Reading thru some comments, a couple of things stand out; "you made the request as an Advisory Committee member. Certainly you were not looking to pay for the request like a citizen."

Another comment had "for their old guard mentality"

First things first, The only requests I made as a representative of the Advisory Committee were some questions that came about at a recent meeting. There was a motion and a vote on the questions and to have myself ask them via email, which I did. Following a response from the Town Accountant, I sent back a thank you. Following an email response from the interim town administrator, which I had CC'd as a courtesy, I responded back with my view on his statements. At no time did I make a public records request or ask for copies of material as a member of the Advisory Committee. I did offer up the thought, opinion, statement that there would be many questions to follow and you may wish to clear your calendar; as in it may be good to have free time to deal with said questions. As for ""pay for the request like a citizen", I do not believe there is any law that says one must pay for a public record. There is a law (s) or guidelines that state if a government wishes to charge for public information, they may do so and there are amounts, in dollars and cents given as to cost per a double sided page. There are charges given for what salaried costs may be included and so forth. One may contact the secretary of the Commonwealth for more assistance with that. Some government entities use large fees and costs as a deterrent to providing information. Since government is basically a service industry and in the case of the town of Templeton, there are budget items for office supplies such as paper, ink, printers etc., as well as Town employees being paid for their work, so why are taxpayers charged a second time for public information by their representatives which they elect? Seems like the selectmen are charging them twice, first by way of taxes and other fees, then another set of fees to get information the people already pay the town to produce. Seems like master Fortes is of that thought process, "pay for the request like a citizen."

I think Master Fortes should take his own advice, if he wishes to tell the Advisory Committee what their job or duty is, what their role is and how they should go about it, he should attend a meeting of the Advisory Committee. I promise he will be allowed to speak and make his point. I cannot tell him in advance what the answers, if any, he will receive. Secondly, grow up, putting a picture of yourself on twitter, doing a face dive into a swimming pool, with a drink in hand, in your clothes, is hardly professional. Remember, you are an elected official for the Town of Templeton. One other thing, and it may be a generational thing these days, but show a little respect for your elders.

As for the old guard mentality, not sure what that entails, perhaps it is talk of what happened in 1991 or 2003 or whatever. Perhaps it is questioning change in a financial document that at one time showed things in an open matter and now that document has been changed so it shows less information. Maybe it has to do with the perception or the reality, that at one time, town meeting was a place and time where debate happened and questions were kicked around with less parliamentary procedure used to shut off discussion and debate. Sometimes it seems elected officials like to have few questions and just a vote for things and that seems like a move toward people being subjects rather than citizens with a say in how their money is being spent or taken care off. Why else would a selectmen have to fight for town employee salaries to be included in the annual town report? Which, if any,  selectmen  are against that? Why would they be against that. Why the big secret concerning what town employees make? Let us see what they make so we can compare to other towns and then we, as citizens, can decide if we are being told the truth or being lied to, with regards to how Templeton town employees are poorly paid, compared to other towns.