Sanford News - Letters to the Editor

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Letter dated December 2007

Letter to the Editor – ACTON AT RISK

I take issue with the reporting of Andrea Rose on the auditor’s findings dealing with the fiscal and assessing problems at the Acton Town Hall. The more meaningful story to the taxpayers of Acton is the fact that we have incompetent and unqualified people running our Town. Do we elect another unqualified person and continue doing business as usual, or do we start making changes now?

Ten Acton citizens met with the board of selectmen and Ron Smith, the auditor of R.H.R. Smith on December 17th to discuss his findings. Stating he was representing the townspeople, Mr. Smith went on to elaborate as to why our Town is in serious trouble. TAKE NOTICE! THIS DOES AFFECT YOU!

Mr. Smith stated the Board of Selectmen serve as the Assessors of the Town. This is defined in Maine State Law (36 M.R.S.A., s/s 701A, 708,709,711, 841). However, Nancy Ruma, Jim Driscoll, and Tony Cogliandro abdicated their fiduciary responsibility and their statutory obligation as assessors to the assessing agent, Rod Wood, and other “in-house” employees. None of the above mentioned selectmen took the initiative to educate themselves by taking a Maine certified approved class on assessing. Consequently, many policy deficiencies, valuation oversights, property abatements, lack of documentation in assessing records, and other assessing issues were caused by their lack of understanding the assessing process and their poor communication with other parties. The Board of Assessors (Selectmen) is ultimately responsible for the accuracy of assessments. Our Town is at risk because the Board of Selectmen failed to learn the rules and regulations of assessing so they could make accurate and informed decisions.

To make matters worse, over the past year, Selectmen and other in-house employees have been moving data across three different computer assessing programs: Northern Data, Briteside, and TRIO. Too many unqualified in-house employees were given access to the programs. The three programs are not compatible. Consequently, we may have essentially lost our baseline for assessing. A full revaluation of the entire Town was only completed about 4 years ago and now that data may have been compromised. The implications of this are far reaching. What is the ultimate cost to the taxpayers of Acton going to be?

One of the recommendations made by Mr. Smith was that we hire a professional full time manager to handle the every day management of Town business affairs, including fiscal affairs. Mr. Smith went on to say that it’s become even more apparent with these assessing issues added to the past fiscal issues as cited in previous audits done by his firm and the State of Maine, Dept. of Audit. Other recommendations included: Selectmen need to review their role as assessors and their statutory obligation to the Town. We need to hire “qualified in-house” people. The Town of Acton is a multi-million dollar operation. We need a voice of reasoning.

Selectmen need to develop a Policy and Procedure Manual, and job descriptions. He emphasized the time for change is now!

Two nights after this meeting during the Candidate’s Night event, three candidates; Tony Cogliandro, Pat Hannon, and Dana McGlincey stated they would not support the recommendation of Mr. Smith to hire a full time manager. In fairness to Dana McGlincey, she stated she didn’t know anything about how Town government worked, so she would vote the same as the others. This is not a voice of reasoning. A vote for any one of these three candidates is a vote for “business as usual.” Mr. Smith’s warnings need to be heeded in order to keep the Town of Acton solvent.

As an Acton voter and taxpayer, you owe it to yourself and other Acton residents to get out and vote on January 8th. The polls are open from 8am to 8pm. We need to pass the citizen’s petition for recall of elected officials. This is the only way to deal with individuals who have been elected to office but are unable to do the job. Any responsible and qualified person doing their job should not feel threatened.

Pam McAlinden, Acton

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OPEN LETTER TO CITIZENS OF ACTON:

Three members of the Acton Warrant & Finance Committee appear to have a conflict of interest.

One individual "used to be" (changed from original article) a member of the teacher negotiation team for the teacher’s union while sitting on the committee. He is also a teacher in the Acton Elementary School. He receives a direct benefit, from any discussion and/or vote while sitting on the Warrant & Finance Committee. He is also a partner and employee of his 1st cousin who happens to be a road commissioner. There again, he profits from any discussion and/or vote while sitting on the Warrant & Finance Committee.

Two other individuals also appear to have a conflict of interest. One is head of the maintenance department at the Acton Elementary School with his mother as a member of the school board. The other is the spouse of a teacher. Both of these individuals profit directly from any discussion and/or vote while sitting as members of the Warrant & Finance Committee. None of the three individuals mentioned above has recused himself from discussions and/or votes during meetings I have attended.

Although it may not be illegal for these individuals to sit on an advisory committee, it certainly is unethical. A seat on the Warrant & Finance Committee in Acton carries a lot of weight. The recommendations of the Warrant & Finance Committee carry a lot of weight at Public Hearings, Special Town Meetings and the Annual Town Meeting.

According to Maine State Law (Title 30-A,s/s 2605;1,6): “The vote of a body is voidable when any official in an official position votes on any question in which that official has a direct or an indirect pecuniary interest. Every municipal or county official shall attempt to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest by disclosure or by abstention.”

According to the Maine Municipal Officer’s Manual, there is case law dealing with conflict of interest: [....there is a case law standard defining activity which may constitute a conflict of interest. That standard is “whether the municipal official by reason of his interest, is placed in a situation of temptation to serve his own personal pecuniary interest to the prejudice of the interests of those for whom the law authorized and required him to act” Lesieur v. Inhabitants of Rumford, 113 Me. 317 (1915), as cited in Tuscan v. Smith, 130 Me. 36 (1931).]

Familial Bias (Title 1, s/s 71; 6) is a disqualification statute which reads: “When a person is required to be disinterested or indifferent in a matter in which others are interested, a relationship by blood or marriage within the 6th degree according to civil law, or within the degree of 2nd cousins inclusive, except by written consent of the parties, will disqualify.”

The procedure for handling bias: “As with conflict of interest, an official who is legally biased must abstain from both the voting and the discussion as a board member on the issue before the board.”

The people of Acton deserve equal representation on all boards and committees without bias and without any conflicts of interest. The Town of Acton for years has been operating diametrically opposed to Maine State Law. This problem needs to be addressed now.

Pam McAlinden
Acton

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Letter appeared in May 8th issue of Sanford News

CLUELESS IN ACTON

Who’s clueless in Acton? Most of the people in Acton remain oblivious as to how our town government is being run. This unawareness does not stop there! Several selectmen are also kept out of the information loop. Selectmen must work together as a team to provide leadership for the Town. Decisions need to be based on “what’s best for the town” and not what is easy.

One of the functions of our three selectmen is to serve as assessors of the Town. The chair has been in office for almost eight years now. During this time frame, she has never taken a class on assessing. Consequently, we have continuous problems with the assessing of real estate and personal properties. We elected a former selectman in January to serve until June of 2008. Although, he is a certified assessor, a single selectman does not have the authority to make any decision on his own. The third selectman only took office last July.

The chair’s leadership skills do not allow her to accomplish what’s best for the Town. For her, it’s best not to make waves. She would rather be a friend to everyone. Her choice is to make no decision rather than make any decision. This is not a leadership skill. This is the worst possible personality trait a leader could have when sitting as the chairman of a board responsible for running a town government. Quality leadership skills include: a visionary outlook, the ability to select employees willing to work as a team, the ability to motivate, and the ability to take action and make tough decisions. Effective leadership is impossible without confident decision making and consistency. A quote by James Schorr rightly sums it up: “Some of the most talented people are terrible leaders because they have a crippling need to be loved by everyone.” Perhaps the chair should step aside.

Because critical decisions are not being made and we do not have an informed, unified board, the operation of Town government is extremely dysfunctional. We have several Town employees who, with the knowledge of the Chair, have circumvented the whole budget process by bypassing the entire Board of Selectmen. Department budgets are supposed to be submitted to the Board of Selectmen for review and recommendations. The budgets are then presented to the Warrant & Finance Committee for their review and recommendations. It was quite obvious this past week at W. & F. meetings that two department heads changed the rules of town government. It appeared that two of the three selectmen had no clue and no prior information about the budgets from these two departments.

In a memorandum dated Feb. 20, 2008, the Board of Selectmen requested of all department heads, and committee chairmen to limit their 2008/09 budgets to “no more than or less than last year’s budget request.” The Fire Department and the Transfer Station Manager complied. Most of the social service agencies fell in line with the Selectmen’s directive even though requests for their own services have increased. The Library only increased its budget by about $1000, but it’s still under $13,000. The Treasurer submitted a budget for $79,476, an increase of $11,268. The Town Clerk/Tax Collector submitted a budget for $88,972, an increase of $3,879. Both budgets included raises for themselves. These two individuals bypassed the Board of Selectmen and took their budgets directly to the W&F Committee in order to manipulate the budget process. So the question has been, and still is: “Who is running the Town of Acton?” Isn’t this a very public display of insubordination on the part of two town employees? Is this type of action “in the best interests of the Town of Acton?” We need selectmen that, as a team, have the courage to make the tough decisions and stick by them. Do what needs to be done. The people of Acton deserve nothing less!

The majority of people in Acton are totally unaware as to the lack of leadership at the Town Hall and who is actually running our town government. Until our contract with MetroCast allows us to be able to sit in our living rooms and watch our Town government in action, those of us attending meetings will keep you informed. But the next time you go to the polls to vote, please ask yourself, “Am I voting for personality and name recognition, or am I voting for the person who has the intelligence, knowledge, and quality leadership skills necessary to run our town government?” We all pay a price for each other’s bad choices.

Pam McAlinden
Acton

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Letter to appear in Sanford News on May 15th

ACTON – MAY 20TH SPECIAL TOWN MEETING

On Tuesday, May 20th, at an open town meeting at the Acton School, the voters of Acton will vote on 18 Articles pertaining to the school budget. This is an extremely important meeting to attend since the vote from this meeting sets the dollar amount to be voted on subsequent secret ballots where no dollar amount will appear.

The school administration has put out a flyer informing the public about the secret ballot vote on June 3rd, but they chose not to inform the public about the May 20th meeting. There will be no dollar amount displayed in the question on the ballot June 3rd. It will be a YES or NO question. The dollar amount will already have been set at the May 20th meeting. So why bypass the May 20th meeting when it appears obvious that this is the most important meeting since the voting results from this meeting sets the dollar amount for the school budget in future secret votes in June?

There may be one explanation. For the first time ever, someone has questioned the Acton School Board about the budget they submitted to the Warrant & Finance Committee for approval. They are asking for an additional $1,493,250.00 more than what the State says we need to educate the children of Acton. How do you justify such an amount over the amount recommended by the State?

When did volunteer positions at the school become so specialized they had to be taken over by “classroom educational technicians”? What are the educational requirements for a classroom educational technician? Who decided that taxpayers now need to pay for what volunteers used to do? We have 4 regular classroom educational technicians that we pay $70,574.21 total. This does not include the six special education classroom technicians that we pay $108,293.25 total. No wonder the cost of education has gone up exponentially. We used to have a very strong volunteer program. What happened to it?

The State Department of Education says we need 17 classroom teachers for the 281 students at Acton Elementary. We have 24.4 classroom teachers at an average salary of $47,792.50. The State also says we only need 2.8 classroom educational technicians and not the four we now have.

The State says it should only cost $5863 per year to educate one child. According to the school administration we spent $9205 on each child but there is no year for this figure. According to the State, in 2005/06 we spent $10,841.97 per child. Today, it is costing between $11,000 & $12,000 to educate a child at the Acton Elementary School. Our cost is more than double what it needs to be.

If we don’t start saying, “NO”, our real estate taxes are going up 30-35% this year. How many families can afford this kind of increase with the current price of groceries, fuel, and home heating costs?

Contact your friends, neighbors, and relatives and ask them to PLEASE ATTEND the Special Town Meeting on MAY 20TH and VOTE to keep the school budget down.

Pam McAlinden
Acton

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For some unknown reason this letter did not appear on May 15th. It was sent in two days early.

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To appear in the Sanford News Thursday, May 22nd

HIGHWAY ROBBERY

With 28 snowstorms and over 160 inches of snow, I think we can all agree we had a very difficult winter this past season. However, does this justify the Town of Acton spending $8353 per mile for winter maintenance, while surrounding towns spent between $3613 and $4960 per mile? We all had the same number of snowstorms. The two Acton road commissioners had no viable explanation or comment.

The Town of Newfield maintains 37.5 miles of road during the winter months. Their total contracted winter maintenance budget for 2007/08 was $130,000. They spent an additional $3000 for salt, and $2500 extra on sand. Total cost per mile: $3613.

The Town of Lebanon maintains 87.9 miles of road during the winter months. Their total winter maintenance budget was $326,000 which included salt, sand, and plowing. The total spent on salt was $83,747 (600 ton over the normal 1300 ton); the total for sand was $45,410 (3000 yds over the normal 4000 yds). Subtract that total from the $326,000 and you get $196,843 for snowplowing. The road commissioner went back to the town for an additional $150,000 but only spent $110,000. The total budget expenditure was $436,000. Total cost per mile: $4960.

The Town of Shapleigh maintains 60 miles of road during the winter months. With a regular winter maintenance budget of $150,000, the town spent $224,089.93 between Jan 1st & April 15th. For the month of December 2007 they spent $ 58,125.88; a total budget of $ 282,215.81.
Total cost per mile: $4703.

Before the Town of Acton gave up maintaining 12 camp roads, they had 59 miles of road to maintain. According to the original Camp Road Study Committee, there were 9.2 miles of camp roads being maintained. The Town now maintains 49.8 miles of road during the winter months. With a regular winter maintenance budget of $160,000, plus $70,000 for sand & salt, the town agreed to fund an overdraft of $186,790 for a total winter maintenance budget of $416,000. District 1 went over the snowplowing budget by $70,348; District 2 was over by $66,555; Stockpile was over budget by $49,887.
Total cost per mile: $8353.

If we had had a contract to put all road work out to bid, and the contractor had abided by the budgeted amount of $187,616 voted on last June for winter maintenance, it would have cost Acton taxpayers $3767/mile. This is more in line with what it should have cost us.

Now let’s go back to the winter of 2006-07 when we only had 5 snowstorms. Newfield spent $115,671 of a $130,000 budget; saving $14,329 or 12.4% of their total budget. Lebanon spent $65,000 out of their $80,000 budget, a savings of $15,000 or 18.75% of their total budget. Shapleigh spent $126,000 of a $150,000 budget, saving $24,000 or 16% of their total budget. Acton had a total budget of $160,000 and went over by $18,000.

This year the District 1 Road Commissioner is asking for a total budget of $307,902; an increase of $105,815 over last year. The District 2 Road Commissioner is asking for a total budget of $322,755; an increase of $103,329. They are asking for a 38% increase for winter maintenance, and a 54.2% increase for summer maintenance. For every $100,000 increase in the commitment, there will be 18 cents added to the tax rate. As of May 12th, the new figure being considered for calculation of the tax rate would be to add $2.60 to the current rate of $8.90/thousand for a new tax rate of $11.50. If your total evaluation is $300,000 then your tax bill will go from $2670.00 to $3450.00, an increase of $780.00/yr.

PLEASE ATTEND TOWN MEETING, JUNE 14th, and vote these increases down. Just because we had one bad winter, there is no justification for these high increases. Perhaps we need to think about cutting out one road commissioner position, and putting all road work out to bid in the future. The Town would certainly save a lot of money.

Pam McAlinden
Acton