Have you seen this in the Gardner News? 

Seems like the Gardner News is only printing one sided stories - maybe the Telegram will print it!

Fw: letter to selectmen

JB

jeff bennett

 

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Wed 10/4, 9:42 PM

csmith@thegardnernews.com;

185wilberdr@gmail.com;

Bartolomeo, Bev (bartsfarm@comcast.net);

Paul Grubb (grubbp@comcast.net);

here is a story for you, if you dare!

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From: jeff bennett <j_bennett506@hotmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2017 7:14 AM
To: BERNARD HEANEY
Subject: Re: letter to selectmen

 

Bernie,
Thank you for the email and especially for all the time and work you put in to bring that issue forward. I know from experience the time it takes to do that type of thing. I understand the "moving forward" part, but when does it end? When does the following of the rules and laws begin There have been alot of mistakes made over the years with regards to Templeton's finance and reporting, and I have been part of those mistakes but when you tell people there is a competent finance team in place and all is well, there should be no excuse for those reports. We shall wait and we shall see. Again, thank you for your effort on this and for the school finance report you did, I am one who really appreciates it.

regards;
Bennett - SF

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From: BERNARD HEANEY <bernieandnancy1@comcast.net>
Sent: Friday, September 29, 2017 8:34 PM
To: jeff bennett
Subject: Re: letter to selectmen

 

Hi Jeff,
Thank you for the BOS input regarding my request for accountant's reports in the AR.
I had a lengthy discussion with John Caplis this week.   Briefly, the "bottom line" is:

1.  Regarding accountant's reports in ARs --- John says that I was right before and I am
     right now; these reports should have been published.   His position is that there is
     nothing we can do about the past and we should move on.
2.  Regarding why there was no accountant's report in the 2017 AR --- He says there was
      a joint decision made to report all the past unaudited years together.  This he says is in
      printing now.   I don't remember who was involved in that decision.  He tells me that
      he has been told this information will be available before the end of the year.   He under-
      stands my position that you don't need a last year's ending figure or a this year's starting
      figure to report actual income and expense information for any recent year, thereby,
      informing the people where our money is actually being spent, however, as he said, this
      info is being printed now.   So, again, we will have to wait for another deadline to see
      these figures.
3.  Regarding his receipt of my October 30 letter --- We have proof that this registered
     letter was delivered to the town's PO Box in East Templeton.  Unfortunately, the town does
     not log in their receipt of mail so, the trail ends with the post office.   After reminding John
     of our discussion at a veteran's meeting, where he told me that he had received my letter
     and that the accountant's report would definitely be in the AR this year, he said, "I just forgot."

I'm sending this by email because I will not be at the next Advisory Committee meeting.
I'm attending an evening course on Wednesdays at the Mount.
SF,
Bernie

On September 25, 2017 at 9:22 PM jeff bennett <j_bennett506@hotmail.com> wrote:

Bernie,
Tonight I asked John Caplis about your letter from October 2016 and why no response. First a few selectmen laughed about 106 pages then Caplis stated we could talk after the meeting about it. He told me he did not see it, does not remember getting it and he would call you.

Bennett

TO: Board of Selectmen
FROM: Carter Terenzini, Town Administrator
RE: Administrator’s Weekly Report
DATE: October 5, 2017
CC: All Departments

Important Notices 

If you are one of the Department’s where your employees got a wage adjustment as of 10/02/17; Please be sure to have completed your conversations with them ASAP. 

Positions Now Open: DPW - Highway: Laborer/Truck Driver 

BoS Workshop 10/16 to review Draft Warrant. Please plan to attend if you have an article. 

As of the requested date of 10/02 for staff articles, we had about 12. 

As of today, we do not have any citizen petitioned warrant articles.

Business Meeting or Workshop: The following is intended to supplement agenda items where a full memorandum may not have been required or updates are needed.

4.i.(1) This is the latest Draft after addressing concerns coming out of your 10/02, a final review with UMass, and a final re-read. We believe it is ready for adoption as is. That said, do please understand that we will need to - in the near future - add a section to accommodate some of our more day to day procedures (i.e. as the Electronic & Bad Check Policy, petty cash, and the like). Please also understand that while we continue to make great progress some of this is aspirational given our current state. That is to say that - rather than putting target dates in numerous places - we simply need to have you - in your adoption vote - get this onto the public record. Weekly Report: With no changes coming from the participants, I was able to finalize the memo on our meeting with DOR for you. I’ve been working with team leaders Carol Harris and Mike Branley (TA of Swansea, NH) on final preparations for the assessment center for our Management Fellow this coming Tuesday. Work with Alan to finalize a preferred DPW fleet and capital planning continued as did work with U-Mass Collins to finalize the Financial Policies Draft coming out of your 10/02 workshop. We received the contract boilerplate for the Police Contract and hope to have it out to bid by next week. Our "free cash" has been certified for the General Fund at $1,042,588 and the Sewer Fund at $743,735. With this in hand I can now finalize the several warrant articles we need for clean-up and FY ’18. With the construction of the school getting ever close I worked with ODS on how to pay our Inspectors for this extraordinary project which is not covered by the base annual compensation. We have lost one of our Seasonal Laborers (In Training to become a Laborer/Truck Driver). We will re-advertise but are very concerned over our recruitment efforts given our very low starting wages (less than $15/hr for a CDL). The Daymill remanded hearing will be held on November 1, 2017.

 Public Works 

Highway Department: Some cold patching done on Royalston Rd. Brooks Rd, Hamlet Mill, Sunrise and Henshaw Rd. Millings from Rt 68 were hauled to Gilman Waite Field. More sand brought from the Pit to the bard for use this winter. We are cleaning up, repairing and applying a coat of enamel paint to the plows in preparation for the winter plowing season. Catch basins were rebuilt on Red Fox crossing and hot topping added to Ladder Hill and Partridgeville Rd. Some roadside mowing was done on Carruth, Phillipston Rd and Queen Lake Roads. The mechanic is installing the new sander in H16. He also repaired a corroded transmission line in one of the COA vans. Our general use pickup truck has been red lined because the brakes are gone. 

Buildings & Grounds: The director attended a School Building meeting, Select Board Work Shop and a class in Hadley. He is currently working on an audit of all of the playgrounds in Templeton. The crew cleaned and graded the walking path around Gilman Waite field and trimmed back the brush. We are working with an intern from Narragansett in the cemeteries and common areas; his interest is horticultural and landscaping. Grass Mowing at all buildings as well as all common areas in town. Assist was given in spreading millings @ Gilman Waite field to improve the parking area. General maintenance was done to the equipment and cleaning. Prepped an area for a burial in Green Lawn cemetery and placed a bronze marker. Flags put to half Staff for the victims of the Vegas shootings. Swings taken down @ Otter River playground and the bearing, chains and connections will be replaced.

an email response from the selectmen to Advisory Committee. The committee wanted to be on the agenda of a selectmen meeting to talk about the roles and responsibilities of the Advisory Committee. The following is the answer received:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Selectman Caplis <selectmen.caplis@templeton1.org>
Date: Fri, Oct 6, 2017 at 9:16 AM
Subject: Fwd: request from Advisory Committee
To: advisorycommittee@templeton1.org, Wilfred Spring <185wilberdr@gmail.com>, Diane Haley Brooks <seldhaleybrooks@templeton1.org>, selectmen.fortes@templeton1.org, selectmen.richard@templeton1.org, selectmen.morrison@templeton1.org, townadministrator@templeton1.org

THIS IS INFORMATION ONLY 

Will:

I’m really not sure what you are seeking.  It seems to me that the roles are fairly well laid out in that the TA proposes a budget to us, we finalize it to send to you and then you make recommendations to us (if you have some before we finalize it) and then to the Town Meeting.  At this time the BoS expects an estimate of revenues from the staff at its workshop of 11/6, a presentation from the TA of his proposed budget on 2/26/18 and workshops in March with a goal of giving you its budget to you on or before April 9^th (possibly even March 26^th).   We intend to invite you to each of these meetings and will give you the final schedule once we adopt it (possibly as early as 10/10).

If you have want some columns added to the spreadsheets for your use, or something else along those lines, I’m sure the TA will accommodate you if you let him know. 

Let me know if there is something else we can do.

Respectfully 

John Caplis

'I am sure the TA will accomodate you?" Hate to bring this to anyone's attention, but that added column is in the Templeton Town by-laws, you know, those policies and procedures for running the Town!

First off, I wish the debate (s) that happen here, on other blogs or mediums would happen at Town meeting. I wish selectmen would not use any means available to stifle or outright stop that debate. If you do not think that happens, you need to watch one town meeting where selectmen Brooks did exactly that. The possible debate involved the new school and perhaps a good portion of the "talk" concerning the school (s) could have been dealt with if that debate had been allowed to take place. Of course, some of the blame for a lack of town meeting debate has to land at the feet of the citizens who go to Town Meeting. Rather than talk about a bedroom community or not, perhaps we should really talk about how do we want to operate this entity called Templeton? Do we want an open Town Meeting or not? Do we want a representative form of Town Meeting? Do we want selectmen making the decisions or do we stand by while one individual seems to run things? Where is that full time one individual by the way? Rather than start at the middle of the book, lets start at the beginning, where is the full time Town Administrator/ Where is the certified, experienced Town Treasurer/Collector?  Do you know one person meeting that criteria applied for the position of collector/treasurer with municipal experience but was passed over for someone with no municipal experience. What could the reason be for not hiring an experienced, previously certified treasurer/collector? I am not a conspiracy theory guy but that is an interesting question.

Back on the schools, three things come to mind; 1. having a conversation with a previous school superintendent, I asked about the leaking roof at Templeton Center school and why it was not repaired? answer: "We did not think we could get a new school if the roof was not leaking"
2. The regional school agreement contains an item where if any repair is over $5,000.00, it is the responsibility of the town, a few years back, the district did several different repairs to the schools and then lumped them together and presented a bill for about $12,000.00 so those repairs would not have to come from the school budget. That superintendent now or was employed west of Templeton.
3. There were several questions for a debt exclusion to replace the roof at Templeton Center over the years, from a "low" of about $75,000.00 up to about $175,000.00. All of those were rejected by towns people at Town Meeting, so the people have to admit failing to provide funds for the often talked about maintenance of buildings.

Something to perhaps think about;

A supposed real estate agent runs for elective office, then uses that position to lobby for a new school while also talking about property values increasing in town. More people will want to move to Templeton. Does that real estate person benefit financially from the increase in property values and increase in home sales? Is that a violation of the conflict of interest law?

If you do not want your salary known and or your benefits, do not work for a municipality. The many questions about numbers (dollar figures) showing negative (over spent) balances are part of the lack of detail in those reports. It is also a result of a lack of true open, transparent communication on the part of the selectmen and the town administrator. That is my view and opinion.

If Shari or anyone else feels a selectmen is being spoken about badly here or on any other platform, I suggest you go to selectmen meeting and ask the individual point blank; do you get paid from the town? Can you benefit financially from increased home sales in Tempeton/ Do you favor keeping the salaries and benefits of Templeton Town employees from the general public in Templeton?

See if you get any answers. Perhaps bring a map and have a geography lesson at the same time.

I wonder how many Tempeton residents are aware of the fact the there is no real accountability of their money/ A document put out by the Templeton Town accountant, supposedly showing appropriations from town meeting and how much has been spent, but there are no real clear names or identities of places or things on which this money has been spent. There was a time when it was clear, plain and simple, such as how much has been spent on health insurance for town employees or how much each town employee makes. No more, as is apparent that the current board of selectmen and especially Diane Brooks, wishes to keep this information hidden from the very people who pay the bills; you, the taxpayer. I wonder why that is?

According to the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) Public Playground Safety Handbook, there are 200,000 injuries on playgrounds annually in the United States that results in children needing emergency room treatment. The majority of those injuries are the result of falls from equipment. The CPSC Handbook provides guidelines for impact absorbing materials, fall zones and equipment. The Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) recommends that programs follow the CPSC Handbook as a way to reduce the number of these injuries. EEC has developed this policy based on the recommendations of the CPSC and the requirements of 606 CMR Standards for Licensure so that children in care will be provided an outdoor environment that is safe, age appropriate, challenging and promotes healthy growth and development. The regulations that impact outdoor space, surfacing, fall zones, equipment, entrapments, hazards and supervision are:
 6.06 CMR 7.07(7)
Outdoor Space The licensee must maintain, or have access to, an outdoor play area of at least 75 square feet per child who is outside at any one time.
(a) The play area must be accessible to children with disabilities.
(b) The outdoor play space must be appropriate for each age group served.
(c) The outdoor play area must provide for both direct sunlight and shade.
(d) The outdoor play area must be free from hazards including but not limited to: a busy street, a parking lot, poisonous plants, water hazards, debris, broken glass, chipping, peeling or flaking paint, dangerous machinery or tools, and weather related and environmental hazards or small objects that could present a choking hazard to young children. Any such hazard must be removed or fenced by a sturdy, permanently installed barrier which is at least four feet high or otherwise protected or removed, as appropriate.
(e) If the outdoor play space is located on a roof, it must be protected by a barrier at least seven feet high, which cannot be climbed by children.
(f) The outdoor play space must not be covered with a dangerously harsh, abrasive, or toxic material. (h) Suitable barriers, including but not limited to bulkhead doors, must be installed to prevent falls into outdoor stair or window wells.