MA, Quinn Bill - was passed by the state Legislature in 1970. It requires participating municipalities to provide 10 to 25 percent salary increases to police officers who obtain advanced degrees in criminal justice. Traditionally, the state and the municipality split the cost of the salary increase.

But in 2009 and 2010, the state drastically cut, then eliminated its portion of the funding.

Since then, the 254 municipalities which adopted the Quinn Bill, have had myriad approaches. Some negotiated clauses into collective bargaining agreements requiring the municipality to pay the state’s share. Others paid only the 50 percent municipal portion, leading to a drop in police salaries. Some created new education incentive programs.

The carrot was Any city or town which accepts the provisions of this section and provides career incentive salary increases for police officers shall be reimbursed by the commonwealth for one half the costs of such payments upon certification by the board of higher education. The board of higher education shall certify the amount of such reimbursement to be paid to such city or town from information filed on or before September first of each year with said board, on a form furnished by it, the chief of police, or one of similar rank, of the city or town police department. So just like regional school transportation which the state promised to pay, they again screwed us. Time might be here to start looking at things the town voted in when the "carrots" were in place, but have since disappeared; perhaps they now need to disappear from our budget / tax on our residents?

 Annual Town Meeting, 2005:

On a motion duly made and seconded the Town voted to authorize Revolving Funds for certain Town departments in accordance with the provisions of Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 44, Section 53E1/2, for fiscal year 2006 as follows:

one of the revolving funds - Revolving Fund for the Emergency Medical Service: to deposit receipts collected from operation of the ambulance service and to authorize the Fire Department to expend such receipts for the purpose of maintaining the ambulance service, provided that the amount to be expended in fiscal year 2006 shall not exceed One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($49,000.00).

Passed Unanimously/May 11th @ 8:32.

That revolving fund went away in 2006; I have been told by some that after selectmen saw how much cash was brought in, they decided to slide it into the general fund and it stayed that way until 2011, when ambulance receipts reserved for appropriation was created.

Article 7 of 2015 annual town meeting:

To see if the Town will vote to transfer a sum of money from the Fire Department/Ambulance -- Receipts Reserved for Appropriation Account (22-300-3560- 3283) to fund the second year of a lease/purchase agreement for an ambulance for the Fire/Ambulance Department; or take any other action relative thereto. Submitted by the Board of Selectmen On a motion duly made and seconded the Town voted that Fifty Seven Thousand Dollars ($57,000) be hereby appropriated for the Town Administrator to expend to pay for the second year of the ambulance lease/purchase agreement, and to meet this appropriation $57,000 be hereby transferred from the Fire/Ambulance Department - Receipts Reserved for Appropriation Account, (22-300-3560-3283)

Passed Unanimously/May 16th @ 10:41am

In 2017,money began to be siphoned off of that account to help cover costs of the general fund; you are charged to use Templeton ambulance but the money goes to pay town administrator or to pay off debt. There is no way to track where those funds go after they are transferred to general fund. It is time to go back to a revolving fund, follow intent of town meeting and have a fully funded ambulance service paid for by the charges to use that service. Note - if you pay wages out of a revolving fund, you must also pay benefits out of it. The town will have to wean itself off the 270 thousand it has become dependent on since 2017; that is when the town administrator told selectmen they had to start drinking from that bottle, ambulance receipts and it is time to get off it and stop the financial disallows on ambulance service. You voted for it, you should get your original intent.

 Current affairs is for menus, censored is for selected information; here is my selection for today:

Mr. Bennett has inquired as to the expenditure of monies originally salted for a dump body for a 1984 Mack were expended as a part of the purchase of a new 6 wheel dump truck.

The $160k six wheel dump truck was purchased with monies appropriated under Article 7 of the Fall Town Meeting of November 14, 2017. The attendees at that meeting were all provided with a Voter Information Guide which provided supplemental information as to the reasons for a proposed article together with information deemed to be of import to the voter. That published summary stated, in part, that a “… dump truck has deteriorated to the point it is feared it may not make it through the winter season.” and that “The $160,000 will be supplemented with the monies we originally planned to use to buy a new dump body… .”

In hindsight, had an issue been raised at either level or by any person, it might have been cleaner to appropriate the full $177.5k in one article and fund it with the new cash of $160k and a transfer of the original $17.5k appropriated for a dump body of any aging truck. However, we did not do so. That said, we believe the planned expenditures were well made public, well vetted, and legal we shall take the “cleaner” approach in the future.

On a motion duly made and seconded, the town voted to appropriate the sum of One Hundred Sixty Seven Thousand Five Hundred Dollars and No Cents ($167,500.00) for a program of capital expenditures as generally identified below:

Dept. Item Amount DPW – B&G Boiler Replacement $7,500

DPW- Highway 6 Wheel Dump Truck $160,000

And to meet said appropriation by a transfer of said sum from free cash in the treasury of the town.

Passed Unanimously/November 14th @ 8:13 pm

Notice that within the motion voted, there is no mention of $17,500.00, so how did selectmen approve a transfer of an appropriation of town meeting without a town meeting vote. Also, done outside of May 1-July 15, where transfer may happen with concurrence of Advisory Committee. You want people to come back to town meeting; obey there vote and do not fuck with it on the sly or other fashion unless you ask them and they give you permission! That is what is broke, failure to follow policy, law and town meeting vote. Oh yeah, read the damn articles and motions, it ain't that hard. Town Meeting, stand up for yourselves, tell the moderator what you want- you are the legislative body of the town! If you want the email, drop me a request at Jbennett@templetonma.gov

Templeton Special Town Meeting (fall town meeting) November 14, 2017)

 

House to Debate a $46 Billion Fiscal 2021 General Appropriations Bill

 

On Nov. 5, the House Ways & Means Committee released a $46 billion budget bill for fiscal 2021 (H. 5150). The proposal closely tracks the Governor’s revised spending plan filed on October 15 (H. 2, as revised), with a bottom line that is approximately $200 million higher, funded primarily through a higher draw from the state’s reserves. House leadership has announced plans for the full House to take up the budget bill next Tuesday, November 10.

 

In the House plan, Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA) would be level funded at $1.13 billion, and Chapter 70 school aid would be funded at $5.3 billion, an increase of $107 million over the fiscal 2020 amount, consistent with the commitment that state leaders announced in the summer. All cities, towns and school districts would receive at least the same amount of Chapter 70 aid allocated last year, with some slated to receive additional school aid due to normal updates to the foundation formula factors.

 

The Division of Local Services (DLS) has said that updated preliminary Cheery Sheet amounts will be posted on the DLS website sometime today (Friday, Nov. 6). Municipal Cherry Sheet information will be available at this link and regional school Cherry Sheet information will be available at this link.

 Parking; first question comes to my mind: is Boyton Street/road a public way? Has there been any previous parking restrictions on Boyton Road, street, way? If there are no restrictions, then it seems it is first come, first serve parking. Apartment dwellings or homes should have off street parking, for one reason, when it comes to winter time, on street parking is sometimes restricted.

I suppose it could be possible to arrange valet parking at other sites, if the owners of KRO's could get approval of the private land owners first.

I also believe it is possible for the business to create more parking on their land, although it would be expensive as it would probably involve going through MA DOT for drive way access off route 2A as well as excavation on their land, it is a possibility.

 Looking back at Templeton annual town meeting attendance:

STM of February 19, 2004 - 880 voters.

ATM May 10, 11, 17, 2005 - 211, 145, 208 voters.

ATM May 9, 10, 16, 2006 - 176, 151, 99 voters.

ATM May 15, 16, 2007 - 141, 120 voters.

ATM May 13, 14, 2008 - 141, 120 voters.

ATM May 11, 12, 17, 2010 - 158, 155, 118 voters.

ATM May 10, 11, 2011 - 313, 235 voters.

ATM May 15, 16, 21, 23, 2012 - 291, 238, 228, 159.

ATM May 16, 2015 - 117 voters.

ATM May 14, 2016 - 65 voters.

ATM May 13, 2017 - 216 voters.

ATM May 19, 2018 - 146 voters.

ATM May 15, 16, 2019 - 199, 83 voters.

ATM June 17, 2020 - 61 voters.

Do we need a quorum?? Would it work? What is the cost of holding a meeting and if a quorum is required but is not met? A second meeting is called, money spent and still a quorum is not met, how many times is the meeting to be called to try and meet a quorum? Perhaps the answer to getting people to town meeting is to go backwards a bit; ensure the annual town report is distributed/ available to people weeks before town meeting, ensure the Warrant is available to the people weeks before town meeting and the warrant is available at town meeting. Ensure that the warrant articles and motions are read and that is where town meeting comes in, people need to speak upon that issue and others. Templeton by-laws state town meeting times is our guide for town meeting and in it's pages, it states if the articles are not read in their entirety, the warrant should be printed and in the hands of or available to, every voter. Notice it does not state voters guide.

 For information only and it is early so check the math.

division of local services records show Templeton free cash as:

July 1, 2017 - $1,042,588.00

July 1, 2018 - $1,572,732.00

July 1, 2019 - $1,455,158.00

July 1, 2020 - $1,327,538.00

My addition shows total of $5,398,016.00

records from accountant show roughly one million saved (general stabilization, capital stabilization, OPEB)

Selectmen have spent 4/5's of free cash, I am still working on how we have changed from getting some money and spending it all, versus being fiscally responsible. 

The addition could take a while if you utilize common core math.