Article VII
– Legal Affairs
Section 1.
The Selectmen shall be agents of the town to institute, prosecute and defend any
and all claims, actions and proceedings to which the town is a party or in which
the interests of the town are or may be involved.
Section 2.
The Selectmen may at their discretion compromise or settle any claim or suit to
which the town is a party, which does not require the payment by the town of an
amount in excess of one thousand dollars.
No settlement of a claim or suit obligating the town in an amount in
excess of one thousand dollars shall be made, except as authorized by law, without
the consent of the town meeting.
On April 9,
2012 three members of the Board of Selectmen signed an Employment Settlement Agreement and
Release of All Claims.
This employment settlement agreement was for $14,000.
A few
questions:
Who
initiated this settlement agreement? Mr. Ritter or the Board of Selectmen? Did
Mr. Ritter leave for personal reasons and ask for some money before he left?
Why would the Board of Selectmen agree to such a thing? Mr. Ritter’s contract has no provision of compensation for
leaving for personal reasons. Maybe someone can ask Mr. Ritter if he wanted to
leave Templeton?
Will this
settlement agreement come before town meeting as required by our bylaws? I
think all residents should request the BOS follow the bylaws and place this
settlement agreement on the town meeting warrant. I think it is important that ALL bylaws are followed. This
settlement agreement was for $14,000 which is higher than $1,000. Could these
actions by a majority of the current board of selectmen be an attempt to
circumvent a public vote of this settlement?
Please
attend Monday night’s BOS meeting at 6:30 in the Middle School cafeteria.
Please ask for answers to these questions. The blue
words lead to other documents.
Julie
Farrell
What an unethical act and blatant disregard of the LAW. How is this in the best interest of the taxpayers?
ReplyDeleteThis one act alone should be enough fr the ethics board and maybe even the Attorney General to be knocking with their gavels n the doors of the selectmen that signed this Illegal agreement!!!
After reading that, I have an even lower opinion of Columbus, Wilder and the Thief than I had before. And I did not think that it was possible to hold them in even lower regard. I was wrong.
DeleteI have an even lower opinion of K&P, and I will vote with my pocketbook. I'll vote against any town spending as long as K&P are town counsel.
Well Mark, it gets worse, columbus, wilder and scrap boy argued that even though the document says "settlement and claim" in the header of said document, they claim it does not fall under that. You need to ask for columbus to follow the law (good luck with that) and release the minutes for the executive session, since the reason for the executive session is over, as in firing Jeff Ritter, the minutes must be released. at the adviory board meeting, boob columbus did say that the reason for the 14 grand was to avoid litigation be cause if Ritter did not resign, he would be dismissed and a few people heard that
ReplyDeletemy personal feeling is this:
ReplyDeleteColumbus, HEAR US, No Justice No Money. The lates proposed budget shows that with a prop 21/2 override, the selectmen get a salary while all other elected official lose their salary, be it $500.00 per year or $5000.00 per year. I guess it is tuff out there when you can't steal from senior citizens while they visit a transfer station and when you get caught charging parts for your personal vehicle to the town thus avoiding sales tax, I think that is fraud. sorry boys and girls, no salary for the selectmen.
ok here's my thoughts on this - If Mr Ritter resigned, why a settlement agreement w/release of claims? Did Tammy, or Sue A, or Tom Smith get one when they resigned - don't think so! When you resign - you resign, when you are forced to go you get "settlement agreement" Where is Mr R's letter of resignation, if he resigned? Here's my other comments - the numbers refer to the numbered items in the agreement -
ReplyDelete#2 Refer all propective employer calling about Mr R to the "chair" - the guy who bullied Mr R the most.
#3 Regarding unemployment Ins. - in order for Mr R to collect automatically - "lack of work" must be checked on the Div of unemploy. "seperation of employment" form and signed under pains & penalties etc. (I've been doing payroll for over 33yrs) and who get a severance for quiting??
#4 why have this in there if Mr Ritter did indeed voluntarily resign. Why do both parties have to "announce" it. and Bubba already blew this one - he has been making comments all along, newpaper, etc.
#5 well Bubba blew this one at the advisory meeting when he said "if Jeff R did not resign he would have been dismissed."
#6 Did carol s have to return all the files and documents she kept from Mitchell Farrel and Bennett?
Read between the lines folk - this makes me sick. oh one more question why did Carol S get a check for over $6000.00 when she left? Tammy can you answer?
Observer,
DeleteJust clarify, I did not receive a severance/settlement when I resigned. I was not a contract employee which is where you will find these agreements. Mrs. Skelton was not a contract employee so there would be no severance clause. Employees are entitled to compensation for unused vacation and sick time when they leave for any reason.
As for Mrs. Skelton receiving money when she left. You are entitled to information concerning payroll under the FOIA excluding detail such as ssn and withholdings. You would contact the Treasurer for a salary printout.
Finally if Mr. Ritter was required to sign a release of claim for his "settlement" he would be entitled to apply for unemployment.
Another thought on this is I have not ever seen a contract for employment that gives a "settlement" for resigning. All contracts I have ever seen give you a "settlement" if you are dismissed. Can anyone else speak to this?
DeleteYes Ms Coller, I have never seen a contract to receive pay for resigning, in Jeff Ritters hiring contract, there was a buy out clause of 6 months pay or approximately $32,000.00. of course there was not 32 grand left in the salary account so 14 grand was the amount put forth. I have information to th effect that Ln Kopelman himself called Jeff Ritter and put pressur on him to leav or else. Jeff Ritter received 14 grand bcause as boob columbus stated at th advisory board meeting, Jeff Ritter got 14 grand to leave because if h did not leave, he would be dismissd. This is all about bringing back carol skelton to keep th lid on things in Tmpleton having to do with K&P and financial shady things. Ya know Ms. Coller, Templeton is looking for a town accountant, say 30 grand a year for one day a week (sorry but due to budget we can not offer the full 44 grand a year at this time) You are off on Wednesdays, we can talk after the election and the removal of carol skelton, as in an interview in front of the BOS.
DeleteAll that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't I go to the office and request the minutes from the executive session? Do I need to go through Columbus?
ReplyDeletefirst the minutes need to be accepted by the selectmen and vote to release. I have already informed Jeff Ritter that if he needs any job reference to call me, as a selectmen I will go to any meeting or interview with employee support letter and will give him a deserved positive job reference. Besides, after May 7, columbus should not be on the board any longer, never mind the chair. The advisory board chair issac is already in violation of town by-law by being on the personnel board, no elected, appointed person or town employee shall serve on the advisory board - town by-law, page 4, article IV, section 1, conflict of interest for issac to vote on anything skelton or columbus, issac, his mom, wilder, richard stevens, shaun grimley, jerry skelton all took part in the recall action of which this mess happened, giving CS more money would just complete the trifecta, get rid of Julie Farrell, bring back K&P, get rid of Jeff Ritter and bring back CS, okay I stand corrected, it was a quadfecta
ReplyDeletewhen is this BS going to stop and people held accountable.
Deletetown by laws are constantly broken !!
huge ethics violations !!
who do the taxpayers turn too to get results ???
did Jeff Ritter already get the 14 grand ? and if he did who do the taxpayers remote bubba for breaking a town bylaw...can we have a class action law suit against the town for all these violations??
Thanks Jeff cause as we all know it ain't a PERFECTA
ReplyDeleteto Mike C, yes Ritter has th 14 grand, you get rid of bubba in about 2 weeks at the polls, vot him out and vote Julie Farrell in. Next, dismiss carol skelton so I can personally call len kopelman and tll him his plan did not work. at town meeting, vote to disband the municiple building committee and end that fiasco. either sell 252 baldwinville road or turn it over to the police dpartment as I understand that if they (police dept.) have a building, there ar many grants to improve the building and get the stuff needed to make it functional. Build a nw elementary school at Templeton center, get the school you need and not the one some people want. a big fancy school is not about the kids, it is about the adults using the kids to get what they, the adults want. Put town offices into east templeton school until the town gets of financial good footing and plan while we are doing that. mike, not sur about who you turn to, just who you don't go to, the selectmen, at least for right now.
ReplyDeleteWell said. I agree with all your valid points & proposals!! Thank you for your service to this town, Jeff. At least we have you representing us until Julie gets back on Board!
DeleteI think all we can do is contact Steve Brewer, and ask him to get the atty. general to come to town. Steve or any and all of our government officials. K&P thinks they can do what they want, because they are powerful. Maybe they have over steped their bounds.
DeleteJeff, do we know what the terms of Carol's temporary contract are? In other words, if and when she is terminated by the Board after May 7th, would a settlement be necessary? I wouldn't think that a temporary employee would be entitled to any money, but nothing would surprise me at this point.
DeleteBev I have contacted Sen Brewer numerous times -he always says its a "town" issue and should be referred back to the selectmen - thanks for the help Stephen. Temporary employees are just that temporary no contract - question for Tammy can temporary employees get benefits?
DeleteTemporary employees only qualify for medical and dental if they work over 20 hours per week. Other than that, no temporary employee is entitled to any other benefit.
ReplyDelete