Meeting Highlights:
- Minutes were read and approved
- The Budget Committee had not met in two weeks due to lack of Budgets being available from Selectmen. As it was Budgets were NOT received until the until the meeting tonight so there was really no business acted upon since the material could not be reviewed.
- Selectmen Patch and Cole were in attendance.
- Concerns were raised with the Selectmen over the time line only having seven remaining weeks and lack of available budgets. It was explained they are doing the best they can and expected the Fire Department to be completed tomorrow with other following.
- Selectmen Cole explained the need for everyone to attend the County Budget meeting next week. He explained how the county was doing more with less but do to State funding cuts there presently would be about a 6% increase to the towns. The Budget Committee moved the meeting date up to Tuesday so that members may participate.
- There was some discussion on the Schools. There was desire to hear from the School Board and to see if they might be able to meet with us to share. Participation by the townspeople is paramount during the process. Last year maybe 20 people attended.
- Information requested a couple weeks ago was handed out which included vendor lists, and salaries for town employees. There were also examples of mileage expense slips from various people. The most notable was a slip for Jan 2010 by selectmen chair Frizzell submitting for going to the Town Hall which the Budget Committee pointed out last year was to be stopped.
- Of course there was more…
The meeting ran about an 43 minutes..
The Lebanon online video archive is available Here. Here you will find all of the Selectmen and Budget Committee meetings.
Watch 02-11-10 Lebanon Maine Budget Committee Meetinga in News | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
Could somebody please explain what vendors do? Also could a list of vendors please be posted on this site? How does one sign up to be a vendor?
Also, do the selectmen normally get paid for mileage to and from? Since this has been going on for a while, don’t you think they should pay it back to the town’s people? Maybe so much out of their pay? It seems only fair………
Selectmen and employees of the town submit mileage for travel and errands. The Budget Committee raised the issue last year that Selectmen should NOT submit mileage for going to the town Hall to do the job. It was understand that the practice would stop, but to the contrary the Budget Committee just discovered that it is still being done. The Budget Committee is somewhat powerless to enforce anything. We were told that no changes would be made to the budgets we review.. So my suggestion to residents is to watch the meetings, learn the issues, and if you don’t the budget items, vote them down. You can also call the Selectmen and complain.
Vendors are people or companies that supply products or services to the town. The town report has the complete list of vendors and how much they were paid.
Just for my own information, and because I don’t know – so I’m asking here. Can anyone tell me if the Town CEO is elected or appointed, and how long is the term for that position?
I believe the CEO is appointed. The only elected positions are Selectmen, Road Commissioner, and Budget Committee
“Would a town manager enforce these permits, subdivision fees, and take the place of a CEO?”
No. A Code Enforcement Officer is not required for each town. The new building codes are being written with the possibilities of allowing homeowners to hire and pay for 3rd party inspectors who would inspect structures like buildings, sheds and decks before granting a permit by the town. This is being done to allow towns to not have to pay a CEO.
The Planning Board collects subdivision fees.
I am under the understanding a CEO is required. I thought the question came up a couple years ago and the Selectmen said the CEO is required by the State or County. I could be wrong.
Here’s an idea about a subject that’s been bothering me. Can someone post how much the selectmen are being paid a mile to go to meetings? Remember, they are having two meetings a week? Maybe that’s why they changed the workshop to being a meeting, so they COULD put in for additional mileage?
Another question,… is Bob Frizzell claiming mileage from his business to the meetings and back, or from his home to the meetings, and back? That’s an awful lot of tax payers money going out the window. I think a lot of us would like to get reimbursed for driving to and from our work, but I don’t know of many employers that would support that idea. Why should the taxpayers have to???