Recap of Tuesday's Town Council Meeting 12202011

RECAP DECEMBER 20

At last night’s town council meeting, Chairman LaRochelle conducted an excellent meeting.  The meeting went as usual.  Below is a summary of what took place.

 Really this is Fern LaRochelle!!!

According to LaRochelle, the taxpayers will NOT be voting on this year’s municipal budget because there is not sufficient time to change the charter.  Apparently, the opinions of the people are not a priority of this town council.  There is a way, the people, can accomplish this change and that is by signing a citizens petition and forcing the town council to take action in time to vote on this year’s municipal budget.  The question is where or not the people will get off their couches to sign the petition and then come out and vote on the petition enabling the people to vote on each department of the municipal budget?

Another question asked of the council is to have all line items pertaining to the different departments be placed in the department in which they apply.  An example in last year’s budget Police Liability Insurance was under General Government Insurance instead of the Police Department budget or Street Light/Hydrant Rental currently under the Public Works Department instead of General Government.  The purpose of a budget is to outline the total operating cost.  It is impossible to determine the total operating cost of each department if the line items are scattered all over the budget.  This is a normal method of hiding costs and does not allow for determining the total operating cost of a department in order to eliminate excessive spending.

 

The Planning board asked why the board had not seen the 2012-2013 Capital Improvement Budget prior to it being presented to the town council.  This is a requirement of the town charter so the town council tabled any action until the Planning Board had an opportunity to review it.

Again, the question was asked why the agenda for workshops was never posted to the town web site for the people to know what is going on.  It is clearly understood the public cannot participate in any discussions during a workshop but they will have an opportunity to see which councilors are recommend what changes.  This is critical in decision making come November during elections.

 There was a question on the Western Maine Transportation problem.  The town manager gave a briefing as to what has been done up to this point.  There was no resolution but there is a good possibility a solution has been found.

 Town Attorney Catching sum $150/hr plus winks. Your

Tax Dollars At Work!!!

  There was no Executive Session announced by the town manager at the meeting.  No explanation was giving because the town attorney was there.  As indicated on the Lisbon Reporter, the attorney was asleep so possibly they did not want to wake him.  Keep in mind; the taxpayer's had to pay for his siesta.

Larry Fillmore
Concerned Citizen