Open this link and you can see some of what has been spent on audits and the strange way one payment may come about. Notice check is signed by Town Treasurer but this information is from Town accountant.

 20160504080535390

the most recent and final budget according to the Town Administrator.

 2017 OPERATING BUDGET 1

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The following is from Templeton's general by-laws, they are listed on the Templeton Town website and the current board of selectmen failed to follow them:


Section 3. It shall be the duty of the Selectmen to publish the Annual Report, to be made available in the Office of the Town Clerk on the Monday preceding the first Monday in May.
 Amended 8-31-78, Amended 5-16-13

 Section 4. The Annual Town Report shall contain, in addition to the reports of officers, boards, and committees as herein before provided, a detailed report of all moneys received into and paid out of the town treasury in the financial year next preceding, showing separately payments made from the proceeds of loans as capital outlays for permanent improvements; the report of the collector of taxes, of receipts, payments and abatements; statements of all funds belonging to the town or held for the benefit of its inhabitants; a statement of the liabilities of the town on bonds, notes, certificates of indebtedness, or otherwise, and of indebtedness authorized but not incurred, and the purpose thereof: a statement of transfers made to or from any appropriation: abstracts of the records of the meetings of the town held since publication of the last annual report; a complete list of town officers and appointees for the municipal year: and such other matters as the said report is required by law to contain, or as may be inserted by the Selectmen under the discretion granted them by law.


If you look up the duties of the Town Treasurer, you will find it covers bonds, debt of the Town and the Treasurer is one who is responsible for the payment of the Town's bills. Look in the 2015 Templeton Annual Town report for the report of the Treasurer.

posted by Jeff Bennett

This is a link for the annual town meeting with summaries and motions. Jeff Bennett  ATM Warrant w Motions - May 14, 2016

What is a 'Fiduciary'

A fiduciary is responsible for managing the assets of another person, or of a group of people. Asset managers, bankers, accountants, executors, board members, and corporate officers can all be considered fiduciaries when entrusted in good faith with the responsibility of managing another party's assets. 

A fiduciary's responsibilities are both ethical and legal. When a party knowingly accepts a fiduciary duty on behalf of another party, they are required to act in the best interest of the party whose assets they are managing. The fiduciary is expected to manage the assets for the benefit of the other person rather than for his or her own profit, and cannot benefit personally from theirmanagement of assets. This is what is known as a prudent person standard of care, a standard that originally stems from an 1830 court ruling. This formulation of the prudent-person rule, required that a person acting as fiduciary was required to act first and foremost with the needs of beneficiaries in mind.

I think if this current board of Selectmen were really thinking of the ones whom they are most responsible for, the residents of Town, perhaps they would not have grown the size of government back up so quickly. I think in their haste to make things look well and to make their point, the selectmen put back all the assistants and made no real effort to put any monies aside and this has been a poor choice which I think is evident by all of the financial transfers that have been done and those that will be put before the voters again.

Jeff Bennett 

This is from the face book page of John Columbus.




April Cover: Good! Congratulations to all! Glad to see Jeff didn't get back on. I thought that it was weird of him to be running again. Didn't he resign from his position with no explanation when the misappropriation of funds was being investigated?

What Ms. Cover may not know is that there was no investigation because there was no misappropriation of funds. No money was taken and this was shown back in the fall of 2013. It was a matter of budget preparation back in the spring of 2013 and the result was that the budget presented to the annual Town meeting was not balanced. There were some items that were in the revenue column but not in the expense column such as the Ambulance receipts account. I have the document to show her and anyone else how it happened. So Ms. Cover may wish to check before making a statement like that. Which is misleading and probably leads to more confusion.

Jeff Bennett

ARTICLE 1            CITIZEN’S PETITION:  ADVISORY COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS

To see if the Town will vote amend Article IV of the General Bylaws (Advisory Committee) to read as follows: 

Section 3.   The Town Moderator shall fill any vacancies which may occur on the committee.  No appointment shall be made until the vacancy has been posted on the Town’s website for 14 days.  If any member is absent for five consecutive meetings his position shall be deemed vacant, and filled by the town Moderator as herein provided.  The appointee shall serve the remainder of the unexpired term.
A citizen’s petition submitted by John Columbus and 10 others

I think John Columbus and the rest of the current board of selectmen should concentrate on following the rules and laws that affect them and that they are suppose to follow before he goes messing with the Advisory Board or any of the Town by-laws.

Jeff Bennett