Workshop (Answers to Q’s) SNOWDATE                 Monday                    March 25, 2019

BoS Budget Workshop                                                                  Thursday                  March 21, 2019

Desired Date for NRSD to Adopt OPEX budget                            Monday                   March 18, 2019

BoS Budget Workshop Presentations SNOWDATE                      Saturday                  March 16, 2019

BoS Budget Workshop – Presentations                                         Saturday                  March 9, 2019

ATM Warrant “Closes”                                                                     Monday                  March 4, 2019(6)

TA Presents Budget & Warrant Package                                        Wednesday             February 27, 2019

Nomination Papers Available at Town Clerk                                    Monday                  February 25, 2019

Drop Dead TA Concludes 2nd Review                                           Tuesday                   February 19, 2019

BoS “Opens” ATM Warrant to Citizen Petitions                              Wednesday              February 13, 2019(7)

Drop Dead TA Concludes 1st Review                                             Wednesday              February 6, 2019

Request to BoS for Suggestions of Cover & Dedication                 Thursday                  January 31, 2019(8)

Budget Estimate from WRRS                                                          Thursday                 January 31, 2019

House 1 w/Cherry Sheets Released                                                Wednesday             January 23, 2019(9)

TA 1 on 1 DH Reviews (Week of)                                                     Monday                   January 21, 2019

BoS Meeting w/Legislative Delegation for Session Review              Wednesday            January 9, 2019

Capital Improvements Committee Submits Proposed CIP                Wednesday           January 9, 2019

DH’s Submit all Budget & Warrant Materials to TA                            Wednesday           January 2, 2019

TA Sends “Budget Guidance” Memo out to all                                  Thursday                November 29, 2018

BoS Adopts Revenue Estimates                                                        Wednesday           November 28, 2018

Convention of the Committees                                                           Monday                 November 26, 2018(10)

Drop Dead for Monty Tech to apportion OPEX budget                      Friday                    November 16, 2018

BoS Finalizes Goals & Objectives                                                     Wednesday            November 14, 2018

BoS Holds Goal Setting Retreat                                                         Done

TO: Board of Selectmen
FROM: Carter Terenzini, Town Administrator
RE: Administrator’s Weekly Report
DATE: November 8, 2018
CC: All Departments

Important Notice to All Departments 

Open Positions 

On-Call Plow Operators - DPW 

Driver/Operator/Laborer – DPW 

Clerk – Treasurer/Collectors Office 

Accepting Applications for Hired Equipment for Plow Operations 

(Better tell dave smart Town is hiring big bad contractors)

Business Meeting or Workshop: This is to expand upon items where the attached memos may need some expansion or where a full memo was not required.

5. b. This is required to determine if you will have a single or split tax rate. Once you make this decision, we can finalize our submission to DOR of the so-called recap sheet and set the tax rate.

5. f. This is from your workshop of 11/07 with a few minor changes as discussed. Please notify us of any further changes you might like by CoB 11/13 that we can have them prepared for your final action on 11/14. 5. h. We had six great submissions which I narrowed down to three for interviews by me, Adam L. and Bob S. After presentations and interviews we narrowed our interest to the firm of Milone and MacBroom at which time we opened the fee proposal. Thankfully, upon opening the fee proposal, we found that they were within budget (As we told you the fees ranged from $35k to $143k. I’m not sure why the others were so high - and we had no clue which fee was tied to which vendor as I had the AA open them, so we knew only the range – but I will tell you it was a concern for a bit. Fortunately, their fee proposal allows us some room for change orders to develop the information required by various grant agencies.

5. i. This is to rollover the current BANs on the School and PD together with an additional tranche of $9m for the school. At this time, it appears we will have our credit rating in time to take a portion of the BANs to permanent financing in February. The balance will go to Bond about12 to 18 months later. This will mean there will be a full payment on those Bonds in the FY 20 budget and we can phase the tax rate impact in over a couple of years.

5. j. This is for the Board to discuss what type of presentation it will be making and what it hopes to gain from the All Boards Meeting.

Weekly Report: We had a meeting/tel con with representatives of FEMA, MEMA and Rich Curtis our EMD concerning emergency funding we are eligible for relating to the March 13-15 storm. We have completed a draft damage inventory and have a 60-day window to finalize it. We can get 75% of cost items which are above $3k resulting in a potential reimbursement to us of $17.5k+/- at this time. We filmed another Talk of the Town, completed another evaluation and prepared adverts for the several open positions and contract opportunities as well as finalizing Draft contacts for Stone Bridge and hired equipment.

 Interesting reading:

Today's Bible Lesson ... 

In today ’s world with President Trump getting hit daily, I decided a little Bible Lesson might be appropriate.

Remember what Jesus said: 'Goats on the left, sheep on the right' (Matthew 25:33). 

Jesus also told Peter that if he wanted to catch fish do it from the right side of the boat. He did and filled the boat with fish. 

John 21:6 (NIV) ... He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish." 

Origin of Left & Right… I have often wondered why it is that Conservatives are called the "right" and Liberals are called the "left". 

By chance I stumbled upon this verse in the Bible: Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV) - "The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.    Thus, sayeth the Lord.    Amen! 

It surely can't get any simpler than that. 

Spelling Lesson: The last four letters in American... I Can 

The last four letters in Republican........ I Can 

The last four letters in Democrats....... Rats