Very low turn out for Templeton special Town meeting. Pretty embarrassing and disgusting when only a handful of town residents show up for their meeting!
The few that did show up demonstrated your vote does matter and you can have an effect on the out come. Two zoning changes were passed over at this meeting when those few citizens showed up and spoke, they made their case and put it to the voters - and they won!
Once again, in my opinion, it was shown that Town Counsel is not being utilized for the benefit of the Town. When there is an issue brought before the people, why was the regional school agreement not given to counsel and the question (s) asked: can we change town election dates without issue? Can we change the agreement so only Templeton residents vote on Templeton representatives and only Phillipston residents vote on Phillipston representatives?
On the zoning changes, what are the ethics challenges or solutions to bringing these two articles forward? Were businesses grandfathered when zoning passed? Perhaps the big question is the land formerly owned by Bill Putnam and the class II / III licenses involved in the sale of that property; did the property lose it's grandfather clause with the sale? With zoning in place, is that large piece of property now limited to certain use by way of the present zoning regulations?
Templeton can and does get good legal advice when it is asked for, unfortunately, there seems to be a lack of that these days with this BOS.
If the school district cannot pay our inspectors, how were any inspections done when the district changed over to propane/wood chips? Was the project inspected? Who did the inspections and who paid for them? With the constant changing of numbers, will the Tempeton tax recap sheet be done on time? Why is Templeton only borrowing 10 million dollars with the school project beginning shortly?
More piecemeal borrowing, more BANs which will probably cost taxpayers more.
There are two sides to the idea of changing the date of going to the poles. One is the person on the BOS now gets to work with the Town Meeting Warrant and budget. If he gets voted off the board, the new person does not have any say in the warrant, or budget because he gets voted on the BOS after the budget and warrant is already done. That is the complaint and reason they want the change. Now to change the dates, the new person will have time to what ? Understand what has been planned since the first of the year ? The budget and the process takes time. I do not see where changing the dates will make a bit of difference. It would seem to me if I was going to run for a seat on the BOS, just maybe I would have attended all of the meetings of the BOS and it's workshops, along with the Advisory Committee's meetings. Then I would be prepared to step into a seat that is a large part of running the town, a multi million dollar business. Personally, I do not see where changing the date of the election will accomplish much of anything. If a person does not have a grasp on what is being worked on, they have no business even running for office. That is my opinion. Bev.
ReplyDeleteI have to question the good legal advise based on this past Town Meeting. I asked for an answer from counsel regarding the legality of the Planning Boards verbal acknowledgment of a conflict by 4 of its members. The counsel offered "right of necessity" which appears to be irrelevant as long as MGL 268a Section 6a is sufficient and by writing an explanation of conflict.
ReplyDeleteIt is my opinion that the Lawyer was giving cover to a Board, not giving good legal advise to Townspeople.