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Showing posts with label Lisbon School Committee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lisbon School Committee. Show all posts
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Monday, March 7, 2016
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT THIS BUDGET SEASON?????
It is once again that time of
year to start the budget process for both the School and Municipal side of the
town. This is always an interesting time
of year. The residents get to sit back
and see what our elected officials determine to be important and what is not. It
also is a time in which the people find out how much their taxes are going to
be for next year.
Last year, Councilors Pesce,
Bickford, Metivier, Brunelle and Crafts decided to cut the School budget by at
least $600,000.00. This caused a massive
problem for the School Department and cost the taxpayers a great deal of money
in legal fees. It would appear that Councilor Metivier is
going to challenge the School Department budget again; so get ready for an
another very costly year.
I have very little knowledge
about the School side of the town’s budget but I do have what I consider a good
understanding of the Municipal side. So,
I will only talk about the Municipal side.
Thanks
to the previous leadership of the town, Lisbon is a haven for individuals with
little or no credentials to be place in positions with outrageous salaries. The major two individuals
are Ryan Leighton, Director of Public Works and Superintendent of Sewer and
then Fire Chief Sean Galipeau. Ryan
Leighton combined salary is over $80,000.00 and the last time I checked he had
a Grade 2 level for the Sewer Department which requires by the state that the
individual be at least a Grade 4 to operate the facility. The Fire Chief is supposed to have a bare
minimum of Associate Degree in Public Safety and he has been working on his
Associates for twelve years. The town is
paying him roughly $67,413.00 according to last year’s budget.
Former Councilors Pesce and
Garrison was looking into ways to save taxpayer money and determined there was
a cost saving of approximately
$199,000.00 by closing the Lisbon Communication Center. The Town Manager estimated the savings at
roughly $163,000.00. I determine it to
be closer to $250,000.00. Whichever
number you want to choose, it would be a significant savings to the
people. So where do we stand on this
issue? The Sheriff and County would like the
emergency services for Lisbon to be by the Androscoggin County Dispatch. However, this
initiative has been stopped by Councilors Pesce, Bickford, Metivier, Brunelle and Crafts. According
to Chairman Bickford, the question is if the people want to close the Lisbon
Communication Center will appear on the November ballot. I was under the impression that we elected
these officials to make this type determination so we could save money
now. Also, there will be no facts put out to the people so once again the
people will be voting without the benefit of ALL the facts.
Now, we have one
Administrative Assistant which receives roughly $10,000.00 tax dollars more
than any other Administrative Assistant in the town. This same individual Job Description is so
outdated it is not funny. By the way, the Ethnic Panel determined
that this individual was not doing what is in her Job Description but the
Department Head never rewrote the Job Description to coincide with the duties
she is actually doing.
It appears that Lisbon’s salary structure is
NOT determined by the duties you are performing but by what previous leadership
determined they wanted you to have.
Lisbon has individual’s receiving large salaries and they no credentials
to support these salaries.
There are plenty of
reductions that can make on the Municipal side before anyone does a hatch job
on the School Department. I agree the School Department needs to
reduce its operating cost but I trust the School Committee and Richard Green
make the cuts.
Larry Fillmore
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Saturday, February 27, 2016
RECAP TOWN COUNCIL WORKSHOP – FEBRUARY 25TH
Last Thursday the Town
Council held a joint workshop with the Lisbon School Board to discuss the
2014-2015 Annual Audits. The normal
audit review is done in December but since the town changed auditing firms it
took longer to prepare the report. In
order to show a comparison, the firm had to collect data for several years past
which took some time.
The new firm is RHR Smith
& Company and a Mr. Greg Chabot went over the audits. It was an intense review and showed, in my
eyes, what I already knew. Former Town
Manager Stephen Eldridge and Former Finance Director Jessica Malloy really did
a number on this town. The significant
findings were only two which can be found in the actual report on pages 78
& 79, which the audience could not keep.
According to the Town Manager, it will be posted on the town web site
but it is not there now.
Mr. Chabot also provides the
audience with an eight page “Management Letter” which outlined twelve (12)
minor deficiencies. This new firm did a
thorough audit and the results were clearly stated. The Town Manager, Diane Barnes and the
Finance Director, Edward Karass did not dispute any of the findings. The majority of these finds date back for
year’s prior Mrs. Barnes and Mr. Karass arrival.
It is going to take a long
period of time to correct the mess created by Mr. Eldridge and Mrs.
Malloy. The Town Manager and the Finance
Director have been working on these areas for some time now and will continue to
eliminate these deficiencies as quickly as possible.
I believe that both the Town
Council and the Lisbon School Board thought the audits were done fairly because
there were few, if any, questions. I
believe Mr. Chabot did an outstanding job explaining the audits.
Larry Fillmore
Friday, February 19, 2016
LISBON FOOD DRIVE
Other Collection locations are at the Town Office and Rogers Insurance.
EDITOR'S NOTE: LET'S EVERYONE GET BEHIND THIS WORTH WHILE CAUSE!!!
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
ELECTION RESULTS
Town of Lisbon
School Budget Validation Referendum | ||||||||
January 12, 2016
| ||||||||
School Referendum Results
| ||||||||
Ward 1
|
Ward 2
|
Total
| ||||||
QUESTION 1: Adopt Lisbon School Budget
| ||||||||
Yes
|
134
|
184
|
318
| |||||
No
|
49
|
57
|
106
| |||||
Blanks
|
0
|
0
|
0
| |||||
QUESTION 2: If you voted No, was it because the budget is:
| ||||||||
Too Low
|
16
|
21
|
37
| |||||
Too High
|
29
|
33
|
62
| |||||
Blanks
|
4
|
3
|
7
| |||||
Ballots Cast:
|
183
|
241
|
424
| |||||
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
A CITIZEN'S OPINION
Recap of Lisbon Council's Special Town Meeting ---The one you probably won't be allowed to see
Lisbon's 12/22/15 Special Council Meeting was difficult to watch.
This meeting wasn't a compromise between the two governing groups in Lisbon it was more like the School Committee blackmailing the Council into giving them everything they wanted or face another election that would cost Lisbon taxpayers another $3,000 dollars.
The audience (mostly the Schools "Special Interest Group) seemed to revel in a false sense of power and was heard making statements like
"We got rid of the A_ _ _ _ _ _ this year and we will get rid of the rest of them next election." and
"Blackmail oh well" as if it didn't matter that the School Committee was breaking their laws and blackmailing Lisbon taxpayers.
IF the townspeople are ever allowed to view the recording of this fiasco they will see the Councilors almost begging Ms. Austin to tell them what they can do to pacify the School Committee. At one point the Council Chair got so frustrated with Ms. Austin's lack of compromise that he actually allowed her to make the Council's resolution.
The School Committee was so full of a sense of entitlement that they brazenly broke one of the main laws governing their conduct.
I personally heard one of the School Committee Members stating to a gentleman in the audience that their conduct was Illegal, but that didn't stop her from going back into another illegal private caucus with her fellow Committee members.
The School Committee's only desire was to suck more and more money out of the taxpayers of Lisbon without any compassion for the elderly and less fortunate in Lisbon.
The meeting ended with the Town agreeing to pay for a large portion of the Schools SRO officers salary. The town doesn't have the money to do this but unlike the School they are willing to do the best they can for the good of the Town.
Some at this meeting said it didn't matter if the School broke the law as long as they got the results they wanted. They felt the end justified the means. I disagree with this philosophy. I feel laws should apply to all equally. The law the School Committee broke is there for a reason and should be obeyed.
At least one good thing will come from this infraction of our laws. We will find out which of our School Committee Members has the integrity to do the right thing and RESIGN for the good of Lisbon.
Sadly
Joe Hill
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