...Paris selectboard will meet at 7pm 12-13-10, at the town office. Agenda posted here. Readers will note that the now infamous golf cart discussion will be included, again, #11. Doesn't seem to be listed under unfinished business (original topic came up at the two previous meetings)... perhaps there is to be a new approach to this brought-up-before... tabled... unfinished-because-it-needed-more-information old business? Thus it becomes new business...?
And item #6b. employee resignation. Mmm...yes...
However, in the interest of continuing to take stock, to see what is working in Paris at this moment and what is not...back to #11. Not to beat a dead horse...but there is a point of interest to focusing a bit more on what might be behind the board's concern in this issue. TPR does not believe that the selectboard is refusing to support preventive measures that will make our population safer. The target(s) of concern in the agenda item appear to have become the individuals themselves, the ones bringing up the item; and the process, in fact perhaps even the thinking behind the process, that the individuals have now used more than once in their approach to the selectboard. [editor's note: see Backtracking, TPR 11-29-10]
The Advertiser Democrat, 12-09-10, p.4A, published well-put-together coverage of the 12-06-10 selectboard meeting's discussion of the issue. See Matt Hongoltz-Hetling's "Open Ledgers Insure Transparency in Paris."
Note the last 2 sections, excerpts printed here from Manager Tarr's comments:
"The current board wants more involvement in financial matters...It appears that they will reserve for themselves the right to approve all expenditures..."
"This is fine, as long as it is clearly articulated, which the emerging purchasing policy will do...However, it is still a couple of months away from a final version."
TPR poses the following questions concerning management skills, and who should be checking on these skills, if we are paying with taxpayer money for someone to use such:
*Last sentence in Manager Tarr's comments "...still a couple of months away..." : So, for the next couple of months management cannot use common sense, cannot possibly know what to do - or... could it be...can still use that excuse to do whatever he feels like until told otherwise on paper...?
*"More involvement in financial matters..." Well how dare they? How dare the selectboard look over the shoulder of an employee in whom it is beginning to look as if they do not have total confidence? How dare they consider that taxpayers might be getting concerned?
*And consider this:
Is the manager just now getting the message that the selectboard wants to be in the loop? Where has he been? How hard is that? Do we need to list for him all the items the board has brought to his attention - that the rest of us already remember? Current Purchasing Policy or not.
*Consider the difficulty if Paris has a manager who cannot think outside the printed page... or uses that for an excuse.
