Post this please!
SELECTMEN TO HOLD ILLEGAL MEETING TONIGHT!
The posting for tonight's meeting went up sometime AFTER 8:15am THIS MORNING!
The Right to know law REQUIRES posting in TWO public places for a period of at least 24 hours prior to the meeting EXCLUDING Sundays and Holidays!
Even this basic selectmen's duty, our board can't get right. This is not the first time this has happened, there have been many occasions where the meeting is posted on Sunday. Or only in one publicly accessible place.
Atkinson Town Hall
The Norman Rockwellian picture of Atkinson
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What is on the agenda tonight? Not that they should be allowed to hold the meeting....
This would be a great thing to post each week on the blog, the upcoming meetings and agendas.
FYI - It is a common misconception that you can have a meeting without satisfying the posting and minutes requirements of RSA 91-A if you just discuss stuff and don't take votes. Often people try to call it a "workshop" instead of a "meeting." But the law is very clear. If you have a quorum and you discuss matters that your board has control of, it is a "meeting" for the purposes of RSA 91-A, and subject to all of the requirements, no matter what you call it.
It is bad enough the Town website SUCKS! the Taxpayers site atkinsontaxpayers.org, has more info on it than the towns site does.
Why can they post the agenda, on the town website on Friday at close of business?
Re your town web site, first question is who is responsible for it, an employee or volunteers? And if it is an employee how much time is allocated.
The Danville town web site (http://www.townofdanville.org) is run by a volunteer committee, of which I am the chair. We get the BOS agendas on Friday for the upcoming Monday. Sometimes we post on Friday, sometimes on Saturday, sometimes on Sunday. Depends on what else is going on in our lives and in my case how tired I am. I make no commitment to timeliness and I don't apologize. The coolest thing we have done is to post our entire deliberative session, both in its entirety and broken out by discussions of specific warrant articles.
Atkinson chief may still head elderly affairs program
By Meghan Carey
mcarey@eagletribune.com
ATKINSON — Tonight's workshop on the elderly affairs program has been postponed until the selectmen receive more answers from the state attorney general's charitable trust unit.
Those answers could allow Philip Consentino to remain as both police chief and director of elderly affairs.
Residents' complaints over Consentino's dual roles, as well as the donation accounts he handles, prompted an examination earlier this year by Terry Knowles, director of the charitable trust unit.
Consentino leads the elderly affairs program, which gives rides and other help to senior citizens. The program is funded partially through the town's operating budget, and also from donations.
Selectmen often held public hearings for Consentino to take donation money out of three donation accounts, the balances of which totaled about $19,000.
Knowles sent a number of letters to the town, advising how to lawfully handle the donation money. Consentino has since received permission from donors and transferred $6,500 to a nonprofit group he set up. The rest of the money remains in the Atkinson Police Department's Donation/Equipment Fund account.
Knowles also advised the selectmen to examine the elderly affairs program and make sure it is separate from the Police Department, which they planned to do tonight.
Selectmen's Chairman Paul Sullivan, Selectman Bill Friel and Town Administrator Steven Angelo met with Knowles for the first time Friday. Sullivan said they wanted to make sure their plan to transfer the remaining $12,000 in donation money to the Trustees of the Trust Fund was OK. Also, they had questions about the separation of Consentino's roles.
"Basically, we wanted to make sure and do the right thing, where it's in question, for all parties involved," Sullivan said.
He said the selectmen left feeling that the matter, which first arose in April, will be worked out smoothly. The next letter from Knowles, which should come this week, should confirm in writing what she told them last week. Then selectmen will reschedule the workshop, Sullivan said.
Knowles said yesterday that letter will outline how Consentino should be required to document the time he spends as police chief, as well as the time he spends volunteering as the director of elderly affairs.
That should draw a firm enough line, and satisfy state and federal labor laws. But Knowles said the selectmen should speak with someone at the state Department of Labor to be sure.
"We're slowly resolving the issues," Knowles said. "In accordance to the earlier letter, what, and how it needs to be done. It's really a matter of time sheets."¬รน
The meeting Friday was incorrectly listed as a nonpublic session. Once the selectmen arrived in Concord, Knowles informed them it had to be a public session and let two members of the public attend, she said.
It was up to the town to decide whether to reschedule and properly post the meeting, she said.
Sullivan said it was a mistake. He posted it as a "legal" nonpublic session because the selectmen are working to bring the issues in line with state law.
Consentino said yesterday he was upset others were able to participate in conversations about him and the elderly affairs program without him there.
"I wanted to go to that meeting, but I wasn't invited/involved because it was a selectmen's meeting," he said.
Phil is losing his mind cause he is slowly losing control. He wasn't invited to the party. And they were talking about HIM!
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
Isn't this funny. He knows that if Friel gets swayed by the Atty General's office, that he is done cause he knows Sullivan is ready to make the big move and has the ammo to do it. His little empire is collapsing around him. No more Senior lunches? No more senior fall scenic bus tours? How could this be? How is he going to buy votes if he can't run his illegal political organization out of the PD? I hope Terry Knowles does not hook up with the police certification people that slapped the chief around a few months ago for breaking more rules.
Tick tock, tick tock. The winds of change are in the air. I can feel it.
Hey I heard Frank Polito was in the Village Store this morning blaming Mark Acciard for the lack of a meeting last night!
He apparently said that not posting the meeting correctly was no a big deal, and Acciard complained and they had to cancel the meeting!
Hey Frank, aren't YOU the Town Moderator? Aren't YOU one of the people who are supposed to follow the law on meeting postings and stuff?
Oh I get it, its ok, when it is one of your friends breaking the law, what a putz!
Hey I heard Frank Polito was in the Village Store this morning blaming Mark Acciard for the lack of a meeting last night!
He apparently said that not posting the meeting correctly was no a big deal, and Acciard complained and they had to cancel the meeting!
Hey Frank, aren't YOU the Town Moderator? Aren't YOU one of the people who are supposed to follow the law on meeting postings and stuff?
Oh I get it, its ok, when it is one of your friends breaking the law, what a putz!
Isn't it interesting that OUR Selectmen did a nation wide search for a new town administrator? Guess they found ALL THE CREDITIONALS THEY NEEDED AT THE FOLLOWING WEBSITE.
http://www.atkinsontaxpayers.org/pdf/PEL_Angelo.pdf
Once they knew they had a candidate they could trust to further their agenda...not us taxpayers.........they hired him at an expense we taxpayer can't afford.
It's time we do a warrant article requiring background checks for all hires and candidates running for office, before they are allowed to run for office. Anyone feel we will find a felon in the group already in office? You may be surprised there is one?
Who's the felon? Please tell! And also, the moderator Knows better. He is to follow the law and inform others to do the same. So why oh why would he make such a statement?
Can anyone confirm the felony conviction of one of our selectman? And if this is true, is everyone ok with that? Having a felon on our board of selectman? And if its true with Chiefo Bigumheado spreading around the felony report like that, then why would this person be defending him now, like metioned by last poster? That one makes the least sense. But then again, maybe having a corrupt Chief on your side would make more sense if you were a felon.
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