From Templeton Watch
From Robert Markel, temporary part time Templeton Town Administrator:
Regarding
the expenditure for legal advice on the recent election, the Town Clerk
came to my office with an important question: Can a candidate for
election to the Water Department Board have his wife sign out nomination
papers? This happened at 2:00 p.m. on the last day for pulling
nomination papers. The law requires that the candidate must take out
nomination papers in person. We did not know if there was case law or
other decisions that were relevant, and we were aware that the Secretary
of State would answer this question but it normally takes several days
to get an answer. We did not have time, so I asked Town Counsel for an
opinion and told the Clerk to issue the nomination papers to the wife
contingent upon the opinion from Town Counsel.
If
we had denied the nomination papers and Town Counsel came back with a
ruling that we should have issued them, we might be accused of unfairly
keeping a candidate off the ballot. It we simply issued the nomination
papers without checking the legality, we might be accused of ignoring
the law, so the Clerk and I agreed that issuing the papers contingent
upon Town Counsel opinion was the best and fairest course.
The
advice of Town Counsel was that issuing the papers to the candidate's
wife was valid and that the candidate's name should appear on the
ballot. The practice in most towns is to reveal the opinion of Town
Counsel but not to release the written opinion. I would not release the
written opinion without agreement by the Board of Selectmen.
Lastly,
I want to assure residents that we are making every effort to consult
Town Counsel only when absolutely necessary. For the first time in
recent years, the Town's expenditures for legal counsel will be less
than the amount in the budget.
Seems
at the last election, one candidate, Gregg Edwards, had his wife pick
up his nomination papers. Now, if the law states the candidate must do
this, why was this allowed to move forward? This was not the first
election process for him as he has served as a selectmen before and
there is a time frame laid out in plain English in Templeton. If you ln
to run, you make sure you have no plans that interfere with the
requirements which are you pick up your papers, sign the book, obtain
the required number of signatures of Templeton residents and registered
voters, turn them in so they can be certified and get your name on the
ballot. There is a certain number of names required and a certain time
frame to pick up papers and when to turn them in. All spelled out and
all pretty simple. Why special consideration for this time around and
this candidate? This was / is a Town election issue and this was/is not a
matter for the Light & Water department so now we have departments
laying out how elections will be run, now we have set a precedent on how
nomination papers can be pulled, we already do not follow any real
process, procedure or timeline for a budget, we have the selectmen and
Town Administrator telling department heads not to meet with Advisory
Committee, individual selectmen adding warrant articles to Town meeting
warrant after it has closed and then having it show "presented by Board
of Selectmen" even though there is no record of the board of selectmen
voting on these articles. The topper is the selectmen now claiming they
are the superior department and they can do as they please.
posted by Jeff Bennett
More Invoices from Doucette & LaRose :
I do believe that Mr. Edwards is a adult, and for that reason he was more than able to get his own nomination papers, like every one else. He chose to get the Lawyer from Light and Water involved, so let him pay the bill. I am sick of Light and Water walking over everyone in this Town, to do what the hell ever they want. No, they do not want to pay the Town a PILOT, even if the DOR said they should. A project, for small $$, yes maybe, or maybe not. How is that bill the Town Administrator was going to send them ?? For 75,000. That would put a dent in what they should be paying.
ReplyDeletepilot, what pilot?? they are going to buy pizza, haven't you heard???? and we thought gs was bad!!!!
Delete