Epsom Police Chief Wayne Preve said he’s lost two officers this year to other departments that offer higher pay and more opportunities.

Officer Joseph Lister left in April, about two weeks after the March vote, at which the town inherited its fourth default budget in a row. He took an opening with the Northwood Police Department.

Officer Korey Crochmal was finished with his duties in Epsom on Friday, July 4, and is leaving police work altogether, Preve said.

“We were pretty lucky for the past two years. We had a full staff. Of course, what really put a damper on things was the default budget,” said Preve, adding the department has seen some cost-of-living raises but is still lagging behind what surrounding communities are paying their officers.

Currently, Preve said, Epsom pays new recruits a starting salary of about $30,000 per year, or $14.44 per hour, after they graduate from the police academy.

That salary is much lower than the starting salaries for new officers in surrounding towns. Chichester starts at about $32,000, Pembroke starts at about $36,000, and Allenstown starts at just over $38,000.

By the time a brand new officer gets that salary, the department has already paid between $25,000 and $30,000 to advertise for and narrow down a new recruit, pay them for their police academy attendance, field training, all physical and psychological tests, and other costs associated with hiring new officers.

At the vote in March, a warrant article for a one-time salary and benefits increase for firefighters and police officers failed 539-367.

“Of course, it’s all going back on the raises failing. A lot of guys were holding on, hoping the raises would go through, and they didn’t,” Preve said. “They held on as long as they could hold on”

Preve said Lister actually came to him two weeks after the election and said he would not be leaving the Epsom police if the town had voted in the raises.

Preve is in the process of filling two vacancies in the department, and, after going through a candidate selection process, had only one viable candidate.

Allenstown sees same problem
While Allenstown’s pay is slightly better than Epsom’s, Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland said the department still has major retention issues when trying to compete with the larger departments in cities which offer significantly higher pay and more specialization opportunities.

“We’ve lost 46 policemen in 10 years,” Mulholland said. “We’re populating the police departments of Nashua and Manchester.”

Allenstown is likely to lose two more officers as well, Mulholland said, one to the Salem Police Department. Another has applied elsewhere but hasn’t been hired anywhere yet, Mulholland said.

In exit interviews, most of the people who left cited better pay somewhere else as their reason for leaving, Mulholland said. The department currently starts new recruits at $17.58 per hour, and that’s after dishing out $23,326 in compensation for the police academy, field training, uniforms, and everything else associated with a new hire.

“It’s the ultimate irony because we spend money to train these people and we wash out the ones who aren’t going to cut it,” said Mulholland, adding officers get their experience in small departments such as Allenstown and make all their “rookie mistakes” before moving onto a bigger and more financially beneficial department.

Hooksett openings
Hooksett’s starting pay for a brand new recruit, whom the town would have to put through the academy and field training, is $16.38 per hour, said Hooksett Police Chief Steven Agrafiotis.

The Hooksett Police Department lost four officers in 2007, including one who went to Florida and two who went to the Manchester Police Department.

The fourth one left a supervisory position with Hooksett to take an officer’s position in Massachusetts. “He said after his first year there he’d make as much being a patrolman down there as he did as a sergeant up here,” said Agrafiotis.

To attract certified officers with more experience, the Hooksett Police Department offers a lateral program in which, depending on experience, officers coming to Hooksett from another department can start higher up on the pay scale. That way, officers don’t end up taking a pay cut in going from a department they’ve worked at for a number of years to Hooksett.

“Does that maybe hurt a smaller community that can’t do that? Yes, but at the same time, if we want quality people here, we decided years ago we have to do this,” Agrafiotis said.

Agrafiotis also pointed out that Hooksett is a springboard for officers looking to get into the Manchester Police Department, and in turn the Manchester department acts as a springboard for state jobs and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Training ground in Pembroke Pembroke Police Chief Scott Lane said new recruits can expect to make $16.93 per hour in Pembroke after they’ve gone through the academy and training.

“Generally speaking, you need to rely on a salary and a half when a new person is coming in,” Lane said.

He added that himself and two sergeants on the Pembroke police force all came from Allenstown years back.

“Retention is an issue for everyone right now,” Lane said. “For the longest time, Allenstown was a training ground the Pembroke police hired from.” Lane said he lost an officer a few years back to state Highway Patrol, and another part-time officer who went to Concord.

“Most of the officers we’ve lost have gone on to more specialized training,” said Lane, adding that Pembroke police officers often specialize in certain areas to be more efficient and keep things interesting.

The police chiefs for both Candia and Auburn said they haven’t had to deal with high officer turnovers at their departments for several years.

Candia Police Chief Michael McGillen said his department had a pay raise matrix in place before he even came on board to stabilize the pay.

“It’s here in place because Candia did have a lot of turnaround in the late ’90s,” said McGillen.

Currently, brand new recruits can get $17.05 per hour in Candia after going through the academy and training.

Auburn Police Chief Ed Picard said his department has not seen a huge officer turnover recently, and has lost a total of four officers over the past decade or so to Manchester and a couple of others to Bedford.

Picard said new recruits typically make about $32,000 per year with the Auburn Police Department.

He added Auburn absorbed three officers from the Hooksett police and has acquired seasoned part-time officers who retired from other departments such as Manchester and Derry.

“We were fortunate when the town came to grips with the fact that it doesn’t make any sense to be penny-wise and pound foolish,” Picard said.

Epsom selectmen have made it a goal this year to chip away at hundreds of files of sealed minutes, to vote on whether to make them public or keep them sealed, said Selectman Joanne Randall.

“You’re going to see, this year, a lot of minutes getting unsealed,” Randall said. “There’s just too much undercover.”

Most of the files were rightly sealed, she said, but added there is no longer any reason to keep many of them from the public.

There is no law that sets a time limit on either how long or how briefly minutes should be sealed. For minutes related to legal cases, the minutes must be sealed at least until the case is resolved, but do not have to remain sealed for a specific amount of time.

The board is going to hire an additional office worker for the Town Hall, and pulling out some of these files to bring to the board each week would be one of that person’s tasks, Randall said.

The files would likely be reviewed by board members Keith Cota, Bob Blodgett and Randall during the week. Selectmen would vote on which should be officially unsealed at their weekly Monday public meetings, Randall said.

She added many of the minutes currently sealed have to do with legal cases, including the legal battle over road agent Gordon Ellis’ firing in October 2006.

Currently, the only people who have access to sealed files are the Board of Selectmen and the town’s secretary, Randall said.

“Most of the sealed minutes only have basic, general information in them anyway,” Randall said, in the unlikely event the minutes should accidentally be leaked.

Another year, another pair of default budgets for Epsom’s school and town expenses.

The town must adhere to a budget of $2,469,882, as the proposed $2,882,220 budget was defeated 601-304 on March 11. Epsom is now on its fourth default budget in a row, but that doesn’t mean taxes stay the same.

The town budget will add 28 cents to the tax rate, an increase on the bill of a home assessed at $200,000 of $56.

The school district’s budget of $7,904,002 will represent a tax increase of 88 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value.

For a home assessed at $200,000, that translates into a tax bill increase of $176.

The school district must find $167,441 to cut to come in line with the default, while the to>wn must cut more than $400,000.

Town cuts
Selectman Joanne Randall said selectmen have decided not to weigh in too heavily on what the department heads decide to shave off their proposed budgets, but added the decision will be far from easy.

The town’s departments have become quite used to looking for savings in their budgets.

“It’s not the end of the world,” said the town’s road agent, Gordon Ellis. “I’m a farmer. We make do with what we’ve got.”

The Highway Department is already about $12,000 over its winter budget this year because of the heavy snow and the toll it has taken on the roads, making it difficult for Ellis to predict how his cuts will affect the department at this point.

And they still have April, November and December to cover, Ellis said.

“I’ll have to cover all my winter overages with my summer budget,” Ellis said, which would require eliminating most of the shim and overlay work planned for the roads as well as tree trimming and crack sealing.

The one thing he can’t save on is repairing the bumpiest roads in town.

“I have to do the potholes,” he said.

Fire Chief Stewart Yeaton, faced with a default budget that is $27,000 less than what he proposed, said some lines were already cut to comply with the default.

He said he took $1,000 out of the fire department’s equipment purchase line to split between the gas and oxygen funding lines.

“Everybody’s in the same boat,” said Yeaton. The police department has to find $23,217 in savings to fall in line with their default operating budget of $494,412.

Slightly helping that were Bow Dispatch fees that came in at $42,625, about $300 less than what was anticipated.

The department also cut out a school program that involved officer Cory Crochmal meeting with second-graders at Central School every other week to educate them about different types of officers, crime and police work.

“We’re going to tighten up on everything,” said Police Chief Wayne Preve, adding they have made concerted efforts to save money in energy lines, including lighting and heating. He added the department just lost an officer to the Northwood Police Department for a salary increase of about $600, and has plans to replace the officer after a new academy starts in a few weeks.

Part of the problem is that wages in Epsom for patrol officers are below average, and there is no incentive for officers to stay around. Consequently, the department ends up having to pay to put recruits through the police academy, many of whom go on to other higher paying departments eventually.

According to Preve, his highest paid patrol officer is earning $15.80 per hour. The lowest paid patrolman’s hourly wage is $14.40.

“The cards are dealt, and we have to deal with what cards are dealt to us,” Preve said. “We’re going to do our best with what we’ve got, and hopefully it’s enough to keep people happy.”

School cuts
School Board Chairman Barbara Doughty said the district will not replace two middle school teachers, one for the eighth grade and one teaching fifth grade, who are retiring at the end of the school year.

Other savings will be realized in overlapping some of the staff positions, one example of that being a combined second and third grade class.

This may increase the class size to about 22 students per teacher, Doughty said.

“It’s not ideal, but it’s what we have to do,” she said, adding the district is on a spending freeze and supply lines have been cut.

The board decided not to cut funding for sports programs, Doughty said, because doing so would not even cover the cost of one teacher.

According to School District Business Administrator Peter Warburton, Epsom spends slightly below the state average cost per pupil.

In 2006-07, according to enrollment and expenditure data, Epsom spent $9,427.61 per student.

Warburton said Epsom Central School Principal Patrick Connors has set up a good framework for realizing savings, having been through this a few times already.

“Epsom’s sort of used to it. They’ve lost more budgets than they’ve gotten,” he half joked.

Epsom’s Board of Selectmen will remain at three seats for at least two more years after voters re-affirmed their 2007 vote to decrease the number of seats on the board.

In a 275-495 vote at this year’s election, Epsom voters decided they made the right decision last year to go to a three-member Board of Selectmen after concerns about bureaucracy and special interests on the fivemember board surfaced.

A citizen’s petition this year asked voters whether they were in favor of increasing the number of seats back to five.

Supporters of the petition argued a three-member board would only create a situation in which one member would always have the final say on an issue, and that a five-member board provides a broader variety of interpretations and perspectives.

“The town’s going to be happy that we did that,” said Selectman Joanne Randall, adding a three member board would be more productive.

Zoning Board Chairman Keith Cota joined current selectmen Bob Blodgett and Randall in the three open seats on the Board of Selectmen.

At a public hearing on the warrant article in February, many Epsom residents stood up to say the decision to go to three members was wrong.

Several said they now realize the 2007 vote was a“kneejerk” reaction, not a reasonable course of action, given the growing town population and mounting legal concerns, plus the absence of a town manager or town administrator.

Fed up with legal and procedural actions taken by the board and particularly by two of the members, Epsom residents decided to eliminate the chances for those two to be re-elected by decreasing the size of the board.

Epsom voters also decided again not to pass the proposed town operating budget, making it their fourth year in a row on a default budget. The Board of Selectmen will meet with department heads in the next few weeks, Randall said, to discuss how the default budget of $2,469,882 will be used. The default carries a tax increase of 28 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

In the town’s only contested race for three open Budget Committee seats, Marylou J. Lafleur-Keane, Carol McGuire and David Fiorention got the positions.

Voters rejected the school district’s budget as well. The $7,904,002 default budget will increase the tax rate by 88 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

At the school district deliberative sesson in February, Epsom Central Principal Patrick Connors said the district would likely have to resort to staff cuts if a default budget was implemented for the coming year.

The only school articles that did pass were the funds for a four-year collective bargaining agreement for school support staff and $78,069 to remove asbestos floor tiles from Epsom Central school, which together will add 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed value to the tax rate.

A growing population, failing roads and maintaining experienced police and rescue workers have some voters and selectmen eager to get Epsom back on track.

About 55 voters turned out to the Feb. 3 deliberative session of Town Meeting. Some were adament about controlling spending, while others said the town can no longer wait to repair roads and bring fire and police salaries up to par with surrounding towns.

In the mix is the 2008-09 proposed operating budget of $2.8 million, which is about $525,000 higher than last year. If approved, taxes would increase $1.15 per $1,000 assessed property valuation.

If this year’s budget fails, Epsom would operate under a default budget for the fourth consecutive year. The default would bring spending to $2.46 million, meaning a tax increase of about 28 cents per $1,000 assessed property valuation.

Epsom Budget Committee Chairman Harvey Harkness said about 70 percent of the budget increase between 2007 and 2008 is for road projects as outlined in the town’s six-year plan.

“There’s no better time than the present to bite the bullet,” said Harness. “I believe it’s time to fix our roads.”

Of the 22 articles going to voters on March 11, four garnered the most discussion at the deliberative session: Article 3, which asks to pay $57,054 for six months salary, benefits and equipment for one police officer and one firefighter. Article 4, $82,815 for a one-time pay adjustment to annual salaries for fire and police. Article 9, rebuilding a portable salt shed to comply with state regulations. And, Article 12, whether the town should invest in a long-term lease for a Highway Department backhoe/ loader for $70,398, payable over four years.

In a combined effort, Police Chief Wayne Preve and Fire Chief Stewart Yeaton asked voters to approve articles 3 and 4 so each department can provide adequate coverage.

“I feel this is one of the most important articles we have to vote on this year,” said Selectmen Bob McKechnie about Article 3. “Because of the default budgets, our police and fire have had no raises and have brought us below comparisons.”

Both said call volumes are up because of growth, and each department assists other towns when needed.

“We can’t be relying on other towns. We have to take responsibility for our own,” said Yeaton.

Preve also presented a salary comparison between Epsom and 38 other departments across the state, and said a patrolman in Epsom earns $15.22 per hour, compared to Allenstown, which pays $22.34. For chief, the annual salary in Epsom is $50,764, while Allenstown pays $72,000.

Preve and Yeaton stressed safety and saving the town money by retaining qualified officers and firefighters. Preve said it takes time and money to hire and train officers, all to have them leave for higher-paying jobs in neighboring communities.

The pair fielded questions from residents, including Bruce Graham, who asked whether it was more cost effective to give a person a raise or to train them.

“I don’t want to become a training ground for other departments,” said Preve. “It costs the town money to train and pay them, then lose them.”

Yeston said his department has higher restrictions because he can’t hire firefighters/EMTs who are untrained.

“We have a lot of frequent flyers in our ambulance service and we need trained people who know the roads,” said Yeaton. “Do you want a new person working on you when you have chest pains, or do you want someone with a little experience?” Resident Dan McQuire questioned Preve’s salary analysis. “Allenstown pays more.

Might it be that Allenstown has a bigger police department than we have?” he said.

Resident Virginia Drew supported the move for additional fire and police and salary increases.

“I commend the chief, officers and the secretary,” she said.

“No matter what they’re paid, they’re out there protecting us.” A need for a town salt and sand shed also came under fire. After a lengthy discussion, Article 9 was amended adding the words “portable or permanent.” “This way, there’s more flexibility to either build a portable or permanent salt shed,” said Nancy Wheeler.

The article asks for $71,000, of which $39,000 would be raised from taxes and using $32,000 from a capital reserve fund. The fate of all 22 articles and the proposed operating budget is now up to voters. Voters will cast ballots on Tuesday, March 11, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Epsom Central School.

After several years operating on a default budget, the town of Epsom will see a 22 percent increase in the coming year’s proposed town budget, the majority of that increase devoted to road improvements town officials say have been put off for too long.

“It’s an accumulated need,” said Harvey Harkness, chairman of the Epsom Budget Committee, of the mounting road deterioration in town over the past several years, exacerbated by the flooding two years in a row.

The calculated default budget for 2008-09 is $2,469,881, almost $400,000 less than the proposed. If passed, it alone would raise the tax rate 28 cents.

This time around, Harkness said, was a bad year to request departmental increases due to the sliding economy and the need to devote significant funding to roads.

“We had a very difficult time on the budget and we’re faced with this accumulating deficit,” Harkness said about the needed road repairs.

“We felt the people of the town needed to see what our accumulating needs are amounting to. As each year goes by, it’s going to get worse,” Harkness said about getting out of the default budget cycle.

He expects that residents at the deliberative session of Town Meeting on Saturday, Feb. 2, will impose cuts.

Roads
Harkness said residents have been complaining about the roads being in disrepair for years, and wanted a long-term plan from the Highway Department which came in the fall as part of a capital improvements plan.

The default budget kept needed investments in infrastructure from happening during the past years, Harkness said.

The proposed town operating budget, without warrant articles, is $2,867,220, down about $32,603 from the selectmen’s initial proposal to the Budget Committee. Adopting this budget, without warrant articles, would add $1.15 per $1,000 of assessed value to the tax rate.

A warrant article bearing recommendations from the Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee asking for $63,000 to pave Epsom’s section of New Orchard Road, which goes into Pittsfield, would cause a 14 cent per $1,000 increase on tax bills.

“The road was not reconstructed and brought up to the proper standard for a road, but there was some work done on it in order to enable it to carry traffic,” Harkness said.

A Highway Department warrant article asks to enter into an agreement to purchase the backhoe and loading truck they currently rent. The total cost would be $70,398, spread out over four years in yearly payments of $17,600, which would come out of the Highway Department’s capital reserve fund.

Harkness said the Budget Committee members didn’t go for it because they felt a better machine could be purchased down the road, and they wanted more money to go into the capital reserve fund for unforeseen road expenditures.

Policy changes The Budget Committee cut $15,000 off the selectmen’s request for legal fees in 2008- 09, bringing the final number to $25,001.

The fund is for all legal expenditures to the town, including consultations and lawsuits against it. Currently, the town has several pending.

“We felt that it would be more prudent to go with a lower figure,” Harkness said, adding there had been a cost overrun on legal fees this year.

According to the line item, $20,001 was allocated for such legal expenses this year and $54,353 was actually spent.

A petitioned warrant article asks voters to approve a policy preventing any selectman from submitting an invoice for legal counsel to the town for payment unless the entire board votes to approve such a meeting or discussion first.

The last warrant article on the ballot, also petitioned, asks for a minimum of two bids from independent contractors for any work amounting to more than $2,000. The Board of Selectmen would decide which bid to go with in a public meeting should the article pass.

Departments
The majority of department increases selectmen OK’d also got approval from the Budget Committee.

Town officials said the increases in department budgets were more or less in line with what they should be, and just seemed more because of the current default budget.

The proposed Police Department budget is up 16 percent from its default number this year to $520,295. The Fire Department’s budget is up $27,235 from the current year’s default appropriation. Emergency Management saw no change from last year.

Both the fire and police chiefs expressed concern about salaries and possibly running over on their 2007 budgets.

“I can’t get through 2007 on a 2003 budget,” Fire Chief Stuart Yeaton said at a selectman’s meeting in September, citing rising gas prices and large expenses in their emergency response line that put them behind.

Police Chief Wayne Preve said he is worried about the salaries his officers get, which are below average and may encourage them to go elsewhere.

Epsom’s elected road agent Gordon Ellis sued selectmen for firing him in October, after they say he failed to obtain authorization for work the Highway Department performed.

In the state Superior Court suit, Ellis’ lawyer Lee Nyquist argued selectmen overstepped their authority when they fired Elliis, elected to two-year terms in 2003 and 2005.

At the 2007 deliberative session, several petitioned warrant articles asked for the removal of board members Bob McKechnie, Joni Kitson and Peter Bosiak, but were legally nonbinding.

Another petition was successful in cutting the board to three members, which will be implemented at this year’s election. Others petitions asked the board’s spending authority, particularly over the Highway Department, be significantly decreased.

Many outraged residents expressed mistrust in the board, alleging nonpublic sessions were too frequent and that too much was being spent in legal fees.

Bosiak passed away in July, his position filled by Bob Blodgett.

Epsom resident Dave Fiorentino filed a Right to Know lawsuit against McKechnie and Kitson, which he discontinued in September when it was costing him too much money.

In October, with McKechnie absent, Klose, Blodgett and Randall voted to dissolve the Road Agent Committee governing Ellis, giving him more discretion in his spending. Kitson voted against dissolving the committee.

Recently, both McKechnie and Kitson announced they would not sign off on invoices for the Highway Department, posing a problem for the Board of Selectmen’s three-signature policy should any of the other three selectmen be absent from a meeting, at which the invoices are typically signed.

Both McKechnie and Kitson declined to comment on the invoice policy, the Fiorentino suit, and various other issues associated with the past year’s rocky road.

Meetinghouse moves
In February, a special town vote to save the town’s historic meetinghouse, most recently home to the Epsom Bible Church, from certain demolition passed with voters. Later that month, it was moved a quarter of a mile down Route 4 on a wide-load truck.

The meetinghouse made it onto the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance’s Seven to Save list, which provided some of the funding for the move and repairs.

Cumberland Farms, which bought the property the building sat on, donated the $10,000 it would have spent on demolishing the building toward moving it instead.

In October, the NHPA held their annual meeting at the old Epsom town hall in celebration of the Meetinghouse’s move and to update members on the progress of the other six buildings on the list.

Plans for the meetinghouse, according to *** Frambach of Friends of the Epsom Meetinghouse, are to connect it to the library, a project that is estimated to cost about $950,000. Grants are being looked into to help with some of the costs.

Time to move?
For Ken and Carolyn Stiles, the speeding car driven by Efrain Perez, 24, of Manchester, was the third car to drive into their home in 12 years.

The couple lives on the corner of Center Hill Road and Route 4, and in June they narrowly escaped injury when Perez’s Cadillac sped at 96 mph and flew into the Stiles’ living room.

A Northwood police officer pursued Perez over the town line in a 3-mile chase which ended in Perez’s arrest.

Perez attempted to flee the scene, running down an embankment in the back of the yard and breaking his ankle.

Questions on the town’s invoice-signing policies in Epsom arose after it was determined two selectmen have been withholding their signatures from Highway Department invoices.

Nancy Wheeler, in charge of submitting and reviewing the town’s invoices, said the selectmen’s policy requires three signatures on department invoices before they can be paid. Part of those that are not paid are resubmitted to the board the following week for the appropriate signatures, but some of them have been paid regardless, which could put the town in a tough position with the auditor, she said.

On Oct. 1, selectmen voted to disband the Road Agent Committee and raised their discretionary funding allowance to $2,000 from $200 without needing a purchase order from Road Agent Gordon Ellis.

Selectman Bob McKechnie was excused from the meeting, and the vote passed 3-1, with Selectman Joni Kitson voting against it.

Invoices from the past two weeks show that neither Mc- Kechnie nor Kitson have been signing off on the Highway Department’s expenditures, including invoices for True Value, Concord Sand and Gravel, New Hampshire Mobile Repair, Your Crushed Stone Source, Davis Fuels and others.

Only two signatures were obtained for those invoices, as Selectman John Klose was absent for their submission to the board on Monday, Nov. 5.

Kitson declined to comment on why she has not signed the invoices, and McKechnie did not respond by press time.

At a meeting on Nov. 12 at which all board members were present, according to minutes, McKechnie said he would not sign the Highway Department’s invoices, adding that any invoices from other departments without his signature were oversights.

Kitson, according to minutes, said the entire board was not present when the RAC was eliminated, nonetheless the motion passed. She later said that she would not sign invoices she disagrees with.

Wheeler pointed out that if Kitson and McKechnie would not sign those particular invoices, and any of the other selectmen were absent from the meeting, the bills would not be paid on time.

She added that the invoices in question did not have questions or notes of concern on them for discussion at the following meeting.

Wheeler said the town’s yearly audits have been good, but that if the auditor selects a paid invoice with only two signatures, it would result in a write-up. She said the board should follow their own policy of three signatures or change the policy.

Most of the invoices come in by noon each Monday, Wheeler said, and are submitted that night to the board for signing. After that, she checks the invoices and writes the appropriate checks, she said.

“There’s nothing wrong with the policy. It’s the fact that certain selectmen are deciding to protest,” said Selectman Joanne Randall, but added that the invoice-signing policy would likely need to be changed to ensure that the town is following procedure.

Randall said it is all right for the selectmen not to sign off on something if they have a specific question or concern about it that they can note on the invoice for investigation, but most of the invoices have no such notes or inquiries on them.

“It’s not OK just to not sign it. If you’re not signing it because you don’t like the road agent and you don’t agree with the policy, that’s not OK,” Randall said, referring to the new purchase order policy.