Friday, October 13, 2017

Re: Advisory Committee and Town by-laws
 
Fri 10/13/2017 11:03 AM
To:
Cc:
Inbox
You forwarded this message on 10/13/2017 9:41 PM
Good Morning Jeff,

I hope all is well. I would like to express my concern with the way you are talking to town personnel. These are people with functions that do not need your concerns expressed to them directly. I would suggest if you have a concern over the nature of any town employee you bring that before the Town Selectmen. As we are the one's who would handle such matters. The response you were given actually suffices to any and all your questions. Carter & Kelli stated in their email, if you have a question they will be happy to answer it.

This is not your place to pick a quarrel with the Town Administrator or the Town Accountant. Your place to take it up would be with the Selectmen and give us your feed back in a public forum about your qualms about financial details. I am sure the Chairman would be willing to accommodate.

Also, sending a line as if to threaten town employees that you will be making burdensome inquiries into their financial items so they "may wish to clear their calendar"  is as bizarre as it is unprofessional. I highly suggest you correct your actions in correspondence with Town Employees as this will not be tolerated.

Furthermore, The Advisory Committee is not a spending watchdog. Your task as an advisory committee is to review the budget and make recommendations. The Select Board reviews and signs all warrants once a week. We have been tasked with reviewing day to day financial operations & spending within the community. As the executive body of Templeton, we also have the power to put a financial team in place and as such we are responsible for their actions and reviewing their work.

The Advisory Committee is not an investigatory body and it is certainly not an audit committee. Kelli has three auditing bodies already. Tony Roselli, the Department of Revenue, & the Board of Selectmen. Which would make three entities reviewing the books and as you can imagine makes for some incredible strain on Templeton's financial department when they are asked the same questions regularly. Your scope, once again, should be defined as budgeting review and recommendation of warrant articles. You do not create the budget and you are not the financial arm of the town. You are an advisory committee.

So I direct you again Jeff. If you have a question about insurance payments being paid timely or in full. That isn't in your jurisdiction. If you have a question about what the insurance policy being paid in full and how much that would save the town versus payments over time and have a possible recommendation to the budget based on that information, you would be in your role as an advisory committee member.

If you have a budget related question, ask it Jeffery, if not then I would suggest you reach out to the Chairman of the Selectmen Board to discuss your specific complaints in open forum but in no way within your scope of duties does it say you can threaten members of town hall with burdensome work or enforce by-law requirements leave that to the elected officials.

Regards,
Cameron Forte







Good Day:

While it was not uncommon for some towns to use the accounting systems for the kind of details you had formerly it is also not uncommon for a town to have as few as two (personnel and expenses) accounts.  We chose to collect our expenditures around their activity.  Even reverting to the old system would not tell you if the insurance was paid in full for the year.  We can always give you a specific response to any question  that you have and are more than happy to do so.

Kindly understand that there is no addition to the overall staffing levels within the finance unit.  We had 5 f.t.e’s and when we added the .5 Assistant Town Accountant we reduce the Deputy Treasurer Collector to .5.  The total staffing remains at 5 f.t.e’s.  That said, we are looking at how we might give you some better access to payments (perhaps posting the payment register on-line) and would hope to complete that within the next week or two. 

Many Thanks

Kelli &
Carter Terenzini
Interim Town Administrator
Town of Templeton
160 Patriots Road
East Templeton, MA 01438
(978) 894-2753

From: jeff bennett [mailto:j_bennett506@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2017 7:03 AM
To: 'Kelli Pontbriand' <accountant@templeton1.org>
Cc: Selectman Caplis <selectmen.caplis@templeton1.org>; Selectwoman, Diane <seldhaleybrooks@templeton1.org>; Doug Morrison, Selectmen <seldmorrison@templeton1.org>; selectmen.fortes@templeton1.org; Town Administrator <townadministrator@templeton1.org>; selectmen.richard@templeton1.org
Subject: Advisory Committee and Town by-laws

All;
I have again been tasked by a vote of the Advisory Committee to bring to your attention as well as to high lite one article/section of the general by-laws of Templeton;

Article IV, section 5 -Article IV – Advisory Committee:

Section 5. In the discharge of its 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.

We bring this up because in the discharge of our stated responsibilities and duty, we look at the recent document of expenditures or the budget versus actual and we do not see the accounts and records in the detail required to look at and analyze the spending and care of taxpayer dollars. For instance, with the current presentation, the committee cannot see if the Town has paid group (health) insurance in full, which if done, saves taxpayer dollars. This is one of the reasons for the committee asking for a return of detail in the monthly expenditure reports sent out from the office of the Town Accountant. With the addition of more staff, assistant town accountant, the committee feels this would be a simple and beneficial step towards bringing resident confidence back to town government.


respectfully;
Jeff Bennett
Advisory Committee vice-chairman
on behalf of the committee

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Re: Nov 1 meeting
 
Wed 10/4, 9:52 PM
Sent Items
Holly,
Please be advised that Advisory Committee voted at tonight's meeting to hold it's required pre-town meeting on Wednesday, November 1, 2017 at 7:00 P.M. News paper advertisement is in the works. As previously stated, there are time frames that are required by Town by-laws and the committee intends to abide by the by-laws.

respectfully;
Jeff Bennett
Advisory Committee vice-chairman



From: advisorycommittee templeton1.org <advisorycommittee@templeton1.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 4, 2017 11:19 AM
To: Beverly Bartolomeo; Jeff Bennett; jfarrell59@gmail.com; Paul Grubb; Robert May; Wilfred Spring
Subject: Fwd: Nov 1 meeting
 
FYI
---------- Original Message ----------
From: Holly <hyoung@templeton1.org>
To: "'Advisorycommittee templeton1.org'" <advisorycommittee@templeton1.org>
Date: October 4, 2017 at 10:14 AM
Subject: Nov 1 meeting

Good Morning Wil:

Your meeting scheduled for November 1, 2017, will need to be moved either to the alternate meeting room (Land Planning Room) or to another evening. There is a Public Hearing that needs to be held that night in the Conference Room.

Please let me know which is your preference.

Holly A. Young
Holly A. Young,
Assistant to the Town Administrator
Have you seen this in the Gardner News? 

Seems like the Gardner News is only printing one sided stories - maybe the Telegram will print it!

Fw: letter to selectmen
 
Wed 10/4, 9:42 PM

here is a story for you, if you dare!


From: jeff bennett <j_bennett506@hotmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2017 7:14 AM
To: BERNARD HEANEY
Subject: Re: letter to selectmen
 
Bernie,
Thank you for the email and especially for all the time and work you put in to bring that issue forward. I know from experience the time it takes to do that type of thing. I understand the "moving forward" part, but when does it end? When does the following of the rules and laws begin There have been alot of mistakes made over the years with regards to Templeton's finance and reporting, and I have been part of those mistakes but when you tell people there is a competent finance team in place and all is well, there should be no excuse for those reports. We shall wait and we shall see. Again, thank you for your effort on this and for the school finance report you did, I am one who really appreciates it.

regards;
Bennett - SF



From: BERNARD HEANEY <bernieandnancy1@comcast.net>
Sent: Friday, September 29, 2017 8:34 PM
To: jeff bennett
Subject: Re: letter to selectmen
 
Hi Jeff,
Thank you for the BOS input regarding my request for accountant's reports in the AR.
I had a lengthy discussion with John Caplis this week.   Briefly, the "bottom line" is:

1.  Regarding accountant's reports in ARs --- John says that I was right before and I am
     right now; these reports should have been published.   His position is that there is
     nothing we can do about the past and we should move on.
2.  Regarding why there was no accountant's report in the 2017 AR --- He says there was
      a joint decision made to report all the past unaudited years together.  This he says is in
      printing now.   I don't remember who was involved in that decision.  He tells me that
      he has been told this information will be available before the end of the year.   He under-
      stands my position that you don't need a last year's ending figure or a this year's starting
      figure to report actual income and expense information for any recent year, thereby,
      informing the people where our money is actually being spent, however, as he said, this
      info is being printed now.   So, again, we will have to wait for another deadline to see
      these figures.
3.  Regarding his receipt of my October 30 letter --- We have proof that this registered
     letter was delivered to the town's PO Box in East Templeton.  Unfortunately, the town does
     not log in their receipt of mail so, the trail ends with the post office.   After reminding John
     of our discussion at a veteran's meeting, where he told me that he had received my letter
     and that the accountant's report would definitely be in the AR this year, he said, "I just forgot."

I'm sending this by email because I will not be at the next Advisory Committee meeting.
I'm attending an evening course on Wednesdays at the Mount.
SF,
Bernie
On September 25, 2017 at 9:22 PM jeff bennett <j_bennett506@hotmail.com> wrote:

Bernie,
Tonight I asked John Caplis about your letter from October 2016 and why no response. First a few selectmen laughed about 106 pages then Caplis stated we could talk after the meeting about it. He told me he did not see it, does not remember getting it and he would call you.

Bennett

Saturday, October 7, 2017

TO: Board of Selectmen
FROM: Carter Terenzini, Town Administrator
RE: Administrator’s Weekly Report
DATE: October 5, 2017
CC: All Departments

Important Notices 
If you are one of the Department’s where your employees got a wage adjustment as of 10/02/17; Please be sure to have completed your conversations with them ASAP. 
Positions Now Open: DPW - Highway: Laborer/Truck Driver 
BoS Workshop 10/16 to review Draft Warrant. Please plan to attend if you have an article. 
As of the requested date of 10/02 for staff articles, we had about 12. 
As of today, we do not have any citizen petitioned warrant articles.

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.

4.i.(1) This is the latest Draft after addressing concerns coming out of your 10/02, a final review with UMass, and a final re-read. We believe it is ready for adoption as is. That said, do please understand that we will need to - in the near future - add a section to accommodate some of our more day to day procedures (i.e. as the Electronic & Bad Check Policy, petty cash, and the like). Please also understand that while we continue to make great progress some of this is aspirational given our current state. That is to say that - rather than putting target dates in numerous places - we simply need to have you - in your adoption vote - get this onto the public record. Weekly Report: With no changes coming from the participants, I was able to finalize the memo on our meeting with DOR for you. I’ve been working with team leaders Carol Harris and Mike Branley (TA of Swansea, NH) on final preparations for the assessment center for our Management Fellow this coming Tuesday. Work with Alan to finalize a preferred DPW fleet and capital planning continued as did work with U-Mass Collins to finalize the Financial Policies Draft coming out of your 10/02 workshop. We received the contract boilerplate for the Police Contract and hope to have it out to bid by next week. Our "free cash" has been certified for the General Fund at $1,042,588 and the Sewer Fund at $743,735. With this in hand I can now finalize the several warrant articles we need for clean-up and FY ’18. With the construction of the school getting ever close I worked with ODS on how to pay our Inspectors for this extraordinary project which is not covered by the base annual compensation. We have lost one of our Seasonal Laborers (In Training to become a Laborer/Truck Driver). We will re-advertise but are very concerned over our recruitment efforts given our very low starting wages (less than $15/hr for a CDL). The Daymill remanded hearing will be held on November 1, 2017.

 Public Works 
Highway Department: Some cold patching done on Royalston Rd. Brooks Rd, Hamlet Mill, Sunrise and Henshaw Rd. Millings from Rt 68 were hauled to Gilman Waite Field. More sand brought from the Pit to the bard for use this winter. We are cleaning up, repairing and applying a coat of enamel paint to the plows in preparation for the winter plowing season. Catch basins were rebuilt on Red Fox crossing and hot topping added to Ladder Hill and Partridgeville Rd. Some roadside mowing was done on Carruth, Phillipston Rd and Queen Lake Roads. The mechanic is installing the new sander in H16. He also repaired a corroded transmission line in one of the COA vans. Our general use pickup truck has been red lined because the brakes are gone. 
Buildings & Grounds: The director attended a School Building meeting, Select Board Work Shop and a class in Hadley. He is currently working on an audit of all of the playgrounds in Templeton. The crew cleaned and graded the walking path around Gilman Waite field and trimmed back the brush. We are working with an intern from Narragansett in the cemeteries and common areas; his interest is horticultural and landscaping. Grass Mowing at all buildings as well as all common areas in town. Assist was given in spreading millings @ Gilman Waite field to improve the parking area. General maintenance was done to the equipment and cleaning. Prepped an area for a burial in Green Lawn cemetery and placed a bronze marker. Flags put to half Staff for the victims of the Vegas shootings. Swings taken down @ Otter River playground and the bearing, chains and connections will be replaced.
an email response from the selectmen to Advisory Committee. The committee wanted to be on the agenda of a selectmen meeting to talk about the roles and responsibilities of the Advisory Committee. The following is the answer received:





---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Selectman Caplis <selectmen.caplis@templeton1.org>
Date: Fri, Oct 6, 2017 at 9:16 AM
Subject: Fwd: request from Advisory Committee
To: advisorycommittee@templeton1.org, Wilfred Spring <185wilberdr@gmail.com>, Diane Haley Brooks <seldhaleybrooks@templeton1.org>, selectmen.fortes@templeton1.orgselectmen.richard@templeton1.orgselectmen.morrison@templeton1.orgtownadministrator@templeton1.org


THIS IS INFORMATION ONLY 

Will:

I’m really not sure what you are seeking.  It seems to me that the roles are fairly well laid out in that the TA proposes a budget to us, we finalize it to send to you and then you make recommendations to us (if you have some before we finalize it) and then to the Town Meeting.  At this time the BoS expects an estimate of revenues from the staff at its workshop of 11/6, a presentation from the TA of his proposed budget on 2/26/18 and workshops in March with a goal of giving you its budget to you on or before April 9th (possibly even March 26th).   We intend to invite you to each of these meetings and will give you the final schedule once we adopt it (possibly as early as 10/10).

If you have want some columns added to the spreadsheets for your use, or something else along those lines, I’m sure the TA will accommodate you if you let him know. 

Let me know if there is something else we can do.

Respectfully 
John Caplis

'I am sure the TA will accomodate you?" Hate to bring this to anyone's attention, but that added column is in the Templeton Town by-laws, you know, those policies and procedures for running the Town!

First off, I wish the debate (s) that happen here, on other blogs or mediums would happen at Town meeting. I wish selectmen would not use any means available to stifle or outright stop that debate. If you do not think that happens, you need to watch one town meeting where selectmen Brooks did exactly that. The possible debate involved the new school and perhaps a good portion of the "talk" concerning the school (s) could have been dealt with if that debate had been allowed to take place. Of course, some of the blame for a lack of town meeting debate has to land at the feet of the citizens who go to Town Meeting. Rather than talk about a bedroom community or not, perhaps we should really talk about how do we want to operate this entity called Templeton? Do we want an open Town Meeting or not? Do we want a representative form of Town Meeting? Do we want selectmen making the decisions or do we stand by while one individual seems to run things? Where is that full time one individual by the way? Rather than start at the middle of the book, lets start at the beginning, where is the full time Town Administrator/ Where is the certified, experienced Town Treasurer/Collector?  Do you know one person meeting that criteria applied for the position of collector/treasurer with municipal experience but was passed over for someone with no municipal experience. What could the reason be for not hiring an experienced, previously certified treasurer/collector? I am not a conspiracy theory guy but that is an interesting question.

Back on the schools, three things come to mind; 1. having a conversation with a previous school superintendent, I asked about the leaking roof at Templeton Center school and why it was not repaired? answer: "We did not think we could get a new school if the roof was not leaking"
2. The regional school agreement contains an item where if any repair is over $5,000.00, it is the responsibility of the town, a few years back, the district did several different repairs to the schools and then lumped them together and presented a bill for about $12,000.00 so those repairs would not have to come from the school budget. That superintendent now or was employed west of Templeton.
3. There were several questions for a debt exclusion to replace the roof at Templeton Center over the years, from a "low" of about $75,000.00 up to about $175,000.00. All of those were rejected by towns people at Town Meeting, so the people have to admit failing to provide funds for the often talked about maintenance of buildings.