Templeton Burning: Listen to the People

While the Town of Templeton is not literally on fire, politically it is, and in my opinion it is the direct result of the recall people. Interestingly, the recallcoming.com website seems to have disappeared. My opinion is there will be a new recall site coming soon as I indicated to Wilder and Mullins that I intend to begin that process on them in August as soon as 6 months is reached. That is another story for another time though. Templeton is on fire politically because in my opinion, the people do not feel they have gotten what was advertised and sold to them. The old saying of buyer beware comes to mind. I believe the first mistake made by let the people speak, inc. was the bringing back to Kopelman & Paige. Now the next thing in their sights appears to be the new town coordinator.
If one sells change as a platform and then you throw it in reverse to fast, something bad is going to happen. In the case of Templeton, something good has actually happened, the sleeping giant that is the voters/taxpayers have awoken from their long hibernation and they have come from their dens in search of food. The top menu item now seems to be politicians, specifically selectmen. Personally, I am happy with the large turnouts, with people numbering closer to 80 rather than the 35 - 40 number referred to in TGN on Wednesday, March 14, 2012 in an Op-Ed column. The first turn out at 690 Patriots Road had at least 50 people inside the conference room at Patriots Road with another 37 people in the hallway. The next meeting had a similar turnout, which I ended up leaving because people were being denied entry into the meeting because of space or lack there of. One can watch the DVD of the second part of that meeting, which was held and one can see a police officer standing in the doorway, seemly blocking entrance into the meeting room. Can you say open meeting law violation? I can and I am filing several against the board, which I am a member of. I do not fault the people for their behavior at these meetings, they have for too long been denied access, answers and sometimes participation at their own meetings. The people elect us, pay for the meeting space and then told they can't attend because there is no room and "we" have important business to do. Last I checked, from the mayor of Gardner to a little ole selectman such as myself still get elected by and work for the people. The people may not always know or understand the process for which they are opining on, but when they purchase a ticket to the show and they pay for the building in which the show is being held, in my opinion, you the people, can opine anyway you like on the movie. We do not have to like it, but we have an obligation to listen and to sometimes to bend to your wishes. At some point in time, the people will have to trust their elected officials to do right by them. Right now, I am not sure which would be harder to do, ask the people to trust us or for the people to actually trust us. It looks like they are verifying and not trusting us at all, which is a slight play on the President Reagan statement of "trust, but verify" and perhaps that is a good thing.

One thing I find curious is the attitude of Ms Wilder. People are not being rude when they ask questions and demand answers. I consider it rude to continue to talk about a 35 - 40 million dollar school when the people have already told you you through their votes that they are not ready for a school with that price tag. What you consider rudeness is actually the superintendent and the rest of us not listening to the people. It does no good to let the people speak if in the end you are not going to listen to them. You and Mr. Mullins along with Bob Columbus and the whole recallcoming.com / let the people speak crowd carried on about the people being denied the right to speak, now you complain about them actually speaking. I think the problem may be that it is you who are being rude in that you may not be hearing what the people are saying because you are not listening to them. When you say you want change and you opined on face-book that the town needs to move forward and stop looking backwards and leave the personal agendas at the door, you need to follow through with those premises, in my opinion. I did not need any police escort from any meetings. I hear the people and what has transpired so far is not what they voted for in February. That may become apparent at the May 2012 elections in Templeton. People are not there to threaten, harass or disrupt, they are there because they have finally figured out they were hoodwinked and they are not happy. There is no more planned beforehand meetings being carried out in front of perhaps 6 to 8 people. The people are going for broke because there seems to be nothing really left to lose. In my opinion, the political savvy thing that should have been done was to let town counsel alone until June 30 then change back to K&P, let the town coordinator keep his contractual position for the year and then make that change. Regionalize positions such as building department to include electrical, plumbing and gas inspection services along with animal control, abolish affordable housing coordinator, conservation agent and town planner, cut all elected salaries to include the moderator stipend and all chairmanship pay which would have at least looked like you were serious about getting the town finances in order. The people would have sat back and watched, decided maybe these recall people are serious about our town. They eventually would have retreated back into the cave of everyday life, then the political cronies could have went back to their dastardly deeds with the people all tucked back into their caves. All would be nice for the political wrecking crew known as let the people speak. Alas, the three amigos and their backers could not even run a good scrap-it operation so how could we expect them to pull off a good covert political takeover. I also do not consider it rude to ask how we could vote for a $550,000.00 feasibility study only to find out there is a legal contract in place in excess of $900,000.00. When did the people vote to appropriate that amount? There may be a simple explanation on how there is a contract for that amount, signed by Gerald Skelton, on file in the BOS office at 690 Patriots Road. Perhaps if you listened to the people for a minute Virginia, you could answer that question for them. Please remember, there are about 5,000 registered voters in Templeton now and there may have been close to 1,000 of them that signed recall petitions, there are 4,000 voters who did not sign them. For informational purposes only, we may be able to go through the state architectural revue board for help with using East Templeton School. We only need to move offices from JBM into that building to get out of the rent situation at JBM and there really is plenty of parking area in back of the school building, way more than is available than at JBM. I will be measuring the class room sizes to compare to the area of the meeting room currently available at JBM which is just at 20 feet by 20 feet. Thank you to all the people who attend selectmen meetings and please keep it up, I really enjoy having you all there. I appreciate the opportunity to serve you and feel free to contact me anytime as I do not consider it trespassing if a resident comes to visit. Since I do not have a physical office, I consider it a privilege to have people think enough of me to take time out of their day to stop and ask questions or to just chat. I consider that to be public service, as in when elected by the people, listen and act for them, all of them. If it ever gets to the point that I feel it bothersome for a constituent to contact me, perhaps it is time to find another job. Thank you for your support and allowing me to serve you. Feel free to contact me at 978-360-4634



Jeffrey Bennett

77 Partridgeville Road

Templeton, MA



978-360-4634