From Jeff Bennett

this is an e-mail thread from the Templeton health agent and a member of the Board of Health when I both inquired and informed a member of the "team" about items addressed within the town personal policy. The response as you can see does not appear to be "team" oriented, rather sounds selfish and an example of an entity that snubs it nose at taxpayers and other town employees who actually lost hours and money as a result of a budget short-fall in an effort to keep as many employees from being given a pink slip as possible. Town employees who attend future meetings on budgets should remember that while you were actually giving something up, the Board of Health was giving the Health Agent a pay raise. Sounds very familiar as when the Board of Health was signing contracts with a trash company and attempting to bring a large commercial dump to Templeton. Their argument then as now, we can do this because we are the Board of Health. Well I hope the taxpayers remember this come town meeting and only fund the Board of Health agent at the very minimum and if he does not like it, he is free to leave. Templeton can always team up with another community and share a health agent and the cost and only pay a portion of what they now pay and get the same service, it is called regionalization and it works. I will continue to re-post this from time to time so people do not forget as this is one of those items of the past worth remembering. Jeff Bennett

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From: "Richard Trifilo" <rtrifilo@comcast.net>
To: jpb01468@comcast.net
Cc: "Donald Tourigny" , "estacyjr" <estacyjr@msn.com>, "Laurie Wiita" <boh@templeton1.org>
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2012 2:44:32 PM
Subject: Re: Health agent hours

No, you don't get to shut down this conversation. The BOH isn't interested in your problems with other departments. We negotiated in good faith under state law for the position of agent. You have no say in this. You are not an administrator, you are one of five select persons and individually have no power, only collectively. If the personal policy is in conflict with town by-law, then the plan has no weight and should be ignored even though it was subject to the same voting procedures. We in the BOH will have to review our rights under law. You should too. Remember, just because you believe something doesn't make it so, and the board will not accept your say so as factual. Past practice is enforceable. You are trying to conform us to an unjust and unworkable policy. You should fix the policy.

Rick T.

Sent from Rick's phone.

On Aug 10, 2012, at 2:27 PM, jpb01468@comcast.net wrote:

Team Players play by the same rules. Team players do not put themselves on some pedestal and take or expect 4 weeks vacation within their first year when every other member of the team is going by a policy that allows one week of vacation for their first year. Team players take the three personal days that all the other members of the team take. Everyone would like to have more, but the rules in place right now, no matter what you think of them are the ones we have. Team players accept the things done for the benefit of the whole, the team and the people who foot the bill, the taxpayers. I believe positive leadership was demonstrated at a personnel board recently when it was recommended against allowing a department to use grant funds to supplement a salary thus getting around the recent budget cuts as not everyone has access to such grants and special funds, it would be unfair to all the rest of the members of the team to allow this to happen. As for any blog posting or any other communication, I always reserve my right to speak up as a resident of Templeton and contrary to some points of view, it is never personal, I just take looking out for the taxpayer seriously. On the conservation agent, that is a position that is not required and taxpayers chose not to fund it, perhaps after they found out he had been paid outside of his grade for 2 years! The timing has been that many citizen began asking questions and demanding answers and they have not liked some of what they have been told or found out. I pushed for day one for the elimination of elected salary because I did not think people who volunteer should be or expect to be paid and I put in many hours per week, because I choose to. I believe I was setting the example of what is and would be required during a financially challenging time. I will continue for as long as the taxpayers allow to do what I think is in their best interest, especially for the ones who cannot or choose not to speak up for themselves.
And that is about enough on that subject from me.

Jeff Bennett

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From: "Rae-Ann Trifilo" <rtrifilo@comcast.net>
To: "Laurie Wiita" <boh@templeton1.org>
Cc: "<jpb01468@comcast.net>" <jpb01468@comcast.net>, "Donald Tourigny" <dontour50@yahoo.com>, "<estacyjr@msn.com>" <estacyjr@msn.com>
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2012 11:55:30 AM
Subject: Re: Health agent hours

Here, here!

Sent from Rae-Ann Trifilo's I Pad

On Aug 10, 2012, at 11:26 AM, "Laurie Wiita" <boh@templeton1.org> wrote:

I hear through the grapevine that you have been posting comments on the Health Dept. I invite you and whoever to meet w/ me and or the TBOH to discuss any questions that you have about what we do and our responsibilities to protect public health. We as a dept. have done more than our fair share to help in this current budget crisis. We rebid the trash contract resulting in $6k a year savings over 3 years. We petitioned the DEP to modify our monitoring requirements and have just received approval to do so at a annual savings of $10k for 15 years. We partnered w/ Gardner for our haz/mat collection at a savings of over $4k. In other words, we take our job seriously and have produced real budget results.

As to regionalization, we belong to Region 2 Emergency Preparedness Coalition which has resulted in the town receiving thousands of dollars of equipment and assistance for pandemic response. All our computers that we currently have in our office have been funded via the coalition. We have mutual aid agreements w/ 65 area towns in case of a public health emergency. We are members of the Montachusett Public Health Network which has enabled us to have access to public nursing for communicable disease f/u at a cost of $300 a year. The network is part of a grant application that will create access for health education programs for obesity, diabetes, and tobacco cessation.

We are team players. What is really needed right now in Templeton, is positive leadership. We all work for the same company. By attacking part of the team, the whole team suffers. If you think by not funding the animal inspector and the con com agent is helping the town, so be it. If you are planning to do the same for the TBOH, let us know. Creating dysfunctional gov’t hurts the townspeople long term. I am committed to positive movement and action and providing consistent, fair, and timely response to business that comes to our office. I will not participate in negative actions or movement.

Next time you go see Sue next door, please stop in so we can discuss face to face any concerns that you have concerning my dept. If you wish to discuss anything w/ the TBOH, let me know and I will put you on the agenda. I do not read the blog, and I will not respond to the blog. I will respond to anyone that comes to me, however.

I look forward to improved leadership, improved budget process, and improved team spirit in the coming fiscal year.

Sincerely,

Philip Leger R.S.

Health Director

TBOH

From: jpb01468@comcast.net [mailto:jpb01468@comcast.net]
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2012 5:36 PM
To: .
Subject: Health agent hours

Phil,
First off, I would like to address an issue or question with regards to Laurie Wiita. In a letter dated July 10, 2012, addressed to Richard Trifilo and forwarded to the select board, it states Laurie is giving her resignation and beginning a new job on July 30, 2012, which is a Monday, so I take it her last day was Friday, July 27, 2012. As of that date, Laurie was no longer an employee of the Town of Templeton. I am wondering why a pay slip for Laurie dated week ending August 3, 2012, 5 hours at $12.84 totaling $64.20, so my question is what is this for?

Second issue is the amount of hours listed for Phil under vacation, on a form with a check date of August 3, 2012, the vacation balance is listed at 200, 200 hours = 5 weeks @ 40 hour week. According to the personnel policy, an employee with 18 months time as a town employee is entitled to 2 weeks vacation, 2 weeks @ 40 hour week =80 hours. The personnel policy also clearly state that vacation time does not carry over. I believe Phil has a start date in July of 2011, if that is wrong, please advise. 200 hours would be 5 weeks vacation which is only earned after fifteen years of service. Please also be advised that personal days do not carry over and as such, the most an employee may begin the fiscal year with is 3 days (24 hours) and be also advised that personal days are not vacation days and may not be combined with holidays or vacation days. (page 25 of personnel policy).

There is also one other conflicting item within the personnel policy, on page 23 of personnel policy which says town employees get 13 days of sick leave per year and may accumulate up to 100 days. How ever, in the Templeton town by-laws, on page 12 under Sick Leave for full-time town employees, the by-law states all full-time town employees get 10 days of sick leave per year and may accumulate up to 60 days. The personnel board will be sending a letter to the board of selectmen on this issue.

regards;
Jeffrey Bennett

Chairman of the Personnel Board
Vice-Chairman, Board of Selectmen