PLEASE READ WITH JULIE'S BLOG BELOW
Clearly DOR believes that previous town accounting practices should be questioned, and we’ll need to embrace their advice if we are to move ahead with their blessing. Even here in Afghanistan, I can see the ghosts of the past leadership of Templeton raining it's head and making it harder to right the ship that is Templeton. I believe there is now a good team in place all working to fix what can be fixed and begin a new system so that moving forward, as has been suggested in the past (by those who it seems wanted to keep things hidden, in my opinion, which I have not waivered from) Templeton will now have to have a state mandated special town meeting to fix an article that was okay-ed by the vaunted K&P law firm that Wilder, Mullins and Columbus tried so hard to keep, I think I now know why. Apparently, last Mays annual town meeting votes have still not been certified which essentially means that all the votes involving money do not really count yet. That is the job of the town clerk. I do not have them in front of me but I know they exist in e-mail form, the articles that were voted on by selectmen and sent to town counsel then those articles were changed and resent to town counsel (Kopelman & Paige) and we can all recall how selectmen had an emergency meeting with advisory board to try and fix them, apparently we did not get them all. Julie Farrell was not on the select board then so there is one set of independent eyes on the board now to look and to speak on this if she so wishes. E-mails are public records so what I speak of is available for viewing by all. The temporary bring back of Carol Skelton cannot be over looked in this mess, in my opinion. As you can see from the attached e-mail, there are folks from outside Templeton who after seeing the records of Templeton, are beginning to question our past accounting practices. Time for selectmen to take a more active role in finances. There seems to be proof positive that past accounting practices are questionable at best. More and more information comes to light and Paul Cosentino sr. begins to look more credible and a whole lot less than the crazy old guy from Templeton that alot of people, from the Templeton chief of police to the former town coordinator to former selectmen and present selectmen tried to make him look like. One only needs to listen to a tape of a meeting (one I filed an open meeting complaint on and was found proper by the Attorney General) in which you can hear the former town coordinator steering the "verdict" which resulted in Pauly being banned from town buildings for a while. There is more to come and people will begin to see without a doubt why some past and present selectmen worked so hard to keep the status quo as in get rid of Jeff Ritter, bring back K&P get rid of Farrell and Mitchell and bring back carol skelton. Some people may owe Paul Cosentino sr. an apology. Remember, Templeton will have to have a state mandated special town meeting. Time for citizens to get copy of the DOR financial review of Templeton and ask why did those past members vote against it. My opinion is they did not want that door opened and we are beginning to see why. I wonder how that complaint/suit filed by carol skelton against some selectmen (the ones who voted to terminate her appointment as town coordinator) and the town is going? Time to perhaps get access to e-mail accounts of columbus and skelton along with phone records. How many calls with K&P from the home of columbus and skelton. My opinions and musings but based on factual records, past and present. Happy New Year. If you signed the recall petition, you may consider yourself part of the biggest con job since bernie of M. as you wait for the tax rate to be set.
I pray to God the DOR is required to be at the STM. Maybe if they try to to have a conversation with VW and friends, they'll know just how screwed this town is. Is this something that happens in other towns, or is this a really big oops?
ReplyDeleteTime will tell if this is a really big oops. It may be the tip of the iceberg.
ReplyDeleteI know I am committed to figuring out a way to correct past mistakes and to air all public documents in this forum. Have I made mistakes? Probably, but I don't cover them up. I hope we have enough time and resources to make the adjustments necessary to set the tax rate.
We can ill afford the cost of another STM, but it looks inevitable. I know we have a good group of people - Jeff Ritter, Fred Aponte, Dan Keeney, Sue Byrne and others who worked hard trying to pull setting the tax rate together at the last minute. Most of these people were not in office in May for the annual town meeting.
Echo Hill, Echo Hill - removing the former former town coordinator was NOT a mistake. It was necessary and the best vote I ever cast in the interest of the town of Templeton
If Bob Columbus runs for selectman again, I hope he's prepared to answer a couple of direct questions regarding these issues that have led the town to financial ruin. I would like to know why he didn't support the DOR report of 2009. I will ask this if he actually shows up to Candidate Night this time around. Its not worth running for office if you're not willing to field questions from the voters. He should probably take some good advice and stay out of town politics.
ReplyDeleteI had a problem with Mrs. S. changing the wording of articles after they were accepted at the pre. Town Meeting. It seems anything these people from the Echo Hill era have touched, has come with a lot of bad baggage, that has been dumped on our town. It seems the people who are paid, not our town folk, but the lawyers, and town accountant, should have known that what was done, was wrong, before we even did it? What is wrong with that picture? We may as well get all of the "wrongs out, for all to see", so we can get the town back on track for once and for all. I do not know how any of the E.H. Gang would dare run for anything. I am afraid once the real, true picture of how they abused the trust of all the people in this town, their chances of winning anything will be slim to none. I have always known Pauly was not a crazy old man. He works for what he has. Paul did not like it when people abused their power, and said so. Yes Jeff, There is more than one person in this town that owes him a big apology. It will all come out in the wash. My opinion, Bev.
DeleteWe should add the cost of the stm to the settlement offer we give to K+P for their part in Templeton's problem.
ReplyDeleteI would let them off cheep for say 2-3 million and call it a favor for their incompetence, to keep them out of court!
Just a opinion. Maybe more than that!
Shareholder
Dave Smart
Maybe the investigation by the attorney general will look at K+P's role in this boondoggle - botched town meeting warrant artciles as well as the 252 Baldwinville Rd boondoggle - no appraisal or building inspection before the purchase and a shoddy settlement statement.
ReplyDeleteWhat I hope is that any political support they have will vanish, once the facts come out. Every one has a limit, and as far as I can see, K&p have pushed their limit to the max. It is not like they don't know the difference between right and wrong. These are the people who the Ethics Board called when ever a complaint was made about them, or the people who they worked with. You wonder where all the complaints went? What a joke! This is a far reaching problem, that may involve more than most people understand. Time will tell. What is the old saying, "If you give these people enough rope, they may hang them selves or each other". Bev.
DeleteWhat is more interesting to me, is the letter that state rep Anne Gobi wrote to DOR chastizing them on the DOR report. Who asked a state rep to do that and since when would questioning or pointing out conflicts and corrective action for a local government be the responsibility of a state representative. Who asked and why? Especially when I contacted Anne Gobi and asked with help about possible election problems in Templeton, her response to me, "sorry, that is a local issue that I cannot get involved with" somewhere I have that e-mail response from her. My response to her was I will remember that come election time. I believe I posted something about that on this blog before. What we need is a change to town by-law to create a town administrator and transfer some additional duties to that position. Sort of a professional managememnt system. It can and does work.
ReplyDeleteJeff, I will go along with creating the town administrator. It will give more control for the every day running of the selectmen's office, to a person that is available five days a week. When decisions need to be made, I think the person in that position should be able to make them, with out rounding up four or five people. If you stop to think about what Anne Gobi said, then did, it does not make any sense. She refused to help with election problems, because it was a local issue, but it was ok for her to stick her nose into the DOR, when it involved them writing a report, to help improve the way our local government runs!! Well, This lady can't have it both ways. The next time our paths cross, I will remember to ask her about that letter. She was out of line, but I think she was set up. It smells like interference by GS & Bubba. Ms. Gobi really owes the DOR a apology, and I think the Town of Templeton does also, for the way they were treated. From what Atty.DeRensis said to me, the DOR does not have a good impression of the people in our town. That is very sad because every recommendation they suggested, should have been put into place, and we would have avoided some of the problems we have now. But as they say hind site is always 20/20. What is important is we are going forward. We may have some clean up to do, but I think most of us have learned a lot from the past ten years. We need to pay attention to the way our town is run, hands on attention!! Bev.
DeleteI believe I have a copy of the letter Rep Gobi sent to DOR on behalf of the Skeltons regarding the DOR Report. I'll post a blog about it when I find it.
ReplyDeleteIt took three years for the BOS to accept the recommendations of the DOR. It will take some time to implement them, but the recommendations will go a long way to correct the problems in our town.
Anyone read the TGN editorial about the most local important events in 2012? I think I'll write a blog about that as well.