Templeton's Budget Process, Advisory Board Up for Review

Templeton's Budget Process, Advisory Board Up for Review

Eryn Dion
News Staff Writer
TEMPLETON — Templeton residents will have a chance to vote on both the town’s budget process and changes to the Advisory Board during Saturday’s Town Meeting, which will feature 30 articles and 12 citizens’ petitions.

Article 20 calls for specific changes to the “Advisory Committee” section of the town’s bylaws. If it passes on Town Meeting floor, budgetary responsibilities would be given to the Town Administrator and the Board of Selectmen, as opposed to the Advisory Board.

The change falls in line with the job description for the new Town Administrator position, created after former Town Coordinator Jeffery Ritter resigned in January.

According to the current Finance Committee Handbook, it is the Board of Selectmen’s responsibility to prepare requests and assemble a budget for presentation. The Finance Committee or Advisory Board then does their own research, reviewing and analyzing data provided by the board before offering their own recommendations.

Select board Chairman Kenn Robinson has said previously that this process has not been followed and that the board has not put together a budget for two years, opting instead to place the full burden on the Advisory Board.

Other members agreed changes to the budget process were necessary.

“By having the Advisory Board prepare the annual budget you lose the oversight and review resulting in errors in the process as has occurred in the past two years,” explained Vice Chairman John Columbus.

“The whole budget process needs to be revamped,” member Diane Haley Brooks commented.

The Advisory Board’s budget recommendations for Fiscal Year 2015 presented last month initially did not contain input from the Board of Selectmen, who noted the meeting was the first time they, as a board, saw those numbers.

Mr. Columbus also submitted a citizens’ petition to the Town Meeting Warrant for the restructuring of the Advisory Board, limiting membership and appointments while further defining their role in the town’s operations.

The petition’s first section would reduce board membership from seven seats down to five. Mr. Columbus explained that, with fewer members, it would be easier for the board to reach a quorum and conduct business.

The second section calls for the Town Moderator to, within 30 days of the article’s passing, appoint new members to the Advisory Board for varying terms, with the third section detailing how vacancies on the board should be filled.

“Currently, the board may fill any vacancies which occur,” said Mr. Columbus.

“This section would have the Town Moderator appoint all members and requires that vacancies be posted on the town website for 14 days prior to appointment.”

The Advisory Board unanimously did not recommend the town pass this article, stating that it appeared to “wipe all existing members clean” regardless of whether their terms were expiring.

Other notable articles on the warrant included a Payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with tenK Energy for a 3 MW solar farm, amounting to $16,902 per year for 20 years; $195,000 to be appropriated from the Community Preservation accounts for the preservation and restoration of East Templeton Elementary School; and $3,000 to be appropriated for the relocation of the town offices.

This year’s Annual Town Meeting will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Narragansett Regional Middle School auditorium.

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Note -

I will be offering a substitute motion for Article 20 to read as follows:

Substitute Motion

Article 20  CHANGE TO THE TOWN BUDGET PROCESS

To see if the Town will vote to amend Article III “Town Officers” by adding Section 4 to the Town By-Laws to read:

“It shall be duty of the Town Administrator in conjunction with the BOS to consider expenditures and develop a budget for the ensuing fiscal year of the several boards, officers and committees of the town, as prepared by them in such form and detail as prescribed by the Town Administrator.”; or take any other action relative thereto.

Julie Farrell

I submitted the article as a selectman. After discussion with different Advisory Board members, I realized Bylaw Article III "Town Officers" is a more appropriate place for article.