Tired of the political use of Elderly Affairs.

Anonymous said...
Article for Submission:

I am tired of the political use of Elderly Affairs.

Yes, I understand a lot of people have been helped. That is a good thing. However, the help is provided in a narcissistic manner and laws are not being followed as stated by the NH Attorney General.

Step one: Get obligated to the PD and get dependent on the seniors' services.
Step two: vote for Phil's candidates and/or give the PD donations or you get cut off from those services because you are no longer of use to him.

Think about how many calls for votes you have received from the Atkinson PD. I've never received even ONE. Why is that? Because I am not on the list. I don't use elderly affairs services.

A person with a gun and a badge directly seeking donations from people dependent on him/her is, in my opinion, extortion.

I've spoken to a number of people in this town on the blacklist. (they say)He refuses to provide them services because they see the manipulation of people that is designed to serve political interests, under the guise of helping vulnerable citizens. And if you speak against Consentino or even question his budget in the least, then you must be anti-American, anti-Elderly or you have a vendetta and you are the enemy. This mode of operation is getting so tired.

What other town on this planet has a police department, of all departments, offering and providing all of these services to a specific demographic group? What other police dept advertises in the local newspaper for seniors to call the Atkinson Police Dept. for a ride to visit your friends? Not Plaistow or Sandown or Danville - in fact, please find me one other town that does this. This is my tax dollars being LEGALLY used? I don't think so.

In my view, these are political machinations and are a complete abuse of tax dollars that are budgeted for the PD but spent to give people rides for votes. How does this town pay for 1600 rides on an $19,000 budget? (see 2007 annual report) Someone, please explan this to me. I challenge any citizen in this town to show how our tax dollars are being used appropriately by our PD and Dept of Elderly Affairs. Dollar by dollar, ain't no way you can provide this level of services - even with all the donations. The cost of fuel alone would burn your budget especially with a fleet of low mileage cars they use. And I haven't mentioned labor, vehicle maintenance, insurance, etc.

So my tax dollars are used to fund political activities so that Consentino stays in power. And THAT is the only reason he is still in his role. People become obligated and are used for votes. And if you refuse to consider the reality, then you will never consider the facts of laws being broken consistently as indicated by the Attorney General (finally) and all the complaints and lawsuits filed over the years.

Unless, over the years, apparently dozens of people have been wrong and Consentino stands alone, innocent while everyone had a vendetta against him? The police union and officers were wrong, too?

For a person who's job is to "be the law", and to violate laws regarding donation funded charity accounts, is a direct violation of their job and responsibility to all citizens and taxpayers as far as I'm concerned. To say "the selectment have allowed this to occur for 14 years" does not make it legal or justify it in any way. As a former selectman and as police chief, he is supposed to KNOW the law, ya think? Maybe this one slipped through cracks? How many more excuses are you going to come up with?

See the documents yourself at:
http://www.atkinsontaxpayers.org/

Read and educate yourself. If after you've read all the Facts and documents on that website you still defend Consentino, even in the face of the NH Attorney General's recent exposure of Atkinson PD wrongdoing, then I can't help you. But if you don't do the right thing to fix this problem, you are complicit with his scheme and good luck ever convincing me to support Elderly Affairs in the future. The $19K budget has nothing to do with it because that is a drop in the bucket and our town spends a lot more on less important priorities. I am against it because it is misused for political reasons and vulnerable citizens are being taken advantage of.

If you feel afraid of losing services by saying anything against the staus quo, then what I am saying must be true, right?