Follow up on Public Records request


Back on December 29, 2014, I made a request for the financial records concerning the feasibility study for an elementary school. The Town responded with an estimate of time and dollar cost for these records. Approximately 3 hours for approximately 30 pages; 30 pages of computer printout at .50 cents per page ($15.00) and 3 hours at $26.34 per hour, the wage of the lowest paid employee capable of doing the work for a total of $94.02 and I paid it. the response from the Town also included the actual cost of the records may vary once the custodian begins preparing the records, so an additional fee may be required. On January 20, 2015 at 5:39 Pm, I received an email from holly Young of the BOS office informing me the records I requested were prepared and available to be picked up. There was no mention of any additional fee request.


I picked them up today, 5 pages (estimated 30 apparently did not materialize or the estimate was way off) Included in a letter of receipt, signed and dated by me, is included a paragraph that the enclosed records were obtained by Town accountant in a 10 hour time frame at a cost of $32.00 per hour. The total cost listed is now $320.00. It further states, as you can see, the estimate in my letter dated January 7, 2015 (the letter mailed to me is dated January 7, 2014) the amount you paid is $94.02, a difference of $225.98. I state the actual time and cost to the Town for you to receive this information only to inform you that the Town is open about it's finance and always doing its best to keep residents informed. So why not have all the financial records on the Town's website for all to see how their money was spent? 


The next couple of paragraphs state that to get the "what they were spent on" part of my request included amounts spent and what they were spent on, such as 4/29/2010, $765.00 on Kopelman & Paige, what did Kopelman & Paige do for that $765.00? The Town now tells me I can have that part for $645.00. I have requested to be on the agenda for the next BOS meeting and will most likely have a public records request for the "what they were spent on" part along with a check. I am going to do my best to see the taxpayers get the information they should have prior to any more votes on the school project without having to pay to see how their money was spent. Hopefully, the BOS will see the error of their way and provide the information I asked for and paid for in my original request. I asked for information and they told me how much and I paid it.


This is a Town project because Phillipston chose not to participate and Templeton alone is responsible for all costs. The law states that these records are to be available for anyone to view during normal business hours.


For your pleasure, the records I did receive state a total of $573,253.64 has been spent. Pretty good since only $550,000.00 was voted and this is the dollar figure I asked about.


FY10     $       74,386.74


FY11     $     108,535.96


FY12     $       56,315.85


FY13     $       30,158.77


FY14     $       21,272.45


FY15     $     282,583.87


Total      $     573,252.64


Money was moved between Century Bank, Eastern Bank and Greenfield Cooperative Bank.
Fy2011, interest was paid to Eastern Bank in the amount of $6,325.00, FY2012, interest paid to Greenfield Coop was $4,851.00, FY2013, interest paid to Century Bank was $899.07, FY2014, interest paid to Greenfield Coop was $1,633.00, FY2015, interest paid to Eastern Bank was $1,174.00, I think that equals $14,882.07 but my pencil could be off so check my math please.


There will be more on this to follow and there certainly is a number of questions to be answered and I hope it is the policy of this BOS to pull the curtains back and explain the financials and soon, that is the one thing the selectmen should be in a hurry to do as the taxpayers have a right to know where their money went!  The one part of this that makes me smile is at least this time, I did not receive a letter from a law firm informing me I can not have the information.


Jeff Bennett