Well the mystery
is solved; most of the unaccounted for funds have been accounted for. I’d like
to be able tell you that monies were found and we’ll see a surplus in the water
fund, but I can’t. Unfortunately we will not see one thin dime of it. What
happened is that in addition to massive write-offs and abatements there were
many months that the water users were just not billed. In fact, in one year
alone there were only nine bills sent out. Now I’m sure there’s a valid reason
for not sending out the bills, but each and every month that the users were not
billed, it cost the town over $14,000.00 in lost revenue. This shortfall had to
be made up by the taxpayers.
It is the
commissioner’s job to make sure the water company is being run properly and we
need to find out what went wrong. However, this problem has been going on far
too long to blame only the commissioners and the administrator. How many times
did the various selectmen and finance committee members go over the revenue
reports? How many times did the town administrator record the revenue numbers?
We’ve had study committees, auditors, accountants and all failed to notice why
the numbers didn’t jive? But it’s all water under the bridge. Since we can’t
recoup the money we have to go forward and guard against this happening again.
Since this
startling revelation was made the water commissioners have been working to solve
this problem. To their credit they’re putting policies in place to make sure
this doesn’t happen again. The commissioners have voted to bill the users 12
times per year. While this sounds absurd, the commissioners wanted to assure
the taxpayers that they would not allow this sporadic billing practice to go
on. The water commissioners also voted to raise the debt service to $40.00 per
month. While this increase does not cover the total cost of the actual debt
payment which has ballooned to $117,000.00 due to the rewritten loans; it does
help reduce the subsidy that the taxpayers will be asked to cover.
I don’t know
what the fallout from this will be, but I think ultimately the town and the
water company will be better off for it. As there was really no delicate way to
deal with this issue; this is the good, the bad and the ugly of it.
I want to see some heads roll
ReplyDeleteThat's what town meetings and elections are for
ReplyDeleteThis is a disgrace.
ReplyDeleteWho is responsable for sending out the bills? Why didn't he do his job? Who does he report to? Why didn't that person check?
We need to get a new auditor. Our current one is obviously incompetent.
Where is the BOS in all this? What responsability do they have for not staying on top of this?
As suggested above, A LOT OF HEADS SHOULD ROLL.
If a bill didn't go out, shouldn't/wouldn't the balance just roll over to the next month's bill?
ReplyDeleteIt was my understanding that when a month or two were skipped the user would not be billed for the $32.22 debt service or the $44.60 minimum; They were just billed for the extra gallons which amounts to a few dollars.
ReplyDeleteAnd have no fear The BoS is on the job, they're trying to remove me from the finance committee. This should take care of the problem.
Jack Muskrat is in charge of the billing.
ReplyDeleteMy purpose as a citizen was to bring this out into the open. The FC will write a report with all the facts and figures, and I may contribute to this report if I remain on the committee. All these questions you ask are excellent and need to be asked. You should start by asking Mary as she is both a BoS member and the administrator of the towns business. I would also ask why those being billed did not bring it to the attention of the water company that they weren't being billed enough. ;-? We do have a new auditor, supposedly! I guess the responsibility ultimately rests with the voters, we elect the people who are supposed to administer the will of the people as expressed at the annual town meeting.
ReplyDeleteI had to read this again. At the town meeting I heard Flynn say that it was him and the Mike guy on the finance committee that discovered the problem. Before this I heard nothing about what was going on in the water company. Charly you sanctimonious SOB. How dare you take credit for this and shame on mike for letting you give him credit for this. It's bad enough you took him off the finance committee but to take the glory for solving the water company issue you should be ashamed of yourself.
ReplyDelete