2025 Templeton special town meeting, article 2, asks town meeting to amend their vote of May 16, 2006 regarding open space committee. That vote created an open space committee of from 5 to 9 members with all votes shall be considered passed and valid provided at least 3 members of the committee are present and a simple majority is attained. How can 3 votes be a majority (quorum) if there are 7, 8 or 9 members? That does not work, even with Templeton math. Also, it is harder and harder to get members on these various committees, so town meeting will be asked to amend that vote to set the open space committee at 5 members and the committee members will be appointed in June and change Board of Selectmen to Select Board.

That is all that article is about. I believe there are 3 people waiting to serve on this committee.

2025 November 12, Templeton special town meeting, articles 3, 4, 5, and 6 ask town meeting to expend CPA money on 4 various projects.

Article 7 asks town meeting to approve a debt exclusion for the towns share of expense of roof work on NRSD high school, a building Templeton voted to expend money to build back in the 1990's

Article 8 asks town meeting to approve using money from TCTV retained earnings fund to their fiscal year 2026 budget. Retained earnings are an enterprise funds money equivalent to town free cash. This is another move to try and keep tctv afloat while the budget, funding and charge of this town entity results in a decision on it's true mission and as a service to town residents. To date, many proposals and plans have been presented to the select board and town, but none so far have brought about any real financial impact, as in bringing more funding to the town to keep this entity running. Just like a town, a dept. cannot keep spending onetime funds for reoccurring expenses.

 On Templeton Town website, annual town meeting May 2018, article 21 - fy2019 general fund operating budget $8,220,298.00 plus article 24 - supplementalfy2019 operating budget - $470,246.00, for a total fy19 general fund operating budget of $8,690,544.00

So as to be clear, this article 24, added money to the budgets of fire/EMS, police, insurance & benefits, highway, snow & ice, all of which are funded in general fund budget.

So May 2019, annual town meeting, article 26, general fund budget for fiscal year 20, $9,660,274.00;

A one-year increase in Templeton general fund budget of $999,730.00. Close enough to one million, what is $270.00 among friends?

 Over time, there have been some agreements signed that have been beneficial to other towns at the expense of Templeton residents. One of them signed on May 15, 2019 and is on town website was accounting agreement with Hubbardston, which had Templeton moving from a parttime assistant town accountant to fulltime and giving more money to fulltime town accountant, this resulted in lower accounting cost for Hubbardston and increased cost for Templeton. That agreement has ended but the cost increases from it are still with the town today. Perhaps not good idea to call out the current board when you signed off on that very bad agreement. You failed in financial fiduciary responsibility to Templeton. Especially after signing off on another agreement with a different town for dispatch service, agreeing to lower cost to one town while increasing costs to Templeton. This is easy to check, do not take my word, it is on your website. Can the town use more money to provide more things and/or better, yes, but it is very hard to ask for more with a history of making those bad deals for Templeton, which have placed a financial burden on residents that are still affecting things today. Again, failure in fiduciary responsibility to Templeton.

 It is a bad showing that all select board members vote to spend residents' money on something but then refuse to do their part. Pretty much shows a lack of concern for public money and their responsibility.

 There is no compelling reason for a town senior tax work off program should have to be done in steps, such as raising the amount that can be worked off from say $500.00 to $800.00, then $1000.00, and take 3 or 4 years to get to $1,500.00 per senior while being told if the limit is just increased from $500.00 to $1,500.00 per senior because it would not be sustainable. The funding for senior work off program comes from town's overlay fund, which is raised by the board of assessors by raising it on the tax recap sheet and when there is over $700,000.00 dollars already available. Senior tax work off program policy is set by selectmen rather than assessors, according to state law. Templeton seniors deserve the increase; the money is there and there is no reason Templeton should not have the amount set to $1,500.00 per senior. It will require a town meeting vote to undo something done many years ago and bring this item up to date. Everyone will be a senior one day!

 A while back, I donated a hard cover version of Town Meeting Times to the Templeton library, it is the lates copy of Town Meeting Times, which is the official guide book for Templeton Town Meetings. You can go there and check this out without having to to buy a copy. Moderators Association will not let the town post an electronic copy on Town website.

Page 217 - section 9.1 in Town Meeting Times, at bottom of page, an interesting paragraph of information.

Concerning the practice of anyone wishing to speak before the meeting, identify themselves, no matter how well they may be known in town. There is one sentence that is interesting: "Although this is accepted practice, there is no legal authority which expressly accords to the moderator the power to compel speakers to identify themselves if they do not wish to do so."

Town Meeting Times is a product of MA Moderators Association.

One member of the committee that produced this latest edition of the book, Templeton Town Counsel Tom Harrington.

 Join us to show your support of the Municipal Empowerment Act (MEA) next Tuesday October 28th!

 

Why the MEA is Important

 

The MEA is an important opportunity for the Commonwealth to further its support of all 351 cities and towns. This legislation promotes efficiencies in local government, reduces regulatory burdens, and provides tools for communities to solve age-old problems through additional revenue options and operational flexibilities.

 

The MEA:

• Reforms outdated procurement rules and thresholds including:
• Raising the 30B threshold for ALL municipal purchases to $100,000
• Exempting snow hauling from 30B requirements to match snow removal
• Eliminating the COMMBUYS publishing requirement
• Streamlining cooperative purchasing agreements for goods AND services
• Codifies existing COVID-era allowances for remote public meetings, currently set to expire on June 30, 2027
• Updates enforcement mechanisms and removal procedures for double poles
• Provides new or expanded local option revenues including:
• Option to increase the meals tax
• Option to increase the lodging tax
• Option to establish a new motor vehicle excise tax
• Improves efficiency of local operations through longer borrowing terms for school projects, tools for critical workforce shortages, and much more!

 Time has come for a review and update to Templeton Senior tax work off program. It is time for a presentation to Town Meeting and for Select Board to take the lead and increase to the maximum dollar amount allowed under state law to try and help seniors who can and are willing to do some things for the town in exchange for small abatement of property taxes. There is more than enough money in the fund that covers the cost of this program, it is called the Town Overlay fund and is controlled by Board of Assessors. Currently there is a very large amount of money in that fund, more than enough to handle the increase in senior work off.

Funding the Programs: Work-off program expenses must be budgeted in the allowance for abatements and exemptions, i.e. overlay account, rather than through departmental appropriations. The expenses can include the municipality’s share of federal Medicare taxes. Therefore, as part of the budget development process, the amounts needed to operate the programs should be considered. The assessors should factor these amounts into the amount of overlay being raised each year.

 https://go.boarddocs.com/ma/nrsd/Board.nsf/files/DLMN9X5EE6FA/$file/MSBA%20Narragansett%20MS%20Reginal%20HS%20Roof%20Replacement%20SD%20Estimate%2008-20-2025%20%20as%20issue%20(1).pdf

 Templeton town meeting votes a single dollar amount for each department, it is up to department heads to spend those dollars wisely. If town meeting wants more control, they would have to vote in a line item budget, which would require amending previous town meeting votes, changing a few policies and in the end, could cost money if there were an increase in special town meetings to transfer money around. Always the details that drive the train.

 Survey question; town bylaw / policy - no charge for public records. Yes or no?

Paper, ink, computers, printers, copiers, people producing or getting the information are already all paid for, no reason to pay twice.

What is the cost for copies of public records; what about electronic records?

Absent a specifically identified statute or regulation, an RAO may charge no more than $0.05 per page for single and double-sided black and white paper copies or computer printouts. There is no longer a separate charge for police or fire reports, or for computer printouts.

The Public Records Law and its Regulations apply to all Massachusetts government records, regardless of form, and regardless of the location of the

records.

Provision of public records in electronic form is preferred where available. An RAO is not permitted to assess a copying fee for electronic records. The $0.05 fee applies only to paper copies of records.

Public records that are of great interest to a large number of people must be readily available within the office of the RAO and should be provided at a minimum cost, if any. Examples include minutes of board meetings, town meeting documents, warrants, street lists and municipal financial documents.

Many of these records are required to be placed on the RAO’s website.

An RAO may charge and recover a fee for the time spent searching, redacting, photocopying and refiling a record.

Municipalities with a population of 20,000 and under are permitted to charge

for the first two hours of time spent searching for, compiling, segregating, redacting and reproducing a requested record.

The hourly rate may not be greater than the prorated hourly wage of the lowest paid employee who is capable of performing the task. Generally, an RAO is not permitted to charge an hourly rate in excess of $25.00 per hour to search for records. Municipal RAOs may petition the Supervisor for permission to charge a fee in excess of $25.00.

 The overlay is raised by the assessors in the annual tax levy as a reserve for abatements and exemptions.  MGL c. 59, secs. 23, 25 and  70A. Currently, there is a separate overlay reserve account for each fiscal year to cover property tax abatements and exemptions granted by the assessors or ordered by the Appellate Tax Board for just that fiscal year.

The Municipal Modernization Act creates a single overlay reserve to cover the costs of potential abatements or exemptions granted by the assessors or ordered by the Appellate Tax Board for any fiscal year. With a single overlay reserve, municipalities may now avoid deficits which formerly occurred when amounts abated or exempted exceeded the balance in the overlay account for that particular year. The single overlay takes effect on November 7, 2016. No local action is needed. As of that date, all balances in all overlay accounts will be merged into a single overlay account, the balance for which may be charged for abatements or exemptions granted for any fiscal year. Local assessors, however, will still need to review, as part of each year’s budget and tax rate process, whether an additional amount needs to be raised that year for addition to the single overlay account.

DOR Code	Municipality	Fiscal Year	Overlay Appropriation	Total Levy	Overlay as a % of Total Levy
294	Templeton	2021	313,292	12,276,184	2.55%
294	Templeton	2022	234,466	12,740,880	1.84%
294	Templeton	2023	225,774	12,935,986	1.75%
294	Templeton	2024	143,641	13,526,437	1.06%
294	Templeton	2025	140,749	14,086,053	1.00%

 Town meeting hypothetical article;

Yes or No?

To see if the town will vote to amend prior article, senior tax work off program.

To see if the Town will vote to amend Article 4 of the May 13, 2017, Annual Town Meeting, as shown below:

from “The Senior Tax Work-Off Program, for taxpayers over 60 years of age, shall provide a maximum abatement of Five-Hundred Dollars ($500.00) for each participant earned at an hourly rate as the Board of Selectmen shall, from time to time, set as the minimum wage of the Town in compliance with statute; said abatement(s) to be paid from the Assessor’s Overlay account.”

To “The Senior Tax Work-Off Program, for taxpayers over 60 years of age, shall provide a maximum abatement set by the select board, per M.G.L. c 59, section 5K, in consultation with council on aging, for each participant, earned at an hourly rate set as the minimum wage of the Town in compliance with statute; said abatement(s) to be paid from the Assessor’s Overlay account.”

There is over $700,000.00 in the overlay fund (and it was explained to the SB that it is planned to add $130,000.00 more to the overlay fund) now, as a senior and a member of the board, I would be in favor of an amount of not less than $1500.00 per senior, with work assigned by SB/council on aging. There are many things seniors can/could do, the list is long, and there are seniors in Templeton who are more than capable of helping the town out as well as themselves. Consider this as an unofficial survey.

 BARRE — Voters in Barre handily rejected a proposed $540,000 Proposition 2½ override in a townwide election Tuesday, Aug. 5.

According to unofficial results the town posted online, the measure failed 798-154.

There were 952 ballots cast, which represents about a fifth of the town’s 4,369 registered voters.

The vote, which town officials said would lead to cuts in services including the police, comes after Town Meeting voters in June, by a 133-67 vote, approved the expenditures that would have flowed from a “yes” vote.

The Telegram & Gazette has reached out to members of the town’s three-person Board of Selectmen for comment.

At Town Meeting, officials said the override, which would have raised property taxes by $255 a year on the median $359,000 home in town, was needed to avoid cuts in services.

The town’s police chief, James Sabourin — who was recently appointed interim town administrator — said the cuts would amount to an 11% decrease in his budget; the fire chief told residents he expected the town to lose its fire inspector.

Sabourin told the T&G Aug. 6 that he expects the cuts to lead to the loss of the town’s school resource officer, as well as about a $17,000 cut from his overtime budget.

That will hinder the ability to backfill shifts should officers be out sick or on vacation, he said, and may lead to situations in which the department only has one officer on at times overnight.

 The Montachusett Veterans Outreach Center has launched a new website, making it easier for veterans to access services, according to a community announcement.

The Barre Savings Charitable Foundation provided funding for the website, which was developed by Gardner-based InConcert Web Solutions. The site is now fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and accessible via computer, tablet and phone. It also features an active veterans event calendar, downloadable housing applications and easily navigable service pages.

The MVOC has served homeless and high-risk veterans throughout North Central Massachusetts for over 40 years. Its previous website had remained unchanged for over a decade due to funding restrictions and capacity restraints.

 The State Ethics Commission has issued a formal advisory opinion that explains how the state’s conflict-of-interest law (Ch. 268A) applies to municipal employees who solicit donations or engage in fundraising on behalf of the municipality where the persons and entities approached for a donation may have business dealings with the municipality or its agencies or employees.

In general, sections 3 and 23(b)(2) of Chapter 268A prohibit public employees from soliciting anything of substantial value from anyone with whom the public employee has official business dealings.

As discussed in the advisory opinion (EC-COI-12), however, a municipal employee may solicit donations to a municipal entity from persons and entities with whom he, or other municipal employees, has or expects to have official dealings, consistent with Chapter 268A, provided that all of the following are true:

1. The solicitation is carried out in accordance with Chapter 44, Section 53A, which authorizes acceptance of gifts by municipal employees on behalf of the municipality, and, by implication, authorizes the solicitation of gifts.

2. The solicitation is not made in circumstances that are inherently coercive because the person or entity solicited may be directly and significantly affected by a pending or anticipated decision of the same municipality.

3. No overt pressure is exerted in connection with any such solicitation.

4. The municipality and its employees apply objective standards in all dealings with persons and entities who are solicited and do not favor those who give or disfavor those who do not.

5. The municipal employee principally responsible for making such solicitations discloses publicly and in writing the names of those solicited, pursuant to Chapter 268A, Section 23(b)(3).

 Article 27.   To see if the Town will vote to accept the provisions of M.G.L. C.59, §5K, Senior Tax Work-Off Program, for taxpayers over 60 years of age.  The program shall be implemented in fiscal year 2013, with abatements applied to the fiscal year 2014 actual tax bills provided, however, that such program shall provide a maximum abatement of $500.00 for each of up to twenty participants with an hourly rate of $8.00; said abatement(s) of up to a total of $10,000.00 to be paid from the Excess Overlay Reserve account; or to take any other action relative thereto.                                                 

Submitted by Susan Byrne, MAA, Deputy Assessor and Eileen Clarkson, HS-BCP, MS, Notary Public, director of Council on Aging/Senior Center/Food Pantry/Meals on Wheels/Transportation 

On an amended motion duly made and seconded the town voted to accept the provisions of M.G.L. C.59, §5K, Senior Tax Work-Off Program, for taxpayers over 60 years of age. The program shall be implemented in fiscal year 2013, with abatements applied to the fiscal year 2014 actual tax bills, provided however, that such program shall provide a maximum abatement of Five-Hundred Dollars ($500.00) for each participant earned at an hourly rate of Eight Dollars ($8.00); said abatement(s) to be paid from the Assessor’s Overlay account. Passed Unanimously/May 16th @ 8:50 

MGL c59 section 5K: A city or town, by vote of its legislative body, subject to its charter, may adjust the exemption in this clause by: (1) allowing an approved representative, for persons physically unable, to provide such services to the city or town; or (2) allowing the maximum reduction of the real property tax bill to be based on 125 volunteer service hours in a given tax year, rather than $2,000.

MGL c59, section 5K: In any city or town which accepts the provisions of this section, the board of selectmen of a town or in a municipality having a town council form of government, the town council or the mayor with the approval of the city council in a city may establish a program to allow persons over the age of 60 to volunteer to provide services to such city or town. In exchange for such volunteer services, the city or town shall reduce the real property tax obligations of such person over the age of 60 on his tax bills and any reduction so provided shall be in addition to any exemption or abatement to which any such person is otherwise entitled and no such person shall receive a rate of, or be credited with, more than the current minimum wage of the commonwealth per hour for services provided pursuant to such reduction nor shall the reduction of the real property tax bill exceed $2,000 in a given tax year. It shall be the responsibility of the city or town to maintain a record for each taxpayer including, but not limited to, the number of hours of service and the total amount by which the real property tax has been reduced and to provide a copy of such record to the assessor in order that the actual tax bill reflect the reduced rate. A copy of such record shall also be provided to the taxpayer prior to the issuance of the actual tax bill. Such cities and towns shall have the power to create local rules and procedures for implementing this section in any way consistent with the intent of this section.