Sunday, March 25, 2012

May 7 election, budget and recall August 6, 2012


With the May 7 town election fast approaching, (not fast enough) there will probably be a significant change on the board of selectmen. Depending on how Mr. Stewart decides to govern will determine Templeton politics until after the recall of Wilder and Mullins. May 7 will be an important election and likely make a statement on how happy the voters and taxpayers are with the recall crowd. Politics is much the same as town meeting. People say and do many things, but when in the voting booth and nobody is watching, (we hope) my opinion is people can do as they wish without any pressure from the masses. Take town meeting for instance, an override passes by a good amount, say more than 2/3, by hand-count. Then the question goes to ballot and it fails. There, in the voting booth, there is no pressure from neighbors or friends to question you on how could you be against a school or raises for your fellow workers.
To me that is the best part of our system, you get to make a decision based on how you really feel with no pressure or feeling of being chastised by going against an otherwise popular issue. A large turnout with a big numbers for Julie Farrell will send a loud message on at least two fronts, we are not happy with bob columbus and the recall crowd, which would also be a not so good message to mullins and wilder. May 7 will be head to head, columbus vs. Farrell, recallcoming vs recountcoming, the old guard go backwards vs moving forward and make progress. There are two possibilities that could also arise, and one is still in the mix although not spoken of in "the public domain" much, it is popular on the blog and that is support skeltons or not and that whole conversation, which considering the apparent soon to be actions by board of selectmen will just not go away and that could turn voters off. The other possibility is for a write-in candidate to emerge to split the vote between three rather than two. Ah the fun of politics, what a country! There is HOPE and that is a concept that will arise soon enough, very soon.
The budget is a story in it self, with many side shows and possibilities. One thing that will be happening is that the narragansett regional districts new chief operating officer, Ruth Miller and some members of the towns head honchos will be coming to Mondays selectmen meeting to approach Templeton taxpayers with a united question concerning a $500,000.00 override question. A hard question to ask, particularly now. The premise is this override would do two things, it would help fund the school district, and I had a very good conversation with Ms. Miller on Friday and I can tell you she has a very very different outlook and attitude on things, which in my opinion is a good thing. Ms Miller informed me she is originally from New Hampshire so she does not have the holier than thou attitude with her, she knows and understands Templeton's situation. Considering that Ms. Miller has already cut $200,000.00 from NRHS budget by simply eliminating two positions, one of psychologist and her former position of assistant superintendent. I told her I did not understand the big issue with making her superintendent because if the school committee did not feel she was qualified to be superintendent, why did they hire her to be assistant super? I mean if you are put in place to be second in command, you should be able and ready to take over, otherwise you have no business being in that position. I also told her that the school committee could go a long way in showing they care by voting to abolish their salary. Their salary request for FY 2013 was at $4,037.00 and within the entire budget of NRHS, it is a small amount, but it is still 4 grand and a tidy sum of money, especially to alot of tight yankees. In my opinion, it would be a statement of "we understand and are concerned with budget issues" kind of thing. A symbolic gesture to taxpayers that we, the school committee, will do our share to stand united with the rest boards and departments of the town to cut where we can. So the question is, can the taxpayers be convinced and trust that the $500,000.00 override is needed and will be put to good use. The premise is that rather than the amount that is on the tax rate now for the senior center override will essentially stay in place rather than disappearing at June 30, 2012. Probably since 2006, a great disservice has been done to the Templeton taxpayers, that is the expense side of the equation was not addressed. You might have heard in the past, "we balanced the budget with no tax increase or loss of town jobs" Sounds great, except expenses of the taxpayers were going up, especially health insurance, retirement costs and schools expense, a good chunk which is a result of union requirements, which is a whole discussion on it self. In my opinion, rather than deal with the increase costs by going to taxpayers and inform them of the increases and what is required to maintain a balance between income and expense and to ask for small tax increases to keep the gap between expense and income at least even or as small as possible, it appears nothing was done, almost a deliberate effort to let the town sink. A place where we are just about at now, we are staring down at the bottom of the cliff or looking at the big wave that is about to sink us. So we are at a point where we have to swallow a big pill of reality and realize that digging out of this hole is going to cost us. Unless we win the lottery, we cannot cut our way out of this hole, well unless we lay off half the town workers and keep the bare minimum of employees to keep the town running and the money coming in, and even that may not do it. That is a road that probably should be looked at, in my opinion. Case in point, the genius move by team columbus, mullins and wilder. According to the budget vs. actual report, there is actually $19,727.50 left in the budgeted amount of $73,000.00 for legal. With the just arrived bill for $5,097.55, after next weeks warrant is paid, there will be $14,629.95 left, by my math. At the rate at which team columbus is spending legal money, there will be none left to spend, never mind to carry over to cover say the repucci vs. sewer lawsuit. Another fine mess bob has gotten taxpayers into.
The next thing coming will be the process to try to recall mullins and wilder. With taxpayers seemly feeling they were lied to and deceived by many including those two, I do not see the anger of taxpayers subsiding anytime soon. I don't think anyone saw the anger of the taxpayers coming, especially the recallcoming crowd, and it looks like it is here to stay, at least for now. They may feel another purge is needed before settling down and in my opinion, it would be deserved as well as an action earned by those two who ran on let the people speak. Now it seems them two don't want to hear them, let alone let em talk and they sure as hell don't seem to be listening. Hopefully on Monday nights selectmen meeting, they will see the numbers increasing for people showing up and realize the tsunami they started is not going to be receding anytime soon. Templeton taxpayers need to keep the heat on and thank you for your support.

7 comments:

  1. What is the Repucci vs sewer lawsuit? What was the total cost to the town for the recall of Mitchell and Farrell and what was the cost to the town for the recount?

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    1. Repucci vs. Templeton sewer basically represents anindividual or individuals who seem to feel the $12,000.00 per sewer hookup is to large of a fee and they claim a study done at the behest of the sewer commission stated that the sewer hookup fee should fall in the $4,000.00 range. You can contact the Templeton sewer dept. and they may give you some information. The cost for the recall election for Farrell and Mitchell is available at the Templeton town clerks office, I will find out what the cost was and post it here asap. For the recount, taxpayers were charged $1,518.00 by K&P for them to have an attorney present. There is the additional cost of the recount itself such as poll workers, waardens and board of registras. Remember, according to Len Kopelman, town counsel works for the majority of the appointing authority as in the board of selectmen majority, columbus, wilder and mullins. One thing or question in my mind is since Kopelman and Paige represents Winchendon where Mr. Mullins resigned his position shortyly after being elected to Templeton board of selectmen and rumor has it he may have been asked to resign for some problems with his employment there. That is only a rumor or question for myself. If that was the case, would Mr. Mullins be in conflict for voting to bring K&P back to Templeton, an apparent lucrative littlle town, $5,097.00 for about 12 days of representing Templeton. Lisa Mead let go on February 6, 2012 and the first item bill date on the first bill from K&P is listed at February 21, 2012 and bill close date is February 29, 2012. Hope this information helps you out.

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    2. something else to consider, according to the regulations of the Worcester Regional Retirement System, any elected official earning less than $5,000.00 per year is NOT eleigible to be in the system, so by eliminating elected salaries, taxpayers will not only be cutting the budget by that amount, they will also cut the amount needed to be payed into the system. In these times, every little bit that you can cut is helpful. We do need to spend a certain amount to ensure the town is running but we should not have positions we do not need just to say we have them. It is not the taxpayers responsibility to employ people just so someone can say that we have x number of people employed. Just like saying a balanced budget with no tax increase and no layoffs is not always a good thing, especially if you use your free cash (savings) to do that or use stabilization to fund a retirement system and then brag no tax increase or layoffs, that is an irresponsible move in my opinion. In my mind, the responsible thing to do is make the financial situation very public, very early and have the conversation with the taxpayers, we may need to pay a little bit more to keep this ship know as Templeton running. Otherwise you get where we are today with a big gap that requires desparate measures. A bitter pill to swallow at a particularly bad time, but my parents and grandparents did it along with many others in the depression and so can Templeton. All that is required is the will to work together and just do it. We hang together or we sink one by one. Thank you for your support

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  2. Dissent is the highest form of patriotism-Thomas Jefferson (Silence is consent)

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  3. The override will be a hard sell considering "Team Columbus" is driving the legal budget into the red. That money in legal was supposed to last until June 30th. At this rate, the legal line item will be in the red by April 30th.

    How do you sell the voters on an override while trying to fire the current town coordinator and inviting yet another lawsuit on the town? If "Team Columbus" had kept Lisa Mead, the cost of the recount would have been included in the monthly flat fee, correct? Is there a contract with K&P?

    I think the town does need an override to address the budget shortfall, but good luck getting one passed if "Team Columbus" fires Jeff Ritter as town coordinator.

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  4. There is no contract with Kopelman & Paige, they can in theory charge Templeton what ever hourly rate they wish (they = K&P) The first bill shows one hour at $165.00 but nothing in writing prevents a rate increase. Lisa Mead had a contract spelling out just what the rates were and what they covered. A smart thing done by that previous pesky board majority of Farrell, Mitchell and Bennett. Maybe columbus wants to bankrupt the town, he is being very iresponsible with taxpayer monies. Tough to look out for taxpayers money when you are on personal agenda to look out for friends rather than your employers, ie taxpayers. Just another reason to cut the legal budget down to say $45,000.00 - $40,000.00, Len Kopelman did say he would come under budget to make Julie Farrell look good, per email link on a blog posting back on Monday, Feb 13, 2012, what leonard kopelman will do for you. columbus should read that and ask len to stop charging for all these phone calls. Either Len Kopelman was trying to bribe Julie Farrell to keep K&P in Templeton for low legal bills or Len agreed to come back to Templeton for large monthly legal bills. That is my opinion of what it looks like at face value. $181.50 for telephone conference with select board chair for process of selecting new treasurer, analyze open meeting law issues, seems bob columbus is following old town coordinator procedure, no decision without talking to lawyers and wasting taxpayer monies. Mr. Columbus should learn to read and call division of open government. Maybe he should have consulted the new town coordinator, oops columbus spent money on lawyer to write up motion for entry into executive session, executive session agenda and letter to inform coordinator of his rights involving being told by columbus, I want to fire you, can I get a motion? wilder makes motion and surprise surprise, mullins seconds it. Here I thought columbus and company did not like personal agendas. Might have to start a 120 club to pay bills at this rate.

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    1. My husband says " We get the government we deserve.".(like the one we got as a resault of the recall)and my best friend always says"government is run by those who show up" ...So it behoves us to show up, not just tomorrow night, but any time a meeting is held - especially now, we know you can not trust the majority of the board to do the right thing for the residents of our town. Sad but true, Look on the bright side, At least we have the right to stand up for what we believe.

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