Audit Meeting
The Audit meeting went well. The management letter will be posted in its entirety later. It seems some of the copies available to the public were one-sided copies, not double sided.
Some comments prior to the meeting:
- It's odd, but planning on attending the Audit readings feels more like going to a Crime/Mystery Theatre. Will anyone be led off in cuffs? Ok, so maybe I'm getting carried away.ReplyDelete
Im just hoping it is not painful to the taxpayers, detrimental to the towns near term future and that maybe, just maybe, we learn from mistakes made and come up with a workable small town financial plan to maintain the expected quality of life citizens deserve.
Who in our local government is looking out for all the citizenry. Is anyone looking into the makeup of boards/committees/commissions to verify that no "appearance" of improper relationships/terms/conditions are occurring. Many last names seem to multiply in our little government and has anyone looked into the entire structure of our town government?- (Many last names seem to multiply in our little government and has anyone looked into the entire structure of our town government?)Delete
this is why i think Julie will have a hard time getting elected - I guess my concern is that unless we have a defined structure of management throughout our Administrator/Boards/Committees/Commissions and readily available whose to know. You cannot trust the information on the website to be accurate, but I'll give you an example of something that made me wonder.Delete
The other night at the CPC meeting. An agenda item came up regarding the Senior center siding. As it stands we just review and accepted the report without recommendation as it was more formality based on timing. Had we voted to recommend should Doug, have disclosed his position to us or recuse himself? I dont know Doug, but from a little research it appears he is deeply involved in elder issues "Friends of Templeton Elders" along with wife/relative as Director of Senior Center.
Please dont assume I'm saying Doug or anyone is/has done anything wrong. It's just that this multiple offices, intermingled town government can leave taxpayers feeling that way...........hence the suggestion by the DOR to stop it! - I guess i misunderstood your earlier statement. yes to much family in government is bad news.Delete
- Was just doing a little reading. The 2009 DOR report.ReplyDelete
http://www.mass.gov/dor/docs/dls/mdmstuf/technical-assistance/finmgtrev/templetonoctober09.pdf
Pretty damn interesting how they recommend to have elected or appointed members of boards,committees or commissions restricted to one position. How many slots would that open up on our town boards,committees and commissions.
It appears to me that the BOS said, NOT US as they have inserted themselves on every board,committee or commission ...............
Am I missing something? - Yes Mike the ratepayers paid over 12k to have a lawyer find out about our government.
The General mgr of the TMLWP would not share it though.
It was called the governance of Templeton and shared it with no one we were told not even the commissioners of the TMLWP.
One who requested it was chairman of the Advisory committee.
People wonder why i have a strong point for the TMLWP commission and the G.M.
That's just one.
The meeting was like a Crime/ Murder theater. the management letter does provide a way to financial stability. Let's hope the selectmen will implement these recommendations. I know if I am elected, I will work to ensure these findings are implemented.
I'm not sure what conflicts of interest or appearance of conflicts of interest mike thinks I have.
Unlike the 2009 DOR report which languished for over two years before I could convince a majority of the selectmen to adopt some of the recommendations in that report. The first one was to adopt a town administrator form of government. That took a while! Let's hope the selectmen are able to hire a permanent TA in the very near future. As well as Treasurer/Collector!
Julie Farrell
The meeting did go well. It was nice to hear Mr Rosselli talk without pulling to many punches. He informed the town that we NEED a full time qualified Town Administrator. He made it very clear that our management team over the past few years has failed us completely.
ReplyDeleteI was rather disgusted when the school issue came up and a couple BOS members seemed to imply that the 1.4 Million or 3.5 million the town has spent (much unapproved) on this school was reason to spend the 50 million to complete. Seriously? Did these people listen?
My impression was that our town takes in enough money to run itself just fine, but our management team in its ignorance/arrogance has created a financial noose that has caused the town to suffer, created the need to cut services and staff. None of this was due to a lack of funding from the taxpayers of Templeton. It's a straight mismanagement!!!!
Our towns leaders refuse to follow recommendations from the DOR dating back to 2009. Even last night we learned that a recommendation from Mr. Rosselis firm regarding personal property exemptions under 10k. Well our micromanagement put forth an article to exempt $5000. I believe this goes to the heart of our problem. We hire professionals to make recommendations based on them being professionals. Then our incompetent management team micromanages the issue and wallah, we don't take the recommendation, but change it because they know better...............idiots!
2009 the DOR recommends that we dont allow appointed or elected officials to hold more than one position. The the BOS goes about setting up almost every committee with mandatory members from other boards/committees.
It was upsetting to hear Mr. Rosselli discus how our management team put Templeton taxpayers in jeopardy. I believe in 2 instance Mr. Rosselli mentions that issue may be illegal. A couple instances of bid rigging by splitting bids. This is intentional and violates rules set to protect our tax dollars.
I truly feel the town needs Julie on the BOS. Our other options fall far from the mark or have egos that will not help this town move forward.
Vote for Julie Farrel and know you have someone who takes the fiduciary responsibility of the BOS seriously.
Do you think it was just coincidence that the guy running against Julie was sitting with Ron Davon ? Looks and smells like another Echo Hill plant. Just what we need,one more person who is running without a good reason. People find out this job is a lot harder than it seems.
DeleteBev. I think Cam means well, is smart, but lacks much in the experience that life teaches you. I laughed when he spoke because I swore I heard him say " as a former CPA" and I'm thinking, ok, a former cpa who is 23...........hmmmmm. The concept of "experience" is limited by his lack of actual years on the planet.
DeleteAs far as experience and a deep knowledge of the issue in Templeton Cam falls far short of Julie. My only hope is that people dont see Julie as part of the problem that got us here. I hope Julie promotes her independent thinking and willingness to butt heads when those in authority are wrong. We need change, we need strong leaders and need to stop promoting people and ideas that are not beneficial to the entire town. To many special interest board members. To many people on boards for the wrong reasons.
My Dad always says " nothings free" well that includes managing a town. Up until a couple years ago all you had to do it buy a few signs and be "known" in town and somehow that supposedly qualified you to make decisions on millions of taxpayer dollars. How much could we have paid a highly competent TA to run this town? I mean it seems we pay either way. This clown manages via Legal counsel which costs far more than a TA's salary. Our past TA in 2012-14 should be sued. How can this guy remotely say he was doing his job?
This BOS is penny wise and Pound foolish. They keep demonstrating that over and over as with the de minimus tax, they just couldn't let that other $1 go, but are willing to spend $1.5 to collect it. argghhhhhh
OK, so it's the day after Templegeddon and even though it was totally without planning, Templeton is not bankrupt!
ReplyDeleteI took a few minutes and decided to look at the Templeton "Boards & Committees" pages as the list online.
Interesting how even after the 2009 DOR suggestion NOT to have appointed or elected officials on multiple boards/commissions Templeton membership roles show the same people showing up on multiple boards/committees.
The clusterf*** continues when you start to read.The Common Improvements Committee has 3 openings listed on its page, but not on the special website page listing "board and committee openings"
This is just an example of a larger problem. Sloppyness due to the lack of proper policies and procedures. This town is not something new. We should have policies/procedures in place so any and all positions could be filled and functional within minutes.
This idea that "this is how its been done" or "so and so usually handles that" is asinine for a multi-million dollar operation. We need a Town Manager that will come in and "make thing work correctly" and not try to work within the ass backwards methods that have evolved over decades.
We have a very long way to go when you realize we haven't been doing much of anything in a structured, repeatable process. This is, in my opinion why we have problems with every single project, process the town puts forward.
It is my belief that the same or similar issues are in play in the schools and we could use a deep dive into those practices as well. Poor management doesn't usually hire awesome managers!
That is exactly what I was trying to get across earlier but failed to do so about julie being a past selectmen and one of them last names that's been there for years. She has and will do a good job but people that are in one side will not vote for her only because of the last name
ReplyDeleteThere is definitely a group that wont vote for Julie for sure. I just hope for the towns sake its a smaller group.
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