Got this in one of my personal email accounts, interesting read I think.

Interesting response to a resident from select board member Griffis.

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Griffis, Terry <tgriffis@templetonma.gov>

To: Robert May <robertmayt@yahoo.com>

Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2022 at 09:07:20 PM EDT

Subject: Re: Move along unless you have $$$$ is the modus operandi in Templeton?

      Better yet, how about I give them your address and they can camp out in your yard🤣 

      

---

From: Robert May <robertmayt@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2022 5:44 PM
To: Griffis, Terry <tgriffis@TempletonMA.gov>
Subject: Re: Move along unless you have $$$$ is the modus operandi in Templeton?

 

If you say so.....reads like you're trying to dissway  guilt, shame.     .

Happy delusion

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

On Thu, Aug 11, 2022 at 5:33 PM, Griffis, Terry

<tgriffis@TempletonMA.gov> wrote:

Mr, May,

      What you see isn't all there is. Have you worked with homeless people at all? I have volunteered for a number of years 20+ and still help with online presence.A youth pastor asked me what ministries were available in the area so I trained teens to help picking them up and bringing home . We serviced not just homeless but incredibly poor and disabled. At one point  we the clothing ministry sent 22 tons of ADRA boxes to third world countries. 

        At the store NOTHING had a price on it, pay what you can afford. No on turned away. The woman who ran it had special rooms set aside with brand new things for fire victims and much much more. Food was always free and so were winter coats.I was super happy there but stopped to focus on Templeton. I'm sorry your buttons were pushed . Spouting off is one thing doing something is another. I don't buy your guilt and shame. I hope your letter was cathartic. I wish you peace of mind and heart. 

                                           Terry Griffis 

         

---

From: Robert May <robertmayt@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2022 3:05 PM
To: Adam D. Lamontagne <alamontagne@TempletonMA.gov>; Currie, Michael <mcurrie@TempletonMA.gov>; Bennett, Jeff <jbennett@TempletonMA.gov>; Toth, Timothy <ttoth@templetonma.gov>; Griffis, Terry <tgriffis@TempletonMA.gov>; Richard, Julie <jrichard@TempletonMA.gov>
Cc: Bennett, Mike <mbennett@TempletonMA.gov>
Subject: Move along unless you have $$$$ is the modus operandi in Templeton?

 

Members et al,

We have 20+ agencies willing to help! Yup, Mike says they are willing to help the 2-3 agricultural retailers who need to use town property to advertise.

 Now lets look to the Loitering! We have homeless people needing a place to live. Mike doesn't offer assistance from those 20+ agencies, nope, He offers a "No Loitering" on Public property.

I love it! 3 Retail entities garner all kinds of empathy from the Selectboard, but Human beings without safe and secure places to sleep, eat, live, garner a call to cops to move them along..............Where? Did you give them options. Are we  just hoping they move to some private piece of land? Make it some citizens problem, I mean seriously, where are they suppose to go?

This shows the Citizens what type of people our Selectboard is made up of. People more concerned about a commercial entity making money than people being safe, healthy, fed.

I'm personally disgusted that a our Selectboard changed/made policy again for a commercial sign to be allowed on Public Land but not a Human being. How did we go from: 

To: Retail signs on Public Land, absolutely cannot interfere with commerce! Human beings on Public land, we tell the "undesirables" to move or face ????

Did you notice how the member of the Lions Club was right there offering suggestions for assistance to these homeless folks.............lol. She didn't say one word, offer one ounce of assistance, just like Mike and his 20+ agencies offering nothing to the homeless, but everything to retail entities upset about signs.................How charitable these folks really are?How pathetic was this demonstration, you be the Judge.

This is an example of Templeton government in action. Maybe the Homeless folks should hang a sign around their neck, problem solved!

In Templeton, Selling food is more important than HAVING FOOD!

Thank you Selectman Bennett for supporting people and trying to put a stop to retailers abuse of public land without compensation.

Chief Bennett, Can you please tell the citizens how on earth you re going to handle this new loitering restriction imposed without instruction or without any objective standards of Guilt? How will any enforcement not be deemed a violation of the individuals Constitutionally protected Rights.  As you may know by now I'm not a fan of these laws. I find them offensive to a processes ethical requirement.

 Without guidelines and clear definitions I find this action offensive to the citizens of templeton. I also feel they will cause legal action against the town if used. This is why Town Counsels opinion on how to set it up is biased or unethical in my humble opinion.

Hey Mike, did we check if any of "those people" were veterans? Will we be telling homeless vets to move along to or just homeless non veterans?

Citizen taxpayer,

Robert May

 MGL Ch128 Sec.1A is the official “general” definition of agriculture.

"'Farming' or 'agriculture' shall include farming in all of its branches and the cultivation and tillage of the soil, dairying, the production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of any agricultural, aquacultural, floricultural or horticultural commodities, the growing and harvesting of forest products upon forest land, the raising of livestock including horses, the keeping of horses as a commercial enterprise, the keeping and raising of poultry, swine, cattle and other domesticated animals used for food purposes, bees, fur-bearing animals, and any forestry or lumbering operations, performed by a farmer, who is hereby defined as one engaged in agriculture or farming as herein defined, or on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with such farming operations, including preparations for market, delivery to storage or to market or to carriers for transportation to market."

 Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution ensures "the protection of the people in their right to the conservation, development and utilization of the agricultural... and other natural resources." Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 40A, Section 3, Paragraph 1 furthers this goal by stating that no local zoning bylaw may prohibit, unreasonably regulate, or require a special permit for the use of land for the primary purpose of agriculture. Other state laws such as Chapter 111, Section 125A provide additional protection and incentives for agriculture.

In Templeton, MA, most of the Templeton selectmen want signs on the Historic Town Common, but they do not want you to sit on the grass under a shade tree at town hall and now there is mention of telling people where they can have roosters and how much land people must have to keep said roosters.

 Templeton July 2022 (fiscal year 2023) shows $5032.71 spent on Veterans benefits, out of $82,500.00 appropriated by town meeting in May 2022.

 According to public records, 227 registered voters took part in May 2022 town elections and 114 registered voters took part in 2022 annual town meeting.

I am going with 5000 registered voters (I am aware the number is slightly higher) so 227 voters take time to vote = 4.5% while 114 voters take time to attend town meeting = 2.28%.

Out of those numbers, only one voter took papers out to run for Templeton board of selectmen, while there were two positions on the ballot.

So, one can either put up, as in run for elective office or volunteer for a position or one can shut up, sit at home and complain on face book, which does not change anything. That is my personal view, and I don't care if you agree with it or not.

 Finally received the draft minutes from the agricultural commission (past the 10 day requirement of the law)

from those minutes; "much discussion was about a rooster bylaw being proposed by the board of health. We were all in agreement that this is not to be a no rooster clause. Dave will contact Commissioner LeBeau for advice on how to deal with hobby farming without hurting commercial farming interests. The commission was in agreement that we need to support the board of health director as she is farmer friendly and supportive. We will send something to the Ms. Wiita by 2/28/2022.

Now, according to the last weekly report of the Town Administrator, there are a few people in town who have issue with roosters. The agricultural commission is on the side on commercial farmers while not so much on people who have a few chickens. Here I thought this was a right to farm town.

Right now, the Templeton right to farm bylaw states;

§ 152-5

Resolution of disputes.

[Amended 6-17-2020 ATM by Art. 9]

Dispute resolution will be the responsibility of the Select Board (Board), or its designee(s), until such time as an Agricultural Commission is formed by the Town and empowered to resolve disputes arising from this bylaw.

 A response from an actual Templeton member of the select board to a resident.

Thursday, August 11, 2022 at 09:07:20 PM EDT

Subject: Re: Move along unless you have $$$$ is the modus operandi in Templeton?

      "Better yet, how about I give them your address and they can camp out in your yard🤣 "

 According to mytowngovernment.org, which anyone can look at, shows the Templeton agricultural commission met 3 times in 2019, 2 times in 2020, no meetings listed for 2021 and 1 meeting in 2022.

Explain to me again why we have this public body?

Massachusetts open meeting law states - The Open Meeting Law requires public bodies to create and approve minutes in

a timely manner. A “timely manner” is considered to be within the next three public body meetings or 30 days from the date of the meeting, whichever is later, unless the public body can show good cause for further delay. The Attorney General encourages

minutes to be approved at a public body’s next meeting whenever possible. The law requires that existing minutes be made available to the public within ten days of a request, whether they have been approved or remain in draft form. Materials or other

exhibits used by the public body in an open meeting must also be made available to the public within ten days of a request.

I requested meeting minutes from the January 25, 2022 Ag comm. meeting on July 14, 2022, finally got draft minutes August 10, 2022. Who knows when minutes will be approved and posted according to OML. So much for the 10 day rule, hey, that means an OML complaint is valid!

 No final June 2022 monthly expenditure (BvA) report out yet and no end of fiscal year report out yet for Templeton. Well, it is only the middle of August.

 Supposedly 20 plus agencies in Templeton and none to help out or assist homeless, answer is No Loitering and could be police and a charge. But, those same agencies could possibly help some group with insurance so they could have an event that they may not be up to handling; interesting concept.

The answer from a selectman should probably not be "maybe we give them your address so they can camp on your land."