It has now been two and one half MONTHS since the Attorney General of the State of New Hampshire, demanded openness, transparency, and accountability from our Elderly Affairs program, and our donation accounts.
And what has our board of selectmen done?.... NOTHING!
Well, that's not quite true, after many letters back and forth to clarify, and many letter from the chief stating his case(as if it were his money) they rolled over $6,500 to the chief's new slush fund, and placed the rest with the trustees of the trust funds, but they have done nothing about separating the depts. and making everything open and accountable.
Now you are probably saying that the chief has claimed for years that everything about elderly affairs was "an open book", but surely now you can see that is not true, when even the AGO says it needs to be open and accountable.
So, why is this so hard? Why is anything that involves the chief hard for the selectmen to do?
Is it because he got two out of three of them elected? Is it because he is a bully, and they fear reprisal? Who knows, This blog believes it is because they lack the testicular fortitude to settle this and do the right thing.
One could understand if this were the first such issue, but there was the falsification of time cards for over six years that the chief admitted to falsifying, and the BOS did nothing! There are the endless complaints from residents, and they have done nothing! There are the endless legal fees this Bozo has coat the town and they do nothing! There are the false budget submissions for years, where he purposely understates the cost of elderly affairs, while siphoning that extra money from police, and they do nothing!
When will Atkinson's board of selectmen start doing the job we hired them to do, and start making tough decisions, and supervising their employees?
Remember, While This BLog thinks elderly affairs is a great program, and should continue, it MUST be moved out of the PD! It is a taxpayer funded program, and the taxpayers are entitled to know where our money goes, and how it is spent.
That is all we have ever asked, and now we are demanding it! Listen well selectmen, or we will have to vote you out!
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30 comments:
Something that is so easy, has become a nightmare. Should of been done, signed and delivered. But no, lets skip around the topic, lets not get the chief mad. He will be a raging lunatic if he gets upset.
You may be focusing too much on the elderly affairs issue here; here's what I believe the bigger issue is.
We have our own local set of rogue special interests running this town, to the detriment of the vast majority of the town's people.
Who are these special interests? Consentino, Lewis Homes/Hampstead Water, and the Yuppies (Sapia, Friel) and townIes that stand by and watch it happen (Childs, Teddy Stewart). Everyone wants to love Teddy, but he's always been a shill for builders in town, because he owns a construction related company and he needs to be called out on it.
A petition is fine, but let's start thinking in bigger terms; Consentino isn't the only bad guy here. There's a small group of people that personally profit off their influence in town, and it's time to stop it.
As an example, is there any chance someone could get the zoning board video from the last meeting (showing Harold Morse of Lewis Homes intimidating chairman Frank Polito as if Morse was a bad guy character from an old western who owned the town), this would really prove my point.
Can someone post the time the video will be replayed? Very helpfull it would be to get it to the internet.
What is the point of having an employee discipline policy if the selectmen are too afraid of the employees to use it?
I might not be understanding of all or any of the processes to get things right but where does the conflict of interest /ethics committee come into this ? Why have one if it isn't going to function . Does it need someone who isn't afraid to come forward to act on the numerous complaints?
What do all of these presidential political posts have to do with the article you people are commenting to?
What does McCain or Obama have to do with Atkinson's Selectmen?
And to answer the previous questioners point about the Conflict of Interest Committee, I have found them to be largely useless.
I asked them if the chief could vote on police matters as a selectman, they said "no conflict" and " It's not as if he is pocketing the money"
When he submitted a voucher to pay himself a $1,300 "union benefit", even though the union contract specifically excludes him, they said "no conflict"
All this in the face of numerous Court Orders, and written legal opinions from NHMA.
Chairman Dick Smith even told me, in a meeting, "we only listen to legal opinions that confirm the way we are already leaning."
Hey Mark;
You asked what Obama and the presidential race have to do with the Atkinson selectmen.
I think that's the point that someone is trying to make here.
AT has another seperate website where he can do all the paranoid, neo-racist rantings he wishes.
What we are asking is that he keep it off the board dealing with Atkinson issues. Is it really so complicated to understand?
This Blog is for the free exchange of ideas and observations on things happening in, and affecting Atkinson.
This is an election year, and to give a little break from the in town events and corruption, discussions of Presidential events have been allowed.
This is not reflective of the policies of this board, and you are free to comment or not, as you see fit.
I hope you wont take this as butting in or telling you how to do stuff, just thought you might find it of interest:
Most of the traffic lately on SpeakoutDanville has been about the presidential race and national issues, as opposed to our bread and butter content of town and school information and issues.
Our bulletin board format gives us the advantage of being able to separate everything out by topic, so you can read and participate or not, as you wish.
We added these sections because people indicated they would like to discuss this stuff on SoD. We recently added a section called "Off Topic" for people to spout about anything that didn't fit one of our existing categories.
I tend to think you would have more interesting and challenging discussions if you went to a web site that was set up for discussions of national issues or candidates. But some people would prefer to discuss these things with people from their own town.
Of our four sponsors, two are completely partisan, one for McCain and the other for Obama. The third has said that McCain ticked him off personally the couple of times he met him, although I think he will vote for him in the end. The fourth has been non-committal but I suspect he will vote for Obama.
Freedom of free speech!
You take it away here and you are as bad as Jack was!
I guess in a Socialist world we won't have an option.
The Comments have been moved to the newly formed Atkinson Reporter Presidential Blog.
Article submission:
From NH Insider, posted by Ed Naile.
Fat Of Head And Flat Of Foot
Let’s do some quick math – municipal style.
The Atkinson Town Budget has a line item appropriation of $19,000 for Elderly Affairs.
This money pays for the jazzed up cruiser Police Chief Consentino uses to shuttle little old ladies to doctors appointments. This project helps this incompetent, thick-headed, bully in uniform buy grateful votes for Atkinson Town Meetings. Call it a taxpayer funded get-out-the-vote scam.
Up until this year Consentino was getting donations from some of the little old ladies and putting them in the Elderly Affairs account where he had control of the money. Then, along comes the NH AG’s Office and points out to Atkinson the fact that under state law the Trustees of the Trust Fund control these types of donations.
What does Consentino do? He creates his own non-profit 501c-3 to collect gifts. Now nobody is going to tell the bully what to do! He has his own personal slush fund.
But does he?
Last year, Chief Consentino claimed to have made 1,644 trips with his Town Elderly Affairs money. This is the $19,000 voters raise each year as part of the police budget.
Now is when we ask, how is that financially possible?
It isn’t.
The Chief is obviously using much more Atkinson Police Department money to accomplish his goal of dominating Atkinson politics with his legion of Elderly Affairs beneficiaries. This means fewer patrols by police on duty because the appropriation for that town function is being tapped for sleazy politics.
What about maintenance of vehicles? How can anyone make 1,644 trips anywhere with a cruiser for $19,000? Remember, earlier this year I caught Consentino and a little old lady leaving Manchester in the Elderly Affairs cruiser on Rt. 93 going over 80 miles per hour. Someone has to buy, maintain, insure, fuel, and fix this rig when something goes wrong.
Before Chief Consentino created his PERSONAL 501c3 non-profit Elderly Affairs donations went to the Town of Atkinson to offset expenses, now they go to the bully’s private account.
Consentino has even had the gall to ask people who made past donations to the Town account to request those funds back and re-donate them to his stash - $6,500 has been re-donated so far.
I know two of the Atkinson Selectmen want to comply with the AG’s office and get the Town portion of this scam straightened out but there is the nagging problem of the town resources being used for private gain.
It is not good for any community to have a bully or a weasel in the position of Police Chief. In the end it costs much more than the short term pain of dealing with him.
CNHT is going to ask, through RSA 91-A, for all the records of the Atkinson Elderly Affairs appropriation and publish them on line if the Atkinson Selectmen do not take action themselves soon. Being an Atkinson Selectman and having answers about this shady account would probably make the phone calls from reporters much easier to deal with.
(For a look at some of the many lawsuits Consentino has caused over the years in Atkinson see http://www.cnht.org/news/category/police-departments/ )
Atkinson-Factor said...
Can someone post the time the video will be replayed? Very helpfull it would be to get it to the internet.
I believe you can request the rebroadcast of a program that was aired on public access TV and, by law, they are required to broadcast it.
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