Citizen
Petition – Chapter 93 Acts of 2000
Pauly
has tried to get an answer or an investigation into some of the activities in
town for quite a while. The citizen’s petition asking for an investigation by
the Attorney General has been turned into the town clerk’s office. We are
waiting for the signatures to be certified. Hurricane Sandy isn’t helping out.
(Stay
safe!)
One
of the great concepts of town government is the citizens’ right to petition its
town government. If you, as a citizen, feel something is wrong and is not being
addressed by your BOS or other department,
you can collect signatures of
registered voters for warrant articles at town meetings and special town
meetings. You, as a citizen, can even gather enough signatures to call for a
special town meeting.
The
citizen petition asking for an investigation by the Attorney General’s office
into “wrong doings” in Templeton include:
An investigation into the
activities and actions of the Templeton Board of Selectmen and the Templeton
Municipal Light Department to enact Chapter 93 Acts of 2000.
Please
keep in mind when this merger of light and water took place. The Light
department was located at 2 School St. There were apartments on the top floor
of the building. The garages out back were under construction. The water
commissioners were the Board of Selectmen. I believe Harry Aldrich was the
water, sewer and highway superintendent at this time. Gerald Skelton was
manager of the light department. Chris Ryan was town coordinator. Glenn Eaton,
Edie Kosakowsi, Tom Martin, Pat Dunlavey and Gladys Salame were members of the
BOS.
There
are certain rules you need to follow when you initiate a citizen’s
petition. The Office for Campaign and
Political finance has a number of documents to help guide people through the
process. The most informative publication is Campaign Finance Guide:
Public Employees, Public Resources and Political Activity. I have to be
careful as an elected official to keep my activities with Citizens4Templeton
separate from my activities as a selectman. I can’t use public resources for
this citizen’s petition. And I don’t. As an elected official, I don’t give up
my right to participate in government as a citizen. I need to be careful and I
am. I was collecting signatures for a warrant article, not an article that
would go to a ballot election.
Chapter 93
Acts of 2000 was initiated by the Light department. The minutes from the September
7,1999 Light
department reference a “negative letter” from Chris Ryan (Town
Coordinator). At this meeting, I believe
the light department manager, Gerald Skelton (municipal employee), and the
commissioners Dana Blais, and Sean Hamilton (also municipal employees) voted to
have an attorney draft a legal petition for insertion in the town warrant or
ballot…using municipal funds from the municipal light department. Legal
invoices.
The
“Citizen
Petition” for Chapter 93 Acts of 2000
called for a special town meeting. You need 200 signatures from registered
voters to call for a special town meeting. I believe these signatures were
collected by the (municipal) employees of the (municipal) Light department.
These signatures were not collected by someone or a group of citizens asking to
merge light and water departments. I signed on line 231. I believe I signed it
when asked by an employee.
The
special town meeting was held on March 8, 2000. There were 84 people present. March 8,
2000 Special Town Meeting warrant. The special town meeting
vote was the first step in the process. Once the special legislation was
enacted, there had to be a vote by ballot. The September
11, 2000 Light
department minutes indicate that the vote to merge passed by a vote of 230 in
favor to 83 against. The Light department paid for the ballot election. Schedule of
Payments to Treasurer.
So
why ask for the Attorney General to investigate the actions and activities of
the BOS and the Light department to enact Chapter 93 Acts of 2000? I’ll quote from
the May
2, 2000 Light Department minutes. Page 2 “ The manager [Mr. Skelton] told
the Commissioners that if the merger takes place we will have some serious work
to return the Water Department to a viable entity of the Town. The
Commissioners agreed but felt it can be accomplished.”
It’s
been over ten years since the merger of the Light and Water departments. In
those ten years my water bill has increased dramatically. The managerial
positions at the TMLWP have increased at substantial cost and are unsustainable
(see October 30,
2000 and October 30,
2000 ). The debt
burden by the department has increased dramatically as well. I guess I have a
different definition of “viable”.
My
opinion …supported by FACTS ! !
Julie
Farrell
For
more information, please review the documents on the Citizens4Templeton website
– Important
Documents page. There is a Timeline for Chapter 93 Acts of 2000, which has
links to the Light minutes and the Water minutes.
I think it may be time for a re-org. i.e. separate the Light and Water Dept and put the water dept under new management. Then the next step should be to back new people for the Light Commission that won't be the manager's lap dogs
ReplyDeleteThat is a super idea. Do you know of anyone that could fill those positions? We need good people for May. Gee, did you see scrappy go to work tonight. He actually did something during the selectmens meeting!!He killed a bug, and made a comment. Way to go scrappy!!That is the most work he has done all year. I told you guys he is going to run for re election. Bev
DeleteWho's Scrappy?
DeleteSelectman Patrick Mullins. where have you been? he was forced to resign from his job at the recycling center in Winchendon for stealing scrap metal. Now he's our selectman and we are screwed until May.
DeleteThe time for people to run for selectmen is now! The time for light & water commission candidates is now. We may have to "draft" some one to run. Look at the current advisory board and how it turned around pretty quickly, you just need a few people who are willing to put in the time. There are some people involved in citizens4Templeton who should run. We can either talk about who and what is wrong or we can do something about it. If you look back at the recall where apparently alot of people either thought or were talked into thinking the grass was greener on the other side of the fence, then you look at what the new group did to your town, or tried to do in some cases. The same can be said of the light & water commission, how is that change of chris stewart for Julie Farrell working out for you. Now before anyone writes that I am anyone's lap dog, ask Julie Farrell about the many letters to the editor I wrote about her and husband Pete. You will see or should see that julie and I just happen to agree on more things than we disagree on. Also I became more enlightened on how things worked down at town hall. I also saw residents take charge at last Mays Town Meeting, they made changes to the budget line item by line item. Some people did not know it was that easy for them to participate, but now that they know, I hope they do not let go of their say so at town meeting. Please remember that you the taxpayer have the power of petition for when your elected people fail you or fail to listen to you. If you wish the light & water acts undone, say so, voice your vote at town meeting, remember, it is YOUR TOWN. Pauly may not always say it eloquently and he may not always be legally correct, but he is right ethically and morally most of the time. The hardest part is keeping Pauly out of trouble, because we as a society have become so use to "political correctness" and how easy things can be taken out of context and made to look bad and frieghtening when in actuallity things are nothing more than a simple question such as "what do I have to do to get my questions answered, go postal?" simple solution, no Pauly, please stand and state your questions on the record here in open meeting. politically correct and sleazy way to handle that question is for former town coordinator Carol Skelton and police chief Whitaker to blow it out of proportion and turn it into some kind of proposed terrorist act. Try to make someone who is simply trying to get some information look foolish and dishonest but you end up with Pauly's Templeton Watch blog. One of the best things to happen in Templeton in a long time. It is an example of old meeting new, of how techno;ogy is shrinking the world while extending the avaialble information to the masses with little editing or censorship. This blog is an example of how we can and must use the new and evolving echnology to our advantage in many ways.
ReplyDeleteJeff, we all miss you, but we will continue to fight to right the wrongs that have been done to our town. Sounds easy? It depends on YOU, THE SHARE HOLDERS OF THIS TOWN OF TEMPLETON!! I doubt that my grandfather wanted our government run the way it has been run, in this past year. Remember the meeting with our group surrounded by police?? Some of the people who were ushered out of the room that night, were in their eighties, and nineties. Do not forget! It is no secrect that Pauly has been very ill. I have promised him that he will get his investigation! We owe it to this man. He was treated very badly. We can not forget that! Do not forget what they did to Mr. Ritter. Behind all of the things you could see, Bubba, Virginia, Chris, were the things you could not see. The real brains working to run the town, behind closed doors. These are who need to stand before the people of this town and face the public. Our town needs to heal, but that will not happen, until we can prove, to the few people who can still refuse, to accept the fact that they were used. Used in the worst possiable way. To take your fellow citizens and use them, and by doing that devide and hurt the town. That is despicable. This will be resolved, as long as I am alive, I will work to see that is done. Bev
Delete