all material on this blog is directed to members of the general public and is not intended to be read by my fellow Committee members, nor do I intend for any readers to convey such material directly or indirectly to my fellow Committee members.

More evidence the selectmen play with your money and present deceiving items at Town Meeting: If the selectmen are going to ask for $100,000.00 for Town vehicles fuel, those dollars should stay their and if not all used, they would roll over into un-allocated funds at the end of year  (known as free cash). If and when "free cash" is certified, some of it should go to the Town's savings, general stabilization fund.

from the Annual Town Meeting report of May 14, 2016: (34 transfers with just this article)

FISCAL 2016 FINANCIAL TRANSFERS To see if the town will vote to increase, decrease or otherwise adjust any budget line item as appropriated by the Town at the May 16, 2015 Annual Town Meeting, and to raise and appropriate, borrow pursuant to any applicable statute and/or transfer from available funds, such sums as may be needed by the various departmental budgets and appropriations to complete the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016; or to take any other action relative thereto. Submitted by the Board of Selectmen

Article 3 with amendments
                       from town fuel -  to town telephone                                   $  3200.00
                       from town fuel -  to medicare                                             $  9500.00
                       from town fuel -  to selectmen selectmen office expense  $16000.00
                       from town fuel to - town accountant                                   $11000.00

$37,900.00 apparently not needed for town fuel and if you look into fiscal year 2017, there was about $47,000.00 not needed or used for town fuel, even in both cases, selectmen told town meeting they needed $100,000.00 for fuel. Both times, money from town fuel was taken away and used for other bills, which makes me wonder about the whole process, do the current selectmen really understand how to do this expense process?

I ask the question; is this why selectmen draw out the budget/expense building process so long as to avoid any time for review and therefore try to avoid these questions before town meeting. If there is a Town by-law that states a certain committee is to have a pre-town meeting and the documents are so late in getting to them, are the tough detailed questions, discussion and analysis avoided? Is this a deliberate move on the part of the selectmen?
Disclaimer

Opinions expressed are those of Jeff Bennett and do not represent any other member of the Advisory Committee 

posted by Jeff Bennett