$$ Budget Time $$
(Click on the words "document" and "sheets"and it will take you to the those pages)
The “Green Sheets” contain the line by line accounts for Town Charges. The following document is the first draft of the Town Charges for FY 13.
The bottom line is $4,513,076 for the FY 13 budget. This budget is a first draft and reflects a 20% across the board reduction from FY 12.
Print out this draft. Review it. Think of line items YOU would cut to make the bottom line of $4,513,076. Maybe you would cut a program. If enough “non-essential” programming is cut maybe the across the board reduction would be 5% instead of 20%.
This budget is YOUR money! Please help our current BOS make decisions about YOUR hard-earned tax dollars! Be prepared for town meeting. Ask questions.
Town charges are one component of the budget. These sheets have more information from the Town Accountant regarding the revenue and obligations in Templeton.
As these budget documents are revised, they will be updated. It is not uncommon to have 4-5 revisions of the first budget draft.
Julie Farrell
24 Myrtle St.
Baldwinville, MA 01436
978-939-2501
978-340-2503
Thankyou Julie, this is good information. I looked thrugh the budget with untrained eyes and don't know where cuts can and cannot be taken, however, a line item under the Building Inspector, is Affodable Housing Coordinator. I looked this up on the Town website and found that the information is totally outdated. A survey that was supposedly taken in 2008 is still there. What ever happened to the results of that? It appears that this office is more of a referral service, and I'm not sure really what is being accomplished. The coordinator is there 14 hours a week and was making $14,120 in F/Y 2012 That works out to be around $20. per hour. I am told that this worker has been there for 5 or 6 years and I never knew there was such a thing - managed by the building Dept? Is this something that could be looked at to save money in these economic times?
ReplyDeletecheck, you are right on the money, affordable housing coordinator is a position pretty much unique to Templeton. Some theorize that position was created for friend/political support. It was created in 2006 and you can look at town reports and see who was in charge at that time. That is a position, in my opinion that should go unfunded this year and eliminated. Much of that information could be on the town website, which is something else that could be redone. There could be a rack with information pamphlets, the selectmen office could give out the referral information and the town could perhaps work out an arrangement with the Gardner CDC. Another item to look at check is the line item for selectmen salaries, that box should read zero in these economic times. Time for selectmen to lead the way. in my opinion, all elected salaries should simply go away this year, if not for good. Julies posting and your comment is another example of what this site is for and is accomplishing. We can come here, sound off, opine, suggest and yes take people to the carpet. It may be ruff, it may be dirty laundry, but in my opinion, some of what has been posted here is merely what has been thought and talked about, just not in "public" Once upon a time newspapers did this sort of thing, but now we have this new medium and I think it gives people a sense of actual free speech. If you don't take it personal, don't get all defensive, just let it roll. Lets face it check, before this, we had to go out of our way to get this information. Thank you for paying attention and participating. Jeff Bennett
ReplyDeleteZippity doo da! Thanks Jeff. Anytime I can interject thoughts that shuld have been said out loud a long time ago, I WILL. Again Pauly, you are making this possible and we all thank you.
DeleteJust wanted to add a few things on this budget topic - only 2 elected officials have come forward to say - do away with a all elected and apointed salaries - guess who the two are - Jeff Bennett and Kirk Moschetti LOL - Bob Columbus and Virginia Wilder both stated that they "didn't want to do this for nothing!" as far as the affordable housing coordinator position goes - the last time an "affordable" condo at day mill was sold was August 2008!!! A study that we the taxpayers of Templeton paid $5000.00 to MRPC (Montachusetts Regional Planning Commission)to do came to the conclusion that affordable housing is a moot point in this economy - cheap houses/condos priced $30,000. and more lower than the "afforable" units. and while we are on the subject of the budget - what exactly does the Planner do? We are paying MRPC to do the Master Plan! She does not work on Fridays - she is paid for 32 hrs per week - That would make her hours Monday thru Thursday with a meeting for a couple of hours everyother week - but she doen't seem to get to work until after 8:30am and she is usually gone by 1:00PM
ReplyDeleteThat just doen't add up to 32hr no way - Kirk can you help with this one?? Then of course there is the Conservation agent - everyone knows I have been hammering on this one for a long time he is still being paid at a 4 step increase that no other employee got to take. Bob Maki did this job for 9 hrs a week Mr Koonce gets 23hrs - why? what exactly does he do for 23 hrs a week - there is very very building going on in town. Let's all read these budget sheets real close and ask questions - lots of questions.
Yes, I will thank Pauly again too, for this blogspot. We are getting back to the days when people used to discuss things on the town common (a very good idea). That is what Town commons were originally designed for, a place for the townsfolk to come together & get all things that concerned them out in the open. The bandstands or common stands were a place where the news was shouted out via the town crier or other concerned citizens. Then along came newspapers & this faded away. We used to be able to trust journalism to be a bit more fair & balanced but now we see that the news is very biased. It is time to go back to the good old days. I think we should go way back & not only resurrect the town criers but also the whipping posts, dunking stools, stocks & pillories, etc., if you know what I mean!! This is my opinion & I thank everyone else for posting theirs. Thanks also Pauly for establishing our own town "newspaper". At least we get some of the correct news now!!
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that any of the town labor could be don by volunteers? Community Service commitments? I know I for one would be willing to give some time to the town.
ReplyDeleteSee below, I like your idea too.
DeleteI think the most recent example of volunteering has been the construction of the Animal Control shelter. That project was accomplished by a dedicated group of volunteers.
ReplyDeleteThere are liability issues with using volunteers to do some projects, but there are some instances where volunteers are appropriate. The Town can't use volunteers to replace workers. The Town does have a number of on-going projects like the Common improvement committee and the Gilman-Waite project that have made significant progress because of volunteers.
Templeton has a proud tradition of volunteerism. I think volunteering has a place in trying to solve the financial crisis in town. I think everything should be put on the table and discussed.
As far a eliminating stipends for elected officials, I would like to go on record as stating that I am in agreement. Julie Farrell
as matter of fact the volunteers at the animal shelter from what I am told do all the feeding and cleaning - the aco doesn't do any of it - she won't take any animals in - ask Lisa at Agway about this also she when Penny P's husband got mauled by his dog she wouldn't take it to the shelter for quarantine. She keeps the same animals there - doesn't try to adopt them out - ask the lady at Day mill who has been trying to adopt a cat since September - she has had a St Bernard since Seotember also - to you ever see anything on the town website or in TGN home news section for adopting (both free sources. She spends only minutes a week at her desk in the highway barn (ask the Highway dept) yet puts in for 10 hrs a week "office" and 20 hours a week " shelter" I know I got her time sheets under the public records law. we bought her a new truck a few years ago - to ride around in thats all!!!!
ReplyDeleteI called the ACO in August to ask if anyone had found our cat. Never got a response. I called about a stray we had hanging around the house, to see if anyone had lost a cat, never heard back.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we're not getting value from the ACO.
I don't think the tactic of 20% cut across the board is wise or necessary.
ReplyDeleteLet's look at the number of employees in different departments. Eliminating assistants and restoring salaries to 100%, I came up with $325k in savings. I would also zero out the cell phone, or close to zero.
Well it looks like the stage is set, do people really think they were hoodwinked and lied to during the recall. Head to head, simple ballot question; Farrell or Columbus to represent the people for the next three years. It seems Ms. Farrell has stated up front she is in favor of no salaries for elected officials, time to publicly, on the record ask Mr. Columbus the question, are you in favor of eliminating elected salaries, yes or no. As for a town hall, a couple of thoughts. There is a house on Baldwinville Road for sale, pretty good size one with a large garage out back, I understand the price tag is below $3 thousand dollars. Could this home be used and converted into a town hall for less than a million dollars? Another possibilty is how much land comes with this house, if it is more than 3 acres, could a school be buil there, it is pretty close to narragansett so in my mind possibilities exist to share some things. Just an out of the box thought or thoughts that came to light in a conversation among myself and Kirk Moschetti. He may not be in favor of the town hall idea but I am. Now 252 baldwinville Road could be put up for sale or see what the police department could do with the property. The 50 acre parcel on Baldwinville Road just may have to many complications for the town to become involved. The town of Templeton (taxpyers) have a long term debt of 16 million two hundred four thousand ninety dollars in long term debt. That is from page 5 of the town audit from June 30, 2010 by Melanson Heath & co. The budget is telling the story this year because I think this is the first time in a long time that the public has been given the information at multiple open meetings. How long as it been when the "green sheets" have been handed out this early? Hidden in secrecy seems to have been the norm in years past. Of course, we did not have this place in years past either. Taxpayers need to keep the pressure on and keep attending the meetings. Look for the municiple building committee to submit another debt exclusion article on the special town meeting within the annual town meeting. Watch for another article for the taking of land at exit 20 for an elementary school. I trust the assessors to know what they were talking about with respect to all the liens on that property and the repercussions to the town if we follow thru with taking that land. The assessors are Templeton taxpayers. The superindendent and the OPM are not. The new superintendent to be, Ruth Miller, seems to have an idea about the business side of things, having cut $200 thousand by simply eliminating the position of assistant superintendent and the school pychologist.
ReplyDeleteBravo Jeff and Thankbyou Julie. Based on previous town reports, aren't the stipends being talked about the same ones that doubled while Team Skelton ran the Town and personnel Board?
ReplyDeleteActually Reachout, on page 108 of town report for 1998, selectmen salaries are listed at $20,284.00 and for 2012, selectmen salaries are at $25,790.00, from the green sheet. What has happened over the years is expenses went up, positions like planner and affordable housing coordinator were created, the con com agent position went from 8 hrs per week to up to 23 hrs per week. Insurance costs have probably quadrupled, a never ending increase. Taxes have stayed low, expenses rose and it looks like not enough proactive action taken. Remember when town treasurer Tammy Coller came to town, she found things like insurance premiums being paid for people who were dead. Unfortunately this reliable town treasurer got bullied out of town, in my opinion. Tammy is much to nice of a person to say that. Town accountant salary in 2004 was $24,000.00, then the town "saved $25,000.00" by doing payroll in house, of course then the town accountant salary went up to $45,600.00 so there went that savings. Costs and expenses appear to be the things that were not dealt with efficiently in the past, in my opinion. This is the giant who has finally crashed our party. Expenses are the only thing we have to deal with this budget crisis. Either more money has to come in or less has to go out and we probably need both to happen. All things probably need to be put on hold, finish the senior center and get it up and running, look at the expenses to do that, then look at what our next need is. This would be like I don't know, a long term financial plan. I do know, now is not the time to play games with the position of town coordinator, which seems to still be in the plan of Mr. Columbus and if you don't think so, ask him, on the record at the next selectmen meeting. Just expect the company line of that is not on the agenda or we are not discussing that tonight. Next question might be, how come, you worried about the election? Why is it so important for the coordinator to have to be changed right now, besides, according to Mr. Columbus, all contracts are void with a change of the board of selectmen. I hope this clears a few things up.
ReplyDeleteThankyou Jeff,but where in the law does mr columbus find all contracts are void? He is waaay off base.
ReplyDeleteAbout Volunteering. There are adjacent towns who use senior citizens to do work such as stuffing envelopes, filing, typing, computer work, and other duties in the town offices as needed. No pay, but, a % off their taxes. This would be a big help for those that need it as taxes continually rise. I'm sure there are many useful people out there that would be thrilled to be a part of reducing the budget and using their talents.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't go so far as to eliminate admistrative assistants in every department, but, I like Mark's idea of looking at each office to see which ones could run efficiently with fewer hours without taking a cut of 20%. Let's start with the Selectmen's office. Is there a need for three secretaries? Seems Mr. Ritter does a lot of his own secretarial work, unlike the past TC who handed everything off to "her girls". This is where the volunteer could be a big help. No out of pocket money from the town payroll, and a relatively small reduction in tax revenue. What say you?
Sue @ assessors and Eileen @ Council for aging are trying to get a senior tax work off passed at the May town meeting certain qualified senior 60 + could work off up to $500.00 off their taxes - many town around us Athol, Westminster winchendon do it call sue or eileen for more info many senior keep volunteering after they have earned there 500.00 because they like being active.
DeleteThankyou for the information. I believe this would benefit the town greatly.
DeleteWhen you look to cut personnel, you need to factor in all of the savings not just salary. Any emploee over 20 hours gets full benefits including retirement. This includes the retirement costs for selectmen and boards that select the retirement option (only available to board members that make more than 5,000 per year). Full benefits plus retirement is over 12,000 so make sure you add this to the salary savings. TColler told me the cost of all fringe bennies if elegible is around 15000.00. But don't forget unemployment benefits cost.
ReplyDeleteYeah, wouldn't we all love to have someone else footing our health ins., all benefits & retirement funds!! I have to pay all this for myself & family & on a very minimal salary. In fact, for so many of us (if we still have a job) it is getting harder to make even essential ends meet, never mind anyting extra. As far as retirement fund goes, yeah right, what is that??? Why the heck should I be paying for everyone else's on the town payroll when I can't afford that for myself? What about some of those light co. pays, bennies & retirements. Are these important jobs? Yes, but so are the rest of our jobs & we can't demand anything we want. And who decided to put themselves on pedestals? They did!! We, the people looked away too long while a certain few took that & the water dept. over as if it were their own piggy bank!! The arrogant ones are forgetting whose company that really is supposed to be. They all got greedy & thought the till was never going to be dwindling like it is but, hey reality sucks sometimes. Why should a select few have us, who are already struggling, give them the same benefits & pay they have ENJOYED for many years now when we have all had to make sacrifices & cuts in our budgets? So it's time we start making a few cuts there & also the school dept. WAY TOO MUCH money going to those depts for such a small town. We can't really afford another school right now either. As much as it would be nice it is not feasible. We are already on a steep precipice heading toward bankruptcy. One more thing & we are going to go right over the cliff. Those who are proposing all these GRANDIOSE ideas are all set. Take a look at those pays & retirements!! So, I say if you want your big expensive contaminated Municipal Bldg., state of the art elementary school, new police dept., etc. etc, then you guys pay for it yourselves with all the money we've already given you & leave the rest of us out of it!! That is my strong opinion!!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading through the Green sheets, I find many places to cut. I also find many things that were not cut. Case in point - the Boyton Library Salaries were reduced by 0%. Was this an oversite by the account? Does the library work under a different kind of contract than say the Town Treasurer or countless other town employees? Why is the person who is also responsible for the town website, the former "Let the People Speak" facebook page and the creator of now non-existant www.recallcoming.com getting a pass on this budget crisis. Also, the responsible person for the inacurate posting of the BOS mwwting which is the basis of Bob Mitchell's latest claim of a BOS open meeting law violation. And she doesn't get fired or even a pay cut like the rest of the employees? Sometinhg is wrong with that!
ReplyDeletePauly, you'll like this one - With a little more research done, it appears that her son Issac, who is on the Advisory Board is also "friends" on facebook with Daniel Kittredge, the editor of the Gardner. Who has who's ear in this town?
Kathy Matson needs her hours at the library because that is where she home schools her kids all these years - she has taken over the 2nd floor - we need someone to run on a write in for Town Moderator against Issac Matson - any takers?? how about it Rob Hubbard - David Bergeron (remember what a great job he moderating the landfill issue)
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of woman who would love to have this perk! Daycare is very expensive for the working woman. Could this be the address used for the website she gets paid for and the extra-curricular town activities she is in charge of? No disrespect to the librarian, but, how could she allow this. We have been quiet for too long about the way this town coddles some and uses others.
ReplyDeleteWell well well, the chickens coming to home to roost! Them library hours and salary gonna be cut along with everyone else. Little issac gonna get lesson in politics and his daddy/sidekick jerry ain't gonna be able to save him. Read town by-laws, no member of the advisory board can be or is suppose to be elected, appointed person or town employee, so why is he still on the personnel board? If library is being used as a school house, time to write that employee up, and spend a few dollars more, actually around five thousand dollars a year for a professionally kept town web site, no more taxpayers supporting recallcoming or any other political games. have minutes, town reports, permits...everything online and cut out costs for evryone, no more paying for records that taxpayers already pay to create anyways. The money can be found to pay for this service and take the politics out of it. Matson was/is another example of how the former regime played the game in Templeton. City of Gardner took the line item for annual reports from $2500.00 to zero by putting copy online and printing a few copies inhouse. Templeton has a nice big printer/copier that is not being used to its capacity and this needs to change. Employes who do not report to work ontime or leave early on a regular basis need to find their butts in the street. A little testy at the Templeton municiple building committee last night. ole jerry blaming Deb Dennis and the rest of the staff at the BOS office for "his" project getting derailed. He/they voted to put article on special town meeting warrant for "a sum of money" to pay for that piece of crap. A barand new building can be had for $144.00 per square foot and maybe less than that with some shopping. Time for the taxpayers to stay hot and full press, it is the only thing they understand.
ReplyDeletewell well well, the chickens come home to roost. Library hours will be cut and people who are late or doing unauthorized stuff will be gone in short order. Issac is a member of the advisory board and the personnel board, according to town by-law, no elected, appointed persons or town employee shall be a member of the advisory board. When you use town stuff to do personal business, you are doing wrong, period. When you are going against the town and most likely using the training taxpayers paid for against them, time to go. There should be a way to find funds to pay for a professional website such as virtual town hall, cost approximately $5400.00 per year. Takes politics right out of it and you don't get a resident posting timely some info and not posting other stuff. Maybe time for Templeton to cut ties with the Gardner news and look at MGL about what exactly is meant by local newspaper requirment. I believe more people in Templeton buy Telegram than the snews. Watch for the muni building article on special town meeting this May. They are asking "for a sum of money" to do X Y Z with. This is your money, tell em how to spend it....or not. seems jerry got a little testy last night at their meeting, blaming Deb Dennis and the other staff in the BOS office for the failure of "his project" How about that $989,000.00 contract for SBS, is that why Carl Weber is sticking around for so long? Keep the heat and pressure on them. Appently jerry did not turn in his papers for light and water, must be the heat in the kitchen. This blog is bringing the heat and they don't like it. So keep the fires burning, a good political bob fire beginning in May 7th.
ReplyDeleteMr. Matson serves on the Personnel Board as an Advisory Board member, so its legal and correct. I know, the bylaw is confusing because it doesn't specify exceptions.
ReplyDelete"FY'11 Personnel Board Members: Rae-Ann Trifilo (At Large), Vice Chairman; Jeffrey Bennett (Selectmen), Member; Dennis O'Brien(At Large), Member; Isaac Matson (Advisory Board), Member; The Town Coordinator, serves as an advisor to the Personnel Board.
Personnel Policy
Composition: The Personnel Board shall consist of five (5) members: Two (2) members of the Board of Selectmen to serve in an ex officio capacity, One (1) member of the Advisory Board to serve in an ex officio capacity and Two (2) citizens who are not employees of the Town under the jurisdiction of the Personnel Board and who are not appointed or elected officials of the Town."
However, It seems the info on the Personnel Board page on the website hasn't been updated in a while. Only one BOS member listed...there should be 2. Its also listed as FY11 as well as a whole lot of other info on the website listed under FY11. Also out of date: Municipal Building Committee page...it states the Town Hall is to be built behind the Highway Barn. Affordable Housing page is also way out of date. I believe someone else has already discussed that. Interestingly, there are 45 depts/committee/board pages listed on the website that have no info. Not even a list of who is on the dept/committee/board. No info for town counsel, of course. This isn't necessarily the responsibility of the webmaster. They have to be given info to post. It does show, however, which groups are on top of their clerical work and their communication with the town citizens. Go browse through them. Its insightful.
And I think it would be great to have a section that lists links to MGLs, OMLs, updates released to these laws, and forms for citizens to use if needed to report ethics and open meeting violations. Technically, the citizens should never need them, right?? If everyone behaved and acted according to the law.
Seeing that we don't have a real town hall...and probably won't for a while to come...its all the more important to have a "virtual town hall". I don't understand why there is such resistance to providing as much info as possible to Templeton citizens. And the website is the perfect, cost effective way to do it. It would cut down on FOI requests if minutes and other public info was automatically posted on the website. No arguments over the cost of printing and time etc. Right Mr. Bennett and Mr. Cosentino?
I do object to paying for web design classes for someone if that knowledge is going to be used to create websites to do harm to the town. Its unethical. I'm sure there is someone in town office that could and would probably love to take over that responsibility. Or possibly a retired senior who is tech savvy and has a lot of time on their hands to make changes quickly and could reduce their taxes. Just a thought and, of course, in my opinion only.
If we are not going to follow our own by-laws, why have them and just because the personnel policy was written that way does not make it legal and correct. Look at who wrote that policy and who was behind it and look at how things have been done in the past. Advisory board/finance committee is suppose to be independent for a reason. How do you serve on personnel board then look at finances for the town in an unbiased way. You know as in voting to reccomend a grade change for say librarians or web master to increase their pay and it is your mom, then you serve on advisory board and reccomend for that article. (that is just an example of a situation that could arise) The advisory board / finance committee are suppose to be separate for a reason. Check the mass general laws.
ReplyDeleteDid you all see the agenda for Monday - besided them trying fire Jeff R - THE ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER IS UP FOR REAPPOINTMENT ha ha that's a good one - she asked for $2000. in her salary yeh right - I would like to ask what she does - the volunteers clean and feed - I have never seen her at the shelter - the highway guys say she only is at her desk 5 to 10 minutes a week - where is all the bottle return money - she does not put (on our town website ) what cats and dogs are available for adoption - she has had the same animals for months/years if she keeps the shelter full she can say to people - I don't have room for that stray cat you found or whatever -she never returns calls - we(taxpayers) bought her a new truck a few years age to ride around in with her "friend" someone who no one seem to know who she is. Our tax dollars wasted again hmmm - Jeff Bennett wants to regionalize ACO with Gardner- good idea Jeff. Lets ask some question of our animal control person on Monday.
ReplyDeleteThe Animal Control officer obviously has zero interest in having found animals adopted. The towns website will take you to the ACO page, there you will find a link that will take you to http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/templetonanimals.html
ReplyDeletescrolling further down you will find two links one entitled "Our Adoptable Pet List" another entitled "Click here for a list of pets at this shelter", click on either link and you will be taken to a yet another site that reads "Thanks for visiting Petfinder! There are no pets that match your search criteria." So one could assume that either, there are no animals at the shelter, or that someone has not spent the time to update the infomation that should be easily found.
From all the infomation read about the ACO, this person does not deserve to be reappointed. The Town needs people that want to do the work. Not get paid to be seen driving someone around on our time, not to spend 10 minutes at their desk ignoring the website that we are paying for, not taking an active role in finding homes for the adoptable pets, not returning calls about quarratined animals and whether you need that last rabies shot.
The time for the free ride in Templeton is OVER! It is up to us, the taxpayers - their boss, to make people accountable for their work.
I think it would be appropriate to bill Mrs. Mattson for her use of a public building. I beleive it is allowed to charge her for such things as electricity and heat via some sort of rental or user fee. The calculation should be retro active back to when she started using the facility for her own private purposes. The other side of that coin for not paying rental yet being an employee of the Town, she used Town resources for personal benefit. That is a violation of the ethics code and therefore should subject her to a fine of up to $10,000. All this for dropping a dime as C. Skelton used to say.....Just my opinion as another "Stupid Taxpayer" Thanks for listening
ReplyDelete