Accountability

The Special Town Meeting (STM) held on March 6, 2013 was called in order for the Town to correct improper votes at the prior ATM last May and STM in November. These important votes had to occur before the tax rate could be set.

The legislative body of the town (Town Meeting) has a lot of power. The votes taken at town meetings are directives given to the executive branch of local government (BOS). It is imperative that the BOS carry out those directives as voted by the townspeople.

The vote on Article 6 was soundly and loudly defeated. The message town meeting sent was very clear.  Templeton shall have two separate governments; Town government and Light and Water. Town government i.e : The Board of Selectmen shall be accountable to the voters. Light and Water is accountable to ???

Despite law (MGL 164 section 56) which in part states:

“…a manager of municipal lighting …have full charge of the operation and management of the plant…and shall, at the end of each municipal year, render to them such detailed statement of his doings and of the business and financial matters in his charge as the department may prescribe. …

The auditor or officer having similar duties in cities, and the selectmen in towns, shall approve the payment of all bills or payrolls of such plants before they are paid by the treasurer, and may disallow and refuse to approve for payment, in whole or in part, any claim as fraudulent, unlawful or excessive; and in that case the auditor or officer having similar duties, or the selectmen, shall file with the city or town treasurer a written statement of the reasons for the refusal; and the treasurer shall not pay any claim or bill so disallowed. This section shall not abridge the powers conferred on town accountants by sections fifty-five to sixty-one, inclusive, of chapter forty-one. The manager shall at any time, when required by the mayor, selectmen, municipal light board, if any, or department, make a statement to such officers of his doings, business, receipts, disbursements, balances, and of the indebtedness of the town in his department…” The voters in Templeton do not want the BOS to follow the law of the Commonwealth.

Accountability is not only an issue on the local level. It is a problem on the federal level as well. The following is an e-mail message from Senator Elizabeth Warren:

“Julie --

Attorney General Eric Holder indicated in testimony before the U.S. Senate that some Wall Street banks have gotten so big that they are now above the law.

He actually said earlier this week:

I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.

This is wrong -- just plain wrong. We are a country that believes in equal justice under the law -- not special deals for the big guys. And that's not all the special deals that the big banks get.

According to recent calculations by Bloomberg, the top ten biggest banks receive an $83 billion subsidy every year in the form of lower borrowing costs -- something not available to your community bank or credit union. The markets think that, if things get tough, the government will be there to bail out the big banks again but not the little guys.

To put things in perspective -- that $83 billion subsidy is about the same amount of money being fought over in the sequestration.

So why are we still debating this issue at all? Isn't it obvious that the "too big to fail" problem still exists and is bad for small banks? Bad for taxpayers? Bad for our economy? Bad for justice?

Here's one theory that worries me: maybe people believe that the banks have in fact become too big to shrink. They have started to say that we can't cut these banks down to size.

I'm not one of them, and neither are colleagues of mine like Sen. Sherrod Brown who have been fighting hard on this issue. We know we can take on the big banks and their army of lobbyists and win because we've done it before.

When banks are too big to fail, too big to jail, too big for trial, too big to manage, too big to regulate, too big to shrink, and too big to reform... they are just too big.

We're just getting started here.

Thank you for being a part of this,

Elizabeth”

Senator Warren is trying to hold the banking industry accountable. Not an easy task. For me, Article 6 was an attempt to hold TMLWP accountable: to provide answers to important questions that impact the Town of Templeton as a whole. Questions about the audit of the wind turbine; questions about the water system and the multiple water main breaks; questions about the PILOT payment calculation. These questions will go unanswered, because TMLWP is accountable to no one.

On the local level, what happens when a department is accountable to no one? I guess we’ll find out… or not.

My opinions…supported by FACTS ! ! !

Julie Farrell

Accountability is a global issue as well. LIBOR,(the London inter-bank lending rate) is a major issue and scandal with global implications. Please check out the links to an article in USA Today entitled : U.S. banks caught up in LIBOR Scandal  as well as The BBC Timeline LIBOR fixing scandal.