Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Greetings from Afghanistan


Here in Afghanistan, around the month of March is sometimes referred to as the start of the fighting season. During the colder months and the rainy season, the Taliban, insurgents, Freedom fighters what ever name is applied like to take that time frame off. It is cold and when you live in mud huts and basically wrap a blanket around you as some sort of a jacket, it is not a good time to fight, apparently. Same goes for late summer when it gets really hot, there are lulls and then there are fast paced periods of trouble and fighting. Anyway, it appears the same thing may apply in Templeton for as in about March as election time approaches, things heat up.
So I kind of expected questions to come up and I expected mention of the cost of a citizens petition and I expected at least one selectmen to mention the fact I contacted town attorney concerning the legal authority of Templeton selectmen to summon before them the General Manager of Templeton municipal light co. My feeling was and is that if the selectmen exercised their authority, they could have gotten a number of citizens questions answered before things got really ugly. Unfortunately, a majority of the selectmen failed to act. Now again, if Virginia Wilder wishes to keep mentioning how I talked with town counsel without permission, although I did cc Mr. Ritter in my e-mail to Paul DeRensis, then I will continue to remind Ms. Wilder and the taxpayers of her vote to fire one town counsel in mid month and hire another which in the end cost taxpayers an extra five grand. So I ask, how much did the legal opinion I requested cost the taxpayers vs. what the vote of Ms. Wilder cost the taxpayers. I am thinking I cost them a whole lot less. I was trying to get something done for the taxpayers, as in listening to them trying to get answers. What was the motive of Ms. Wilder in voting to rehire K&P law firm. Taxpayers should note, that if you request to see what has actually been spent on town counsel this fiscal year, you will find that this year will be one of the lowest town legal bills in a very long time. Again, I see one selectmen made the motion for selectmen to act for them concerning the legal memo on Templeton town governance and again, the rest of the board failed to act for the people. Thankfully two of those selectmen will be gone after the spring election. If one of the legal memos that came to be during the lead up to the STM back in March, certainly the other one can be made available to the people who paid for it. You can count on me making a motion to summon Mr. Driscoll before the BOS to account for his business and financial goings on in the past fiscal year according to MGL. The motion will not include the elected Light commissioners but as the law states, they are most welcome to attend the meeting. My hope is after the elections, the people will have a BOS that will actually act for them. I have been informed there is a computer in the selectmen office that selectmen can use to open and read any documents for them and they can print them out to read and take home so there really is no excuse to complain that I cannot open the item and I cannot be prepared for the meeting.. Thank You.

1 comment:

  1. Jeff, Keep doing your job, that is what the people of Templeton elected you for. It is not like you wasted time and money asking some frivolous question. Your going to town council just gave Virginia something to get on her high horse over. As long as you are working for me, and the rest of the town residents, I say don't sweat it. Bev.

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