Friday, September 24, 2010

Town manager's recent news comments

"We will provide a lot more reports then they've ever had before on the financials," he said, "There will be treasurer's reports made available. The selectmen's meeting I think will provide a lot of the information that people have been looking for."

What you think?

40 comments:

  1. Don't think that lack of reports is the problem. The problem is the people that can read reports and people that can create them.

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  2. Please adjust the poll at the right of the screen, we cannot read the results, it is far to light. Thanks

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  3. Reports are useless unless they contain accurate information. Lou

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  4. Oh please do fill us in on sleeping beauty

    Rick-Van-Winkle

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  5. I hear tricky Ricky was asleep and was caught.

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  6. WTF if never ends.

    That is not possible, if true combined with his lying about the citizens petitions and then admitting it at the selectmen's meeting he would be gone. What a gig, work all night at your limo job, sleep half a day at your day job and to top it off pick the days you want to sleep, no wonder he is rude he does not want anyone showing up at the town office. Now did Lois know he was sleeping on the job and not report it to the selectman, stealing time is no different then stealing money and not reporting it, in fact it is exactly the same thing. Is she going to claim she told her boss again, I suppose she can get away with it, even if she did tell him he was asleep and could not remember or do anything about it or verify either way about Lois telling him. As poorly as he has treated some in town I am surprised he is still among the employed, about time for the select few to grow a pair and clean house.

    If you are uncomfortable about firing him write the prick up formally, document the lying about sending or authorizing lois to send the petitions to the lawyer, document his nap time on our dime, have him sign it and suspend him for 10 months without pay. Then at the town meeting have him show up and fire him in front of the whole community.

    Now that would be awesome!!!!

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  7. Imagine ? I seriously wonder, what can one do to get fired in Newburgh ? Newburgh couldn't even get themselves together to fire Nancy Hatch. She took off and resigned. Cindy, hell Newburgh paid her until she confessed. What is up with this ? Looks like no one wants to supervise and be accountable? Someone needs to step up and take total control, NOW.....

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  8. Come on mighty Fixers, weigh in on this issue if you can straighten this out you will be able to repeat it over and over for another couple of years. It could start out like this, "the fixers discovered an employee sleeping on the job took action again, we (fill in the blank)". Most of the community would enjoy hearing about how you discovered and fixed the problem again.

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  9. When bedtime stories like this get out it makes you wonder how Teflon Rick gets away with it, I can not believe he is still with us. I also can not afford to be paying wages from my tax money for services not rendered, please tell me he was sick with the flu or had food poisoning or something that will make me feel better, please lie to me I am used to it.

    I would offer up this solution if you do not want to fire him maybe Rick could land a job as the manager of the bed-works or even a mattress tester for them. Rick what is your sleep number I figure it must be the same as your work number but just want to know for sure in case a taxpayer in town like ME needs to call you? Can you tell me what is your normal nap time I hear it is somewhere in between the open hours of the Newburgh town office. Seriously Rick, did you ever watch Seinfeld, even George Costanza was smart enough to set up a nice little sleeping/hiding area under his desk so nobody ever caught him taking his daily nap at work.

    Time to sweep him under the mattress either way, cut our losses and send him somewhere else for a sleep over. Town of Clifton comes to mind, I hear they will take just about any lowlife former town manager sleeping beauty that comes along, might be able to get Nancy to tuck him in every morning and help him get up and brush his teeth before he goes home at night.

    Sweet Dreams Little Ricky, I hope you are well rested when you get out of work everyday, I will continue to work hard to make sure I can pay my taxes and keep you going for as long as I can Fn stand it.

    Selectmen, we have seen enough pull the trigger now!

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  10. Homer-ly can Rick come work for you?

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  11. We voted for the promise the town would be run more like a business, I am sorry but if this happened in my business I would need to make some changes. I can tell you I have suffered through death by power point meetings that were hours long and struggled to stay awake at some of them over the years but sleeping on the clock is not acceptable in my managers eyes and fear of loosing my job has been enough incentive to keep me awake.

    I do not know if this story is true or not it seems far fetched, without any first hand details of the situation it becomes easy to jump and judge and say something you should not. Until all the facts are known it is hard to form an opinion but my gut feeling is if accurate and given the pain we have suffered as a community my suggestion would have to be to make the correct business changes in the town office.

    I hope this is just a bad joke!

    Jim Hopkins

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  12. I don't know anything about the sleeping rumor, but I can assure you there are many things happening with Tricky Ricky way worse than sleeping in the office. Facts not fiction for these ones. Won't be long and the fox that's guarding all the hens in the play-house will be caught. SNAP!

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  13. You can not tease us like that, if you know something that you claim are "Facts not Fiction" then feel free to share.

    Also sign your name.

    Jim Hopkins

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  14. Belcher seems to have put in an acting town manager, in the name of, quoting his bankruptcy petition, Ricky Briggs. Belcher and Smith didn’t leave without trying to undermine the taxpayers and causing havoc.
    Briggs had no experience, Yes he called the Hampden meetings to order but his capacity was very limited. The only grant he has ever witnessed is W.T much less attempt to write. His creditability is one
    of very dubious nature and his Newburgh friends on the past board of selectmen would not complete a background check. They just never learned from Nancy Hatch or they didn’t want anything in his background, exposed.. When incompetence
    runs rampart it involves everything and controls every element of business. In this case, the town of Newburgh and our tax dollars. It is sort of like when Patten wanted to move in on Russia and our congress said, no. Then Norman S
    wanted to move in on Bagdad and was told, not to as we for some reason want to be thought of as good guys and go down thinking we did the right thing, it never happens. When you have rats and in this case, just totally incompetent folks who were only in it to stroke their own ego, you need to clean house or it lingers on as the potential for
    major setbacks is very great and basically assured. Most companies today, when someone is terminated, they are escorted out then and there and relieved of their keys, etc. . That is to protect the safety of the business.
    It appears Newburgh needs to continue with the removal process here to move on and not delay any longer. Please Mr. Selectman, take back control of Newburgh and be the protector's, of our tax dollars.

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  15. Selectmen,
    You have every right to perform a background check on Rick Briggs, if that was one of the requirements of the town and was just another oversight by the previous selectmen it can still be done. You have that right to assure all is kosher and the town assets are secure. But prior to that you should just politely ask him to leave for non-performance, lying and stealing time (sleeping on the job) just to name a few. Someone told me when Rick the slick was introduced at the selectmen's meeting he gave a moving speech and clearly talked about how the selectman could ask him to leave at any time, no problem. He went on to say his goal was to help get the town back on it's feet and get us to town meeting, these were his words. Now here we are a couple of months after town meeting, his performance has been sub-par, he has gone out of his way to alienate citizens and one new selectman, been caught lying, been caught sleeping on the job and he is still representing the town.

    Which one of you are afraid to let him go? If you are unsure how to get it done legally ask MMA for help, do not let this linger any longer. If yo are afraid of him then he is absolutely the wrong person to have at our town office. Do us all a favor and cut the cord ASAP.

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  16. If the town manager acting or not, is guilty of not one, but any of the issue's that have been mentioned then, we have been had, yet once again and he needs to go, immediatley. You don't run a business like this and if any one didn't respect and didn't do what their supervisors wanted, they would of been asked to seek other opportunities, elsewhere, period. Why are we in the delay mode ??????

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  17. Suggestion if leadership is an issue by the selectmen!

    Option A

    Step #1 Appoint someone acting town HR advisor/consultant, compile a list of issues with Rick and submit to this person, have them interview witnesses, gather facts, document findings, type up a letter for his personnel file, interview him, have him sign the letter or if need be write refused to sign and terminate him.

    Step #2 Repeat all in step one for Lois.

    Option B

    Do nothing and live with a dirty house for as long as you want.

    Guaranteed to have this Option #1 done in less than a day per person.

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  18. Get him out of there before he has an "accident" he must know you are on to him and his game why take the risk?

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  19. I would assume that from what I have read on this blog there were some lax management practices in the town of Newburgh in the recent and distant past, would that be a fair statement?

    Poster ANON 5-4 @ 8:12 PM Are you suggesting a mysterious back injury may be on the horizon? I have seen it before, also have seen an amazing rise in carpel tunnel injuries caused by non ergonomically correct work stations and no safety training program, these settlements can be huge and can take someone all the way to retirement. You have correct work stations with infinitely adjustable keyboard trays, proper adjustable chairs, keyboards and foot rests right? You have completed all the required workplace OSHA training including ergonomics, back safety and lifting training with documented training sessions and signed training rosters right? Some towns tend to be frugal with the training, furniture and equipment and use the old hand me down stuff to save money. The long term costs of dealing with phantom injuries may not be that cheep, these injuries often tend to come to the surface when times are tough and employees sense a low level of security. That is not the case with Newburgh right? The person in charge of making sure all these requirements are met is your town manager, the one you talk about above right?

    Good Luck Newburgh you may need it unless you pay attention to details.

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  20. Newburgh just doesn't get it. You needed to clean house. To delay is going to cost you, in the long run. who doesn't understand this ? Please use your business sense or even plain old logic.

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  21. Big talkers usually are not big action people, proven again and again, Mike B you did some talking now take some action.

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  22. Anonymous May 4, 2011 9:07 AM

    Are you sure the regulations you mention are for an office environment?

    I found your comments interesting and your references make it appear you have some first hand knowledge, I can find no office type workplace regulations on the OSHA website, do you know where these regulations are located or what the standards are, the 29-CFR's would be helpful.

    My company requires annual training on the three topics you mention plus about 12 others but we are engaged in industrial service work. If you know the site link to the office OSHA requirements please paste the link.


    Thanks
    Jim Hopkins

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  23. I guess in the town of Newburgh people think you can fix 10 years of corruption in 4 or 5 weeks. The new select board might need just a little longer than that. Give them a chance.

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  24. I submitted a response to Anon May 4, 2011 9:07 AM yesterday but it must have got hung up in the infamous filter so let's try again.

    You mention OSHA requirements and sound like you have some experience with this. I went to the OSHA website and could not find any standards that deal with an office environment. Do you know where they are located, or what the standards are by number that you spoke of?

    Jim Hopkins

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  25. How many weeks does it take to throw out a bunch of bad apples? I would think this could be done by Friday trash day.

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  26. I find it funny now that the fixers are in, "give them a chance" to fix things. Aren't these the same people who thought anyone working in the town office should just snap their fingers and have everything all fixed immediately after Cindy and Nancy were gone? Weren't the prior selectpeople supposed to have it all cleaned up in two days? Now, it's time to give everyone a chance? Funny how when the shoe is on the other foot the understaning level changes?!!!

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  27. Looks like some of the new selectmen have grown fond of Ricky Ricardo and like hearing his long winded answers to yes and no questions.

    Do we have a little tiff going boys?

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  28. From what I see and hear,One of the major problems and apparently there are many, is that Mr. Briggs isn't accepting of the role of EMPLOYEE AND EMPLOYER and as such it would be benficial to all, if the parting of the ways were at hand. We would like to have the town office open for a couple of hours on Friday and he wants the hours that the office is open, to suit him and not the tax payers. It isn't working for the town. Unless of course he is busy running copies through the copier after hours for his limo enterprise. Didn't think I knew, did you Mr. Briggs/

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  29. Good make sure we get our fifty cents a copy from his final paycheck, this is just another form of stealing like sleeping on the clock.

    As a taxpayer I would approve of you throwing him out and buying new locks for the building.

    What in the hell are you guys waiting for, get rid of him.

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  30. I find you funny Anon May 5, 2011 11:20 AM the former selectmen could barely snap their fingers let alone get something constructive done in any amount of time, the one thing they were needed to do was watch over the town operations and you know how they did with this. So no the expectation was not to have them accomplish anything useful that would be unrealistic.

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  31. The winds of change are blowing. A little birdie told me Lois and Ricky are quitting today. (WABI TV) What a bummer that would be. Guess the selectman who can't do nothing right knew what they were doing after all.

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  32. Really...the selectman don't have as much power as would like to think they have! Hope your all happy!!

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  33. As the northeast region manager of an international service company I have personally experienced this type of mutiny before, being the new guy in charge can be tough as most people do not like change and tend to inflate their knowledge and value and they breed resistance. Once people conspire as a group and make up their minds to react in this way, to quit and leave others that depend on them without proper notice the initial reaction is that of anger, disappointment and much sole searching. The reality is the opportunity is there to implement positive change and move on without distractions created by unhappy associates. We as a town have experienced this twice now in the past couple of months and with the last episode the selectmen will be again scrambling to fill spots and meet commitments to vendors and the citizens. What we need to remember is that the threat of exactly what happened is over, we no longer need to be concerned with being derailed every time we turn a corner in a new direction, the slate is clean.

    I can tell you in my experience by carefully selecting the correct replacements it does get better, after the initial shock of being abandoned is over and the new pieces start to fall into place the town will move forward with new energy, positive attitudes, and a new crop of dedicated staff without an agenda, we will be fine long term.

    In the short term, regardless of personal feelings we have a group of selectmen that can use our help and support to right the ship, let's get behind them and offer encouragement and advice to assure we turn this around as quickly as possible. Do not be afraid to engage them I am sure they will be all ears right now.

    Jim Hopkins

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  34. I sincerely hope that all Newburgh Citizens know that this was a staged event. Leave it to Belcher and Leona to come up with something to keep the town at odds. Soon everything will be behind us and we will prosper.

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  35. They are gone who cares about them anymore, let's move on and forget about them they have no one left to pity them.

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  36. Here Here, they must be so proud of their accomplishments, the have created a legacy of historic proportions if they only channeled their efforts toward positive achievements they would not look so much like the asses they really are. I am not surprised Buddy is a failure in business when you spend your energy undermining your neighbors, your fellow citizens and your reputation you have nothing left. Where is your integrity now Leona and Buddy you sold out the entire town you claimed you loved because you could not deal with a few that exposed your lack of life skills and your abundant arrogance.

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  37. Here's to here here. You are right on target.
    Why hurt your community when you are only disappointed in your own faults. Now, the town will realize what they have been dealing with and its, an ego trip without any knowledge. Upon Lois' retirement that the town paid for, you would think that she would want to help " the town" not hurt her own community but that remains to be seen as long as Belcher, Briggs and Leona leave her alone.

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  38. The State of Maine,cities and towns are governed by Maine Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Standards Workplace Safety & Health Division. If the enforcement officer shows up you must provide a complete inspection of the town including safety & training records. If you haven't don't allow the inspection you are talking major fines $$$.
    If you check with other communities nearby you will find that they have had a visit this spring.

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  39. Well said Jim
    Ty

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please be couteous!

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