Citizen Petition – Chapter 93 Acts of 2000

This is a repost of a blog that was posted a few days ago - I didn't want it to get lost in the archives because it is very very important. The Special Town Meeting is on Thursday November 15th 7:00PM at the NRMS Auditorium and the Citizens Petition asking for an investigation is Article 8.  See you there, Pauly

Pauly has tried to get an answer or an investigation into some of the activities in town for quite a while. The citizen’s petition asking for an investigation by the Attorney General has been turned into the town clerk’s office. We are waiting for the signatures to be certified. Hurricane Sandy isn’t helping out.

(Stay safe!)

One of the great concepts of town government is the citizens’ right to petition its town government. If you, as a citizen, feel something is wrong and is not being addressed by your BOS or other department, you can collect signatures of registered voters for warrant articles at town meetings and special town meetings. You, as a citizen, can even gather enough signatures to call for a special town meeting.

The citizen petition asking for an investigation by the Attorney General’s office into “wrong doings” in Templeton include:

An investigation into the activities and actions of the Templeton Board of Selectmen and the Templeton Municipal Light Department to enact Chapter 93 Acts of 2000.

Please keep in mind when this merger of light and water took place. The Light department was located at 2 School St. There were apartments on the top floor of the building. The garages out back were under construction. The water commissioners were the Board of Selectmen. I believe Harry Aldrich was the water, sewer and highway superintendent at this time. Gerald Skelton was manager of the light department. Chris Ryan was town coordinator. Glenn Eaton, Edie Kosakowsi, Tom Martin, Pat Dunlavey and Gladys Salame were members of the BOS.

There are certain rules you need to follow when you initiate a citizen’s petition.  The Office for Campaign and Political finance has a number of documents to help guide people through the process. The most informative publication is Campaign Finance Guide: Public Employees, Public Resources and Political Activity. I have to be careful as an elected official to keep my activities with Citizens4Templeton separate from my activities as a selectman. I can’t use public resources for this citizen’s petition. And I don’t. As an elected official, I don’t give up my right to participate in government as a citizen. I need to be careful and I am. I was collecting signatures for a warrant article, not an article that would go to a ballot election.

Chapter 93 Acts of 2000 was initiated by the Light department. The minutes from the September 7,1999 Light department reference a “negative letter” from Chris Ryan (Town Coordinator).  At this meeting, I believe the light department manager, Gerald Skelton (municipal employee), and the commissioners Dana Blais, and Sean Hamilton (also municipal employees) voted to have an attorney draft a legal petition for insertion in the town warrant or ballot…using municipal funds from the municipal light department. Legal invoices.

The “Citizen Petition” for Chapter 93 Acts of 2000 called for a special town meeting. You need 200 signatures from registered voters to call for a special town meeting. I believe these signatures were collected by the (municipal) employees of the (municipal) Light department. These signatures were not collected by someone or a group of citizens asking to merge light and water departments. I signed on line 231. I believe I signed it when asked by an employee.

The special town meeting was held on March 8, 2000. There were 84 people present. March 8, 2000 Special Town Meeting warrant.  The special town meeting vote was the first step in the process. Once the special legislation was enacted, there had to be a vote by ballot. The September 11, 2000 Light department minutes indicate that the vote to merge passed by a vote of 230 in favor to 83 against. The Light department paid for the ballot election. Schedule of Payments to Treasurer.

So why ask for the Attorney General to investigate the actions and activities of the BOS and the Light department to enact Chapter 93 Acts of 2000? I’ll quote from the May 2, 2000 Light Department minutes. Page 2 “ The manager [Mr. Skelton] told the Commissioners that if the merger takes place we will have some serious work to return the Water Department to a viable entity of the Town. The Commissioners agreed but felt it can be accomplished.”

It’s been over ten years since the merger of the Light and Water departments. In those ten years my water bill has increased dramatically. The managerial positions at the TMLWP have increased at substantial cost and are unsustainable (see October 30, 2000  and October 30, 2000 ). The debt burden by the department has increased dramatically as well. I guess I have a different definition of “viable”.

My opinion …supported by FACTS ! !

Julie Farrell

For more information, please review the documents on the Citizens4Templeton website – Important Documents page. There is a Timeline for Chapter 93 Acts of 2000, which has links to the Light minutes and the Water minutes.