Anonymous10:04 PM

I question the TA/Fellow combination satisfying the citizens vote 5/14/2013.


Section 4: Town Administrator-
“The Board of Selectmen is authorized and empowered to appoint a town
administrator who may be appointed for a term of one or three years, and to remove
the town administrator at their discretion. The town administrator appointed under the
provisions of this section shall be sworn to the faithful performance of the duties of
the office. During the time that the town administrator holds office the town
administrator shall hold no elective town office, but may be appointed by the Board
of Selectmen or, with their approval, by any other town officer, board, committee or
commission, to any other town office or position consistent with the town
administrator’s office. The Town Administrator shall receive such aggregate
compensation, not exceeding the amount appropriated therefore, as the Board of
Selectmen may determine. The Town Administrator shall act by and for the Board of
Selectmen in any matter which the Board may assign to the town administrator
relating to the administration of the affairs of the town or of any town office or
department under their supervision and control, or, with the approval of the Board of
Selectmen, may perform such other duties as may be requested by any other town
officer, board, committee or commission.”
And, further, to reflect the above-mentioned amendment to Article III of the
Templeton Revised General By-Laws, the following Templeton Revised General ByLaw
sections will also be amended by replacing the title of “Town Coordinator” with
the title of “Town Administrator” in
Article XLII-Capital Planning By-Law- Section 1:
And in: Article XLVII-Personnel By-Law –Section 3(b) and Section 3 (c)
Passed/May 16th @ 8:37

The above is from a town meeting vote but if you check the current Town by-laws on the Templeton Town website; you find this:

Section 4. “It shall be duty of the Town Administrator in conjunction with the BOS to consider expenditures and develop a budget for the ensuing fiscal year of the several boards, officers and committees of the town, as prepared by them in such form and detail as prescribed by the Town Administrator.” 

Passed 5-16-13, Approved by A/G 8-22-13. Amended 5-19-14, Approved by A/G 7-2-14

  

Section 4 was amended or changed on May 19, 2014, so there is no by-law change listed showing the creation of or change from town coordinator to town administrator. This glitch was brought to the attention to the selectmen by the Advisory Committee and it went to the Town attorney for review. An opinion/ideas on what may have happened with regards to intent of section 4. The selectmen have never addressed this, even though there is an outline of how to address it. So the question is; why not? Perhaps our favorite selectmen, master Fortes can address this and "fight" for its correction just as he stated he was fighting to have town employee salaries included in the annual town report. 

My thought is do not hold your breath.

MEMORANDUM – OFFICE OF THE TOWN ADMINISTRATOR
TO: Board of Selectmen
FROM: Carter Terenzini, Town Administrator
RE: Administrator’s Weekly Report
DATE: October 26, 2017
CC: All Departments

Important Notices 

Positions Now Open: PT Police Officers & Dispatchers 

Fall Town Meeting: 7:00 P.M on November 14th at Narragansett Regional Middle School 

Town Hall Hours Change 11/01 (Mon 7:30a to 6:30p; T/W/Th 7:30a to 4:30p) 

Please post notices now and prepare to change web pages and printing CoB 10/31 

It’s not too early to begin to think about your FY ’19 OPEX and CAPEX budget requests. 

Expect budget guidance on or about 12/01/17 and submissions due back on or about 01/01/18 

Please make sure all of your units and committees are submitting their projects to the CPC!

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. N/A

Weekly Report: Efforts were spent finalizing the Fall TM Warrant and circulating it out. I’ve invited the AC to include their recommendation in the Summaries and Motions package for the convenience of the users and savings in production labor and costs. I attended the Capital Planning Committee. Below is the proposed listing of the reading of motions, advocates, and staff resources in keeping with the policy Draft you reviewed at the 10/16 workshop. Please review this against the Final Warrant and let me know if any changes are desired.

Seating Order       Motion & Advocacy              Staff Resource(s)              Other Advocates

 Mr. Caplis              1, 2, 3                                   Kelli & CT 

Mr. Fortes                4, 5, 6                                   4, 5: Kelli & CT 

                                                                             6: CT & R. Hanks 

Ms. Richard             7, 8, 9                                   7: A. Mayo 

                                                                             8 & 9: CT 

Mr. Morrison          10,11,12, 13                         10, 11: Kelli & CT              K. Moschetti #12 & #13 

Ms. Brooks            14, 15, & 16                         15: DM 16: S. Castle          J. Henshaw #14

We began planning for the entry of the Fellow on Monday and look forward to keeping him quite busy. Background materials were provided to the ZBA in the run-up to the 11/01 Day Mill hearing. I’ve become aware of various issues the AG’s office had with both the Veterans Oversight Committee and the Trenching By-Law. We will craft necessary amendments for the ATM. We received the specs for the CoA siding. We are reviewing them now and hope to have it out to bid within two weeks.


"Entry of the fellow" -??? I have gone through the Town Meeting appropriations and found no such position. I have found no motion for a part time Town Administrator nor a "fellow" Again, my thought is the selectmen have ignored Town Meeting vote, which called for the position of a Town Administrator and Town Meeting has appropriated $110,000.00 for that position. (more than the salary for the mayor of Gardner, MA) So, is this fellow a full time position? Does that mean added benefit costs to taxpayers to over. If you reccall, there was concern stated by the interim and part time town administrator that there might not be enough money to pay health insurance costs for town employees. You may also recall (it was includes in several memos from said T/A) that with the position of fire chief open, the requirements of funds may balance out and there would be no need for a financial transfer. That sounds like more financial games and perhaps the real reason the full time position of fire chief was left vacant, in my opinion.


Any way you look at Town finance, it appears not much has changed, less transparency, less business in the open, more power moves by the board of selectmen, selectmen failing to follow state law, town by-laws and even a chairman of the board of selectmen telling a citizen/resident that he does not have to listen to them. There is a meeting to watch to see exactly what was said and to whom and that is next. Here I thought that a selectmen is elected and is suppose to represent the people. I would think those are the ones a selectmen should listen to and is obligated to listen to. Perhaps that thought is against what this group of selectmen is for.

Also, remember, anyone at town meeting can and should ask anyone who is for a particular article, if they have any vested interest in said article, especially if it is financial.