Who is yanking who's chain?
Just like the snow I can no longer plow (no place to put it!), things seem to be piling up in the Town Clerk / Tax Collector's office in a fairly short amount of time. First it was the brouhaha over whether or not the Selectmen / Town Administrator had the legal right to evaluate the TC/TC for job performance and adjust the salary attached to the position. The Budget Committee covered this in its process - I believe that they (Selectmen and Town Administrator) cannot and will not try this again. The TC/TC salary will also be a line item in future budgets that can be watched by all.
Then there was the reassignment by the Town Administrator (or so I have heard) of one of the workers in that office. The ripple effect meant a cut in the hours that the office could be open. Hey, I liked that late hour option - one of the few depts open after normal business hours for us regular folk (and yes, I did take advantage of it).
Not a smooth move, folks!
Now let's add another one! From the Steamer (I really wish they'd have separate addresses / URLs for these articles!):
The Board of Selectmen has decided to look into other options for depositing town money after hearing last week from concerned town officials, particularly the police department, which is currently responsible for making the daily deposits.
Town Clerk/ Tax Collector Denise Morrissette explained the process that Gilford has been using for years to the selectmen and said that the procedure has worked fine and she saw no reason to change it. The Town Clerk's office counts and processes all the money received that day and places it in a locked bag in a vault bolted to the floor. The police department is then called, and an officer takes possession of the bag and deposits the money at the bank.
What could be safer than having our police do the transfer? Who really wants to mess with them over money?
[snip]
The statute now says that the treasurer can delegate someone to deposit money for the town as long as that employee is covered by the municipalities liability insurance. Morrissette noted that the town could add any position onto the liability insurance at no cost to the town, so the police department could easily continue handling deposits.
There are times that things that have been done for years may need change. Others, not so much.
However, the police department expressed concern with the current procedure and said that it was a safety hazard. If an officer has to go to an emergency call, then they have to be able to drop what they are doing and service that call. Having a great deal of money in a police vehicle would be unsafe for the officer and the money. The alternative of transporting a passenger to deposit the money could also create the same safety issue if an emergency call was received.
Taken at face value, I'd say, OK, it makes sense. BUT! How many times in the past has this really been a real problem here in Gilford? Yes, I've watched the call stats go up (and have watched what constitutes and is reported as a call as well).
C'mon, do we have THAT much crime or such a number of emergencies that the particular officer tagged to do the deposit cannot be taken "offline" for the small amount of time to do the deposit?
And really...
"I think we are making a mountain out of a molehill," said Morrissette. "The process has worked fine so far."
Now throw in the appearance of one "issue" after another associated with the TC/TC, usually of an adverse manner to Denise Morrissette. If I was a conspiracy type person......or more of a political Machievellian type person.....well....?
Selectman Chair Alice Boucher responded to Morrissette, saying that obviously the police department is not interested in continuing the arrangement.
Ms. Boucher, if you got the determination to say jump, they would say "how high, ma'am?". After all, Denise has it exactly right:
"They work for you, that's all I can say," Morrissette told the board. "They would do what you told them to do."
Exactly. It doesn't matter if the Police dept. doesn't want to do it - if the Selectmen say TO do it, they will. After all, the Selectmen are elected to make decisions - and the police, being employees, would have to follow those lawful orders (like it or not).
The key here is not the TC/TC, not the Police dept, not even the Town Administrator (although Evans Juris can overrule the Police department's non-interest as well), but the Selectmen.
I sometimes wonder who does work for who. After all, look over at the SAU - the bosses want to save the SAU money and be closer to the students. And LOOK at the SAU staff rebel against this. While it is nice to share the information, we pay a lot of buck to Dr. DiMinico to MAKE DECISIONS. We elect the School Board to make decisions. They made a decision. Deal with it.
Gee, is that a real turf battle - knowing that once the SAU office move over, those empty classrooms would never be classrooms again? And could never be filled by more teachers? In this case, the good Dr. and School Board is making the right decision.
The motto here at the 'Grok is to thank them when they're right, and spank them when they're wong. Gus, I've thanked you in the past.....but not this time:
Selectman Gus Benavides said that many businesses hire couriers to transport money and suggested that the town look into the cost of hiring a courier or figuring out someone who could be delegated to deposit the money other than the police.
Kibosh this idea quick as we do NOT, nor should not, have to spend money to do this! I'd rather keep the current process than pay an outside agency (heh!) to do it.
