MAcciard said...
Please accept this article submission;
It was 2001 and I joined the Budget Committee. That was the year a new committeeman, not knowing the powers he was angering, asked the director of Elderly Affairs;
How many people use the service?
How many rides do you give?
It was Jane Cole who leaned over to me and whispered; "Mark, you had better drive 25mph, through town for the rest of your life." I laughed not understanding what she meant.
They say, in Federal Politics that Social Security is the "third Rail" of politics, well in Atkinson, Elderly Affairs is that third rail.
No one, Myself or the budget committee included, has ever mentioned, discussed, or attempted to restrict, reduce, or otherwise terminate the elderly affairs program. I know, that is not what you all have been told, but that is nevertheless the truth.
The budget committee tried from 2001- 2006 to get some accountability,transparency, and truth in that depts. budget. It wasn't until 2005, that Bill Anderson let it slip in a budget meeting that 61 residents used the program that year. In response to the same question in 2006, his answer was "81". In 2007, the chief said 240 residents got rides that year! WOW, a 400% increase!
I, for one, am encouraged to see that the Attorney Generals office agrees with what the budget committee has been trying to do for 7 years. In 2003, we succeeded in separating the budgets, but it was the job of the selectmen to split the depts, and neither selectman, Consentino, DeRocher, or Boyle were of a mind to do that.
But, in practice, there has never been any separation in the budgets, and in this both the selectmen and the budget committee have failed miserably. Here is one example; GAS; Elderly affairs budgetted $1,350.00 in Gas. Each month as the expense reports come out there is no expenditures for gas, then in Sept., 3 weeks before the start of budget season, $1,350 is expended out of elderly affairs gas line. No accountability! The rest of the gas used comes out of the police dept. budget.
The problem with this practice is that both the selectmen and the budget committee present a budget to the voters, and the voters approve expending that much money for that purpose. The budget is presented as $19,000 for elderly affairs, when everyone involved in the process knows to be accurate it would be closer to $40,000.
While the selectmen have the authority to move money "when changes unforeseen occur", this was totally forseeable. And when have the "public discussions" taken place notifying the voters that a line item was going to be overspent, and money taken out of another? Answer: never!
Think about it, How many dozens of times have you seen, say... Teddy, come into a selectmen's meeting to let the board know that one of his lines was going to go over budget, and he needed permission to spend more money, say salt or sand when we have a bad winter?
Now, how many times have you seen the Director of Elderly Affairs come into a selectmen's meeting and say, that his Gas line is going to overexpend, and he needs more money? It rarely, if ever, happens, the selectmen just pay the bills.
This is wrong, and the people have a right to know how their money is being spent. This isnt about the program, or who runs it, It is about transparency in government, this is a taxpayer funded program, and should be accountable to the people.
Mark Acciard
Atkinson Town Hall
The Norman Rockwellian picture of Atkinson
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15 comments:
Mark..... how true, I agree with everything you said. One thing I would like to know is... how can he "stuff" this new association ( I think that's what it's called) for the donation accounts with the very people who work for him and are the ones using the money? Doesn't anyone besides me think there should have been a "sign up sheet" for people willing to sit on this association, and then put it before the selectmen to decide? Just my opinion.
My problem is not the money itself. The money is already allocated, whether it comes from the PD or Elderly Affairs is of little consequence, bottom line it bottom line. The larger issue, to me anyway, is the mis-allocation of other resources. Elderly affiars consumes probably 90 percent of Consentinos time and energy, that does not leave much left over for the PD. The rank and file members of the police department (especially the full time officers) are second rate employees in Consentinos eyes. He continually undercuts the Officers Association, he even steered donations away from their anual fundraiser last year (enter the targeting and dismissal of Officer Fardella). It is an obvious understatement that Consentino cares more about Elderly Affairs than he does the PD. That is fine, just step down as Chief and allow someone who will lead the department into the 21st century to take over. Atkinson is growing and needs a more organized and more professional police department; unfortunately that will not happen as long as Consentino is running the show.
unfortunately no. From what I understand this is a private non- profit, intending to become certified by the IRS as a charitable organization. There is almost no accountability for a private group.
How you physically separate the two depts. with no degradation in service, and little or no cost to the town is simple;
1.) You remove all lights radios, and police decals from the elderly cars.
2.) You park the cars the cars at the Community Center.
3.) You issue a new number for elderly affairs, tied to a cell phone, which the person dispatching the drivers, can receive, and call out, or schedule the drivers.
4.) Keep a spreadsheet the details, date, time out, time in, destination, man-hours, mileage, customer Name or number as an identifier.
This way the selectmen and the budget committee will have hard data on how many people get rides, how many rides are given, mileage, and man-hours.
See, openess, and accountability to the people who pay for this service.
the critics shut up, and everyone is happy! How easy!
Remember, if it has to be hidden, it usually isn't good.
The bottom line is this must be changed dramatically and soon or the Selectmen are complicit with the misappropriation of tax dollars.
They are in trouble with him now that this is becoming a public issue.
The people have spoken. At the special town meeting and at the polls yesterday the citizens of Atkinson declared they want their water protected, and they want the BOS and Planning Board to take a more active roll in doing so. The current attitude of "It's the State's Responsibility," is a cop out. Newton's BOS intervened with the state on behalf of its citizens and got results. Yesterday, the citizens of Atkinson said we expect the same. It is not acceptable that HAWC dry up our wells, and then sell the water back to us, at a profit, to remedy the problem.
Regarding Elderly Affairs. Councilman Childs said they had nobody for fill the directors role, no one has volunteered. Well, duh. Based on peoples past experiences, anyone volunteering can reasonably expect a cruiser sitting in front of their house or some other form of harassment. You solve that by identifying a good candidate, ASKING them to volunteer, and do it, then and there. And then you move quickly, such as grabbing the keys to the EA vehicles. And no, the Chief is not a good candidate. His creative accounting methods have to be removed from the equation and his new charitable organization is a sham. After that, Mark has it nailed.
RE: September 9, 2008 9:23 PM
Your last statement is dead on. And the only way to do that is to bring in a qualified outsider. Given the departments current state, promoting from within would be a terrible move.
I think a town warrant is going to be required where the voters mandate the town to separate Elderly Affairs as a stand alone organization, including budgeting, vehicles, insurance and maintenance and manpower.
I think it should be staffed by volunteers. It is not staffed by volunteers now because Phil won't allow volunteers and wants to keep his cronies employed. Then they "owe him" loyalty. I bet if Phil was removed from the mix, you would have plenty of volunteers to eliminate the cost of manpower.
Voters should also approve a full time position for Noriko to run Elderly Affairs (and rename it PLEASE to something else) it out of the Community and pay her a full time salary to do it. Reality is, the taxpayers are already paying MUCH more than what it would cost to make her full time. You should see a reduction of about $100K (my guesstimate) in the PD budget once elderly affairs is no longer run by the PD.
So a warrant needs to be put on the ballot and the voters need to tell the town how to run this organization. Otherwise, I don't see much changing.
A warrant is not required for the BOS to appoint a new director. Its that simple.
Phil will yell, bully, intimidate, all that precious stuff we've come to know and love. But once a new director is appointed, that's it.
Some the seniors will no doubt complain, some on their own, others at Phil's urging. But, you know what, in 6 months, once the majority of seniors realize their services have not changed, and maybe even improved, it will be quiet again.
This analogy was made before: When President Truman fired General MacArthur there was a tremendous uproar. However, Truman predicted that in 6 months it would all be forgotten, and it was. Now, I'm in no way suggesting Phil is MacArthur, as some clown claimed last time. The point is, everyone is afraid of what Phil will do. So, we deal with it, and then it will be gone.
K then...we need someone to draft a proposed warrant article to make the selectman remove elderly affairs from the chief's sweaty palms....
Who would like to draft it?
No time like the present, just in case the two "Chief" selectman vote no , when Paul puts it to vote in the near future. I just have that funny feeling that Fred Childs and Bill Friel will not follow Pauls lead on this topic.
Well, a warrant arcticle would be a nice saftey net anyhow. If you want it done right, do it yourself. I do not have any faith in 2 out of the 3 selectman.
The thing about citizen petitions for warrant articles is, it does not matter whether the BOS likes them or not. As long as you get a sufficient number of people to sign the petition, and once those people are verified by the town clerk as eligible, there is nothing the BOS can do but put it before the Deliberative Session. We just saw this happen with the water warrants. The BOS did not want them, but they had no choice in the matter.
Now, the first problem. There was a petition floated some years ago asking to make the PD Chief a full time position. The chief went absolutely ape shit and went through town with lights and sirens and had a scream fest with the promoter of the petition. And get this, the promoter was a member of the most prominent family in town. It did not make it beyond that point. Now, with that in mind, who is going to try the same with EA? Frankly, I think it would have to be someone not easily intimidated, little to lose, and no family for Phil to go after. Boy, is that a sad commentary on how bad it is.
Second problem. Say someone does draft a petition and weathers Hurricane Phil, along with the petition signers, whose names will become public once the petition is gets past the town clerk. That's now 50+ people on Phil's s**t list. See previous paragraph. And don't think for even a second that everyone in town hall won't know who those people are 20 minutes after the petition is submitted. You still have to get it through the Deliberative Session without it either being voted down, or diluted by amendments. As we saw earlier this year, a very tough task in itself. I would also be willing to bet that any discussion would be shut down almost immediately by that nasty little procedure "Call the Vote". I swear, at the last session there was someone designated to preform this function. If 60% of the group votes to call the vote, end of discussion, period. Citizen petitions are not welcomed with open arms. Then, take into account the army of seniors Phil will bus in (as a public service of course) to the session. I'm sorry to say this, the attendance is fairly void of younger voters and void of people who give a damn. Forgive me also for saying this, expect an average age of 60+ at the next session.
I give any attempt to go this path a 0 to 5% chance of making it past the Deliberative Session. If it, by some miracle, does, there is a good shot at the polls. A real longshot. Sorry, but I've seen the machine at work.
The point I was trying to make earlier, this does not need to happen if the BOS appoints a new director, which is basically what the AG wants. It's an APPOINTED position. Phil has no legal or moral claim to it. It could happen tomorrow. You will still get Hurricane Phil, but there is not a G** Damn thing he could do about it.
Bonus Points - If he starts abusing his position as Chief of Police to demonstrated his displeasure, that is also an APPOINTED position, which has not been renewed in years. Excellent justification to kill two birds with one stone.
So, again, our only path to salvation is for the BOS to do the right thing. This is where the pressure needs to be applied.
Mr. Friel, your thoughts? Is this what you envisioned when you were recruited? Where do your loyalties really lie now? The Titanic or the future good?
I don't believe that town meeting votes can direct the selectmen on whom to appoint to positions, if that is your intention.
To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Springer is correct. I dont think you can, by town meeting vote, direct the selectmen either to appoint a particular person, or recind the appointment of a particular person, because that is within their discretionary functions.
I could be wrong, and if anyone knows please speak up, but I think that is how it works.
PS: Carol Grant tried to raise an issue over the fact that the chief's appointment expired in 1999, and look what happened to her.
The bottom line is this:
Phil has a taxpayer funded political organization known as the Atkinson PD and Dept. of Elderly Affairs. Even our own Attorney General's office admitted they cannot distinguish between the two.
With the resources Phil has at his disposal, in my opinion, there is little chance of defeating him via citizen's warrant article. Though I also believe he is politically weaker now, I am not aware of an organization in town that is as well funded, staffed and organized politically to compete with Phil's and win the political battle. The library is probaly closest because they have $$$. But Phil's practices also enable the library to pull some very creative funding practices (so I've heard) so I doubt they'll fight this fight.
You have to (legally) send out mailers to every residence, just like Phil does to his constituents, to inform others. I talked to an Atkinson resident the other day and he was completely unaware of Phil's activities. He didn't know about the blogs, newspaper articles, the AG investigation, etc. Completely uninformed because he is too busy trying to pay his bills and care for his family. There are too many people in town like this and until they care, they will not be motivated to do anything.
Either Friel and Sullivan get it done or it doesn't happen. That is just my opinion. Paul seems to be there. I think you have to push Friel. Call him. Email him take the extra steps and stop saying, oh well, he's the chief's boy so I give up. If you are simply giving up and don't take these steps, then please stop whining about him. CALL FRIEL.
Now is the time to push hardest because of all the negative press Consentino is getting.
Things I dream about...
When EA is taken away from PC and he does not have EA vehicles to use and the elderly will not be indebted to him personally any longer.
When PC is removed from the position of police chief, he won't be on the board for the new donation account and won't have this source of funds to buy whatever he wants.
When PC is removed from the PD, and people will not have to live in fear in this police state any longer.
Don't wake me....
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