September 13, 2016

The Secretary of State’s Office has issued draft regulations for the public records law overhaul that was signed into law in June.
 
• Download the draft public records law regulations (66K PDF)
 
On Oct. 6, the office will be holding a public hearing on the proposed changes to 950 C.M.R. 32.00, which reflect the provisions of Chapter 121 of the Acts of 2016. The hearing will be held at 11 a.m. in the 17th floor conference room at One Ashburton Place in Boston.
 
Written comments will be accepted until 1 p.m. on Oct. 6, and should be delivered to Shawn A. Williams, Supervisor of Public Records, Public Records Division, Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, One Ashburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, MA 02108.
  
The MMA is working with the Massachusetts Municipal Lawyers Association to develop testimony for the Oct. 6 hearing and would like to hear from local officials. To offer input, contact Legislative Director John Robertson at jrobertson@mma.org.
 
The revised public records law, which will take effect on Jan. 1, imposes strict new rules on cities, towns and state agencies governing timelines to respond to requests for records, how much can be charged to cover costs, and what penalties can be imposed on state and local government agencies.
 
The supervisor of records in the secretary of state’s office has until Jan. 1 to finalize regulations to implement the law. The new rules will require cities and towns to review and update local practices for responding to records requests.
 
For more information, visit the Public Records Division website at www.sec.state.ma.us/pre.


from MMA website, posted here by Jeff Bennett

To:           Board of Selectmen
From:       Carter Terenzini, Town Administrator
RE:          FY'17 Fall Town Meeting
Date:        September 9, 2016

CC:          N/A

Attached is the latest draft of the warrant for the fall Town meeting. It has three articles added since draft#1. The first deals with the allocation of the CPA surcharge in anticipation that we can get to an audit for FY' 14 this fiscal year. The second deals with separating out the scholarship fund from the operating budget. The third deals with an article to deal with the acquisition of the drainage and maintenance easement related to the drainage on Wellington Road presented during discussion of the proposed elementary school. A final draft will be presented for your action on 09/26. In order to prepare that final draft there are several matters for which I need your direction. Those are:

Revenues; Is it your intent to reduce your FY'17 estimates? The open issues are:

                  New growth was estimated at $80,000.00. Figures of $60,000.00 and $65,000.00 have
                  been used in discussions as perhaps being more appropriate. So far, it is in the area of
                  $67,000.00. It is anticipated there may be another $10K in "supplemental" tax bills
                  this year. While I do believe I can get the original estimate through DOR, the question
                  becomes if you want to stretch to do so?


                  Excise Tax: was estimated at $110,000.00. Collections for the latest fiscal year are                                                                      approximately $1,055,000.00. Trends and billings show we could probably hit the original
                  estimates. At present I cannot, I do need some decisions from the board. While I do
                  believe I can get the original estimate through DOR, the question becomes if you want
                  to stretch to do so?

Bond Issue:  We need to provide for a payment of $87,500.00 to settle the outstanding debt on 252 Baldwinville. We have suggested we cover this with a withdrawal from stabilization. The question becomes if you want to withdraw these monies from stabilization or not.

OPEB: had been part of your FY"17 planning, although there had been no formal appropriation. The question becomes if you want to withdraw these monies from stabilization or not?

With answers to these questions, we can proceed to know if we need to make any cuts to departmental budgets to comport those operating budget to the revenue budget.

So, selectmen, will you propose to spend more than has been brought in, raised, etc.? Do you propose to spend more than you have or do you reduce to cover your goofs? Remember, one selectmen says "we are solving issues, they aren't"  Perhaps too much flouride!


posted by Jeff Bennett

I would really like the opportunity to ask the DOR representative for Templeton if she ever had a relationship with the former Templeton accountant outside of a professional one, but would probably not get an honest answer. - Jeff Bennett

The following email is between the chair of the Advisory Committee and Templeton Town Accountant:

Advisory committee members,

Below is an answer to the question on the negative balance for Capital Project Fund on the FY15 schedule A from the accountant.  We can review and discuss at our next meeting .

Kelli,

Thank you for your response

Wil

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kelli Pontbriand <accountant@templeton1.org>
Date: Tue, Sep 13, 2016 at 4:24 PM
Subject: Schedule A Question
To: Wilfred Spring <185wilberdr@gmail.com>
Cc: Carter Terenzini <townadministrator@templeton1.org>

Will,

You asked Carter why account 019 on page 24 for the Capital Project Fund has a negative -151,428.   In order for the schedule A to be submitted to the DOR those balances have to be tied to other pages of the report or you can’t submit.  Since FY 2013 the balances on this page have been posted as needed to get the Schedule submitted to the DOR and do not reflect the actual balances.   Once everything has rolled forward and the first Schedule A (hopefully FY 17) is submitted with all the adjusting entries to bring the schedule A to the actual numbers for the town these will have accurate figures.

Kelli Pontbriand

Accountant

Town of Templeton

So my take from this is the DOR or at least the Springfield DOR rep. for Templeton has been accepting incomplete or inaccurate financial documents from Templeton for some time and yet Templeton residents have been told that all is well and Templeton is on the way to financial bliss. Personally, I call BS on this. Personally, since 2014, I think there has been a concerted effort to paint a financial rosey picture so a positive school vote could be had (pun intended) at all costs! 

Remember, the new school will only cost you $1.74 per thousand on your taxes and only 24 million dollars will be borrowed. Diane Brooks and John Columbus told you so!

posted by Jeff Bennett

I believe the selectmen and interim town administrator need to review and read the Templeton town by-laws. These were voted on and passed by the people who elect you and/or pay your salary. You work for them! You do not work for the school district, you are suppose to work for what is best for the whole Town! So lets review the Town by-laws, voted on and approved by the voters and checked by the Attorney General of the Commonwealth.

Templeton Town by-laws - Article IV - Advisory Committee:

Section 4a. All articles, other than those deemed by the Board of Selectmen to constitute an emergency, sought to be inserted in the Town Warrant for the Annual Town Meeting shall be filed with the Board of Selectmen, and referred by them to the Advisory Committee on or before April 10th and all articles sought to be inserted in the Warrant for a Special Town Meeting shall be referred by the Board of Selectmen to the Advisory Committee at least 14 days before the date set for such meeting.    Amended 5-16-13 

NOT AT SELECTMEN CONVENIENCE!

Section 5. In the discharge of its duty, said committee shall have free access to all books of record and accounts, bills and vouchers on which money has been or may be paid from the town treasury. Officers, boards, and committees of the town shall, upon request, furnish said committee with facts, figures, and any other information pertaining to their several activities.

Section 6. It shall be the duty of the Advisory Committee to make an annual report of its doings, with recommendations relative to financial matters and the conduct of town business, to be contained in the annual town report.

Since selectmen Brooks reads this blog, read that and tell the rest of the selectmen and the Town Administrator, Advisory Committee has a right to see the budget changes, amendments etc., when they ask for the information and it is not at your convenience, the people who elect you said so in their vote!

posted by Jeff Bennett

Town Administrator's Weekly Report 9.8.16

Within this T/A report, are a couple of items that seem important.

(1)  5c - "The fee section in this policy has been amended to reflect the emergency regulations issued by the secretary of State's office in February of this year. Those were issued in anticipation of the new law even prior to its enactment. Interestingly, many of my peers were also unaware of this when we followed through to research it."  That seems to be in reference of the fees for public records; most are 5 cents per page, whether one sided or two sided printing and regardless of where the record comes from, as in from a file cabinet or a computer printout. The only difference will be those items whose fees are already covered by MGL, as in the law sets the required fee for some records.

(as of two minutes ago, the fees listed under the draft public records policy still show the wrong fees for public records)


Concerning the fire department, in particular, ambulance service in Templeton; "the acting fire chief and I sat and since the decision to move to ALS service was predicated upon use of per diem to achieve full-time equivalent coverage, the acting fire chief has come to believe that he can only achieve proper coverage for two of the shifts through the use of full-time hires. (four) After a review of the available budget information, I cannot find any allocation of the accompanying fringe benefit package. Additionally, I cannot find anything to support that the hiring of full-time personnel can be supported by the anticipated increase in revenues."

This scenario seems to support what I stated three or four years ago along with what I posted here a short time ago. The only way to have ALS ambulance service is with an increase in full-time employees, paramedics and EMT's, with all the associated costs such as health insurance and retirement. That is not a for or against statement, that is just the way it is. If you want service, you have to pay for it and that comes from property tax. The ambulance receipts fund will not completely pay for the ambulance service, no matter what you may have been told. It can supplement it but not 100% pay for it.

The Templeton fire department has a problem with a pump and it will cost in the tens of thousands to fix or replace. I hope the fire department contacts the Advisory Committee and requests money from the reserve fund, as this is a situation that meets the requirements of the reserve fund.


posted by Jeff Bennett

Some things to think about or keep in mind.

KNOWN FINANCIAL ISSUES

FY17 Budget

·         Over stated revenues

1.       15-20K new growth

2.       Excise tax 60-100K

·         Salary and wage account over spent

1.       35k Budgeted

2.       55k spent approx.

·         Over payment on long term debt of 87,500 which needs to come out of FY17 budget

·         Approx. Total of 165,000 to 185,000 needs to be reduced from Budget passed at ATM

·         2% raise given to most employees effective in July, even to those who had received large raises in FY17 budget passed at ATM

·         Chart of accounts and FY17 budget document both have accounts listed on one but not on the other which could cause a possible unaccounted finances on the BvA

·         Chart of accounts does not have account numbers for encumbered items

Sewage issue

·         60-80K of FY16 Sewage bills were not encumbered and will have to be paid from FY17 budget which could cause a potential deficit in the FY17 budget passed at ATM in FY17 sewage budget

posted by Jeff Bennett

email from a member of the Advisory Committee:


_After speaking with the Narragansett Regional School District treasurer, Anne Marie Geyster,
 this morning, my comments from last evening have been confirmed.

1. The note for the high school and the new roof for the middle school have been rolled into one note.
2. the final paymant will be due in FY'19 that will clear the way so that the town may assume the debt
for the new elementary school.

Kate_


posted by Jeff Bennett