This blog would have to guess that the critics of the chief's shady accounting practices were correct!
Estimates by people in the know, last year, such as Brian Boyle, Mark Acciard, and Jane Cole, estimated the total cost of the elderly affairs dept. at about $35,000.00 or so, and it looks like they were right, but low.
So for all of you asking how elderly could have provided 1644 rides for $19,000, the answer is they couldn't. The other $20,000 or so was being spent out of the police dept., this is why separation was so important.
Did anyone notice how chief Consentino also said that the budget was going to increase because monies that used to come from the donation account would not be available anymore?
WHY NOT?
Are you NOT going to use the money donated to your private slush fund for the same purposes that you used to?
But that cant be, in his letter to everyone, he said; " The police dept. equipment fund/ senior donation acct. now operate under a new name, the Atkinson Police Charitable Fund"
If it is just operating under a new name, then the money should go to the same places.
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33 comments:
The lies are coming to a head as we can see. We all knew he could not pay for all of those rides for 19k. And now after watching the selectman meeting tonight, budget requested is 40k. Payroll was at 20k alone, not including Gas. How did Chiefo pay for gas and payroll last year with only 19k?
The Chief even tried to call the new Elderly affair cars, "Police division of elderly affairs" How is this seperate from the police dept? The Chief even goes on, and says "elderly affairs will always be run by the police dept". Can anyone believe this guys thinking after everything that has happend?
The video of tonights meeting will be posted shortly on the Atkinson-Factor.
Funny, funny, funny....
Who needs the comedy channel when we have ACTV20 live on Monday's.
I always thought our friend pulled the 1644 number out of his arse. I still do. My guess is it's more like 644 transports.
I need to ask...New uniforms for the drivers? Why do they need uniforms to drive the elderly? It's not like they are driving real cop cars.
My bad, I guess we need highly paid highly trained unformed drivers with CPR and defib training. They all have that, right?
And $20k in payroll. I bet we could get qualified retired but not quite elderly volunteers to drive our EA cars with our EA gas for free. Or even elderly who are still good drivers. Just ask. I believe Salem Caregivers do it for free. Heck, they would even pick up elderly from Atkinson if we called. (Don't we pay money to them too?)
This is starting to get too funny. I watched the Trib girl writing and laughing. Can't wait to see what they say about this.
And while I'm at it, I have to ask...Over $1000 a month for phone service at the PD? Who needs a communications tower if they all have town funded cell phones? But they are separate, so let's stick to one department at a time.
I believe I heard "the chief" discussing possible salary increases for his people as well.
That's great, isn't it? The economy is in the tank; news programs talk about foreclosures, high costs of everything, the ever increasing jobless rate, and "the chief" wants to give everybody a raise!
I know this is ATKINSON; I know we are wealthy and we can afford it; but it makes me sick. Actually, it reminds me of the greedy CEOs who are still insisting on their millions of bonus dollars.
Yes you are right. In times when money is tight, towns should be saving money, not spending more. But in the chiefs world, more is better for his ego. If he keeps this up, people will vote every increase down. Mark my words.
Just in case.....
the budget, with salary increases for all, passes, I hope the Selectmen propose an increase in their welfare budget, 'cause they're going to need it. Moreover, those elderly who already find it hard to make ends meet, Phil's going to need more "welfare" money to help them pay for heat, electricity and food.
I am sorry but no government worker should be getting a pay raise this year.
The people paying for it aren't getting raises!
Hey, If all this stuff was being paid for out of the donation account before, whay does chief say it has to come out of the budget now?
What is this new private fund he started for?
I thought he was going to use it for the same purposes as before, that is what he said.
He speaketh with forked tongue.
Son, you need to realize that our chief is having a temper tantrum. He is being made to separate his beloved elderly dept. out of his beloved PD, and he doesn't like it, because it means that all those people he has been screaming at for the past 5 years were telling the truth, and he wasn't.
So, you made him give up his donation account, so he started his own donation account, and it is only for people he wants to donate to.
So there!
So this is an admission that over $20,000 of PD budget spending was NOT for the police department but misused for elderly affairs.
Plain as day. The law was in fact broken. Where is the justice for taxpayers?
Bingo to last poster!
All of these years, Chiefo Bigumheado has called us bloggers liers, and cowards hiding in cyberspace. All of these years we "cowards" have been informing the public that evil wrongdoings have been taking place by your police chief. Numbers don't lie. And Video is in....Watch them, and judge for yourself.
To the poster @ 11:16am
The law was NOT, in fact broken, because under NH budget law, the selectmen spend the money not the Chief. So if he were to transfer money from elderly to police or vice versa, he SHOULD publicly let the selectmen know that he will overspend a line item, and get their permission, but, ultimately, if they approve it, they are making the transfer, it IS legal.
But I just saw the video on atkinson factor, and I have a question...
Being a numbers guy, one thing jumped out at me, If the current payroll for all the elderly affairs drivers is $935.14/ week, That is $48,627.28/ yr. Plus, COLA, FICA, MEDI, gas, insurance, maintenance, dispatch, uniforms, drivers jackets, christmas party, etc.
In other words, if the chief's numbers for current payroll is true, then his budget is $20,000 short! If his budget is true, then his current payroll, is way overinflated!
And why will it cost $5,000 separation costs? What are these costs? It shouldn't cost anything to de letter the cars, just take the words "police" and "division" off, and it will read "Atkinson Senior Transport".
I agree Mark, the budget for elderly affairs should be in the 60,000.00 area, not 40,000.00 the chief proposed. Funny, the budget has trippled. Are you telling me that the Chief's donation account spent 40,000.00 last year? Or did the police dept budget pay that, or both?
Either way you look at it, something fishy was going on. Honesty is a Police chiefs policy, right?
I love it! for years the chief has been yelling about budget committee, boyle, acciard, sawyer, cole, and others complaining about the elderly budget, saying that thousands were coming form the police budget to cover it, and last night, he admitted they were right!
So, I guess that means for the last 5 years or so he has been lying.
The donation account ledgers show where he spent the money, review them on the Taxpayer's site.
They weren't paying any salaries or gas out of the donation account, per the Town's own accounting. The donation account was used for flowers, stamps and fuel aid and misc. Therefore, everything over $19k had to come out of the PD budget. When they increase the Elderly budget they MUST decrease the PD budget accordingly since it will obviously, using PC's figures, be overfunded. This is just a shift in money. Right Chief?
Nothing to worry about folks.
It won't cost anymore to run it out of a different dept. Think about it........
Mark, I just watched the video and the chief said the average, bi-weekly payroll was $935. So take the $48K and cut it in half. Which makes $24K for labor only. You have to listen carefully. He speaks with forked tongue very well.
Not what I signed up for as a taxpayer. I will vote no on any warrant articles to fund Elderly Affairs for a penny more than $20K.
We need to make due with what is budgeted. This tactic of growing the EA services by expanding the PD without voter approval is ramming a budget increase down the taxpayers throats. NFW will I vote for more than we originally were asked to pay. Aren't there laws against this?
You say the Selectmen approved all these increases? Really? When did they get on board with authorizing $40K for EA? Is that documented somewhere?
Agree that his numbers are fuzzy math when says $5K for separation costs. HUH?? And he is still pushing for the Atkinson PD division of EA. And he wants a welfare line? And a postage line? What the heck is he running over there? He just doesn't know when to quit.
Hey Phil, we are all suffering economically and in a painful way. STOP ADDING TO IT.
WoW! 40K+ for EA. That is expensive. Other towns spend much less and without complaint. We should discontinue this extravegant pgm. and cut the 20K from the police budget that was wasted last year.
Sound fiscal management is necessary. NOW!
Does anybody but me remember the Deliberative Session when, in speaking against Phil's warrant article to buy a new vehicle to be used to drive seniors, Jane Cole called it the world's first town-owned and operated non-profit taxi?
Or something like that? And the town voted that article down? And how many taxis do we have today?
Cab fare sure has gone up, hasn't it?
He's insisted he can run this dept for $19k. He's bragged about how cost effective "his" program is and how much the elderly benefit.
I say leave the budget as it is and clean house.
This Elderly Affairs program needs to be completely rethought and reconsidered. Just what is the mission of the EA? Clearly it has grown way out of control and services are not dispensed for the right reasons.
We pay people to drive when other programs use volunteers (Salem Caregivers)??? Isn't this supposed to be like a helping friends and neighbors program? I say convert it to an all volunteer program. Phil can volunteer to drive people around all he wants.
A welfare line? Are you kidding? That is not the purpose of EA. This is more vote buying by Phil.
Reduce the EA fleet to one or maybe 2 cars and trade in the gas hogs for something smaller and more fuel efficient! Come on, how dumb is it to use fuel inefficient cars?
Move it to the Community Center and buy a phone line that can be forwarded or manned or just put a recorder on it. This is a free service so sometimes you have to put up with some minor inconveniences for something free.
Time to tighten our belts people and this program's costs are spiraling out of control.
Let's not forget his having his drivers where Friel hats before the last election. Electioneering by a public official or agency is illegal.
This program should be a volunteer program with mininum funding to keep it functioning. The real number of elderly that use this program (in my opinion) is most likely less than 80. No need for all of us to pay 40-60k in this terrible economy when volunteers could do this for free. A couple of cell phones, and a few cars could do this job easily. Remember how many cars the elderly affairs and police have? Pleasure cars the chief has at his house, being payed for by you and me ? This guy is out of control. When is this madness going to stop?
I'm sorry I thought he said; " the bi-weekly payroll for all the elderly officers averages $935.14 a week."
And that would translate to 70 manhours a week, which would allow 34 rides a week, which would make the 1600 rides last year.
Otherwise the math just doesn't work.
Atkinson reporter? How do I post? I Would like to ask the residents of Atkinson a question.
Ask away...
I just watched the videos of last nights selectmens meeting and I am stunned.
What does this bonehead find so hard to understand about separation?
The way he is trying to set this up means he has his slush fund, he runs the PD, he runs EA and he gets and extra $16k for his trouble.
ARE THEY KIDDING?
Nope, not kidding....
It's as if The Chief has a bottomless pit of money, and we all are paying his every whim. And we even pay for his "Pleasure cars" and gas and everything else that this man wants.
Not enough people here are paying attention.
I emailed some people to let them know about the HAWC meeting this thursday. One person responded that they couln't make it, they were going to see the play "Legally Blonde" instead and to have fun at the meeting!
I don't even have a well but care enough to pass the word around. Why bother if the people we are trying to protect don't care?
Has anyone here ever had a problem with the Atkinson code enforcer Jim Kirsh? Any stories of him overstepping his boundaries? sorry to ask under this post but i cant figure out how to post on the main page.
$5000 to re letter 3 cars???
YOU GOTTA BE SH**ING ME!!!!
Mark is right, a single edge razor blade, take off the words police and division, and that's it!
This is a budget meeting, why do they always have to read all the friggin thank you's?
What does that have to do with the money they want to spend?
RE: October 28, 2008 8:03 PM
Welcome to my world. It just astonishes me the amount of apathy some people can exhibit with an issue that can so directly impact them. Heads in the sand is the only way to explain it.
The good news, you care, and some of the people you EMAIL'd will care. I can tell you this, the number of people who care has grown, dramatically, since last Spring. Never say never, but HAWC's plans are not a sure thing. Best thing you can do: Show up Thursday, and drag as many people as you can with you.
Numbers talk, and that is the best thing the residents of Atkinson can do right now. Show up. Show the State the numbers.
Did anyone hear the budget committee ask phil how many people use the service so far this year? or how many rides they have given?
Did they ask him how he came up with $5250 in "separation costs"? or Why the hell it will take $5000 to reletter three cars?
October 28, 2008 8:04 AM
I beg to differ..just because we live in Atkinson does NOT mean we are wealthy. Speak for yourself.
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