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Free pass?
Chris Nolan
Clermont
Chairman
Columbia County Democrats
I am flummoxed by the Register-Star’s reporting of the $9 million dollar shortage. That’s a lot of money! Is this newspaper actually going to give the county DSS and the county treasurer a free pass on this? When multiple calls by the paper to the accounting firm of Pattison Koskey Howe and Bucci were not returned, didn’t that indicate there might be something more to this than just the $9 million? Where’s the reporting?
Your Oct 20 headline is “Officials: No one is to blame for $9M shortage.” Then the Oct 23 headline: “County did no wrong by claiming $9.” Neither article clearly indicates that these are statements by county employees and not the conclusion of the newspaper. Has no probe to get to the bottom of the situation been done by this newspaper? How can taxpayers accept official statements like: “In previous audits prior to this one, that [the $9M] was not noticed.” How do you not notice $9M? Does that mean that they got away with it because nobody noticed and then they kept repeating the game? Or was it deliberately overlooked? Are we to believe that when the budgets were drawn up the money was repeatedly “incorrectly anticipated”? What should this do to the trust of the voting and taxpaying public in any County budget?
The scramble of officials to explain this away as nothing unusual is feeble. And the most shocking revelation is the statement by the State Comptroller’s official that he has not seen a county audit “in recent years.” Well, it’s high time for one now. We need to get to the bottom of this and we need a newspaper that is going to probe the story not uncritically print county press releases. Should the taxpayers just sit quietly and accept these doublespeak explanations by current and past County officials? And are there to be no consequences?
At least one good thing could come out of this: the county will put out “a request for proposal for a new external auditing firm.” We must face up to the fact that the County form of government has got to change. In 2010, we need to have a real discussion about replacing the Board of Supervisors with a County Legislature.
Clermont
Chairman
Columbia County Democrats
I am flummoxed by the Register-Star’s reporting of the $9 million dollar shortage. That’s a lot of money! Is this newspaper actually going to give the county DSS and the county treasurer a free pass on this? When multiple calls by the paper to the accounting firm of Pattison Koskey Howe and Bucci were not returned, didn’t that indicate there might be something more to this than just the $9 million? Where’s the reporting?
Your Oct 20 headline is “Officials: No one is to blame for $9M shortage.” Then the Oct 23 headline: “County did no wrong by claiming $9.” Neither article clearly indicates that these are statements by county employees and not the conclusion of the newspaper. Has no probe to get to the bottom of the situation been done by this newspaper? How can taxpayers accept official statements like: “In previous audits prior to this one, that [the $9M] was not noticed.” How do you not notice $9M? Does that mean that they got away with it because nobody noticed and then they kept repeating the game? Or was it deliberately overlooked? Are we to believe that when the budgets were drawn up the money was repeatedly “incorrectly anticipated”? What should this do to the trust of the voting and taxpaying public in any County budget?
The scramble of officials to explain this away as nothing unusual is feeble. And the most shocking revelation is the statement by the State Comptroller’s official that he has not seen a county audit “in recent years.” Well, it’s high time for one now. We need to get to the bottom of this and we need a newspaper that is going to probe the story not uncritically print county press releases. Should the taxpayers just sit quietly and accept these doublespeak explanations by current and past County officials? And are there to be no consequences?
At least one good thing could come out of this: the county will put out “a request for proposal for a new external auditing firm.” We must face up to the fact that the County form of government has got to change. In 2010, we need to have a real discussion about replacing the Board of Supervisors with a County Legislature.
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