Lets see if we can all follow some logic here for a moment. The Town of Derry has its own legal council who have been with this town for many years and with that comes a working knowledge and history which makes it a little bit easier than if we had to start with a new legal council for legal issues. Would you all agree?
Many times the issue comes up on the amount of dollars spent on legal issues and opinions and many times it comes up at the most political of times. Agree? The last two years especially.
Now when the town council decided to finally put to rest the McKinley/ Lake shore rd issue behind us- We find out that it will cost the taxpayers of this town many dollars. I am going to put behind the argument of whether or not it IS or ISN'T a public or private rd for now. The fact is that until last month, the town had these roads as private roads. No denying this fact.
The residents of this road to their credit came in front of this council for 2 years with their beliefs and opinions in hand and made their case that if they did not get their roads made public that a lawsuit would soon follow.
At last months meeting, when the vote came up to accept these roads as public, a question came up from new councilor Wetherbee. He asked legal council if we were approving the roads "as is" or according to the plot plan that was done long ago. The answer from Legal council? Plot plan according to RSA's. What happened? Four councilors voted to go against the advise of Legal council and voted as is.
The problem? Well I can tell you as the only councilor who has planning experience and as a realtor understand the ramifications of not heeding legal opinion and seeing first hand ( as all the councilors did as well) see the plot plan road was a lot longer than what actually is there. ( Meaning property owners have now officially encroached on town road). BIG BIG PROBLEM!
And now legal council ( knowing what a nightmare this could create) renders an opinion that the vote should be rescinded, then a survey should be done, then vote the right way to accept.
Did the councilors listen to legal council? Only three did. The other four voted to keep the things the way they are and NOT LISTEN TO LEGAL COUNCIL.
SO, today we paid for the legal councils first opinion, then because of a mistake of voting the first time ( Admitted by one of the councilors in public meeting) a second legal opinion to rescind cost the taxpayers and to add insult to injury, do not listen again and the topper of it all
Now the taxpayers will need to foot the $9000 bill to straighten out the survey.
The problem I brought up. It sets a bad precedent which will ultimately cost the taxpayers more money. The right way to do it you ask?
Wait until a survey was done on the road ( at a cost to the residents on that road. They were going to sue anyway remember. use that money to do the right thing) then come to vote on acceptance. It would of cost the taxpayers a hell of lot less money doing things the right way.
Cu dos to Councilor Wetherbee for catching on to the real issue early on. To bad the rest of the councilors did not listen.
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22 comments:
BC,
It seems to be that we've set a precedent with this. Are the taxpayers of this town now suppose to foot the bill for a survey of every private road when it comes before the council for acceptance. Why do we bother to even get legal opinions ... lets just let Coyle, Fairbanks and Carney make the rules and interpret them to suit their own purpose.
3 point shot for Wetherbee for catching it upfront.
A 2 point lay up you, BC for highlighting it in this blog.
A free throw for 1 point for Benson.
A foul for Fairbanks for voting for it the second time.
A flagrant foul on Carney for no particular sound reason. His reasoning makes no sense, why should ours; it might be better if he just cast his votes and keep quiet.
Automatic ejection for Coyle for assuming the role of town attorney; aside from that obvious conflict, he's demonstrated that he's simply not equipped for that job.
So 6:41 you claim Wetherbee is awake? Wow that is good news.
Please don't lecture us on thrift BC, after your votes on this budget. How did you vote on replacing the lawyers with the ones that bid lower? You are all so incredibly hypocritical.
anon 7:24,
Are you looking at the shelf price or Unit price when looking for lowest price?
anon 7:51,
We operate under a tax cap and have done so for the last 10 years. The foreclosures that you see could be for a number of reasons. Bad mortgage loan taken by buyer, Homeowners who thought their homes were ATM machines and sucked every dime out of equity as possible and other reasons. One should not be seeing a connection with town budgets and the reasons for foreclosures. Having said that, I understand people are having a difficult time with food, gas, oil as well. Please remember this. ONLY the town side of your taxes is HELD under a tax cap. Not the schools, Not the county and Not the state.
Yes thank (insert your favorite deity) for the tax cap.
BC- you missed the point (again). Yes, some of the foreclosures are a result of foolishness on the part of the owners. But when your neighbor's house is on fire is no time to give lectures on fire safety. To mix metaphors, if people are drowning we help them out, we don't push them farther under water with another tax increase.
There is FAT in the budget, nice to haves not need to haves. You left every bit of the fat in at the expense of struggling taxpayers.
BC If you work to get a tax cap for the school district you will be my hero. (Seriously) Lead us Mr. Councilor and we will follow.
A tax cap on School Spending in Derry. Light goes one.
Check this out http://www.eagletribune.com/punewsnh/local_story_132020829.html
On another budget topic:
Take a look at the numbers for Derry, Salem and Londonderry. Check out time firefighters in Derry.
From the silence I would guess that BC doesn't want to infuriate the school cartel by pushing for a school tax cap. I will have to find heroes elsewhere.
10:18 I'm not sure I understand your points can you elaborate?
anon 6:03,
Wait a minute.Lets look at this for a moment. #1) We would have to become a city and to do that would have to change our charter. There has been alot of people who have spoken AGAINST becoming a city because it makes it seem like we lose our tiny town feeling. #2)We MAY have to change our form of government to an Elected Mayor and 7 Aldermen instead of just town admin and councilors and #3) Not sure how a tax cap would work with Pinkerton in the equation.If their private/public status would have effects on a cap or would they be pulling money from grades K-8?. Anyway the first step would be to set up a charter committee to explore becoming a city. Did you want to start a petition?
No BC, you as a private citizen can lobby our reps to change the state law to allow a school tax cap. We don't need to go to extremes and open the "city" can of worms. I wasn't suggesting that the council cross the line into school business but you are respected by many and if you lead the charge interesting things might happen.
BC, if you think the school board is going to let us do anything to cap their budget you must be kidding. Interestingly, you never see anything about the school board meeting agenda beforehand ... if many of us knew that they were going to give the superintendent a 5% raise, some of us may have objected to that. We should all go to work for the school district, I could use a 5% raise.
anon 4:53,
Its not up to the school board to decide but the Derry residents. Remember its the citizens that decide their fates
BC - I love your last comment! Therefore nothing is your fault, it is our fault for electing you. You're off the hook. It's all our fault for putting trust in public officials!
anon 7:47,
Yes you are correct. If you don't like the job I'm doing then you are 100% correct. But remember, that there are some who are happy the elected me and happy with the job I'm doing/ Go figure!
And therefore if a public official violates that trust (e.g. embezzlement) the public should go to jail. I think you are onto something. If the individual voters who put fools in office were held personally responsible we might have a much different country.
BC Said - "working knowledge and history which makes it a little bit easier than if we had to start with a new legal council for legal issues. Would you all agree?" NO! It is this type of 'old network' that is bringing us down! Change is in the air!
BC said - "The fact is that until last month, the town had these roads as private roads. No denying this fact." Absolutely wrong! Derry has no official town road map registered with the County. Therefore Derry has NO OFFICIAL road designations!
BC - The right answer is for the council to spend the $9k on a road designation study that lists ALL roads according to RSAs. THEN VOTE AND REGISTER IT! This will solve all legal issues in this realm! ALthough I am not sure Boutin would agree, cause he makes buku bucks solving these for the town ... what do you think? Maybe you should go hire Boutin for your answer ;).
anonymous 8:43,
That is a good one, unless you have absolute lifetime employment!!!!!!!!!! like alot of our Derry Officials.
AH , but now you cant even downsize. So much for a tax cap!!!!!
Anon 6:55,
I'd love to see where any Derry town officials have lifetime employment. Show me the proof.
And DON'T show me a piece of a newspaper article that "proves" your statement. Show me a quoted piece of contract or HR material that proves your statement.
As for the City of Derry, NH.... It's not really a matter of "If", it's only a matter of "When".
*sigh* It's spelled "Kudos".
So Anon 6:13 ... how long have YOU worked for OUR town? And I should ask ... how long have you been paid by OUR town?. Because your response obviously tells us you work for the Town. Folks walk in with good intentions and then get LAZY and fall back on bumpin' rights keep instead of findong a new challenge. Soon the challenge becomes keeping your job!
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