Light
and Water Citizen Petition
Had
enough? Here’s your chance to participate to help out your town. The wording
for this citizen petition:
Citizen
Petition Light and Water
To see if the town will vote to authorize the Board of
Selectmen to seek Special Legislation as set forth below: provided, however,
that the General Court may make clerical or editorial changes of form only to
the bill, unless the Board of Selectmen approves amendments to the bill before
enactment by the General Court, and that the Board of Selectmen is hereby
authorized to approve amendments which shall be within the scope of the general
public objectives of the petition, or take any other action thereon or in
relation to.
An Act Authorizing the Board of Selectmen in
the Town of Templeton to Act as Light and Water Commissioners
Section 1. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 21 of
chapter 41 and section 56A of chapter 164 of the general laws, or of any
general or special law to the contrary, the board of selectmen of the town of
Templeton shall be authorized to act as light and water commissioners and shall
exercise all of the powers and duties of a light and water commission as set
forth in the general laws.
Section 2. Upon effective date of this act, the terms of the
incumbent members of the light and water commission of the town of Templeton
shall be terminated and the elected light and water commission abolished.
Section 3. This act shall take effect upon passage.
Signature
sheets are available at CO+S Garage or by calling 978-724-4094. This warrant
article is for the Annual Town Meeting in May 2013.
Shareholder
This town has had two town halls ever since the fraud of Chapter 93 Acts of 2000. For this town to heal and become one it might be nice to know who is driving the bus.
ReplyDeleteSign me up!
ReplyDeleteShareholder
Any body go to the meeting tonight? Any updates?
ReplyDeleteThis looks like the a similar warrant article from the Special town meeting on November 16, 2009....article 6.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.templeton1.org/warrants/2009_11_16_specialmeeting_warrant.pdf
I remember K+P were our attorneys at that time. I'm pretty sure Bob Columbus and GPS were the selectmen pushing that article through - to abolish the sewer commission.
This citizen petition does raise some interesting possibilities. If the BOS also are light and water commissioners with all of the powers and duties, maybe some changes could be made. Maybe the water and sewer bills could be sent out together as they were in the past. Maybe customers who owe on their sewer bill could have their water service shut off. Maybe all of the town business/operations could be on one website. Maybe the possibility of a DPW could become a reality. Maybe people could pay all of their utility bills through UniPay...like every other municipal light department.
This petition has potential to streamline ALL facets of municipal government AND make municipal government more transparent and accountable. Are the taxpayers and the ratepayers of Templeton ready for more accountability and transparency in their town government?
I don't understand the attraction of a DPW. What will it save? You will have a new "director", who will need to be paid more than the current highway boss. Will any positions be eliminated? If not, no savings.
DeleteSelling TML would be a change. Get the town out of the electricity business. We're paying market rates. We cannot have professional management, and we pay the price with the investments and decisions made by amateurs.
The option of a DPW should explored. When you purchase a large piece of equipment, the cost is carried by 2 or three departments. Don't think we should keep the same organizational structure....but at least it could be discussed.
DeleteWhen Light "took over" water, the highway dept. lost a number of employees to help with the plowing operations in winter. That is when the Highway Supt. started plowing when short handed.
We won't know whether a DPW would be helpful. We won't know if selling the Light department is cost effective UNTIL we can get some answers and data from the Light and Water department. I don't think that will happen with the "amateurs" in place right now. A
At least if the BOS act as Light and water commissioners, the information has a better chance to be made available so discussion can happen on these topics. Keep it same, retain separate Light and Water and you have two governments.
We could elect more responsive L&W commisioners, but for some reason we don't.
DeleteSelling TML eliminates the amateur operation, and puts it in the hands of pros. Muni Light Companies get a number of advantageous "breaks" from onerous Massachusetts regulations. In spite of such breaks, our light company does not manage to sell us electricity at a price lower than National Grid. Why is that? Without the burden of net metering, paying property taxes, supporting costly programs like Mass Save etc. We are the shareholders, and we do not benefit from the current system. Sell it, pay the same for our juice, and spend the proceeds on paying down debt.
I'm tired of supporting a renegade department (Light and Water) run by a tyrant who is not being held accountable by his Commissioners. Mr. Skelton help give us this scenario. We need leaders in this town who look out for the common guy. Sign me up!
ReplyDeleteA DPW will/would/could do several things. There would be a larger pool of employees to do alot of work as in plow snow, repair water lines. There should be a director of public works with several foremen which would eliminate a couple department heads. You would then have someone who could concentrate more on the "running of the business" rather than someone running department and doing field work. Case in point is Alan at cemetary & Parks. He does a great job but if he were able to just do the management part I believe he would have more time to look into things like grants, contract for services, compare expenses and basically all the things he does now plus he works in the field alot. One side effect of that is his family deals with Alan being "married" to the town. Same thing happens at highway. Yes there is a cost but I believe the return is worth it plus multiple departs would be under one roof so to speak. Another aspect is with all under one roof means, and this is not nice or popular but it is a fact; less administrative help required. Go from perhaps 4 down to two. From a financial point, two less people on pension and medical expense for town. A pension is for life and feel free to look into unfunded pension liability for not only Templeton but many many cities and towns in the commonwealth. With unionization on the horizon, it may be time to create a secretarial "pool", all admin help paid under a single expense account rather than separate departments maintaining their "own" admin, we could have people who could work in multiple areas with less headaches and accounting. Take Luanne Royer, she currently works at assessors office but she has worked at sewer and highway, there is a valuable employee who if she was in an admin pool, she could fill in at multiple departments for sick time, vacation etc. It is all in the details but in my opinion, to do nothing and not try new and different approaches in these economic times is foolish and an unwise approach to handling taxpayers dollars. My opinion Mark and I know you pay attention to these things which is why this blog is a good thing. Thank you for your imput, selectmen need citizens like you to keep us on our toes.
ReplyDeletewho's job are we ending in the petition for water and light issue please advise ? if we pass this petition would the selectmen continue to work at same pay rate with the added duties ? what duties are being transfer as to control of what ? in doing this will the twons people see there bill come down in fees for water and lights > ?
ReplyDeletedoes the town own the light and water yes or no
if town owns the department is it a non profit ? 501 c please advise
massvocals
The petition I have started will bring to special town meeting floor a vote to An Act to Authorize the Board of Selectmen in the Town of Templeton to Act as Light and Water Commissioners.1 Dana Blaise chairman,2 chris stewart,3Greg Edwards, these are the only Templeton "elected people" in Templeton getting paid now!The general mgr driscoll has stated he doesn't work for templeton? I guess we'll see,he could be right about that?
ReplyDeleteYes the selectmen get no pay now and would get no pay then!
Light and Water will answer to the Selectmen.As needed and monthly 1st tuesday.
I'm not sure who the twons are but as the town has found out the hard way we can not trust the people we thought we could. Things are changed now that eyes have opened up wider then ever before in Templeton. People that care have a nickname and we are called shareholders!
As far as I can see the cost of water and electric have been kept low/high as they can keep them as a tool to keep people quiet for this long. If Templeton has a budget crisis and people know the facts of it then its not proper for only 1 board to get paid. Why is the water dept paying 35,000. for rent/lease charges by light? Is it legal to charge from the departments, Documents I have say no. Templeton has a municipal Light and water plant!
Key word municipal!
It's Templeton's 100%
It keeps any extra income over the cost as a retained earnings, In other words they stockpile the extra after the pilot payment to town general fund, about 3-4 million now and not a good topic to ask about at the meetings,gee i wonder why? massvocals are ?
Shareholders opinion
Dave Smart
"Opinions" with facts are the best!
The problems in Templeton arn't the light and waters problems? I beg to differ!
Public Utility-Definition
ReplyDeleteBusiness enterprise,as a public-service corporation,performing an essential public service and regulated by the federal,state,or local government
Local government via the shareholders can change the way it is regulated thru a commission or the government ie selectmen. Time is now for the change needed!
We need your help massvocals/S.D.
Shareholder
Dave Smart