a note from Town Administrator to selectmen and others:

I write to follow-up on recent questions relative to Scout Hall raised by various bodies.

Let me first address the matter of expenditures to date. There have been two appropriations of $50k each to this project from CPA funds. Those were made at the Annual Town Meeting of 2016 and the Fall Town Meeting of 2019. To date, $38,859.26 has been expended. You will find the itemized breakdown and invoices attached.

Let me now move on to the matter of the request for the second round of funding. Over a period of time, this office somehow become more deeply involved in trying to assist with project bidding and implementation. Our DPW Director, which includes Buildings & Grounds, was assigned to be the lead person on this. As the project approached having roughly $10k on hand, it became apparent to him that there were insufficient funds to complete the project. He recommended we not proceed further until we could identify the remaining elements needed for a finished project and obtain funding to carry those out.

In a meeting with the Committee Chair, Ms. Julie Richard, Bob and I did verify such a list and Bob went on to compile the needed estimates. With that in hand, with the Fall Town Meeting approaching, with a project that had already been in progress far longer than anticipated, and with a Committee that seemed challenged to obtain a quorum and convene, I personally encouraged Ms. Richard to seek the needed funding from the CPC. In conjunction with that application I advised her there would also be a need to appear before the Capital Planning Committee. She did as asked and presented to both bodies the estimates compiled for her.

I will opine, this could be an attempt by the administrator to take the heat in an attempt to "keep the peace."

First, a 5 year select board member should know the following from selectmen policies and procedures:

page 9 - responsibilities of all board members: in part states,
Board members shall remember that they have no authority to make decisions on behalf of the Town or to promise that taking of any action or take any action as a town official except upon a majority vote of the board of selectmen or as allowed by law.

So, no matter how much the administrator wishes to keep peace, a five year select board member should know if they are part of a committee, there needs to be a vote of the committee to take action and lacking that, a select board member who is also a member of a committee with no meeting, or action should know they cannot, ethically or legally go as an entity such as Templeton CPC and ask for money for a project as if a committee vote or select board vote has taken place. Legally, no business of a committee can happen without a public meeting with a quorum present. I am pretty sure all who are elected and or appointed are suppose to obtain and sign form stating one is aware of OML and has a copy of it as well as understanding it. Selectmen Richards went to CPC and asked for $50,000.00 for Scout Hall and it was given a yes vote by CPC.

At the most recent meeting of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, one speaker, who is a former secretary of the Air Force, gave a presentation and within that talk, she stated this: "Ethical behavior is number one." "If you sacrifice that, you have sacrificed everything." On a slightly different topic, but perhaps related, if the select board puts an override question to the voters, how can they be expected to trust what the select board states or presents, after watching Scout Hall / re-use committee information that has been brought to the public eye recently? Some might opine that perhaps it should/could have been straightened out somewhere other than at a select board meeting. I fall back to the words of Deborah Lee James, the above mentioned speaker and ethical behavior.

This could have all been avoided with Select board member Richards simply approaching select board, give a brief of work to be completed, no committee quorum/meeting and ask for select board approval/vote to allow her to go before CPC and request funds for said project. In my opinion, this did not happen because of how business had been conducted by the previous board of selectmen. Seems like there was a need for oversight of scout hall re-use committee by the entire board of selectmen. Also, my opinion, no matter the intent of the Town Administrator, he did not nor does he have the authority to ask or direct a member of the select board to go act on the behalf / behest of any committee or BOS. Having stated all of that, what is in place now is the funding and what is required is what work still needs to be done to complete this project and what is the plan as to what the facility will be used for. With the disbanding of the re-use committee, this will now be decided by select board at a public meeting with a quorum present, along with agenda and meeting minutes.