Friday, March 2, 2018

I do not find the Phillipston selectmen trying to limit what or how the Phillipston finance committee may say or comment on at their annual Town Meeting.

While Templeton selectmen are proposing an article on the annual town meeting warrant to limit Templeton Advisory Committee commenting on the warrant.

from the slide presentation on March 26, 2018: page 9 on the handout.
Modify Town by-laws on the advisory committee by

allowing the moderator to fill vacancies

clarify their role in commenting on the warrant

float when materials are due to in relation to Town Meeting

provide earlier issuance of their report (s) to the public.

The last one will require selectmen to get the warrant and budget/spending plan out earlier, which would be a good thing.

The Advisory Committee's role in communicating to Town Meeting is already clearly stated in Town by-laws.

Selectmen Brooks stated that selectmen are elected, you (advisory) are just appointed. Selectmen went on to say they are the superior board with the Town Accountant echoing those same words.
Selectmen argued they should prepare the budget and present it to Town Meeting. It is their spending plan, so when they told Templeton that they had a good financial team in place, the numbers were good and the budget is proper and balanced (after some transfers and back fills), they should be the ones speaking at a meeting with school committee to ask the questions and deal with the override and or shortfalls and cuts.

Add to that, a question to myself, if you have a member of the finance committee who is also on the school committee, it is possible for the finance committee to have inside information prior to a meeting and therefore be better prepared for the "surprises"

When selectmen are using free cash from FY17 to back fill or supplement FY2018 and FY2019,
They are the ones who deserve to be in the hot seat (in my opinion) They are the ones who shoud be speaking to the override (s) and the problems it will cause for their budget/spending plan and their planning - or lack there of.



townadministrator

To  advisorycommittee templeton1.org  
Many Thanks

Carter Terenzini
Town Administrator
Town of Templeton
160 Patriots Road
East Templeton, MA 01438
1.978.894.2753

From: advisorycommittee templeton1.org [mailto:advisorycommittee@templeton1.org]
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2018 8:29 AM
To: townadministrator <townadministrator@templeton1.org>
Subject: Re: Town Election Date

This is on our agenda for or next meeting.

Bennett

On February 14, 2018 at 11:37 AM townadministrator <townadministrator@templeton1.org> wrote:
Good Day:

I’m not sure if I sent this along before so my apologies if I did;

At the joint meeting with Phillipston it was discussed to have a group of the BoS, Town Clerks, Advisory/FinCom and Each set of School Committee representatives to discuss the desired change to the Town Election dates.

Kindly advise as to who your representative to this effort will be.

Many Thanks

Carter Terenzini
On February 21, 2018, the day of Advisory Meeting with agenda already posted; this came.


townadministrator

To  Advisory Committee,    Diane Haley Brooks   and 4 others
Kindly advise ASAP if you Are available on 02/28 or 03/13 for a joint meeting of the schools.

I would urge you to be available for 02/28 to deal with the budget matters as quickly as possible.

Many Thanks

Carter Terenzini
Town Administrator
Town of Templeton
160 Patriots Road
East Templeton, MA 01438
1.978.894.2753

From: Dr. Christopher Casavant [mailto:ccasavant@nrsd.org]
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2018 12:05 PM
To: townadministrator <townadministrator@templeton1.org>; PhillipstonSelectmen'sOffice <selectman@phillipston-ma.gov>
Cc: Susan Varney <svarney@nrsd.org>; Rae-Ann Trifilo <rtrifilo@nrsd.org>; Margaret Hughes <mhughes@nrsd.org>; Holly <hyoung@templeton1.org>
Subject: Joint Town Boards Meeting

Dear Carter and Kevin,

Thank you for participating in our Doodle Survey.  As of today, you have both indicated that you are available either Wednesday, February 28th and Tuesday, March 13th at 5:30.

Please confirm as to which day is best for you and your Selectboards and Fin Com/Advisory Board to meet. As all we know, everyone's availability is in "short supply" this time of year.  

We also want to make sure that we have ample time to post the meeting.

Thanks for all your help.

It was not on our agenda to discuss questions on a budget which we did not even have to begin with. Perhaps if we had an advisory member on the school committee, we could have been better prepared with questions.

As a refresher from fiscal year 2017;

Phillipston annual Town Meeting
Narragansett
School assessment -       $1,514,664.00
District long term debt -   $     87,522.00

Templeton annual Town Meeting
Narragansett
School assessment -          $5,624,744.00
District long term debt  -     $   443,879.00


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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:37 PM

    I will reiterate what was said at this meeting - I paraphrase ( again available YouTube TCTV )
    Phillipston has all the same numbers you do and has a budget to do as well - these budgets have been done for decades, things should not be a surprise to municipal officials and those seasoned in budgetary issues from their time even in the private sector.
    Seems as though Templeton is not doing its best to address the needs of its residents by adequately educating the voters as to what is needed.
    By shining a light on what you perceive as a “potential conflict of interest “ ? is actually making you sound petty and selfish. sorry but that’s how this voter and taxpayer feels.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous9:01 PM

    I wish you all the very best in trying to get this done for the town(s) . Thanks for this forum and your thoughts.

    ReplyDelete

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