The
official name of what is commonly referred to as the DOR Report is:
The
DOR Report was completed and published on the DOR website in October 2009.
After repeated attempts to discuss the DOR Report at BOS meetings, it was
learned that Rep. Gobi had sent a letter to Deputy Commissioner and Director of
Municipal Affairs, Robert Nunes. Former BOS chairman, Gerald Skelton referred
to this
letter during a public BOS meeting in 2009.
Rep.
Gobi felt “compelled” to write the letter to deputy commissioner Robert Nunes
due to the following wording in the DOR report:
“ However, despite all
that has been accomplished, a schism exists among town officials, which
undermines cooperation and threatens the ability of government to continue on a
positive course.
Our concerns center
on the deep-rooted adversarial relationship between the board of selectmen
chair, his wife, who is the town coordinator, and another member of the board
who is also a light & water commissioner, and her husband, who is a sewer
commissioner. It is not our intent to pass judgment on the merits of their
respective positions on issues that separate them. In fact, we believe that
each has in the past acted in what he or she believed to be in the best
interest of the town. However, we are not certain that this is still the case.
It is clear that the animosity between the members of these two families has
risen to a personal level and the negative fallout threatens their ability to
make objective decisions.
We are also
compelled to comment on the operation of local government when the chair of the
board of selectman and the town coordinator are spouses. We understand that
their re-entry into town government seven years ago marked a turning point.
Since then, the town has successfully implemented broad-based reforms that
fundamentally changed business practices and improved operations.
Nevertheless, it is
inevitable that as town business is discussed and options are reviewed that
decisions are made solely by the selectmen chair and the town coordinator
whether they are in or outside town hall. When this occurs, other viewpoints
are not part of the decision-making process and issues are not
Town of Templeton 2 OverviewDivision
of Local Services Financial
Management Review
vetted in the full light of day. From another perspective, the
line that should separate a selectman – a chief policy maker for the town –
from the day-to-day administration of town government, is blurred.
The tensions that
exist, which show no signs of abating, are divisive. They have reached
employees and have begun to affect town hall morale. Given the broad
participation in government of these selectmen and their spouses, it is easy to
imagine that the business of the personnel board, the light & water
commission and the sewer commission are affected as well. For employees, there
is little recourse, if they have a concern or a legitimate complaint that
involves the board chair or the town coordinator, both of whom participate on
the personnel board. Overall, this is not a healthy situation.
For residents, there is good incentive to scrutinize the operation
of government and how it affects the character of the community.” [pg 2-3].
Whenever
I have made an inquiry about town affairs asking for help from Rep. Gobi, I was
told it was a “local issue” or needed a vote by the BOS before any help would
be forthcoming from the state level. In this e-mail
thread to Rep. Gobi, I mentioned an issue about Chapter 93 Acts of 2000.
Still asking those same questions today. I firmly believe the steps taken to
wrest control of the Water department from the BOS to the Light department was
done improperly. It is important to know the proper way to combine town
departments.
In
November of 2009, Article 6 of the Special
Town Meeting was proposed by the BOS to abolish the sewer commissioners. I
believe this was proposed by the BOS to gain control of the sewer enterprise
reserve funds and to create a need to increase the salary of the town
coordinator…in the same manner that Chapter 93 Acts of 2000 increased the
salary of the general manager of the TMLWP, Gerald Skelton. This
blog on Worcester County Retirement System gives more detail. The article
in the Sunday
July 8, 2012 Worcester telegram,(best opened using firefox browser) reports a final average salary for Gerald
Skelton of $102,256; yearly pension of $84,384 with a projected lifetime
benefit of $1,198,260…which was made possible by the enactment of Chapter 93 Acts
of 2000.(See Timeline
Chapter 93 Acts of 2000)
In
January of 2010, representatives from the DOR attended a BOS meeting. They
presented information on the DOR Report for the town of Templeton. The meetings
were recorded and posted to Youtube:
In
part 2 of the January 11th meeting the BOS voted to disregard the
DOR Report after the representatives of the DOR had left the meeting.
Three
years and one successful recall election later, the Templeton Board of
Selectmen finally accepted the DOR Report in November 2012. From page 3 DOR Report:
“For residents, there is good incentive to scrutinize the
operation of government and how it affects the character of the community.”
Finally, residents seem to be paying attention. Please continue to
scrutinize the operation of government!
My opinions…Supported by FACTS
! ! !
Julie Farrell
The RED FLAGS were flying!! If taxpayers gave this report second thoughts, there would have been no way to make the changes that were needed. It took a "in your face act" by GS and Co., the bullying of a tax payer, Pauly, and the recall of Bob and Julie, to flush out the truth of how the town was being run at that time. The DOR Report hit too close to home. Any changes would have undermined the way the Skelton's were doing business. Along with Bubba, there was no way that this administration was going to let this report see the light of day, never mind accepting any of it. It is sad that when people need help from government officials, too often they get the run around, or the game of pass the buck. That is what has happened to many of the complaints that have been sent to Boston, by the residents of this town. The saddest thing is the Ethics Board, it is under the control of our good buddies, K&P. I think that is called, "the fox watching the hen house". I think things have a way of working out, hopefully we will know soon. The mess that was left by our last administration may prove to turn the tide in our favor. It may be that the people with authority will take a serious look at where we are financially, and how we got there. I don't know how deep the hole is we are going to be in but there may be nothing we can do but dig our way out, and learn from our serious mistakes. I will say, I give Julie and Pete a lot of credit for standing up for what they believed in. I know it was not easy. I feel bad for the people who had faith in the Echo Hill Gang. If they do not realize how they were betrayed by now, they will under stand it soon. For all of you that read this blog, never feel that you are not important if you do not have a lot to say. The fact that you come to a meeting, tell other people what is going on, all of those things are so important. This is your town, you have to pay your taxes, just like I do. If you have a question, don't be afraid to ask. Not enough people paid attention, and the few that did stood alone. We can never let anything like this happen again. This is my opinion, Bev.
ReplyDeleteJulie, thank you for all this DOR information. Now it makes more sense. Bubba and his associates never wanted all this to come out. How many other letters and documents did CS keep from the other BOS members? Who appointed her as decision maker for the Town of Templeton? Good old Bubba. Then to top it off Bubba makes his wife Chairman of the Recall Committee. Doesn't she have a backbone to tell him "no"? Another associate. Again, thank you Julie for all this information so that we can make our own decisions on this matter. Anne Gobi should never have gotten involved.
DeleteThank you Pauly for removing that article about Depleted Uranium. This blog is no place for information like that, our youngsters are on their own when it comes to health information and military service. Let the conspiracy bunch go to Templeton Times. Thanks for keeping it local.
ReplyDeleteI bet Ann Gobi will regret writing that letter when she finds that she backed the wrong horse (pun intended). I thought the DOR report was fair. How could they not make a statement about the "culture" here in Templeton when it clearly was tainting town finances and operations to the extreme level it was when they made their interviews for the report? Its time we hold all our local state reps accountable for helping us out. We need fair and just representation in order to save our town and repair the past ten years of destruction a certain few have done to it. This is not a political grab. Templeton is very damaged and needs to be repaired and rebuilt in order for this to never happen again. Gobi needs to do some soul searching before she writes a letter like that again.
ReplyDeletefirst of all, depleted uranium and its use in military ordanace could come back around to the USA. a report just out using information from the us government shows that one cause of the gulf war syndrom where many us troops came home sick with no explanation turns out there was a cloud of sarin gas from burning/bombed munitions depot that traveled further than thought. In fact when chemical alrms went off on american bases, they were told it was false alarms. Just like agent orange in viet nam, sometimes to worst effects from war comes from our own side. There ar many risks in life, but to me, depleted uranium just added to the information highway that aids in making decisions. Remember, future health risks from military service could come back to the now Templeton youth of today. No real conspiracy, just another mark for the whats out there score card. May never affect Templeton directly and may affect Templeton in a small way but it is good information, in my opinion. As for Anne Gobi, I dug up an e-mail from her concerning at the time my written concerns about election procedures in Templeton, her response to me "I am ethically bound from becoming involved in a local issue" Guess it depends on the issue. Of course the depleted uranium article backlash could be the not in my back yard syndrome in reverse, it is not happening in my backyard right now so who cares. This blog is one of my connections to back there in Templeton for right now, so my thanks to Pauly for allowing me to have access to this place where ideas and thoughts can be exchanged. Hope my friend is doing well.
ReplyDeleteI can not under stand why anyone would be "upset" when anyone offers information for the public to read. No one says you have to read it. I was interested a while back when there was information about service men getting cancer because they spent so much time at one of the bases. Come to find out, they were getting sick from drinking the water from the faucet, and the water was polluted. Jeff, I think it was the base where the marines go for basic training. There was a discussion some place on the blog, a while back about that. The government has had to clean up a lot of the bases, God only knows what they have dumped, or just buried just to get it out of the way. These problems have found there way to Templeton. My class of 1964 has lost members to agent orange. No one warned them that they had been exposed, and that life was going to be gone in a heart beat. No one ever died from having too much information. Do you, want to depend on the government to keep your family members safe? If you do, good luck with that. This is Paulys' blog, I will respect his wishes, he can leave or delete anything he wants. Bev
DeletePeople get upset when they are confronted with new ideas; disturbing ideas. Anyone have any idea how much depleted and/or enriched uranium is "lost" in a year? It's quite astounding!
ReplyDeleteThis is the stuff that "dirty bombs" are made of . So while depleted uranium is a major issue in Bosnia, Iraq and Kuwait, it could become an issue here in the US...especially since we don't keep very good track of this stuff. Did they ever find the missing uranium that "went disappeared" in TX last fall?
Take that conspiracy stuff over to Templeton Times.
DeleteThank you Bev!
DeleteYou're right. No one ever died from having too much information. It's out there for people to read or not.
The thought police are hanging around Templeton Times, his articles on the Holocaust Revisionists and Depleted Uranium along with Paul Craig Roberts as guest author on Sandy Hook can only mean trouble. Its safe and warm right here, but thanks for the offer. I'm going back into my fetal position now.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking for myself, and in my opinion, any blog that quotes a former Grand Wizard of the KKK, David Duke, is something I don't want any part of.
ReplyDelete