Below are the emails exchanged between Sandown Selectman Sandy Buco and Timberlane Superintendent Earl Metzler. We also publish the email sent by Timberlane Budget Committee member Arthur Green in response to Metzler’s reply to Buco.
Click here for the archive of Buco’s interview, which references these emails.
Click here for the archive of Green’s interview which also references these emails.
You will need to read this thread from the bottom up.
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Malicious Compliance at Timberlane RSD
From: “Arthur Green” <azgreen@comcast.net>
Date: Thu, November 20, 2014 10:29 pm
To: “Cindy Buco” <cindybuco@yahoo.com>
Cc: “Earl Metzler” <Earl.Metzler@timberlane.net>, “Kelly Ward”
<kellyward9700@gmail.com>, <lblaisdell@sandown.us>, “Nancy Steenson”
<nancysteenson@comcast.net>, “TRSB” <TRSB@timberlane.net>, “Cathleen
Gorman” <cgormanconsulting@yahoo.com>, “Donna Green”
<donnagre@gmail.com>, “Josh Horns” <hornstrsd@joshuahorns.com>,
<rich@girardatlarge.com>, <matt_rittenhouse@yahoo.com>,
<jniedzinski@eagletribune.com>
Mrs. Buco,
Thanks for including me in this correspondence.
Dr. Metzler comments in his note below that
For the record, you can find the information requested clearly posted on our web site.
The information referenced is the district’s response to my request for tax allocation information amongst the four towns. You may interpret this comment as suggesting that my request was unnecessary since the information is publicly posted. In fact, the information that I was obliged to demand under 91-A, and paid $20 to receive at 8:30AM on Nov 19, was posted on the district’s web site at 9:30AM on Nov 19.
Clearly, instead of requesting this information on Nov. 2, receiving no response for a full week, submitting a 91-A Right to Know request on Nov. 9, being notified on Nov. 17 that the information was available, and paying for it on Nov. 19 at 8:30, I should simply have waited patiently for the information to be posted publicly on Nov. 19 at 9:30 AM, and saved a lot of bother.
Dr. Metzler also reproaches you for not knowing that this information is not produced by the financial system, but rather signed off by the respective towns. It is true that the district charged me for 40 pages of information consisting of a 10 page packet for each town, and yours is one of the Sandown signatures.
Any misunderstanding is understandable, though, since my information request was very specific and was fully satisfied by a single page in the 40-page package provided by the district – the “FY2015 Cooperative Apportionment” document issued by the NH Dept. of Ed. Bureau of Data Management on Oct. 20. You had no way of knowing that the district chose to supplement this page in their response to me with numerous superfluous documents.
By the way, I was notified this morning by the district that my request under 91-A for the complete 2013/14 year-end financials, is ready for me to pick up, and I am planning to do so tomorrow morning. This had been promised at a budget committee meeting on Oct. 23, and files were posted on the district web site Nov. 6. However, I noticed significant gaps in the information which rendered the totals meaningless, and when I pointed out the missing information during the Nov. 13 budget committee meeting, the administration gave no indication of “reinforcing the concept of working together” to close the gaps. I filed the RTK only because of the lack of cooperation displayed by the administration at that Nov. 13 meeting.
I fully expect that the information I pay for at the start of the morning will be “clearly posted” (to use Dr. Metzler’s words) on the district web site before lunch.
Regards
Arthur Green
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Re: Bud Com
From: Cindy Buco <cindybuco@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, November 20, 2014 8:10 pm
To: “Metzler, Earl” <Earl.Metzler@timberlane.net>
Cc: Kelly Ward <kellyward9700@gmail.com>, “lblaisdell@sandown.us”
<lblaisdell@sandown.us>, Nancy Steenson <nancysteenson@comcast.net>,
TRSB <TRSB@timberlane.net>, Arthur Green <azgreen@comcast.net>,
Cathleen Gorman <cgormanconsulting@yahoo.com>, Donna Green
<donnagre@gmail.com>
My apologies to Mr. Ward.
On Thursday, November 20, 2014 8:44 AM, “Metzler, Earl” <Earl.Metzler@timberlane.net> wrote:
Ms. Buco – The intention has always been to work together. Thanks for asking. Since you signed the requested document you already know that our accounting system does not produce these. You may want to include Mr. Ward as he is also elected by the town of Sandown. I am sure you understand how Boards and Committees conduct their business. You can help by reinforcing the concept of working together. Thanks for offering to help by working together. You can find our Right to Know procedures clearly posted and can expect Right to Know requests to be treated as such. I thought I made that clear in August. For the record, you can find the information requested clearly posted on our web site. I look forward to working with you directly on our CIP.
Respectfully,
Dr. Earl F. Metzler II
SAU 55
Superintendent of Schools
Serving Timberlane and Hampstead
Phone: (603)-382-6119 Ext. 2217
Fax: (603)-382-3334
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message and any attachment to it is intended only for the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged materials. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail, delete this message and destroy all copies and backups of the original message.
From: Cindy Buco [mailto:cindybuco@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 5:22 PM
To: Metzler, Earl
Cc: Lynne Blaisdell; Donna Green; Arthur Green; Cathleen Gorman; Cathy Gorman; Nancy Steenson; Hans Nicolaisen
Subject: Fw: Bud Com
Superintendent Metzler,
You ask Lynne to share this email with the BOS from Sandown. She has so graciously has honored your request as she has in the past. Can you please explain why you wanted this shared with the Board? It is not very clear to me. It seems that you are frustrated in the email but I am not sure if you are expecting the BOS to address this in some manner.
I tried to watch the last Bud Com meeting as you mention to do and the Vimeo is not yet posted.
I try to attend meetings when possible to keep abreast of the activities of both the School Board and the Budget Committee but when I can’t I do watch the Vimeo recordings. My observations are not very pleasing however. I am actually quite offended with the lack of respect that is shown to the Elected Officials and I have to tell you that I am very disappointed in the lack of professionalism that you are portraying in this email. Being a Superintendent of the Timberlane School District I expect much more.
I am now going to ask that you stop addressing the Elected Officials with disrespect and when information is requested that you provide it timely and with the respect an Employee of the District should show to an Elected Official. There should not be a need for a Right to Know request because you should honor the law and provide information to the Officials as it is required of you and your staff. It is outright insulting that you charge these individuals who are also Taxpayers for this public information, to do a job they were elected to do.
The information that is required for the Bud Com Member to fulfil their duties should have already provided to them freely and openly and should not even need to be asked for. The information requested is available as the District has a very robust accounting system and reports should be able to be accessed very quickly and easily. If this is not the case I would be more than happy to take a trip to the office to review the system with Mr. Stokinger and have him walk me through why these documents are either difficult to access or not available.
I would like to see you work together with the Elected Officials of Sandown in a more cooperative manner and anything I can do to help facilitate that I am more than happy to assist. If that is your intention by sending the email than please let’s move forward in a professional manner respecting each other.
Sincerely,
Cindy Buco
On Monday, November 17, 2014 8:34 AM, Lynne Blaisdell <lblaisdell@sandown.us> wrote:
Lynne Blaisdell
Town Administrator
Town of Sandown, NH
320 Main Street
PO Box 1756
Sandown, NH 03873
603-887-3646
fax 603-887-5163
From: Metzler, Earl [mailto:Earl.Metzler@timberlane.net]
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2014 8:01 AM
To: Lynne Blaisdell
Subject: Bud Com
Lynne – Same old same old with our friends. Our Budget Committee has committed to a process to review the budget and has stuck to it. The complaining continues because if it does not go my way I will demand documents that either we don’t have or we have not produced yet. Then make it a RTK request and complain that they are not being honored. I even moved Bud Com to let AG make his presentation (which concluded with very offensive remarks). They (Bud Com) were pushing that presentation out to December because it interfered with the agenda that they ALL agreed to. Please share with your BOS. Please watch the last meeting…it will become even more clear how ill prepared and misinformed a certain member is. Thanks, Earl
Dr. Earl F. Metzler II
SAU 55
Superintendent of Schools
Serving Timberlane and Hampstead
Phone: (603)-382-6119 Ext. 2217
Fax: (603)-382-3334
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message and any attachment to it is intended only for the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged materials. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail, delete this message and destroy all copies and backups of the original message.
