GilfordGrok

Filed under Appreciation.

At our last Town's Budget Committee this past Thursday, the BudComm Chair read a letter from our Town Clerk / Tax Collector that nearly had my jaw dropping onto my laptop keyboard:

“Recreation Center of New Hampshire”

Telephone: (603) 524-4713                                    Denise Morrissette, NHCTC

47 Cherry Valley Rd.                                              Town Clerk - Tax Collector

Gilford,New Hampshire 03249    

EMail: dmorrissette@gilfordnh.org

Memo:

To:       Board of Selectmen; Budget Committee
CC:       Town Administrator; file
From:    Town Clerk – Tax Collector
Date:     December 10, 2008
Re:        2009 Budget Adjustment Request

This memo serves as a request for a reduction in salary in the amount of $2,173.00 (3.75%) of the Town Clerk – Tax Collector (line item #01-4140.1-100) for the 2009 proposed budget.

This memo serves as a request for a reduction in salary in the amount of $2,173.00 (3.75%) of the Town Clerk – Tax Collector (line item #01-4140.1-100) for the 2009 proposed budget.

As this budget was due back in August of 2008 the original request was being made inline with the overall budgeted request for town employees.  However, due to the economic downfall I am requesting that the line item remain the same as budgeted in 2008 at $57,952.00 and appreciate having my job and benefits currently provided to me by the Town of Gilford taxpayers.

THAT is an elected official putting the needs of the taxpayers first.  Here is an elected official that shows appreciation for her job when others in the private sector are losing theirs.  She didn't have to do it; no one asked her to do it.  But because she and her staff deal with the taxpayers every day, she related to me (I called her the next day) how some of those come in almost in tears of not being able to pay their property taxes, or having to really choose between paying and other important issues in their lives.

This is why I get SO mad at politicians that seem to be so cavalier about spending taxpayer money on things that are wants, or even vanities to the politician's ego, instead of only those things that are the proper role of government.

Well done, Denise, and thank you!

(Cross-posted at GraniteGrok)

Posted by Skip at 08:06 PM | Permalink

A non-partisan group called the VoterFraudSquad was going around the blogosphere during the run up to the election trying to gather reported instances of voter fraud from all over the country (given the publicity that ACORN generated for itself with fraudulent voter registrations).  One of the folks that belong to that group, Eric Odom, came to New Hampshire, and I was delighted to point him towards Denise Morrissette to find out how voting was supposed to happen here in NH.

Please watch the video!

Posted by Skip at 07:48 AM | Permalink

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...

Continue reading "Who is yanking who's chain?" »

Posted by Skip at 08:01 PM | Permalink