Since Walt commented on this, I will speak to him and anyone else can fill their name in where Walt appears. This is simply my opinion, which may not amount to much, but it is mine. First off, this is the Internet and as a self professed adult, you have a certain amount of responsibility to filter out what you feel is relevant and important and worth talking about. In my opinion, anyways, also, you may not know the full story behind Pauly's frustration, which began back in 2002.
There was an issue concerning the handling of $1400.00 that the conservation commission had in the "kitty" A member of that group said as she had done some work at home and spent her own time and money on things like stamps, envelopes and well, her time. She asked for a small amount, which I believe to this day, no receipts have been turned in to the town or treasurer. Apparently the commission voted to give the lady the whole $1400.00. This started Pauly on his quest to try and right this wrong (his opinion) and he is still insistent to this day that that was a wrong doing. You should understand, by his own admission, that Pauly is a self-made man with an eigth-grade education and very very plain spoken. You may also be surprised that Pauly and I don't always agree and as a matter of fact, I was banned from his home for a good three to five months for a vote I made as selectman. I did not vote the way Pauly thought I should, the life in politics! Then there was/is the issue with the pay of the conservation agent, which if you look at the minutes of the meeting of the board of selectmen for May 24, 2010, you will see where attorney Joe Fair of K&P made a determination that the agent had been paid outside of grade for a period of time, from July 2008 until May 2010. Pauly found out about this and brought it to the BOS member Jerry Skelton and nothing was done until May 2010. Pauly would not stop with his efforts and filed many complaints, some of which actually intended for the BOS but ended up in the hands of the con comm. Then Pauly was banned from all town building for weeks which resulted from an illegal open meeting, and for asking a question, not a very well thought out question, but clearly a question. Many years of frustration led to the creation of his blog and many people have stated Pauly is nuts, a senile old man etc etc. Little by little, people began to read his words and word spread and now even the Gardner news admitted in an article that they read his blog. There is now a legal opinion from Lauren Goldberg of K&P in the office of selectmen referring to information that is located nowhere else except on Pauly's blog, I can say that because I wrote it! So apparently someone at K&P reads it or someone in town has close ties to K&P and I will let you decide on that one. Another thing to remember about this blog is it is just like face book and twitter and all other social media, it is a place where common folk can sound off and opine, free of censor ship and being told by someone that what they write is too long or to incendiary to publish. People also tire of the so called professional journalist who talk about this actor is going to leave the country if so and so is elected president or this singer showed her "junk" while exiting a car. It has begun to be that there really is no straight up news, just everyone opining, so the regular people have just begun to do the same and some of it is very good and some not so much. That is my opinion and I have on occasion, wished I could get that back after having hit the send key. And I have to deal with that, but when it comes right down to it, I am not worried at all, because as I see it, if I get one person peed off enough to become involved and attend meetings then they tell a friend and it blossoms into many people attending meetings and asking questions, then in my opinion, it has been worth it. As I stated in an earlier blog, I have tried to stay on the "high road" since my election, but I have discovered that some people like to play in the gutter and like it or not, if you wish to beat them, you have to jump into the gutter with them. You cannot eradicate rats if you set the traps in the front yard, you have to put them where the rats hang out. Watch the selectmen meetings closely. It is beginning to look like the three majority are not concerned with what was done or how it was done, but rather WHO it was done to. First thing done after reorganization, fire town council, in the middle of the month and now the taxpayers will pay for two law firms because of these three could not wait a couple of weeks or a few months. They did not even see fit to have interviews and did not even have an answer for how much K&P will charge. I believe it was Virginia Wilder who opined on face-book that "if you acted like this in the business world, you would be fired" Well I think that statement speaks for it self, you cause the company to pay twice for one service because you are in a hurry and did not practice good business sense. No advertisements, no interviews, no nothing, even very limited discussion, as if they already had had a meeting and made up their minds, to act "forthwith." Walt, I hope you read the piece about Alan Mayo and realize that when there is good happening out there, I try to talk about that as well as the bad. I hope I have convinced you that this blog and any other blog can be a good place and a good thing and yes it can also be a bad thing, which is why, in my opinion, that we must constantly educate ourselves and keep up with what goes on so we can take what is good and separate out what is garbage and try to make the best decisions possible. I ran for selectmen on a decision of the moment because I was fed up with what was out there and I have and will continue to make mistakes and act to quickly rather than methodical, sometimes out of lack of time, sometimes if you take the time to look things over a period of time, the rats eat the chair right out from under you. Sometimes you have to play their game or you miss the bus. I wish this was not so, but we were so close to turning the corner in Templeton and people were beginning to notice. You could actually get answers to public records request and you could actually see complaints concerning public officials, ones that have actually been published in the newspaper, but used to be routinely denied. Unfortunately, it appears that Templeton may be headed for more dark days. My hope is that citizens such as yourself will stay tuned in and read through all the garbage and pick out what is usable and use it to aid you in making good decisions, as in what seems to be a good decision in your mind and not what might make me or anyone else happy. If you chose to not participate or just turn a blind eye to it all, you just may find yourself in the middle of the land fill with all the rest of the garbage wondering what happened. I hope Walt, if you read this, you take something positive from it because that was my intention. I may have come off as I was lecturing you, I was not and that was not my intention at all. Thank you if you respond. Jeff Bennett
There was an issue concerning the handling of $1400.00 that the conservation commission had in the "kitty" A member of that group said as she had done some work at home and spent her own time and money on things like stamps, envelopes and well, her time. She asked for a small amount, which I believe to this day, no receipts have been turned in to the town or treasurer. Apparently the commission voted to give the lady the whole $1400.00. This started Pauly on his quest to try and right this wrong (his opinion) and he is still insistent to this day that that was a wrong doing. You should understand, by his own admission, that Pauly is a self-made man with an eigth-grade education and very very plain spoken. You may also be surprised that Pauly and I don't always agree and as a matter of fact, I was banned from his home for a good three to five months for a vote I made as selectman. I did not vote the way Pauly thought I should, the life in politics! Then there was/is the issue with the pay of the conservation agent, which if you look at the minutes of the meeting of the board of selectmen for May 24, 2010, you will see where attorney Joe Fair of K&P made a determination that the agent had been paid outside of grade for a period of time, from July 2008 until May 2010. Pauly found out about this and brought it to the BOS member Jerry Skelton and nothing was done until May 2010. Pauly would not stop with his efforts and filed many complaints, some of which actually intended for the BOS but ended up in the hands of the con comm. Then Pauly was banned from all town building for weeks which resulted from an illegal open meeting, and for asking a question, not a very well thought out question, but clearly a question. Many years of frustration led to the creation of his blog and many people have stated Pauly is nuts, a senile old man etc etc. Little by little, people began to read his words and word spread and now even the Gardner news admitted in an article that they read his blog. There is now a legal opinion from Lauren Goldberg of K&P in the office of selectmen referring to information that is located nowhere else except on Pauly's blog, I can say that because I wrote it! So apparently someone at K&P reads it or someone in town has close ties to K&P and I will let you decide on that one. Another thing to remember about this blog is it is just like face book and twitter and all other social media, it is a place where common folk can sound off and opine, free of censor ship and being told by someone that what they write is too long or to incendiary to publish. People also tire of the so called professional journalist who talk about this actor is going to leave the country if so and so is elected president or this singer showed her "junk" while exiting a car. It has begun to be that there really is no straight up news, just everyone opining, so the regular people have just begun to do the same and some of it is very good and some not so much. That is my opinion and I have on occasion, wished I could get that back after having hit the send key. And I have to deal with that, but when it comes right down to it, I am not worried at all, because as I see it, if I get one person peed off enough to become involved and attend meetings then they tell a friend and it blossoms into many people attending meetings and asking questions, then in my opinion, it has been worth it. As I stated in an earlier blog, I have tried to stay on the "high road" since my election, but I have discovered that some people like to play in the gutter and like it or not, if you wish to beat them, you have to jump into the gutter with them. You cannot eradicate rats if you set the traps in the front yard, you have to put them where the rats hang out. Watch the selectmen meetings closely. It is beginning to look like the three majority are not concerned with what was done or how it was done, but rather WHO it was done to. First thing done after reorganization, fire town council, in the middle of the month and now the taxpayers will pay for two law firms because of these three could not wait a couple of weeks or a few months. They did not even see fit to have interviews and did not even have an answer for how much K&P will charge. I believe it was Virginia Wilder who opined on face-book that "if you acted like this in the business world, you would be fired" Well I think that statement speaks for it self, you cause the company to pay twice for one service because you are in a hurry and did not practice good business sense. No advertisements, no interviews, no nothing, even very limited discussion, as if they already had had a meeting and made up their minds, to act "forthwith." Walt, I hope you read the piece about Alan Mayo and realize that when there is good happening out there, I try to talk about that as well as the bad. I hope I have convinced you that this blog and any other blog can be a good place and a good thing and yes it can also be a bad thing, which is why, in my opinion, that we must constantly educate ourselves and keep up with what goes on so we can take what is good and separate out what is garbage and try to make the best decisions possible. I ran for selectmen on a decision of the moment because I was fed up with what was out there and I have and will continue to make mistakes and act to quickly rather than methodical, sometimes out of lack of time, sometimes if you take the time to look things over a period of time, the rats eat the chair right out from under you. Sometimes you have to play their game or you miss the bus. I wish this was not so, but we were so close to turning the corner in Templeton and people were beginning to notice. You could actually get answers to public records request and you could actually see complaints concerning public officials, ones that have actually been published in the newspaper, but used to be routinely denied. Unfortunately, it appears that Templeton may be headed for more dark days. My hope is that citizens such as yourself will stay tuned in and read through all the garbage and pick out what is usable and use it to aid you in making good decisions, as in what seems to be a good decision in your mind and not what might make me or anyone else happy. If you chose to not participate or just turn a blind eye to it all, you just may find yourself in the middle of the land fill with all the rest of the garbage wondering what happened. I hope Walt, if you read this, you take something positive from it because that was my intention. I may have come off as I was lecturing you, I was not and that was not my intention at all. Thank you if you respond. Jeff Bennett
Sigh....
ReplyDeleteI hate laptops almost as much as I hate Windows.
I hit the wrong key, apparently, it now it is gone. 40 minutes of typing...gone. Maybe it was nature's way off saying don't send that. OK, fair enough, I believe I can condense it.
Jeff, I absolutely was NOT attacking you, OK?
Pauly, I absolutely was NOT attacking you either, OK? In fact, In that tome that got vaporized I had said it is Pauly's blog and therefore he calls to tune. I want someone like Pauly out there, I think that function is necessary in a democracy to keep all parties honest.
Here is how I started that other response, to Mike. Sometimes political correctness just gets in the way.
If Len Koopleman truly said he works for 3 people in this town, then that petition should start with firing Len Koopleman and K&P. My take is he works for the town, he works for me (and you). For that matter, so does Bob Columbus, Ginny Wilder, Pat Mullins, etc. Can we start by agreeing with that?
I believe there are things that are conducive to a meaningful discussion of what is wrong with this town, and how to fix them, and things that are not. I believe name calling diminishes the conversation.
Everybody holds beliefs. Sometimes they are more 'out there' than the main stream. If someone believes the President of the United States yelled, 'fire in the hole' as he pushed the plunger on the WTC, well, ok, whatever, please keep that belief to yourself (my opinion). If someone believes the fluoridation of water lowers IQs, mutates DNA, causes people to speak in tongues, violates God's will, then drill a hole and get your own water. That is a public health issue and and completely contrary to established medical fact. That medical fact being the fluoridation of drinking water is one of the crowning achievements of public health in the 20th century, along with Polio vaccine, and penicillin. Trying to sway public opinion on the former is relatively harmless except for fostering a meta message of the government can not be trusted. In many rural areas of this country there are enclaves of people who do not trust the government, feel it is just a matter of time before the suppressed whisper quiet attack helicopters with jack booted black ninja suited government forces will zip line into your homes in the middle of the night. I believe the beauty of democracy is if you find you can not trust your elected officials then next time you don't re-elect them. As they were duly elected you also do NOT overthrow the elected government because the election didn't turn out as you hoped. This, by the way IS why I am here as I believe mid cycles arbitrary recalls of elected officials are not conducive to democratic rule. I happen to believe in democracy over he who has the most paid off lackeys wins. Very reminiscent of Road House with Patrick Swayze and Ben Gazzara.
I do not believe unsubstantiated accusations, name calling, conspiracy theories, and rumor mongering are conducive to fixing this town. Again, though, it's Pauly's soap box.
I believe rhetoric that you can't trust you government not to have destroyed WTC itself in order to advance its own agenda and you can't trust the government not to poison your children so as to keep them stupid and gullible distill to a central theme, being that you can not trust your government. If that's where this blog is going, well, ok, it's not for me.
What I want to see from people are ideas on how to fix it, restore public trust, restore the notion you can trust your government. What an adult believes is a function of their life's experiences, what a child believes is a function of what adults tell them.
It's just that simple Templeton. I am glad I lost that other comment, this one turned out better.
Candidates, start campaigning. I want ideas, I want a platform. I'd like to vote you back in.
Oh yeah, and that is my opinion which may or may not be Pauly's.
Well Jeff, I appreciate open government, and fear we will lose it once again. People are paying closer attention now, and you can take some satisfaction in that. Mr. Cosentino has a very good blog, and many good contributors. I signed the petition to put an article on Town Meeting Warrant to disband the committee that wants to blow $2.5 million of taxpayer money. We got no information about this, and I don't accept that we have to go to stacked committee meetings in order to get basic info. All those documents should be available for taxpayer perusal on the town website. That a selectman had a hard time getting them is just crooked games for no honest reason.
ReplyDeleteKeep speaking your mind, other citizens should also feel free to speak their minds. Blogs like this are the only way Templeton residents can get the straight scoop.
Oh, Jeff, just so you'll know. My reference to adulthood was not a pat on the back, was not an indication others were not. It was, and I thought this was self evident, a reference to cavities I got as a child when, yes, I ate too many cookies, too many sodas, too many ice creams. Once I stopped being a child, I mysteriously stopped getting cavities, except for 9 years when we had an Atesian well (with no fluoride). At this point I've been 'not a child' way longer than I had been one. I suspect you took it as an insult. It took from my initial reading until now to realize that is where you took it. No, if I want to call someone out, I will call them out. To all others who may have read this, Jeff, apparently, misunderstood what I was saying. Sorry for the confusion.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate reading everyone's comments on all of these issues. If we, as a society, don't discuss issues or actually listen to one another, nothing would ever more forward. I applaud Mr. Cosentino for not only speaking out but for creating a place that others can do the same. The man is wiser than a lot of people with college educations. And his actions are well-intended, they are not meant to tear people down. I appreciate Mr. Bennett, Mrs. Farrell & Mr. Mitchell for continuing to provide the town with valuable information. They don't have to go to the lengths that they do, and yet they are still in the fight for what is best for Templeton. You don't have to sign all the petitions. But you should sign the ones that you feel are necessary. At least give the town the opportunity to vote on some of these "hot button" issues.
ReplyDeleteWalt (and everyone else that comments here) I enjoy reading your opinions. Please continue to contribute. Its a very GOOD thing. I, too, find it strange that all those people who demanded to "speak" and had signs in their yard saying so are so silent.
And one more thing...the Gardner News should be ashamed of itself for reporting one side of such a tremendous story. Such a missed opportunity to bring in more readers. I guess its simply easier to copy and paste news from syndicated content than it is to write their own.
thank you Jeff for the slap up side the head to wake me up . i was getting confused and you woke me right up.
ReplyDeletekeep up the good work guys and i will stayed tuned!!!
Having first hand knowledge of the topics being discussed on this blog pertaining to the town operations in the Selectmen office, I applaud those that participate in an open discussion of the situation at hand. The truth is powerful weapon. Taxpayers must demand it not allow it to be bent to the will of a few.
ReplyDeleteNice job Bennett. I hope more and more people feel free to express themselves
ReplyDeleteI have been following Pauly's blog for awhile (i was #6) and i am happy to see that the number has increased to 18! and that is only the number that has officially "joined", does not count the number of people who come and read the blog! I know that i tell everyone to read Pauly's blog and all the comments - especially if they want to be able to get the truth and be able to ask questions and get honest answers, unlike the "let the people speak" facebook page, you can ask a question there and you will not get an answer, unless of course you were for the recall - otherwise you only got a response from Mr. J.P.S. - right mike? :) Kudos to Mr. Bennett - he will need a lot of support at the meetings - everyone needs to start attending all meetings!! i also agree that the Gardner News should be ashamed - they do not publish both sides of the story, they never have and they never will.
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