Dear Editor,
The “Taxpayers First” “3 Point Plan” platform has, as its first and presumably most important policy pillar, the recent audit of village financial operations by the state comptrollers office for a one year period in 2013 and 2014. Statements were made by the Taxpayers First” party and we were told – “don’t take our word for it”, so I didn’t, and to “read for yourself on the comptrollers website”, so I did.
I obtained not only the one page audit summary but also the full 10 page audit and the village’s 3-page corrective action plan (C.A.P.), and apparently one of the few things correct in the “Taxpayers First” platform was “don’t take our word for it”.
It was not a “scathing report”. It did not “issue a stern warning of penalties if action was not taken.” After the audit the mayor issued the village’s initial response to the comptroller’s recommendations and appointed a committee including the finance commissioner and other village trustees, not some “Taxpayers First team”, and they responded in our C.A.P., saying we would implement the comptroller’s recommendations.
And what is this “Taxpayers First team” on the village board. I thought our elected trustees were the Village of Owego team. About the audit. The purpose of the audit as stated by the comptroller was to determine if the village’s financial operations had adequate oversight and to help local government effectively and efficiently manage them. This audit was not instigated by any suspicious or claims of monies misappropriated or missing nor were any found to be. It found that there was only one disbursement account for all of the village’s fund accounts and recommended having individual disbursement accounts for each fund account for efficiency and transparency. It recommended that these accounts could then and should be more easily reconciled monthly.
It recommended that employees in the clerk’s office rather than having sole control over a fund have additional oversight. And it recommended that with these changes, the annual update document (A.U.D) (our annual audit to the state) could and should be filed in a timely manner.
This was not a “scathing report”. It was a routine audit meant to help the village provide financial best practices and comply with state guidelines.
Secondly, on the sewer plant upgrade project, when the bids came in and were excessively high they were rejected by the village board. Sewer Department Supervisor Ron Horton did almost all the work with engineers to redo bid specs to reduce the potential costs and new bids were sent out by the village board. Not some phantom “Taxpayers First Team”.
Hopefully you’ve seen my other letters on the ruse of bringing bad policy plans to voters with bad, wrong, or deceptive information and hidden agenda under the guise of letting the voters decide. Always let the voters decide. Just don’t trick them into deciding what you want them to decide.
Very poor governance.
Sincerely,
Rusty Fuller
Owego, N.Y.
