Templeton's Special Town Meeting warrant finalized

Templeton's Special Town Meeting warrant finalized

Eryn Dion
News Staff Writer


TEMPLETON— The Board of Selectmen presented the warrant for this month’s special town meeting Monday night, providing the final solutions to the town’s gaping $505,000 budget shortfall.

The board started the night with nine articles submitted to the warrant – five from the board, two from the school district, one from the Advisory Board, and one from Fire Chief Raymond LaPorte.

The five articles offered by the board included overrides for three different amounts, the option to use free cash to help close the gap, and a 5 percent cut to town department’s budgets.

However, since the books for Fiscal Year 2013 have not been closed and no free cash number has been certified by the Department of Revenue due to the delay, Interim Town Administrator Robert Markel suggested the board combine the three override options into one article and finalize the language on the town meeting floor.

“We don’t know how much revenue we need,” Mr. Markel explained. “And we don’t know how much would be available from free cash should the town decide to use free cash.”

According to Mr. Markel, the language of the article should be changed so the vote will assess “a sum of money” and the motion on the floor will specify the override’s exact amount.


Vice Chairman Kenn Robinson agreed this was the preferred course of action, as long as voters were provided with an override amount before the meeting. “It would be best to provide the figure now, but obviously we can’t do that,” he said.

“As long as we have a handout, so when people come they can have a figure in their hand, I think that will alleviate a lot of problems.”

Mr. Markel also informer the board of several new financial developments.

Deb Wagner of the Department of Revenue’s Springfield office visited the town Monday morning and, after reviewing past town meeting votes, found a considerable amount of money overlooked when calculating the $505,000 budget shortfall.

“Among other things, they discovered that we need to make some adjustments in the shortfall for the deficit that we have for FY14,” said Mr. Markel.

“To my surprise, these adjustments were in the town’s favor.”

About $127,000 can be taken off the $505,000 gap, Mr. Markel explained, as a result of debt exclusion sheets being filled out incorrectly, cherry sheet offsets, and $49,000 found in the sewer enterprise fund.

“The $127,000, when you factor in the 5 percent cuts – which are going to be in the range of about $70,000 – we’re making a big dent already in that $505,000,” said Mr. Markel.

During the meeting that morning, Ms. Weber made Mr. Markel aware of an improper vote taken during last year’s annual town meeting – a vote the DOR insisted needed to be corrected as soon as possible.

At last year’s town meeting, the town voted to transfer the retained earnings of the sewer department, about $170,000, into the town’s general fund.

According to Ms. Wagner, those numbers were not certified by the DOR until June, so voting on those funds at the town meeting in May was unacceptable.

Ms. Wagner suggested holding another vote to transfer the money at the upcoming special town meeting; however, the warrant had closed before Mr. Markel could submit an article.

Left with little choice, Mr. Markel asked the board for a vote to re-open the warrant Monday night and close it Tuesday, giving him enough time to submit a new article.

“Given that it’s passed deadline and the DOR is very insistent about correct procedure, I think we need to do it this way,” said Mr. Markel. “I suggested we put it off until the annual town meeting and she (Ms. Wagner) said no.”

There was some concern among board members that they would be breaking their own by-laws which state that once a warrant is opened it must remain opened for two weeks, but after a 4-1 vote, they decided the action was necessary.

An article was also brought forward to drain the $108,000 available in the town’s stabilization fund, a move that will require a two-thirds vote on the town meeting floor.

Although the language is not finalized, the final warrant will still have nine articles – an override, 5 percent budget cuts, the use of free cash, draining the funds in the stabilization account, the sewer retention fund re-vote, the combination of the Treasurer and Tax Collector positions into a Treasurer Collector, a vote for a new biomass boiler system to be installed in Narragansett Regional Middle and High School, a $500,000 debt exclusion for the schematic and design phase of the Templeton Elementary School Building Project, and the purchase of a new ambulance by the Fire Department.

The board will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Planning Board offices to vote on stabilization and sewer fund articles and also approve and post the warrant for the meeting to be held on March 29. ( In the Middle School Auditorium)