Public Record Requests
In the not so distant past, public record requests were routinely denied in the Town of Templeton. Many roadblocks were in place to deny the public (and elected officials) public documents. In the past few years, public records have been more accessible to the public. In the public interest, the following documents detail the latest public record request as discussed on this blog.
The original request:
Explanation of estimate:
Thank you to the blog for providing me with additional documents to show my case that the whole response has been flawed. It is nice of someone to put it on paper, as Pauly use to say. Now, after I print this out, who do I make the check out to?
ReplyDeleteNow all residents have what they should have had in the first place, a year by year accounting of the total amount spent per fiscal year on this project along with the reimbursement (s) from MSBA. Or do they? conflicting number with regards to the MSBA figure, it differs from what was put out at BOS meeting and what is posted on MSBA website. So I paid $94.02 for the information that is now posted here for all to see for free. Once again, I sacrificed for the people of Templeton, that has a nice ring to it for election slogan don't it? seriously, I am glad my actions resulted in this information now out in the open to aid taxpayers in knowing the amount of their money spent and hopefully they can have access to what it was spent on; on thing to have a dollar figure for Kopelman & Paige, but exactly what did K&P do for $944.44/ Why do the selectmen feel you should have to pay $645.00 for that information. I would think the selectmen or the advisory board could and should get this information to the people for free, ain't that what they pay taxes for?
ReplyDelete10 hours, 20 hours, to locate what you need. That is a bunch of BS. NO WONDER things never get done in town, TIME to get rid of ALL the long time employees who do things at a snails pace and find people who will do their job.
ReplyDeleteI have to differ with you Do is Stupid. First off who are these "long time employees" of the town? God bless the employees who have stuck it out with the town. It appears that the accounting used by Sawyer was a prostitute's tabulation. If you don't raise the tax rate to keep up with inflation and instead use up free cash, you are heading for disaster.
ReplyDeleteYour right I should not have said all and I won't name names. But it is not healthy having one person doing the same job for a long time, what you get is snobbynish, and arrogance.
ReplyDeleteI know one thing for sure, I am glad the town's people pushed to get K&P out of our town. What did we get for $944.44? Well, maybe the 944.00 was for them just being there, and the .44 was for the work they did...who knows?? Remember when we had a town meeting within a town meeting, like in May, when we clean up old business. K&P would charge us for two meetings, even when the Lawyer never left the room. That never sat good with me. I do have to put my two cents worth in about the people who work in "our town hall". That sounds good too. I am going to stick up for the women who have not had the easiest job, in the past few years. Going back to the Columbus/Skelton era, there were two women in the Selectman's Office, plus Mrs. Skelton. When Jeff Ritter was there Kate Myers was alone. Kate worked in the Selectman's Office alone for a long time, but I know Jeff helped as much as he could, until Holly Young was hired. The having two people in the office, lasted until Kate went to the Treasure's Office. Holly has carried the load alone since then. In November we voted to hire a part time person to work in the Selectman's Office, The last time I stopped in, a couple of weeks ago, or less, they just got a person to help out. As we all know, things can move slow around here. I imagine it will take this young lady some time to figure out where everything is, and who is who. So what the hell do they need two people for, I'll bet you are thinking ? This office processes all of the mail, not hard but it takes time. Every notice that goes to other departments comes from the Selectman's Office. Agendas for every meeting come from there, not just the Selectmen's. but for other departments. The phone rings off the wall at times, and someone has to answer it. Most meetings are scheduled from the S.O., Town Meeting warrants are put together and typed in that office. Information that is needed for Town Council, or other Departments come from there. Meetings have to be posted on time in order to hold a Special or Annual Town Meeting.
DeleteWorking alone makes it hard to take a break, never mind a vacation. Oh yes, I can't forget Holly packed up everything in the S.O. for the move to our Town Hall. I did offer to help, but I guess she wanted to be sure she could find every thing again. Lastly, our Town Administrator is part time, only a couple of days a week. This means that he does what he can from home, and the rest he does in Templeton. I know he has been working with the different unions, getting ready for Town Meeting. No one has the authorization to hand out anything with out his approval. In a perfect world a citizen should be able to get the information they need with out waiting, just like the contracts for the Light Company should be handy for any citizen to see, not in a other town. As a town we should try to improve communication, so no one has to pay for what should be for free. The information Jeff asked for should be on line, and maybe we will get there one day. At least Jeff did not get a page with the majority of the information blacked out. Thank you for the work you do for the taxpayers, jeff. Maybe we can figure out who is paying for the surveyors that worked at least three days in Templeton Center?? Bev
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