Article 1
December 2008
Veuve Clicquot, anyone?
The observations of one outraged Milan resident on the planning of the Town’s 2009 budget...READ MORE

WHAT’S IT GONNA TAKE?!
Despite Being Handed the Solution on the Proverbial Silver Platter,
Our Republican Management Continues to Do Nothing to Fix the Town’s Finances

No. 9 in the Series, from an Outraged Milan Resident
By Evelyn Bartin, August, 2009

Fact:      The town’s finances, under the management of Republican    Supervisor Richard Barrett, are a mess.Fact:      For months and months, Barrett tried over and over again to assign blame for the mess to others—i.e. the previous bookkeepers, the current bookkeeper, the bookkeeping software, the past administration.

Fact:      During the many months of Barrett’s financial blame-game/witch-hunt, he wasted the town’s time, energy and money pointing fingers and/or searching for non-existent demons rather than acknowledging his own inadequacy.  Notwithstanding, the reason for the financial mess that is Milan eventually surfaced with certainty—in short, Barrett has proven to be incompetent as our town’s “CFO.”

Fact:      Several months ago, in an effort to begin remedying Barrett’s mess, Democratic Councilpersons Diane May and Ross Williams appealed to the NYS Office of the Comptroller for their help.

Fact:      In four successive town board meetings (March through June), Democrats May and Williams also suggested the need to bring in a certified public accounting firm, preferably one that specialized in municipal fund accounting.  The town’s Republican majority (Barrett and Councilpersons David Byrne and “Bobbi” Egan) did their best to ignore May’s and Williams’s repeated requests. They did this despite May’s managing to secure a free (free!) consultation with such a firm, Pattison, Koskey, Howe & Bucci, CPAs, P.C.

Fact:      In the July 13, 2009 town board meeting, two of the three Milan Republican board members were in attendance, Barrett and Byrne (Egan was M.I.A.), along with both Democratic board members, May and Williams. In this meeting, Barrett and Byrne finally (finally!) agreed with May and Williams to proceed with the free consultation with Pattison, et al. This was subsequently scheduled for a special town board meeting one week later, on July 20th.

Fact:      In the July 20, 2009 special meeting, one of the principals of Pattison, et al., Mr. Michael Bucci, attended as his firm’s representative.  During the course of discussion, Bucci laid out some likely paths to be taken to unwind the financially tangled threads (including a strong recommendation to not discontinue using the QuickBooks software).  Following the board’s meeting with Bucci, the Republican majority members (Barrett, Byrne, Egan) voted not to hire the firm, but rather to take more time to “think it over.”  Barrett then agreed to convene another special meeting on July 27th –one week later—to vote on the decision to hire.

Fact:      In the special meeting held on July 27, 2009, the board voted on a resolution to hire Pattison, et al.  The vote passed.

Fact:      On July 31st—four days after the special meeting and after some prodding by May—Barrett contacted Bucci to let him know of the board’s decision to hire Pattison, et al.

Fact:      On August 6th, Bucci sent an email request to Barrett outlining a number of items necessary for him to begin work.

Fact:      In the August 10, 2009 regular town board meeting (for which the supervisor was not present), May reported that she had made contact earlier that day with Bucci and learned that Barrett had not yet responded to Bucci’s August 6th request.  May further reported that, rather than have Barrett lose yet more time attempting to gather materials and format data, Bucci had subsequently agreed to come to Milan’s town hall offices and work on site where computer access would likely provide most, if not all, of what he needed.

Fact:      In light of May’s update and Barrett’s seeming inaction, Byrne and Egan (as well as the Republican town clerk, Cathy Gill) proffered some excuses on the supervisor’s behalf.  However, in the end it became necessary for May to propose a town board resolution directing Barrett to work with Bucci in a productive and timely fashion.  This resolution delineated August 19th as the date for Bucci to come to town hall, meet with Barrett, and begin sifting through the records. The motion was passed.

Note:      Williams was also not present for this meeting.  Therefore, in order for the motion to have passed, the vote was necessarily unanimous.

Conclusion:      One could logically conclude that it became necessary to pass a resolution to get the supervisor to do his job.  One could also logically conclude that it became necessary to pass a resolution that even the Republican board members, Byrne and Egan, could not avoid voting for.

Fact:      At this point, words fail me.  The video tells all.

Fact:      Near the close of the August 10th meeting, and since the supervisor’s monthly financial reporting remained unacceptable at that time, May (as she has done for the past several months) again refused to sign vouchers for bill payment.  The usually calm and business-like Highway Superintendent, Glenn Butler, broke form and expressed his very obvious frustration.  Despite being aligned with the Republicans, even Butler—who is always on top of his own books—could not contain his dismay.

Note:      Though the video camera was turned off at this point of the meeting, the town clerk’s audio tape was still running.  If you’re interested in hearing the exchange verbatim, you can request listening to the tape and/or a transcription under the FOIL law.

Fact:      Today is August 14, 2009—six months since May and Williams introduced the idea of hiring a CPA firm, one month since the first consultation with Pattison, et al., three weeks since the hiring of this firm, and now four days and counting since the passing of the motion directing Barrett to contact Bucci toward the August 19th meeting at the town hall offices.  To date, all evidence suggests that Barrett has not yet done so.  Again, words fail me.

Fact:      Budget planning for 2010 begins in September.  Yet again, words fail me.