Who remembers the selectmen's workshop on Monday night May 12, 2008, which held many revelations?
One was that chief Consentino admitted "for the last 6 years" submitting sick pay vouchers for Lt. Baldwin when he does his Coast Guard Summer Camp, for 2 weeks every summer. This evidently fraudulent document submission troubles many who heard it.
Paul Sullivan read the Town's policy on sick pay, right from the employee handbook. This policy has been in place since chief was a selectmen, and yet he admits ignoring it. The policy is that the Town can not condone people taking sick pay if they are not sick, simple, right? What would happen if in the winter Lt. Baldwin actually did get sick and couldn't come into work? Does anyone believe that his SALARY is going to be docked for that day, because he has no sick time left?
Chief made a very compelling but false case for why his protege needs this time, because "it is not fair for him to not get paid while he is defending the country",
Well, Phil, summer camp is just that "camp"!, Training, meetings, job orientation to teach you everything you forgot since your last "summer camp"!, and he gets PAID VERY WELL FOR THIS!
This is from the pay charts at military.com;
An e-7 with 12 years of service is earning $3,600/mo. in BASE PAY! That does not include entitlements. ie: rations pay, quarters allowance, VHA, COLA, Clothing allowance, separation pay, combat theatre pay(if that is the case). An E-7 with that amount of service, should be earning $2045.00 for that two weeks.
Set that against the $1,169.00/week that Lt. Baldwin makes in Atkinson. And he is leaving our town to go do training, and taking a pay cut of $144.00/week!
BUT NO.... He gets PAID BY THE TOWN FOR THESE TWO WEEKS AS WELL! This is your tax dollars at work.... According to the chief(because he has been signing and submitting these vouchers) He has been getting his $1,169.00 from the town PLUS his $1,022.50 from the military! WOW! WHAT A RACKET! Where I work this would be called FRAUD! and I would be fired if I had the basic level of dishonesty necessary to pull it off, not to mention the arrogance to tell the entire town about it on television!
Our spendthrift police chief also went on and on about how the town screwed the erstwhile Lt. over military pay 4 years ago, leaving the poor destitute Lt. to fight for his compensation. it was ALL False!
Got to http://www.town-atkinsonnh.com/ and click on the selectmen's minutes form June 9,2003 if you don't believe me. Here is what happened, you judge for yourself who was right and who was trying to scam the town;
In March or April The Sgt. Baldwin received notice he would be deployed. He asked if the town would do anything for him. Then Selectmen Boyle assured him that the Town would pay the difference between his town pay and his military pay, and that he would not lose any money. That was the honorable and fair thing to do.
Before Sgt. Baldwin was deployed, the Town, at Mr. Boyle's behest, ADVANCED him $5,900.00, or 6 weeks pay so that his family would not suffer. The town directed him to furnish them with a copy of his Military Leave and Earnings Statement, so that they could calculate the difference between the two pay rates. Sgt. Baldwin, instead furnished the town with a commanders base pay letter, which only states his base pay and not all of his allowances, or extra pay. The town again asked for the leave and earnings statement. Sgt. Baldwin refused. Chief Consentino harangued the selectmen week after week, claiming they were "nickle and diming" the Sgt. Again, read the minutes through the summer of 2003, or look in the back issues of the Eagle Tribune for the stories about how his family was destitute, because of the town, most especially mr.Boyle's lack of compassion.
Here is the issue;
Sgt. Baldwins town pay at the time was approximately $4,228.00/ mo.
Commanders base pay letter showed a base pay letter showed a base pay of only $2,400.00/mo. or so.
The difference that Sgt. Baldwin was in effect trying to obtain, and chief was lobbying for was $511.51/wk. or $2,199.50/mo. See Selectmen's minutes May 19, 2003
When the LES was obtained it showed an ACTUAL DIFFERENCE in pay of only about $450.00/ MONTH!
This means that the chief and the Sgt. were trying to obtain from the town an extra $1,650.00 per month of our tax dollars, again in the private sector this would be called fraud, and would be grounds for firing!
Remember that through all of this the Sgt. was being paid by the military, his $4,500/mo or so, PLUS he had been advanced $5,900.00 from the town.
This frivolous, and dishonest philandering of tax dollars must stop, and it is the job of the selectmen to not only put a stop to it, but to FIRE those who are dishonest enough to do it!
Atkinson Town Hall
The Norman Rockwellian picture of Atkinson
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6 comments:
Fire, Fire , Fire! Someone get Donald Trump in the selectman's meeting, and im sure he will guide the way ....Oh, and what ever happened to the Pleasure Car issue? The selectman said they would visit that matter on a later date, well it's been a few months now.
So....
What did we do when we found out Lt. Baldwin, a law enforcement officer, was participating in a conspiracy to defraud the town out of money?
WE ELECTED HIM TO THE SCHOOL BOARD! Isn't Atkinson grand?
Guard members working for my employer are among the more fortunate. If called up to serve full time during this war on terrorists, they receive there full company pay and benefits for the first year and differential after that until the end of deployment.
Then Sgt. Baldwin could have sought employment that had such benefits. However, he chose to remain where he still is today. He knew what the rules were. He also knew his boss does not care much for rules. He also knew that many of the tax payers of Atkinson don't care about rules either, as evidenced by his election to the school board. My father must be rolling over in his grave over that one, having served on the board for some 20 years with honor and always putting the students and education first.
Mr. Baldwin should be ashamed of himself. But he is not. He simply followed the path of his "mentor."
I do hope the BOS is not stupid enough to appoint Chief when Phil finally decides to leave or is pushed out.
That might have made sense if it were a deployment, however this was the normal two weeks summer duty.
You know, Guard and reserve members do one weekend per month and two weeks during the summer.
It only makes sense if the rules allow it, and they clearly do not.
There are rules regarding salary when going to camp, which the chief violated, and rules when called up for active service, which Mr. Baldwin violated when he would not produce documents stating his "real" military benefits.
If they had tried these stunts in the private sector they would have had their kisters booted forth width. A double standard has been allowed to persist, and it is wrong.
Not a great demonstration of integrity or leadership.
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