FINANCE COMMITTEE REPORT

FINANCE COMMITTEE REPORT

02/13/13

 

As you know there was a Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday; which lasted a little longer than usual. While the meeting is usually held in an echo chamber there were citizens who actually attended and participated. These citizens were genuinely interested and had valuable input. I love to see democracy in action as opposed to democracy inaction. The latter promoted by the lack of citizen participation.

I could bore you with the details of the agenda items but you can read about that in the FC minutes which will be posted upon approval. The main items I’ll share with you are about the topic of the day, the water company. After discussing many of the problems with the water company accounting procedures we resolved to initiate a course of action. This action will likely be added to the town meeting warrant. I’ll post the proposed letter to the BOS and give my own thoughts. Then perhaps as a community we can press the “reply all button” and have a civil discussion on these matters.

The first action was to request a detailed audit of the water fund. Now some would comment that we have an audit done every year and they would be correct. However, you would have to ask yourselves why this discrepancy has never been uncovered by the auditors. The answer is; we need to spend a little more money for a more detailed audit. What follows is the proposed letter in its entirety.

 

 

To:                                                                                          February 13, 2013

Board of Select

          Town of Egremont

          Egremont Ma. 01258

 

From:

          Finance Committee

          Town of Egremont

          Egremont Ma. 01258

 

Mr. Chairman

 

In light of recent events concerning the billing, collection and accounting practices for the Egremont water company, the finance committee finds that it is in the best interest of the water users and the taxpayers of the town of Egremont that these matters be fully investigated.

Therefore, the Finance Committee has voted (6-0) to request that the Board of Select approve sufficient funds to pay for a detailed audit of the Water Company current and past practices regarding revenue collection, billing, receivable aging and other enquiries as requested by the Finance Committee and the Board of Select.

 

 

Respectfully Submitted

 

____________________________

    Kevin M. Zurrin

    Secretary

 

 

When this request is submitted it is left to the Board of Selects discretion as to whether or not to call for a complete audit. We as the finance committee can only make the request. However, it would seem to me that in the interest of transparency and accountability that the BOS would want the town to know all the facts. We’ll find out at the next BOS meeting when I submit the request. Hope to see you there. Another citizen action was proposed but I’ll post that in a follow-up report either tonight or tomorrow.