Municipal Opertions / Government and how it is suppose to work:

from the current Open Meeting Law Guide:

What constitutes a public body? While there is no comprehensive list of public bodies, any multi-member board, commission, committee or subcommittee within the executive or legislative branches of state government, or within any county, district, city, region or town, if established to serve a public purpose, is subject to the law. The law includes any multi-member body created to advise or make recommendations to a public body, and also includes the governing board of any local housing or redevelopment authority, and the governing board or body of any authority established by the Legislature to serve a public purpose.

Short version - Templeton Advisory Committee talked about, voted and sent email to selectmen concerning creating ad hoc committee to look at regional school district. As I understand it, Advisory Committee chairman sent it to Chairman of Templeton Board of Selectmen, I never received it in my official selectmen email account. Apparently the BOS chairman never forwarded along. This was mention at BOS meeting on November 21, 2019 meeting.

Here is the problem:

From: AdvisoryCommittee Templeton
Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2019 8:48:01 AM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
To: AdvisoryCommittee Templeton
Subject: FW: Workshop of 12/04

All,

Based on our conversations at the meeting this past Thursday, we will be starting this ad hoc committee on the 4^th.   We will need 2 members from the AC to sit on the committee.  Are there any volunteers?  Please let me know as soon as you can.

Tony

From: Terenzini, Carter
Date: Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 12:22 PM
To: AdvisoryCommittee Templeton <advisorycommittee@TempletonMA.gov>
Cc: Currie, Michael
Subject: Workshop of 12/04

Good Day Tony:

FYI:

The Chair has put the Committee’s request for an AD Hoc Committee re: Regionalization on the 12/04 agenda of the workshop;  We also anticipate getting our FY ’19 Audit presentation; finally, there may be some matters of interest relative to the escalator factor we use for the education budget(s) in setting the proposed budget and five year revenue and expense projections.

Many Thanks

Carter Terenzini

Town Administrator

Selectmen policies and procedures; exhibit A

Workshops - in part . . . . unless extremely urgent and extraordinary circumstances require immediate action on some matter, no votes will be taken at the work shop."

Failure to pass on to the rest of the board of selectmen is the only reason this has not been dealt with sooner and what would the real emergency be?

First, there is lack of communication and now, it appears policies and procedures will be tossed to the wind because of it. Any resident who wishes to call this as bullshit, I would agree with them. Hard to show people you are doing right when you fail to follow your own policies that you wrote to govern yourself.

While you are busy telling us to do our jobs; consider this:

from the last T/A weekly report:
Weekly Report: I’ve reached out to Tallage Associates to ask for a review of our current tax title to determine if it might be worthwhile to engage in a sale of tax liens. We will do that mid December after Cheryl closes out the FY ’19 lien process (Which each go from $75/lien to a touch above $100/lien on 01/01/20). In a brief look at the Energy Reduction Plan I’ve noticed
there may be a capital project or two that could produce some lower operating costs for the NRSD.

The coop-la on the roof of town hall is being looked at for repair, it has been in rough shape ever since the old school building was turned into a town hall. the estimated cost is 5 figures but further investigation is required. By the way, I consider the reuse of this building a smart move and a way where the town avoided more debt. Is that doing your job?

Tallage is a company that can come to town, look over properties that have back taxes and penalties owed to the town; if they think certain properties are a good investment, they "buy" the back taxes/penalties so the town gets paid and now Tallage will deal with the actual property owner rather than the town having to go through the process of liens / land court.
Templeton has used this company in the past during my first term as selectmen. Is this doing our job?

Can things be done better, absolutely. Am I still looking at how to improve things, yes. Have I forgotten that burned out house on Pleasant Street, no. Am I thinking about communication improvement out of Town Hall, yes, that needs improvement.

Am I going to hold your hand at Town Meeting and turn the pages for you, no. If you want to hold me accountable as a selectmen, I am holding you accountable for being a resident: be sure you know what you are being asked to vote on before you get to town meeting. If you are unsure of what you are being asked because it was not read to you, stand up and ask; "what is the question or motion before us, since you have not read the complete motion to us, I want to be sure I understand what you want me to consider? Put officials on the spot and ask questions. That is my nickels worth.

November 20, 2019 - Special Town Meeting / article 7

How did we get there and why was the change needed?

Begin 2013, two things happened: Advisory Committee created and presented town budget to Town Meeting and a by-law was amended, by town meeting vote. Existing Article III of the by-laws had a section 4 added to create the position of Town Administrator (abolish town coordinator) The budget created by Advisory had multiple errors in it that caused it to basically be off by around $500 thousand dollars. This was later dealt with in 2014 at annual town meeting. Also that town meeting, another by-law change was proposed, warrant article #20: change to the Town budget process. The Advisory recommendation stated in part, "Advisory fully supports a change to the budget process."

There was a substitute motion to to amend by-law article III, section 4, to read: 4. “It shall be duty of the Town Administrator in conjunction with the BOS to consider expenditures and develop a budget for the ensuing fiscal year of the several boards, officers and committees of the town, as prepared by them in such form and detail as prescribed by the Town Administrator.”

That is where some questions came to be; first, did Town Meeting really mean to replace the already in place section 4 with the above, or did the meeting mean to add the above to the existing section 4 or was the intent to create a section 4a? That question sent to town lawyer at the time at the request of the Advisory Committee and the answer in a nut shell was, it should go back to Town Meeting for clarification. Long story short, the board of selectmen in place at the time did not think it was needed and another legal opinion was asked for, by the Town Administrator, which stated the existing by-law section 4 not only gave the budget creation to the T/A and selectmen, but also the right to present it to Town Meeting.

That view has been a point of contention since then and much time, energy, and effort put in to debating it and taking time away from really important things, such as the budget. The other part of the equation is a state law, MGL chapter 39, section 16, which in part, states unless there is a by-law giving the authority to the selectmen to present the budget, that right belongs to Advisory Committee, even as Advisory has not presented the budget to Town Meeting since 2013. The committee, and some other town folk thought it belonged to them, while the T/A, selectmen and others felt it belonged to them, especially since the selectmen / T/A have been doing it for a number of years.

Well, along comes Jeff Bennett, who gets elected to BOS: I brought this up and pushed for the change or addition of wording, so as to once and for all, have it in writing, on paper, who does what, and it needed to go before the people for a vote. Hopefully, from here on out, there will be no more time wasted on debating who does what when it comes to the budget. The article (7) voted in, does not and cannot take away any rights, duties or obligations concerning Advisory Committee. They are still mandated by law to review all articles and make recommendations to Town Meeting and those can be as minimal or as detailed as they wish. They are still required to report to the Town, via the annual town report, what they did during the year. Advisory still has oversight of the town reserve fund (outside of town meeting) the committee still has a say in end of year financial transfers, outside of any town meeting, I have served on the board of selectmen previously, I served on Advisory from August 2015 until May, 2019 and now back on board of selectmen. I think that gives me a good perspective why the change was good for the town and was needed and it was recommended 5 to 1, with one member absent.

A pretty long post on what many may think is boring, but I thought an explanation was needed as there seemed to be some concern at the meeting, I hope this puts those concerns to rest

The "Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2019" -- also called the MORE Act -- could officially remove cannabis from the list of federally controlled substances, expunge federal marijuana convictions and arrests, and approve allocation of resources for communities affected by the war on drugs, according to the bill's text.

The legislation, introduced by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and co-sponsored by more than 50 lawmakers, passed 24-10 in the committee on Wednesday.

It would also establish an organization -- called the Cannabis Justice Office -- to introduce a 5% sales tax on cannabis sales in states where it remains legal, according to the bill.

"These steps are long overdue. For far too long, we have treated marijuana as a criminal justice problem instead of a matter of personal choice and public health," Nadler, the committee's chairman, said during bill markup. "Federal action on this issue would follow growing recognition in the states that the status quo is unacceptable.

A while ago, I did a blog about Templeton revenue and about some inter-municipal agreements and how I did not find those agreements on the Templeton town web site, even under "Town Contracts and Agreements" which I thought was odd and less than transparent. Well, I now report all three of those IMA's are posted to town website under Town Contracts and Agreements. Who says blogs and face book does not work? Who says "they" do not read those things?

Your voice, your vote matters.

The blog post was on November 9, 2019 and the agreements were finally posted on Templeton Town website on about November 11, 2019. Yes that was Veterans Day and town offices were closed but that does/did not prevent some email action to take place. Important take away is people spoke and someone listened.

By NOOR ADATIA

For the Gazette

BOSTON — State legislators along with school officials are reexamining the commonwealth’s commitment to fully reimburse all regional transportation costs — a promise that has never been met by the government. 

State Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, said the state pledged years ago to reimburse the regional transportation costs of schools. 

“It was part of an original commitment that if you regionalize schools, then the state will provide an incentive by paying for the busing,” Hinds said. “We’ve never really done that.” 

A special commission established last year by Hinds and state Sen. Alice Peisch, D-Wellesley, met this week to discuss ways to streamline student transportation costs and increase efficiencies. 

Hinds said the commission plans on drafting recommendations for Gov. Charlie Baker to make the school transportation system more effective.

He also noted that other municipal schools — including special education and private schools — have felt left out from receiving assistance to cover transportation costs. 

“Another goal is looking at a wider approach to funding in general,” he said.

The Student Opportunity Act — which the Senate unanimously passed last month — did not deal with transportation directly and allowed the special commission to do that work, Hinds said. 

“It’s a big part of funding in that equation and how we put more money into classrooms and getting that right is important,” he said. 

The commission has invited several leaders in education, including superintendents, school committee representatives and even bus drivers to testify and voice their concerns with costs related to school transportation. 

Dan Hayes, who serves on the Shutesbury School Committee and is part of the commission, said that transportation costs are expensive for schools to cover. 

“I think there needs to be stronger support from the state in providing reimbursement for the districts,” Hayes said. 

Hayes, who attended the hearing, also chairs the board of the Collaborative for Educational Services in Northampton, which provides special education and professional development services to member school districts. 

He said that because many special education students are placed in schools outside of their district, transportation costs are high. 

“Sometimes the costs to transport them is exorbitant, and it is difficult for small communities to pay for that,” Hayes said. 

High costs also apply to transport homeless students and students in foster care, Hayes said. 

In addition, the commission has been looking into environmentally-conscious initiatives such as rolling out electric buses and encouraging more students to carpool or bike to school. 

Hayes said that he thinks this is more of a public health issue and is more concerned about the well-being of students who are exposed to a polluted environment. 

“My priority is to make sure kids aren’t exposed to particles and diesel fumes, so I do think there’s an opportunity there,” he said. 

Moreover, according to testimony at the hearing, districts have had difficulty paying bus companies. 

Hayes said the commission has looked into districts purchasing smaller vans which can be driven by their own staff, instead of paying outside bus drivers. 

“The cost is generally reduced because they can use their own staff,” he said. “That might be an example of savings for some districts.” 

The commission is also looking into starting a program to train and license potential bus drivers because of the current shortage of independent drivers. 

“I think that if we share best practices with other districts, it might give one district an idea of what another district is doing,” he said. 

Hays said he credits Hinds and Peisch for putting the commission together. 

“We are all listening to each other and trying to build consensus in how we can make solid recommendations for the governor,” Hayes said. 

Hinds said he is hopeful the special commission will have a recommendation before the end of the year, or certainly before going into next year’s budget.

“It has been a very inclusive process to hear people who grapple with these issues every day,” he said. 

He noted that in the end, every school district in the commonwealth will benefit from the restructuring of transportation costs and reimbursements. 

Noor Adatia writes for the Gazette from the Boston University Statehouse Program.

Since the school committee has voted a budget for FY2020, Templeton can now work on tax rate, bills, etc.

Massachusetts Department of Revenue Division of Local Services

---

Christopher C. Harding, Commissioner
Sean R. Cronin, Senior Deputy Commissioner of Local Services

11/15/2019

Templeton Board of Assessors
Templeton Board of Assessors
PO BOX 620

East Templeton, MA 01438

Re: NOTIFICATION OF FINAL CERTIFICATION - Templeton

Dear Board of Members:

The Commissioner of Revenue has determined that the locally assessed values of real and personal property in your municipality represent full and fair cash valuation as of January 1, 2019 for fiscal year 2020 and that these proposed property assessments satisfy the minimum requirements for certification.

The Commissioner further certifies that:

1. All real property has been classified according to its use as of January 1, 2019 as required by Chapter 59, § 2A(b).
2. A majority of the assessors have been qualified to classify property by their
   attendance at a classification workshop conducted by the Department of Revenue.

The community must now hold a public hearing on the issue of selecting a residential factor, which will determine the percentages of the tax burden to be borne by each class of property for fiscal year 2020. Prior to the hearing, we urge you to promote public understanding and discussion of the options available to the town in regard to allocating the tax burden among major property classes. The Selectmen or the City Council with the approval of the Mayor may elect a factor greater than the minimum residential factor, or a factor of "1" which will result in a uniform allocation of the tax burden among all classes of property. In addition, they have the option of granting an open space discount, residential exemption and small commercial exemption.

It appears that you are progressing satisfactorily in complying with your responsibilities under the classification law. It is important that you complete the final steps expeditiously so that tax billing will not be delayed.

If you have further questions or require assistance in completing the final steps for a classified tax system please contact the Bureau at (617) 626-2300.

Fiscal Year 2025 Certification Directives:

In order to prepare for the next scheduled recertification of all real and personal property we are enclosing your community's program directives. These directives were made by your Bureau of Local Assessment advisor as a result of your FY 2020 certification review. You should have a budget in place for any work that needs to be done two years in advance of the next certification to avoid costly delays in obtaining timely certification from the Bureau.

As you plan and implement your next triennial certification, please consult the Bureau's Certification Standards in the Division's website, www.mass.gov/dls, in the Local Assessment section. If you need assistance please call your appraisal advisor.

Sincerely yours,

Joanne M. Graziano, Chief

Bureau of Local Assessment
Massachusetts Department of Revenue

FY 2025 Directives
TOWN of Templeton

Cyclical Reinspection
Cyclical inspections of property descriptions over a specified time should be continued. The residential, apartments, commercial, industrial and exempt properties should be complete for FY 2026. The business personal property should be complete for FY 2025. (A full field inspection and revaluation of all pp was conducted for the FY 2020 certification.)

Neighborhood Review
The assessors should review all residential neighborhood delineations in accordance with indicated land value and adjust them as needed by the next certification.

Land Schedules
The residential land residuals had to be trimmed by approximately 30% to be statistically compliant. The assessors should consider adjusting the land curve so the size adjustment value is closer to location adjustment value. The current size adjustment, 87120 square feet to 5000 square feet, is 3.77 times the location adjustment between neighborhoods. This may mean more neighborhoods are needed.

Other Directives
The assessors should continue to enhance the GIS capability so a GIS, color-coded neighborhood map can be produced for assessing purposes.

Other Directives
All unused site indexes should be removed from the Site Index Table.

Commercial-Industrial Land Schedule
Review recognized methods and techniques to establish the land values for Apartment, Mixed Use, Commercial and Industrial properties. Acceptable methodologies include: Sales Comparison (vacant land sales), Abstraction (land residuals), Allocation, Land Residual Capitalization, Capitalization of Ground Rent.