In case it has slipped anyone's mind. . . . .
from the 2009 Department of Revenue Financial management review of Templeton:
2. Prohibit Elected Officials from Holding Any Other Position
Article IV of the town bylaws already prohibits an elective or appointive town officer or town employee
from serving on the town advisory board. In its personnel policy, with the exception of two selectmen and an
advisory committee member, no elected or appointed official may serve as a personnel board member. With
these precedents in place, we recommend that the town approve a bylaw precluding all elected officials from
serving in any other elected or appointed positions. This will allow them to focus on their primary
responsibilities.
Two current selectmen, one of whom also serves on the personnel board and the other as an elected
light & water commissioner, are continually at odds. It is our impression that their adversarial relationship
arises as well when the board of selectmen addresses issues that involve the personnel board, the light &
water commission, or the sewer commission. The extent to which their differences impact the progress of
town business is reason enough to enact a bylaw that makes elected or appointed officials ineligible to serve
on other boards and committees. If a bylaw were to pass, each selectman would fill out the remainder of his
or her term on other boards and commissions.
from Templeton Town by-laws:
Article III – Town Officers
Section 1. The Selectmen shall have the general direction and management of the property and
affairs of the town in all matters not otherwise provided for by laws or these ByLaws.
(a) Selectmen shall not serve in any other elected capacity within the Town or
Municipal Light Department as recommended in 2009 DOR Financial Management
Review.
Passed 5-16-13
The above causes me to have a head scratching moment while reading an article from The Gardner News recently. In the article, which appeared in the Saturday, March 26, 2016 edition, there was mention of one person going for an elected position on Board of Selectmen and an elected spot on the Board of Health. Personally, if someone wants to go for two elected positions, I say go for it. From my experience, being a selectmen required a great amount of my time, to do what I thought was needed to do the job at hand. Also, if one is trying to get a seat on the Board of Selectmen and to represent the people of Templeton, is it a good thing to flip the people off, with regards to their by-laws. You know, the rules selectmen expect them to follow. To be sure, running for something and getting elected are two different things, but if asked, how does one answer the question of, are you aware of the Town by-law prohibiting you from doing what you appear to be trying to do? Of course, if you pay the $20.00 fine for violating a by-law, what else do you face, from a punishment factor?
Perhaps one can go before the Board of Appeals and get a waiver?
Jeff Bennett
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Sunday, March 20, 2016
A piece of interesting news from Hubbardston, MA;
Police Chief Dennis Perron could be the Chief that other Towns need to look to. In an article in The Gardner News, page one & four, weekend edition March 19-20, 2016, the Chief states "he doesn't see the need for a secure lock-up. With the advent of the regular lock-up being built in West Boylston, I don't see the need for a secure lock-up in this station." "That one meets the standards that we need to meet, Detainees can also be brought to Rutland." Chief Perron also went on to say "officers would have to watch detainees 24-7 in the station, adding to costs. He added that a temporary booking pocess will do, moving detainees somewhere else immediately after." Could Chief Perron be the one who is being honest and practical when talking about taxpayer dollars? To be sure, Chief Perron and Fire Chief Hayes are trying to get a police/fire complex funded and built in Hubbardston, but Chief Perron seem to be doing what most chiefs and department heads do, embellish their importance and their need for big spacious buildings that require this and that.
This is a Chief I would like to talk to and find out what is really involved in taking a prisoner to say the West Boylston lock-up, as in who watches them after they arrive there and who is responsible for transport to say Gardner district court. I think we can look at the schools for ideas, regionalized school districts because it does not make sense for Templeton to have a high school and Phillipston to have a high school with all the associated costs involved in two buildings versus one. Just like it is a good business decision to close three old school buildings and go to one, you only have one furnace to operate and maintain, one parking lot to plow, etc, etc. The money pie is only so big and with everyone going after pie, the slices are getting thinner/smaller and smaller and perhaps not to far off, their is simply not going to be enough pie to go around.
Speaking of pie, the Templeton dispatch pie is getting expensive, especially for Templeton pie bakers (taxpayers) with them providing the pie dish, the oven and the gas to cook the pie. My opinion is this; divide the pie and the costs associated with it in half and then send half the costs to Phillipston in the form of a bill. It is time for Templeton residents/taxpayers to get an even break and it is time for Phillipston residents/taxpayers to pay their fair share. That needs to come via the Templeton Board of Selectmen, time for them to stand up for Templeton and negotiate a tough but fair contract with Phillipston concerning dispatch. It is time for selectmen to stick up for the people who elect them, Templeton residents. It is simply business, nothing personal.
Jeff Bennett
Police Chief Dennis Perron could be the Chief that other Towns need to look to. In an article in The Gardner News, page one & four, weekend edition March 19-20, 2016, the Chief states "he doesn't see the need for a secure lock-up. With the advent of the regular lock-up being built in West Boylston, I don't see the need for a secure lock-up in this station." "That one meets the standards that we need to meet, Detainees can also be brought to Rutland." Chief Perron also went on to say "officers would have to watch detainees 24-7 in the station, adding to costs. He added that a temporary booking pocess will do, moving detainees somewhere else immediately after." Could Chief Perron be the one who is being honest and practical when talking about taxpayer dollars? To be sure, Chief Perron and Fire Chief Hayes are trying to get a police/fire complex funded and built in Hubbardston, but Chief Perron seem to be doing what most chiefs and department heads do, embellish their importance and their need for big spacious buildings that require this and that.
This is a Chief I would like to talk to and find out what is really involved in taking a prisoner to say the West Boylston lock-up, as in who watches them after they arrive there and who is responsible for transport to say Gardner district court. I think we can look at the schools for ideas, regionalized school districts because it does not make sense for Templeton to have a high school and Phillipston to have a high school with all the associated costs involved in two buildings versus one. Just like it is a good business decision to close three old school buildings and go to one, you only have one furnace to operate and maintain, one parking lot to plow, etc, etc. The money pie is only so big and with everyone going after pie, the slices are getting thinner/smaller and smaller and perhaps not to far off, their is simply not going to be enough pie to go around.
Speaking of pie, the Templeton dispatch pie is getting expensive, especially for Templeton pie bakers (taxpayers) with them providing the pie dish, the oven and the gas to cook the pie. My opinion is this; divide the pie and the costs associated with it in half and then send half the costs to Phillipston in the form of a bill. It is time for Templeton residents/taxpayers to get an even break and it is time for Phillipston residents/taxpayers to pay their fair share. That needs to come via the Templeton Board of Selectmen, time for them to stand up for Templeton and negotiate a tough but fair contract with Phillipston concerning dispatch. It is time for selectmen to stick up for the people who elect them, Templeton residents. It is simply business, nothing personal.
Jeff Bennett
Saturday, March 19, 2016
I did not realize that the version of the Warrant used by the TAB to add in votes and recommendations was the version with erroneous account numbers. So we printed that version and took copies to the STM. In the meantime, I created the PowerPoint presentation and gave a copy of the final, accurate version of the Warrant to the Town Clerk. At the Town Meeting, the motion for Article 4 was read from the PowerPoint slide --- it had the correct account numbers. The certified copy from the Town Clerk also has the correct account numbers.
Because both the Warrant and the Operating Budget change and evolve during the process, I decided to prevent any confusion with differing versions by posting the official copy in the cloud and giving Selectmen and TAB members access.
N.B. The FY'17 budget continued to evolve this week when our assessment from Monty Tech and when our health insurance cost for FY'17 came in.
Bob
Robert T. Markel
Interim Town Administrator
Town of Templeton
160 Patriots Road
East Templeton, MA 01438
(978)894-2753
The above is from an email concerning issues with the last special Town meeting of November 9, 2015. The issue is that within some transfers, account numbers do not match, specifically, the account number shown for general insurance as 1000-945-900-57-5743-0000 which is the exact same account number given twice as the account number for Town accountant expenses. If you look at the town meeting report on the Templeton Town web site, under town meeting, you can find the copy of the meeting results which at the end says,
A true copy, ATTEST: with the name of the Templeton Town Clerk. Meeting attendance is listed at 356 voters.
In my opinion, the most bothersome part of this is the apparent spin put out to answer questions and concerns posed by members of the Templeton Advisory Board. It is through a process of checks and balances that is needed and is a good thing, that this and many other concerns of a financial nature that have been raised on more than one occasion. Why else are we being asked to put money back into fire/ems after we were just asked to take money from there to pay snow & Ice? I believe all these transfers in the past year demonstrates that there is either not enough money to cover everything or money is not being applied correctly, or both. My opinion is we still have a shell game going on and not one selectmen from Templeton is asking one question about it publicly, as at a meeting of the BOS.
Jeff Bennett
Robert T. Markel
Interim Town Administrator
Town of Templeton
160 Patriots Road
East Templeton, MA 01438
(978)894-2753
The above is from an email concerning issues with the last special Town meeting of November 9, 2015. The issue is that within some transfers, account numbers do not match, specifically, the account number shown for general insurance as 1000-945-900-57-5743-0000 which is the exact same account number given twice as the account number for Town accountant expenses. If you look at the town meeting report on the Templeton Town web site, under town meeting, you can find the copy of the meeting results which at the end says,
A true copy, ATTEST: with the name of the Templeton Town Clerk. Meeting attendance is listed at 356 voters.
In my opinion, the most bothersome part of this is the apparent spin put out to answer questions and concerns posed by members of the Templeton Advisory Board. It is through a process of checks and balances that is needed and is a good thing, that this and many other concerns of a financial nature that have been raised on more than one occasion. Why else are we being asked to put money back into fire/ems after we were just asked to take money from there to pay snow & Ice? I believe all these transfers in the past year demonstrates that there is either not enough money to cover everything or money is not being applied correctly, or both. My opinion is we still have a shell game going on and not one selectmen from Templeton is asking one question about it publicly, as at a meeting of the BOS.
Jeff Bennett
On a motion duly made and seconded the Town voted to transfer funds within the Fiscal 2016 annual Operating Budget as follows: notice the numbers in bold, that is how it looks at the Town website on STM November 9, 2015 and that is how it looks on email to Advisory Board dated November 10, 2015. You decide if something is fishy;
|
Name
|
Acct. Name
|
Amount
|
To
|
Acct. name
|
|
1000-951-900-53-5305-0000
|
Triennial Revaluation
|
$5,000.00
|
1000-141-100-51-5110-0000
|
Deputy Assessors’ office salary
|
|
9010-200-000-00-2300-0020
|
Planning Board-detention ponds
|
$16,000.00
|
1000-421-400-54-5420-0000
|
Highway dept. - expenses
|
|
9010-200-000-00-2300-0020
|
Planning Board – detention ponds
|
$32,000.00
|
1000-945-900-57-5743-0000
|
Town Accountant -expenses
|
|
1000-945-900-57-5743-0000
|
General Insurance
|
$19,000.00
|
1000-945-900-57-5743-0000
|
Town Accountant -expenses
|
|
1000-123-100-51-5110-0000
|
Town Administrator
|
$14,000.00
|
1000-135-100-54-5420-0000
|
Town Accountant -expenses
|
|
1000-220-200-51-5117-0000
|
Fire/EMS Salary
|
$111,608.50
|
No acct. number
|
2015 snow & Ice deficit
|
Passed/November 9th @ 9:10pm
posted by Jeff Bennett
Why is it suddenly important to clean up language from an article passed in 2014?
Right now, I am just supposing, but there could be a few reasons for this.
1. Simple house keeping to get all paper work to agree.
2. The district is "transferring" the building to the Town of Templeton, because the Town has always owned the building, it has been under control of the district per the regional school district agreement.
3. Perhaps Phillipston finally questioned the legality of the district being the one doing the borrowing and therefore, the district would be considered responsible for the loan and
since Phillipston is the second school of the district, they want to stay clear of this issue.
4. Might be the waters have to be clear so short term borrowing can take place for demolition
work and since the district is scheduled to transfer the building officially back to the Town,
Kind of hard to explain why or how the district is on the hook for a loan for a building
they now have nothing to do with.
Probably would have been better, both in the past and moving forward, if the selectmen had taken the point on this from the beginning, as soon as Phillipston opted to not take part in the finances, so there would be one central place for taxpayers to look to in trying to follow this project. This is all just my opinion and this project will just keep rolling along, as a new school building to replace three aged buildings makes sense business wise and financially.
Jeff Bennett
M.G.L. chapter 44, section one; definitions.
''Director'', director of accounts in the department of revenue.
''Majority vote'' and ''two thirds vote'', as applied to towns or districts, the vote of a majority or two thirds, respectively, of the voters present and voting at a meeting duly called, and, as applied to cities, the vote taken by yeas and nays of a majority or of two thirds, as the case may require, of all the members of each branch of the city government where there are two branches, or of all the members where there is a single branch of the city government, or of a majority or two thirds of the commissioners where the city government consists of a commission; and in every case subject to the approval of the mayor, where such approval is required by the charter of the city.
''Municipal finance oversight board'', a board composed of the attorney general, the state treasurer, the state auditor, and the director of accounts in the department of revenue, or their designees.
''Town'' shall not include city.
''District'' shall mean a fire, water, sewer, water pollution abatement, refuse disposal, light, or improvement district, or any other district, howsoever named, formed for the purpose of carrying out any of the aforementioned functions, whether established under general law or special act.
posted by Jeff Bennett
M.G.L., chapter 44; municipal finance
section 16 - issuance of bonds, notes & certificates of indebtedness; procedure; form; contracts with banking or financial institutions.
Section 16. A city, town or district which has authorized a debt to be incurred within the limitations, as to amount and time of payment, prescribed by this chapter may issue therefor bonds or notes, or, in the case of a city, certificates of indebtedness, all of which shall be properly denominated on the face thereof, signed by its treasurer, and, if issued by a city, countersigned by its mayor, unless its charter otherwise provides, or, if issued by a town, by a majority of its selectmen,
this is the first part of a long worded section that you may look up and read in its entirety if you wish.
Again, a project is not the problem or issue, it is the details. Why would a board of selectmen and or a town administrator try to hand over control to the general manager of a water department and/or it's commissioners to sign all paper work involved in Town debt, as in borrowing money and being ultimately responsible for repayment of such, when the law states it is their responsibility. With all the transferring going on and with the financial issues still unchanged or completed, why would they wish to further complicate that process by allowing that work to become further convoluted and again cause Templeton residents/taxpayers to have to chase multiple locations, boards, etc. to find out details or status of said debt, that belongs to them.
posted by Jeff Bennett
section 16 - issuance of bonds, notes & certificates of indebtedness; procedure; form; contracts with banking or financial institutions.
Section 16. A city, town or district which has authorized a debt to be incurred within the limitations, as to amount and time of payment, prescribed by this chapter may issue therefor bonds or notes, or, in the case of a city, certificates of indebtedness, all of which shall be properly denominated on the face thereof, signed by its treasurer, and, if issued by a city, countersigned by its mayor, unless its charter otherwise provides, or, if issued by a town, by a majority of its selectmen,
this is the first part of a long worded section that you may look up and read in its entirety if you wish.
Again, a project is not the problem or issue, it is the details. Why would a board of selectmen and or a town administrator try to hand over control to the general manager of a water department and/or it's commissioners to sign all paper work involved in Town debt, as in borrowing money and being ultimately responsible for repayment of such, when the law states it is their responsibility. With all the transferring going on and with the financial issues still unchanged or completed, why would they wish to further complicate that process by allowing that work to become further convoluted and again cause Templeton residents/taxpayers to have to chase multiple locations, boards, etc. to find out details or status of said debt, that belongs to them.
posted by Jeff Bennett
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