Opinion: The Comptroller’s report to be addressed

Dear Editor,

Recently it has come to light that the comptrollers report has been made public since September. I apologize for not distributing the report and going over it at a board meeting. 

The clerk and I had a meeting with the comptroller’s office months ago to go over the report and discuss a corrective action plan. We then prepared the corrective action plan, which has been accepted by the comptroller’s office. (I am new to this and didn’t realize the audit and report had become public.)

I understand there is a concern that the finances are not being taken seriously, while this has been quite the opposite. In order for our village to succeed we must be financially sound. 

When the current board took office we faced many challenges, the transition was far from smooth. We inherited a village with a police department faced with over-running their budget by $180,000. This was due to poor budgeting. 

We made cuts to the shifts and cut spending in almost every village department to finish our year as a village as a whole in the positive on the books. Our bookkeeper retired, since then we have hired a highly qualified CPA to fill in the position and train the staff in our office. 

Our Audit reports that were due to the comptroller’s office that were very seriously behind are continuing to get wrapped up and back on track. This was started under the last board and continues under the current board using the same third party CPA firm to help the village catch up on these reports. As you will see in our corrective action report to the comptroller we are quickly catching up and almost caught up. 

The board is taking all of the comptroller’s concerns very seriously. The concerns addressed in the report are issues we have been working on since we came into office. We will continue to address these issues and make our village financially sound. 

I did make the comment in our last board meeting that we as a board have been very busy, which is true. In the recent months we have had to replace two board members due to resignations and bring new trustees up to speed, and we have been researching and hearing from residents about the housing development off Montrose Avenue so we could make the best decision for the village on the zoning change. 

We also had to review phase 2 bidding of the Waste Water Treatment Plant upgrade project. None of these are excuses, just facts; behind the scenes we are still working towards the goals set forth in the corrective action plan and working closely with the clerk’s office to provide better oversight. 

This topic will be on the agenda for our next board meeting on Nov. 5. 

Sincerely,

Michael Baratta III

Mayor – Village of Owego