Dear Editor,<\/p>\n
The \u201cTaxpayers First\u201d \u201c3 Point Plan\u201d 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\u201d party and we were told – \u201cdon\u2019t take our word for it\u201d, so I didn\u2019t, and to \u201cread for yourself on the comptrollers website\u201d, so I did.<\/p>\n
I obtained not only the one page audit summary but also the full 10 page audit and the village\u2019s 3-page corrective action plan (C.A.P.), and apparently one of the few things correct in the \u201cTaxpayers First\u201d platform was \u201cdon\u2019t take our word for it\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was not a \u201cscathing report\u201d. It did not \u201cissue a stern warning of penalties if action was not taken.\u201d After the audit the mayor issued the village\u2019s initial response to the comptroller\u2019s recommendations and appointed a committee including the finance commissioner and other village trustees, not some \u201cTaxpayers First team\u201d, and they responded in our C.A.P., saying we would implement the comptroller\u2019s recommendations.<\/p>\n
And what is this \u201cTaxpayers First team\u201d 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
It recommended that employees in the clerk\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
This was not a \u201cscathing report\u201d. It was a routine audit meant to help the village provide financial best practices and comply with state guidelines.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cTaxpayers First Team\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hopefully you\u2019ve 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\u2019t trick them into deciding what you want them to decide.<\/p>\n
Very poor governance.<\/p>\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Rusty Fuller<\/p>\n
Owego, N.Y.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Editor, The \u201cTaxpayers First\u201d \u201c3 Point Plan\u201d platform has, as its first and presumably most important policy pillar, the recent audit of village financial…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters"],"yoast_head":"\n