Monday, October 20, 2014

Templeton's questionable decisions


Interesting thoughts... Who made the cuts?
How does a town pay unpaid bills from a prior year?


Templeton's questionable decisions
To the Editor: 10/16/2014

To the Editor:

Templeton’s temporary Town Administrator has made some positive changes recently, however, some things remain the same.  Case in point, is a citizen simply trying to get an answer to one financial question.

In early June Fiscal Year 2014, I attended a Waste Water Treatment Facility meeting, and learned that the sewer department owed the town $60,000 for employee benefits.  

Since the majority of our town workers were laid off at the time and not earning any income, I stopped at the town office the next morning to remind them this money was owed to the town.  

I was told the fastest way to communicate would be to email the Board of Selectmen (BOS).  At that time there was some concern that the Board of Health and Inspection Department work could not be performed because of layoffs. 

My email, dated June 3, suggested that both these departments could be back to work immediately with this $60,000.  An hour later the BOS Chairman responded that he had forwarded my email to the accountant, treasurer, and town administrator. 


A short while later, I learned that the electric and water departments also owed the town another $110,000 for employee benefits. 

For their own accounting purposes, all three utilities accounting personnel and managers had been asking the town on numerous occasions when they were going to be billed for these expenses.  Their money was just sitting there waiting for invoices from the town.  The answers they were receiving were “later,” “we don’t have time right now,” or “we’re trying to figure out how to do that,” etc.

Later in June, during a public meeting, I asked the town administrator, “Why is the town refusing to invoice the Electric, Water and Sewer Enterprise Funds for the $170,000 owed the town for their respective employee benefits ?”  

Even though the BOS chairman said he had emailed this information to the town administrator, the town administrator said he didn’t know they were not being invoiced and said he would look into that.  It is now a good three months later and we do not have any answers.

Referencing the Fiscal Year 2013 Annual Report for various town employee’s salaries and expenses per month are as followed: Board of Health Agent: $4,595; Board of Health Assistant: $1,951; Building Inspector: $2,623; Building Administrator Assistant: $1,783; Counsel on Aging Director: $1,438; Counsel on Aging: $4,520; Highway Superintendent: $4,863; Highway Department: $23,893; Mechanic: $3,678; Gasoline: $5,417; Diesel Fuel: $5,417; Assessors: $5,068; Town Clerk: $3,112; Assistant Town Clerk: $1,107; Library: $3,489; Planning Board Department Assistant: $1,500; Cemetery Superintendent: $4,560; Cemetery Assistant: $1,209; Cemetery: $7,833.  Totaling all of these salaries and expenses equals $88,056.   

Assuming that overhead benefits had been paid, this leaves $81,944  ($170,000-$88,056 = $81,944) to bring the police night shift back to work and still have plenty left over.

So, after more than two months the question still remains … why would town officials lay off a majority of Templeton’s employees, when they knew they had enough cash owed to them to cover salaries, gasoline, and diesel fuel for all of June and much, much more? 

Bernard Heaney
Templeton

7 comments:

  1. Highway supt. was not laid off now was the BOH. I also believe it would be illegal to use benefit money to pay salaries.

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  2. "Nor was the board of health" the board is elected. Too bad the Gardner news did not fact check this letter

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  3. I was told at a selectman meeting when the money was overdue that it would be billed out and recieved prior to the july 15th deadline to be on the books for 2014. After a meeting at the light and water it was clear to me we did not get the payment for the retirement or health benis from them. Their bill from the town had the sewer department listed on it. How can they pay a bill not even listed for the light dept?
    After asking again about it the answer was the figures are not correct and not itemized for clairity. The bills still remain unpaid. I suggested to bill all enterprises monthly and keep from getting into this again. The town Administrator said 4 times per year should be ok. If that didn't work out then why would it now? Monthly gives a clear picture of how we stand with what we pay out for the enterprises and how they are doing paying the town back. Any problems will only be for a
    month or two and not amount in the 1/2 million range like they do now. So one may say we borrowed to pay the bills of the enterprises and paid the interests on the backs of the town workers. Do we need new help? Can we get clear answers or are we just left to wonder what will happen next?

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    1. I understood J.D. got the bill but did not like the way it was made out, so he decided not to pay it. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. Myself, I am sick of his crying, when they have not contributed a dime to help the town take care of the people who work for it. Bev.

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  4. Where do you begin?

    Mr. Heaney is so wrong in so many ways. Whatever happened to the Gardner News policy that all letters to the editor had to include factual material?

    When TOWN MEETING voted to reduce the budgets in May, which caused many town employees to be laid off, the BOS is OBLIGATED to follow through on the votes taken at TOWN MEETING.

    The Town could have hit the lottery the day AFTER town meeting, but not have been able to use the money UNTIL TOWN MEETING APPROPRIATES IT !

    I believe BOTH the Advisory Board and the BOS were in agreement with the unfortunate cuts that had to be made.

    The situation with invoicing enterprise and Light Department has been CORRECTED.

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  5. The town collects taxes quarterly as I believe the water bills are paid in quarters. There seems to be no problems with that. Funny how light likes to say they are independent of the town except when they need them; retirement, health insurance, w-2 forms

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    1. You just may want to know who is behind the writing of this LTE, in the Gardner News. I am willing to bet it is our friends at Echo Hill have a thing or two to do with it. Just a tidbit they think that they can grab a hold of to make the people who work for the town look bad. It has been a rough time for these people to get through, but they did it. The Commissioners at the Light and Water think that they do not owe the people in this town a thing. They really do think that they own the Light Company, except like Jeff said, when they need to have their payroll and the rest of the paperwork done for them. .Like it has been said, "You can't have your cake and eat it to." One thing for sure, it will come out in the wash. Bev.

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