Templeton's questionable decisions

Interesting thoughts... Who made the cuts?
How does a town pay unpaid bills from a prior year?


Templeton's questionable decisions
To the Editor: 10/16/2014

To the Editor:

Templeton’s temporary Town Administrator has made some positive changes recently, however, some things remain the same.  Case in point, is a citizen simply trying to get an answer to one financial question.

In early June Fiscal Year 2014, I attended a Waste Water Treatment Facility meeting, and learned that the sewer department owed the town $60,000 for employee benefits.  

Since the majority of our town workers were laid off at the time and not earning any income, I stopped at the town office the next morning to remind them this money was owed to the town.  

I was told the fastest way to communicate would be to email the Board of Selectmen (BOS).  At that time there was some concern that the Board of Health and Inspection Department work could not be performed because of layoffs. 

My email, dated June 3, suggested that both these departments could be back to work immediately with this $60,000.  An hour later the BOS Chairman responded that he had forwarded my email to the accountant, treasurer, and town administrator. 


A short while later, I learned that the electric and water departments also owed the town another $110,000 for employee benefits. 

For their own accounting purposes, all three utilities accounting personnel and managers had been asking the town on numerous occasions when they were going to be billed for these expenses.  Their money was just sitting there waiting for invoices from the town.  The answers they were receiving were “later,” “we don’t have time right now,” or “we’re trying to figure out how to do that,” etc.

Later in June, during a public meeting, I asked the town administrator, “Why is the town refusing to invoice the Electric, Water and Sewer Enterprise Funds for the $170,000 owed the town for their respective employee benefits ?”  

Even though the BOS chairman said he had emailed this information to the town administrator, the town administrator said he didn’t know they were not being invoiced and said he would look into that.  It is now a good three months later and we do not have any answers.

Referencing the Fiscal Year 2013 Annual Report for various town employee’s salaries and expenses per month are as followed: Board of Health Agent: $4,595; Board of Health Assistant: $1,951; Building Inspector: $2,623; Building Administrator Assistant: $1,783; Counsel on Aging Director: $1,438; Counsel on Aging: $4,520; Highway Superintendent: $4,863; Highway Department: $23,893; Mechanic: $3,678; Gasoline: $5,417; Diesel Fuel: $5,417; Assessors: $5,068; Town Clerk: $3,112; Assistant Town Clerk: $1,107; Library: $3,489; Planning Board Department Assistant: $1,500; Cemetery Superintendent: $4,560; Cemetery Assistant: $1,209; Cemetery: $7,833.  Totaling all of these salaries and expenses equals $88,056.   

Assuming that overhead benefits had been paid, this leaves $81,944  ($170,000-$88,056 = $81,944) to bring the police night shift back to work and still have plenty left over.

So, after more than two months the question still remains … why would town officials lay off a majority of Templeton’s employees, when they knew they had enough cash owed to them to cover salaries, gasoline, and diesel fuel for all of June and much, much more? 

Bernard Heaney
Templeton