All separate and not reporting to the selectmen?

Perhaps a review of Town Meeting vote!

Carry out the intent of the article!
Perhaps that should be the number one focus of all selectmen, the intent of the voters!

Before a motion is voted on, take time to explain to voters present exactly what they are voting on, so as to try and ensure, what people intend, is contained in the motion which is actually voted on!

TOWN OF TEMPLETON 

WARRANT FOR SPECIAL TOWN MEETING 

MARCH 8, 2000 

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS 

WORCESTER, ss.

 To either of the Constables of the Town of Templeton in said County: 

GREETINGS: 

 In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you are hereby directed to notify and warn the Inhabitants of the precincts of the Town of Templeton, County of Worcester, qualified to vote in elections and town affairs to meet at the Narragansett Regional High School, 464 Baldwinville Road, Baldwinville, MA on Wednesday, March 8, 2000, at 7:00 PM, then and there to act on the following articles:

Article 1 To see if the Town will vote to instruct the Board of Selectmen to petition the General court to adopt necessary legislation which upon acceptance by the Town, would combine the Water Department and the Light Department under the authority of a single Municipal Lighting and Water Plant and a single Light and Water Commission and to repeal or amend any previous special acts in order to carry out the intent of this article, or to take any other vote or votes in relation thereto.

 On a motion duly made and seconded the Town voted to accept an amendment to Article 1 to read as follows:

 AN ACT ABOLISHING THE DEPARTMENT OF WATER OF THE TOWN OF TEMPLETON UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF THE SELECTMEN OF SAID TOWN AND ESTABLISHING A WATER DEPARTMENT UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF THE TEMPLETON MUNICIPAL LIGHTING PLANT

 Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

 Section 1. Notwithstanding any contrary provision of law, there shall be established in the Town of Templeton, a Water Department, under the jurisdiction of the Templeton Municipal Lighting Plant. Upon the effective date of this act, the Templeton Municipal Lighting Plant shall be known as the “Templeton Municipal Lighting and Water Plant”, shall have all powers contained in General Law Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Four and otherwise, and all powers and duties now and from time to time vested by general or special law and by by-law in the Water Department of said town, and the Department of Water under the jurisdiction of the Selectmen shall be abolished. The books of accounts of the Light Plant and Water Plant shall be kept separate and the Water Plant shall continue to operate as an enterprise fund until changed by law.

 Section 2. The Manager of the Templeton Municipal Lighting and Water Plant shall exercise and perform such of the powers, rights and duties transferred to him under section one above and those contained in General Law Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Four and otherwise as he may from time to time designate. He shall be specially fitted by education, training and experience to perform the duties of his office and need not be a resident of the town during his tenure of office. He shall be responsible for the efficient exercise and performance of such powers, rights and duties.

 During his tenure he shall hold no other elective or appointive office nor engage in any other business or occupation. He shall appoint such assistants, agents and employees as the exercise and performance of his powers, rights and duties may require. He shall render to the Selectmen, as often as they may require, a full report of all operations under his control during the period reported upon, and annually, and from time to time as required by the Selectmen, shall make a synopsis of such reports for publication and shall keep the Selectmen fully advised as to the needs of the town within the scope of his duties, and shall annually, not less than one hundred and twenty days prior to the expiration of the fiscal year of said town, furnish to the Selectmen a carefully prepared and detailed estimate in writing of the appropriations required during the next succeeding fiscal year for the proper exercise and performance of all said rights and duties.
The permanent employees of the Department of Water under the jurisdiction of the Selectmen of the Town of Templeton abolished by this act shall be transferred to and become employees of the Templeton Municipal Lighting and Water Plant and every employee so transferred who immediately prior to such transfer was subject to section nine A of chapter thirty or to chapter thirty-one of the General Laws under a permanent appointment and who has served a probationary period shall continue to serve subject to the provisions of said section nine A of chapter thirty or said chapter thirty-one as the case may be, whether or not thereafter reclassified, and shall retain all rights to holidays, sick leave and vacations in effect on the effective date of this act.

 Section 3. This act shall be submitted to the votes of the Town of Templeton for acceptance at the annual town election in the year two thousand or any other election, in the form of the following question, which shall be placed on the official ballot to be used for the election of town officers at said election:--“Shall an act passed by the General Court in the year two thousand, entitled ‘an Act Abolishing the Department of Water of the Town of Templeton Under the Jurisdiction of the Selectmen of Said Town and Establishing a Water Plant Under the Jurisdiction of the Templeton Municipal Light Plan,’ be accepted?” If a majority of the votes cast in answer to this question is in the affirmative, this act shall take effect one hundred and twenty days following the vote. If this act is not accepted as provided in this section, it shall thereupon become null and void.

Amendment Passed 7:17, Main Motion Passed 7:47

The power of Town Meeting - sometimes through it's Advisory Committee:

The town meeting can have a great deal of control over department heads. The town meeting can, for example, investigate town problems or administration through its advisory committee, other standing committees or special ad hoc committees. On the basis of findings and recommendations by such committees, or on the petition of ten or more local voters, the town meeting may adopt resolutions and bylaws establishing new town policies or initiating new programs [G.L. c. 39, §10]. The town meeting can also, within certain limits, reorganize town agencies and control development in the town. The most important power of town meeting is the power of the purse. By appropriating or withholding funds, the town meeting can force, prevent or influence actions by town officials and departments.

The above can be found in the latest copy of selectmen handbook.

No one time money to support Town budget:

Why is there a Town Meeting Warrant article to use ambulance receipts money to help with the general fund budget then? It is on the Templeton Town website; article 28, $250,000.00 from ambulance receipts to support general fund operating expense budget. This article actually has FY2019 but I suspect that is a cut n paste mistake.

 I recall that the message from selectmen was no one time money for the budget, just savings and capital items. Has the plan changed?

November 7, 2011, article 8, special town meeting vote:

To see if the Town will vote to create a Fire Department-Ambulance Receipts Reserved for Appropriation Account where collected ambulance receipts for services are placed beginning with FY2013. Monies out of this fund are expended only through town meeting vote for the purpose of funding various Fire Department capital requests pursuant to the

betterment of the Fire Department services as deemed by the Templeton Fire Chief.

Submitted by the Templeton Fire Chief

On a motion duly made and seconded the Town voted to create a Fire / Ambulance Receipts Reserved for Appropriation Account where collected ambulance receipts for services are placed beginning with fiscal year 2013.

Passed Unanimously/Nov. 7th @ 8:00

So, you make the call on the intent of this article and whether it is correct to use these funds to help pay for the Town general fund expenses or shall this money be used to make things like an ambulance lease payment, seeing how the ambulance operation is a fee based service (as presented to voters in the past by some selectmen). Time for the Town to do business in a different way? Is it time for selectmen to actually follow their financial policies?


from the Capital plan as presented by the Capital Planning Committee:

Section 6: Committee Recommendations The committee recommends acceptance of the above tax and non-tax impact capital requests. Furthermore, this committee must strongly urge the BoS, the Department heads, and the town supporting staff offices to promptly execute the MGL-defined purchase goals. Based on historical data, this committee recommends prompt purchases made in accordance with the town administrator’s guidance on leased items and future impacts to the operating budget; any deviation could send a ripple-effect thru the integrated Master Capital Plan.

What could go wrong? 

Yesterday, Templeton highway dept. was using a loader to patch pot holes. It apparently has been an ongoing approach as I encountered a loader being used for that purpose on Partridgeville Road.

As for yesterday, I encountered a highway loader on the one-way section of South Road next to the new school construction site. Once a vehicle gets there, no where to go and with all the cars parked on one side of the road, the road was blocked by the loader. The loader operator appeared to get upset when I hit my horn as he backed up closer and closer to my vehicle. I could not back up because now I had a vehicle behind me.

I checked the highway budget for fiscal year 2019 (present FY) and sure enough, in the fiscal year 2019 budget under highway, page 146; police details - $3,150.00. Page 132 under highway; training - $1,350.00. As one road is one way entirely and part of South Road is one way, I see this happening again and again, blocking of road due to any number of items, so clearly a plan is needed; funds are provided for police details, those funds should be used. Again, a loader for pot hole patching?? Signs at the intersection of Wellington and South Road alerting drivers of the situation would also be nice, so as to give drivers the option of turning around and going back up South Road and use Victoria Lane to go to Hubbardston Road and go where ever one is headed. At the very least, rather than getting pissed off because of a horn, how about a public employee, who works for the residents, get out and explain what is happening and how long it may be. There were two town vehicles with two town employees there, one in the loader and one in sidewalk snow blower. One of them could have gotten out and explained things. Still, why no police detail or signs for this work. Is there any daily work plan over at highway? I voiced my concerns to all selectmen and the Town Administrator via email which has been acknowledged by one selectmen and the T/A. This has nothing to do with the number of employees at highway, rather everything to do with management or lack there of, in my opinion.

Quid pro quo:

Page 187 of the 2020 budget/legislative package as seen on Templeton Town website:

As many of you remember, Senator Brewer helped us secure $300,000.00 towards completion of the building in exchange for the building being named in his honor. He has asked on many occasions if we still plan to name the building after him so it will be named Senator Stephen Brewer Templeton Senior Community Center.

So let us get this straight; Brewer used his position as a state senator to divert or direct 300K of tax payer money (some of which naturally came from Templeton residents) and in order for that to happen, he requested "payment" in the form of the building being named after him? Is that not called bribery and is that against the law? Is that ethical? Is that what you want from elected state representatives paid with your tax dollars?

Interesting proposed by-law for Templeton: Rude, Indecent speech or behavior / $50.00 fine allowed - enforcer - police department or designee.

How much does it cost per day to house a prisoner because your honor, I cannot afford the $50.00 and I have a tooth ache that requires attention and seeing how I will be in custody of law enforcement, they need to take care of my medical needs or else a law suit happens.

Who decides rude behavior or speech; what is the definition and would that violate my free speech rights, seeing how one can burn an american flag. Seems like a power grab by the police department / selectmen.

That by-law proposal is on page 414 under the by-law section of the budget/legislative package on the town website.

Get Town Hall in order before moving sewer collections:

from the fiscal year 2018 Town audit management letter.

3. Closing Checklists
Closing checklists are employed by accounting departments to better ensure that all routine and non-routine accounting transactions and reconciliations are performed and the final outputs (i.e., the Town’s balance sheet and Schedule A) are reviewed for accuracy and completeness. The use of closing checklists is commonplace in private industry but is seldom used in the public sector. The Town had great difficulty getting its free cash approved; in the end it was approved at the expected amount, but the Department of Revenue process was not used properly. We recommend that the Town Accountant, Treasurer/Collector develop a closing checklist to monitor and track the annual accounting close in order for the process to be more efficient in the future.

6. Indirect Costs (repeated from prior year) Water, sewer, and light indirect costs are approved at Town Meeting, and transfers are made annually into the General Fund. However, they are not reflected as transfers on the tax recap, but instead as miscellaneous revenues and expenses. Furthermore, the transfers are not made if sufficient resources do not exist in the enterprise funds, and there is no formal process to the calculation of indirect costs from year to year. A more comprehensive calculation of indirect costs should be undertaken, documented, and signed off by the Town and enterprise funds with updates performed every few years.

9. Treasurer/Collector Office (repeated from prior year)
In our letter to management dated March 23, 2017 we identified 17 critical areas in the Treasurer/Collectors Office that needed to be addressed. Many of those have been addressed through fiscal year 2018, however some remain and should be addressed in the current fiscal year. Those are highlighted as follows:
• While efforts are made to collect cash from department heads weekly, there is no formal policy regarding cash held by departments outside the Treasurer’s Office. The Treasurer was unaware that all Town cash is under the Treasurer’s control, and the Treasurer has the duty to force effective internal control policies on all departments who handle cash. 
• Presently, the Collector does not use a lock box to collect taxes. A lock box is essentially a third-party collector of taxes. Taxpayers mail their payments to a Post Office box, and the third-party collector deposits the funds for the Town and posts activity for all those who have paid. Daily, an electronic file is then sent to the Town where payments are uploaded automatically to the Town’s system.
• Cash forecasts are currently not prepared as part of a monthly routine. This is a critical process for Towns that are cash stressed; we suggest such a process is implemented immediately.