Annual Town Meeting, May 13, 2003:

Article 27 To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Town to borrow Six Million Dollars ($6,000,000) to upgrade the Town’s Publicly Owned Wastewater Treatment Facility as required by the Department of Environmental Protection Administrative Consent Order, subject to the successful passage of a debt exclusion, or take any other action relative thereto. On a motion duly made and seconded the Town voted to raise Six Million Dollars ($6,000,000) to upgrade the Town’s Publicly Owned Wastewater Treatment Facility as required by the Department of Environmental Protection Administrative Consent Order, subject to the successful passage of a Debt Exclusion Question. Passed/May 13th.



Special Town election on November 17, 2003

ONE BALLOT QUESTION AS FOLLOWS:

1.      Debt Exclusion for Sewer Department

Shall the Town of Templeton be allowed to exempt from the provisions of Proposition 2-1/2, so-called, the amounts required to borrow to upgrade the town’s publicly owned Wastewater Treatment Facility as required by the Department of Environmental Protection Administrative Consent Order. The cost of the debt exclusion for this project would be six million dollars ($6,000,000), with 25% of the project costs paid through sewer betterments and 75% paid through tax levy.

democracy in action, so how about the selectmen find another source of money to pay for there mess up!

posted by Jeff Bennett

Templeton Sewer debt

On the new Templeton Master plan, page 18, there is reference to the Templeton Sewer treatment facility. "Citizens of Templeton approved a proposition 2 1/2 override to fund a WWTP upgrade."

Templeton annual Town report, 2005, page 111, states Town Meeting approved as well as at the ballot, both Town meeting and by ballot vote, monies in the amount of $6,000,000.00 for WWTP upgrade. The money was to come by way of 25% from users by betterment and 75% by way of taxation through a proposition 2 1/2 override. Lets not have another afront to democracy by trying to change this and then go after sewer betterment money to attempt to come up with funds to run the town because selectmen can not come to grips that the spending has to stop until someone is able to present a truly balanced expense (spending) plan that actually shows there are enough funds available to pay for it without stealing from one time revenue sources. 75% of expense comes from taxation and if that needs to be audited as part of the Town's books, that is a general fund expense, therefore, the Town needs to have those funds set aside and not to take from one time sources, which just creates more issues down the road.


posted by Jeff Bennett

Templeton General Town by-laws Article IV - Advisory Committee

Section 4. - It shall be the duty of the Advisory Committee (there is no TAB or advisory board) annually to consider the expenditures in previous years and the estimated requirements for the ensuing year of the several boards, officers, and committees of the town, as prepared by them in such form and detail as may be prescribed by said committee. The said committee shall add to such statement of expenditures and estimates, another column, giving the amounts which in their opinion should be appropriated for the ensuing year, and shall further add thereto such explanations and suggestions relating to the proposed appropriations as it may deem expedient, and report thereon as provided in section five of article II.

That is what the Town by law states and it, along with Massachusetts general law, is what some members of the Advisory Committee has stated and made a case for for some time. In fiscal year 2014, that committee got their shot and some mistakes were made. Then the town's people, in my opinion, decided to go back to listening to the selectmen and so we got fiscal year 2017.

Now who is blaming who for the 2017 mess, the selectmen, so Bev, were the selectmen setup too?
You cannot have it both ways, mess up in 2014 and blame management for everything. You can of course, get information that is wrong, which in my opinion, is why several sources should be used.
If you want responsibility for something, then you must also take responsibility when things go wrong as well as when they go right. Can't blame the selectmen for 2017 then turn around and blame management for something you put together. That does not fly and people will see that. You lose elections, faith and belief from the people.  You also lose trust which is very hard to get back, in my opinion. Past Town meeting records were available, past annual town reports were available along with past town tax recap sheets were available. There are many sources of information as well as the advisory committee having access to the Massachusetts division of local services technical division.
 Some mistakes were made, not the first and apparently not the last. Which is why I believe that two entities rather than one should be looking, discussing and voting on the expense appropriations to be presented to the town, rather than only one.

I wonder if Dave Smart has ever file charges in court against the Town?

posted by Jeff Bennett

Looking at the past to help the future.


There was some discussion on the past with regards to Templeton with a statement being made about how the advisory committee did the budget and presented it to town meeting in 2013 - for fiscal year 2014, the year of the %505,477.00 short fall. In looking over a document that was used to explain 
how this happened, there is one item that stands out: Town meeting articles and the dollar figures associated with them. The total expenses of town meeting articles should have been $212,694.00 in the FY 2014 budget presentation. Unfortunately, the figure of $52,694.00 was used, leaving off the figure of $160,000.00 of the ambulance receipts, which should have been included in the expenses under articles. These figures are available from the town clerk and or the town reports of previous years. This was one mistake made in the budget presentation and it shows the detail approach that is needed to present a municipal budget. This was not an error of management, it was an error by the advisory committee, which to my knowledge has never been owned by that committee. As to the entire short fall, it was a result of some error and bad information, again, demonstrating the effort that is required along with the knowledge of what to look at. As far as I know and I have paid attention for quite a while, there was and is no missing money, no one has stolen it. Until there is proof of that, I stand by that statement. The only thing missing were the correct numbers on paper, which has happened again in fiscal year 2017. Which should demonstrate that the selectmen and the advisory committee should agree to disagree but agree to work side by side to check the numbers and information for the benefit of the entire town. For the record, at that time, I was part of management and I have back in 2013, stated at a public meeting, that if you, the people wanted someone to blame, blame me, as I am the current sitting chairman of the board of selectmen, having been voted in at the first selectmen meeting after the election of 2013. That happened with me participating remotely because I had been in Afghanistan during that time and as such, I was not even in the country when this budget presentation occurred. Not an excuse, just a fact. As far as I know, I am still the only one who publicly owned that error. Hopefully, perhaps not this year but next, the two entities, selectmen and advisory, will get together and do what is best for the WHOLE town. We really cannot put one department on a pedestal and say they are untouchable, the whole ship must be kept afloat. We sail as one or we sink slowly, compartment by compartment.

posted by Jeff Bennett

State agrees to reopen a public records appeal by Jeff Bennett, 

The item is in regard to Massachusetts state law, chapter 164, section 56c, which states all contracts between the town and any other separate entity (to include contracts done on behalf of the town through the Templeton municipal light department) must be in the hands of the Town accountant, in a separate book so any resident can look at said documents. One item sent to the state was a letter from the MA DOR that stated, among other things, that with regards to MGL chapter 164, Templeton light is NOT a separate legal entity. Hopefully, Templeton selectmen will be informed that they too must follow the law. Of more importance, the law actually means something. We will see how this goes. My question is this; why would the selectmen not wish to follow the law? If they do not follow thiis law, how can Templeton people have any confidence that the selectmen are following the law concerning municipal finance?

Massachusetts General Law chapter 164;
Section 56C: Contracts of commission; filing with city or town auditor; preservation; public inspection; penalty

Section 56C. Every municipal light commission or manager thereof, who makes or executes a contract on behalf of a municipal lighting plant, where the amount involved is five thousand dollars or more, shall furnish said contract or a copy thereof to the city or town auditor within one week after its execution. Said city or town auditor shall keep such contract or copy on file, open to public inspection during business hours. Such contracts or copies shall be kept in a separate book, arranged according to the subject of the contract, or in other convenient form. An index of the subject matter of the contracts and to the names of the contractors shall be made semi-annually, and shall also be open to public inspection in some convenient form. All allowances under and additions to such contracts, or copies thereof, shall be filed with the city or town auditor, together with a sworn statement of the officer making such allowances or additions that the same are correct and in accordance with the contract. A city or town auditor, municipal light commissioner or manager wilfully failing to comply with this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than ten nor more than one hundred dollars.

Is there a copy of the latest contract to construct a new water tank, which was approved at a town meeting of Templeton where borrowing was approved for this project.

posted by Jeff Bennett

Why would the selectmen try to charge an enterprise fund for a general fund expense?

With the town administrator stating and writing, which means the selectmen must agree, that the Town should be asking the sewer commissioners to "contribute" $11,000.00 to help pay for the town's annual financial audits. These are not audits of the sewer department, these are Town audits with appropriations made at annual town meeting. The selectmen even state there has been funds encumbered to pay for these audits, as in money already set aside. Why go after sewer department? Is the Templeton light and water departments being asked to provide funds to pay for the town's annual audits? The light and water are after all part of the town, they are departments of the town. There is a letter from the Massachusetts department of revenue stating that a municipal light depart is not a separate legal entity of the town. Me thinks the selectmen are just looking for funds because they need it to pay for things they are doing but have no money for, that is my opinion.

posted by Jeff Bennett

soon to be a follow up on what happened for  FY 2014 and what has happened for FY 2017.
One year, the advisory committee made some errors and another year, the selectmen made some errors. seems like there is proof on paper for the two sides or board/committee to agree to disagree but have the two entities looking at the same information in order to try to double check it so the entire Town of Templeton is better served and stop each other from one upping or one looking better than the other, it is not helping the whole Town which we both seem to like to say we do.

ANNUAL EXTERNAL AUDITS February 2016

The objective of a year-end, external audit is obtaining an independent assurance as to whether a community’s year-end financial statements are presented fairly in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). By integrating a review of the internal controls associated with financial reporting, the audit also helps to ensure that financial checks and balances are in place to protect public assets. Consequently, regular external audits can provide a powerful tool by which a community can build taxpayer confidence in government operations. The Technical Assistance Bureau (TAB) encourages communities to have independent audits performed by certified public accountants every year. Cities and towns that receive an excess of $750,000 annually in federal funds (even indirectly through a state agency) are required to complete annual audits that comply with the federal Single Audit Act of 1984. Financial statement audits provide information that is especially valuable when a credit rating agency reviews and reports on a municipality’s fiscal condition as it prepares to enter the bond market. A city’s or town’s inability to produce accurate financial reports could negatively impact a rating agency’s opinion on its financial outlook and therefore affect its bond rating. A credit rate reduction could result in hundreds of thousands, and possibly millions, of dollars in additional interest payments for taxpayers over the life of a borrowing. As important, a rate increase can create savings. The independent audit can also be a valuable management tool for assessing the fiscal performance of a community. Although communities that are not subject to the Single Audit Act or that do very little borrowing are free to operate without regular audits of their financial statements, it is not a prudent course. Funding audits at least every two or three years is still recommended.

copied from an article from the Massachusetts division of local service.

posted by Jeff Bennett