Our Voice : Citizens For a Better Lebanon Maine

The town auditor made a recommendation at the special meeting for a “Town Manager”. As much as i would like to see better management of the town I would prefer to see to additional selectmen to spread the load and provide wider oversight instead of a Town Manager.

My sense is that our Selectmen are sincere and trying their darnedest to manage things. They are regular people like you and I, trying to oversee the affairs of the town but they’re hindered by inaccurate reporting, changing of accounting methods and mainly by not having any kind of operating procedure or bid framework to work within. Therefore, even with all the good faith effort they put forth, and the greatest intentions they operate with, they wind up to a spinning their wheels or being hoodwinked.

Two additional people could help the process by providing diversity of opinion, splitting of the work load, bring more oversight through improved availability and involvement. They also need a Charter and Operating manual or procedures that details this is how they do business. Any ISO certified company has this type of structure why wouldn’t a town as a minimum have a “ISO light” version?

I believe if we had improved oversight and procedures the Selectmen could operate with improved accuracy. The town would have never had the accounting fiasco over the recent years leading to our tax increase, it likely would have been caught much sooner.  Issues like the recent timber harvesting (“Timbergate”) could be avoided.  What do you think? Please vote and share you’re thoughts by clicking comment.

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