Sunday, May 20, 2012

To Taxpayer of Templeton From Jeff Bennett

To the taxpayers of Templeton, I have come into possession of an e-mail out of the office of selectmen. Kate Myers sent e-mail to Kay Doyle asking is the ATM articles had been reviewed yet, they were sent on April 12, 2012 to Kay Doyle, and yes I have that e-mail to prove it. Kay Doyle's reply was "Carol told me yesterday that she had made changes -- has that version been sent to me yet?" This e-mail is dated April 18, 2012 and carol skelton who was "appointed as interim/part-time coordinator and started on April 16, 2012 is making changes to ATM warrant articles, on who's authority? Bob Columbus. Kate Myers replied "I was not aware of any changes. I am assuming she will be the one doing these now and sending it to you." i have e-mail originating from gerald skelton (cjskelton@verizen.net - annual TM warrant - suggested for FY 13 for May 15 final cs.doc;_avg certification_.txt. Now for those of you who were present at the April 23, 2012 selectmen meeting,
you may recall I had questions about the warrant articles and the fact that an article that the BOS had previously voted off the warrant was back on and many articles had been changed and dollar amounts had been changed, Bob Columbus reply was it was probably a clerical error. yeah right, it was bob columbus and carol skelton up to their old tricks....again! Bob Columbus lied to me that evening and more importantly, columbus lied to you, the taxpayer. There will be more information coming to prove further lies from columbus to you the taxpayer. I now have several different versions of the warrant that I will be looking over. Now you can hopefully understand how and why the warrant is so messed up and town meeting is so difficult. Perhaps the gardner news will read this and put it in their next article about the excess of a three or four nigh town meeting, it is because of the actions of bob columbus and carol skelton, another reason why those two should never represent Templeton in any fashion ever again. Also, after looking over the budget to actual which shows how much money was set aside to pay a particular item and how much has actually been spent and how much remains. On May 9, 2012, it shows a balance of zero in town coordinators salary account, yet there is a pay sheet request for carol skelton for $61.95 for 1.9725 hours for period ending May 13, 2012. If the account is empty where is this money suppose to come from. The sheet is signed by chris stewart, hopefully this is an error that was over-looked. It states that is amount left in account on week ending May 13, 2012 so if true, carol had to work or show up for exactly 1.9725 hours to take every penny out of that account? Just another reason to kick that can down the road into the gutter and leave it there to rust away, quite the insult to the taxpayers.

6 comments:

  1. Looks like we have in writing proof that Carol did indeed change the warrant! What's the next step? PLEASE PRINT OR SEND THIS BLOG ENTRY AND DISTRIBUTE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!

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  2. One interesting e-mail on town coordinator is fom service@paypal, subject: you sent a payment. Has a transaction ID which should be traceable and a payment sent to Lila Noel for #431.72. payment was sent using your bank account, just what the heck is going on down there? Also e-mail from Kay Doyle sent to gerald skelton: town coordinator@templeton1.org. Hi carol - Lauren approved the following. motion to divide article concerning narragansett budget, as in Templeton share and a $224,000.00 over ride question, date for this e-mail is may 9, 2012. Another e-mail dated may 7, 2012 from con com agent david koonce to carol skelton for her to review information that the commission wants to make available to taxpayers at town meeting. little too much power for an interim part time town coordinator.

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  3. Jeff, will there be a copy of the latest line item budget online, with recommendations by the Advisory Meeting, before the meeting tonight? At the least, will this informtion be available to us at the meeting? We really need to scrutinize each line before forming a vote. Thanks for your detailed information. Very helpful.

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  4. Check, I believe there will be copies at town meeting, it is a pretty basic budget, with cuts in hours for most positions which equals savings of another hundred thousand dollars without really affecting service to town residents. A couple of tweaks on town floor then we really need to begin working on next years plan NOW! What residents have seen this year is the reason to attend and to pay attention. One thing is the information needs to get out to the people rather than be kept secret.

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    1. Thanks Jeff. At present the budget shows cuts in percentages for each line item within the departments. Will it be explained how "cuts in hours" translates into percentages? My concern with the way the previous budget read, if I am correct, department heads decided the percentages, and that would create a problem with people in the same position title, at the same grade and step level, making a different salary than those in other departments if percentages were not the same. This would have changed hourly wage and interfered with the personel policies' job classifications chart of grade and step levels, along with unfairness among the personnel.

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  5. The goal on Friday was to try to as fair and consistent as possible. But the first consideration was to preserve essential services. Will Spring did an outstanding job of analyzing and explaining the rationale behind the cuts. Not everyone was happy. I am not happy, but we have to take care of town business with our limited budget and live within our means. Do not expect the same level of services with these cuts. That won't happen.

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